Boo, I'm a Witch.
Be afraid, or... something.
I have a number of longer and more in-depth pieces to write in the near future -- yes, including finishing up all the LARP stuff, which is an even more massive project than I had ever foreseen -- but this one is rising to the top for the moment. It came up in the last post, and it's something I've meant to expand on for some time.
As I have mentioned previously, I identify as an eclectic neopagan -- usually, 'lazy eclectic neopagan' more specifically -- because that's the religious practice I follow.
For those curious, this means I believe there are a number of potential deities and entities of various kinds out there, even if I don't necessarily know who or what they are, and that in some respect they interact with the world around us.
This is not fundamentally different from the beliefs of any other religious group beyond the identity of who or what is interacting with the world.
Your Jesus may be my Sophia, even if I actually keep Jesus in my personal pantheon of spiritual teaching and inspiration as I believe he had a positive and wholesome message that even on the most basic level provides a great many life lessons that are helpful to internalize in order to engage with compassion toward the world around us.
There are only a few things I actually practice, and for all the bluster about me from Jim Stewartson and others who insist I'm in a 'Satanic Sex Cult' or 'practicing black magick', they're probably going to be a frustrating letdown and demonstration of what a Pollyanna I really am.
So be it.
The first thing to know is that -- see the Jesus reference above -- I do try to adhere to the notion of 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. This is partly why I will give people the benefit of the doubt when I first encounter them, because a lot of people have been taken in by disinformation and misinformation and simple fear-mongering rooted in ignorance, and if they are behaving in good faith, it is often possible to reach them when you're behaving in good faith yourself.
The second is karma -- of the instant variety, or the principle of 'what goes around, comes around'.
The third is the three-fold law: 'whatever you put into the universe comes back to you three times over'.
These three things are deeply-held long-standing beliefs.
The sum of my 'magickal practice' is the following:
* meditation (as best as my ADD brain can manage it)
* lighting a candle for people I know going through hardships, which is a holdover from the Roman Catholic practices I followed as a small child in precisely the same way (just in my home vs. in a church)
* asking karma to pay attention, and if it's feeling generous, to let me know when it comes due -- which also means that if I'm the one doing something twisted or wrong, that's going to land on me, even above and beyond the 'whatever you do comes back to you' thing
* "May they find something that brings them so much happiness it keeps them content and busy far away from me and anyone I care about."
The last is by far the most common.
It's also really simple: I believe that if I send fucked up 'black magick' out there into the world, the same's coming back to me. No thanks!
Enlightened self-interest, y'all.
If, however, I throw positive intentions out there that will still accomplish the end goal of 'no longer being abused by this person'? They're happier and less likely to spend their time abusing people. I'm being abused less. I've thrown a sincere intention for someone else's happiness into the world.
More enlightened self-interest.
It's not that exciting, I know. Nowhere near as compelling as all of Jim's sensationalist 'Satanic Sex Cult' lies meant to abuse and demonize people, riling up Satanic Panic narratives against them with the full knowledge and understanding of how rapidly rumors of that kind destroy people's lives and put them in danger.