Here’s a cool post by Jason Miller I wanted to share with ya:
“Every interaction you have ever had with any person, place, or thing was a combination of accurate perception of actual events and your own mental projection. Your memory of that moment is just that: YOUR memory. If you go back and look at it with others who were there you will see how different it was perceived by others. Want to watch something that will scare the pants off you? Watch“How Reliable Is Your Memory” by Elizabeth Loftus. You do not have any experiences outside of the tool you use to process those experiences, your own mind.
“What does this have to do with magic? Well, if your mundane interactions are a combination of your perception of actual events and your mental projection – than how much MORE susceptible to mental projection are interactions with spirits, gods, and other subtle beings?
Perception vs Projection
“I hear people talk about their experiences with gods and spirits in very absolute terms. “This is what God X told me to do!” is all too often the justification for shady behavior, sketchy claims, and “history”. Just yesterday in fact I was informed that I must not know much about Hekate because she rules over the part of hell that punishes rapists. Where does this claim from? Apparently, their ass personal gnosis. I am ALL FOR personal Gnosis, but we need to separate it from historical fact, and not just accept it as holy writ.
“On the other hand there are people who are so afraid of engaging in fantasy that even when the spirit is appearing in visions at the ritual, in dreams at night, in omens throughout the day, and spelling messages in their Alpha-bits over breakfast, they STILL can’t accept it. “Maybe I am just fantasizing” they say ” but Agaliarept told me to sell all my bitcoin, and three days later it tanked…. but I am probably just imagining it”. Uh. No, and even if it was your fantasy, if it stays that wierdly specific and helpful do you care?
“If we are to get anywhere in magic, we need to embrace the potential, and the limits, of projection and perception.
Whole Magic
“Students in the Black School and Sorcery of Hekate are probably sick of me prattling on about the Perception/Projection Ratio, but it’s a really friggin important concept if you are gonna go about living a life with spirits in it…”
Read the rest here:
