An idle thought: who says you can’t have a foot in both worlds? While ‘witchy’ points of view typically obscure material causes and effects, the rituals and concepts they provide can still be useful. The trick is recognizing what their utility actually is for you, and where a more rational pov needs to be deployed.
I’ll give a pretty tame example of the idea here: horoscopes. I do not believe in astrology, in the sense that the position of stars and planets have a real, direct influence on human activities. But when I read a horoscope, I typically find myself looking at events from a different perspective, and it may cause me to notice something I otherwise would not have. That thing may be legitimately advantageous, and I may pursue action to my benefit because I noticed it. I should pursue that action rationally, with an eye to protecting my safety broadly understood (financial, bodily, etc.) and maintaining a level of risk I can legitimately manage - but I wouldn’t be acting on it at all without that moment of magical thinking.
Now, on the other hand, if I just blindly accepted that what I noticed due to the horoscope is truly pre-ordained, and therefore I should pursue action whole hog without any risk assessment or any rational thought, more likely than not I’d find myself in a shitty set of circumstances.
It’s a very fine line to walk, and too many people fall off into really wacky, dangerous or delusional shit. But if you can strike a balance, you may find yourself in far more unique, beneficial position than you would be otherwise, simply by widening the field of stuff you’re watching for.
Tl;dr: Deliberate, controlled fancy can be useful if you’re careful to not let it fuck with your ability to eat, cloth, house and protect yourself and your loved ones, or fuck with members of your community. You also need to take pains to not confuse those moments of fancy for objective truth.
Honestly, I’ve seen multiple takes on what “magic” is; with some people describing it in more traditional terms (spells, hexes, potions, etc), and others basically saying, “it’s any time action A seems to lead to outcome B, but the mechanism is unknown”. The latter I’m fine with and actually encourage, because tbh, the physical world is fucking weird.
There’s so much we don’t know about physics that putting some cool rocks and a stick in a letter and mailing it to a friend might legitimately bring them good fortune, either because you’ve improved their mood (most likely), leading their brain to being more positive and efficient, or maybe something you did in the process happened to kickstart a row of dominos that happened to bring them good fortune. It doesn’t really matter that you don’t know the exact step that caused it, just that one of the steps seemed to do it and that’s fine.
I suppose you could take a scientific approach to it though and study what exactly you did and how it seemed to effect the outcome of your magic. Who knows, might stumble across a new scientific law in the process.
On a side note regarding horoscopes, I don’t believe in them except that I sometimes wonder if they’re the result of patterns, which then became self-fullfilling prophecies. Astrologer notices that X happens more often when A is high in the sky and B is near the horizon, and predicts the occurrence of X. X occurs and people believe the astrologer. Next time A is high in the sky and B is near the horizon, the astrologer once again predicts X, and the people, as part of their belief, unintentionally cause X to happen again. Same thing with Chinese birth years. I wonder if it’s the result of people noticing patterns in society and then laymen misattributing it to magic.
An idle thought: who says you can’t have a foot in both worlds? While ‘witchy’ points of view typically obscure material causes and effects, the rituals and concepts they provide can still be useful. The trick is recognizing what their utility actually is for you, and where a more rational pov needs to be deployed.
I’ll give a pretty tame example of the idea here: horoscopes. I do not believe in astrology, in the sense that the position of stars and planets have a real, direct influence on human activities. But when I read a horoscope, I typically find myself looking at events from a different perspective, and it may cause me to notice something I otherwise would not have. That thing may be legitimately advantageous, and I may pursue action to my benefit because I noticed it. I should pursue that action rationally, with an eye to protecting my safety broadly understood (financial, bodily, etc.) and maintaining a level of risk I can legitimately manage - but I wouldn’t be acting on it at all without that moment of magical thinking.
Now, on the other hand, if I just blindly accepted that what I noticed due to the horoscope is truly pre-ordained, and therefore I should pursue action whole hog without any risk assessment or any rational thought, more likely than not I’d find myself in a shitty set of circumstances.
It’s a very fine line to walk, and too many people fall off into really wacky, dangerous or delusional shit. But if you can strike a balance, you may find yourself in far more unique, beneficial position than you would be otherwise, simply by widening the field of stuff you’re watching for.
Tl;dr: Deliberate, controlled fancy can be useful if you’re careful to not let it fuck with your ability to eat, cloth, house and protect yourself and your loved ones, or fuck with members of your community. You also need to take pains to not confuse those moments of fancy for objective truth.
/wook-rant
Honestly, I’ve seen multiple takes on what “magic” is; with some people describing it in more traditional terms (spells, hexes, potions, etc), and others basically saying, “it’s any time action A seems to lead to outcome B, but the mechanism is unknown”. The latter I’m fine with and actually encourage, because tbh, the physical world is fucking weird.
There’s so much we don’t know about physics that putting some cool rocks and a stick in a letter and mailing it to a friend might legitimately bring them good fortune, either because you’ve improved their mood (most likely), leading their brain to being more positive and efficient, or maybe something you did in the process happened to kickstart a row of dominos that happened to bring them good fortune. It doesn’t really matter that you don’t know the exact step that caused it, just that one of the steps seemed to do it and that’s fine.
I suppose you could take a scientific approach to it though and study what exactly you did and how it seemed to effect the outcome of your magic. Who knows, might stumble across a new scientific law in the process.
On a side note regarding horoscopes, I don’t believe in them except that I sometimes wonder if they’re the result of patterns, which then became self-fullfilling prophecies. Astrologer notices that X happens more often when A is high in the sky and B is near the horizon, and predicts the occurrence of X. X occurs and people believe the astrologer. Next time A is high in the sky and B is near the horizon, the astrologer once again predicts X, and the people, as part of their belief, unintentionally cause X to happen again. Same thing with Chinese birth years. I wonder if it’s the result of people noticing patterns in society and then laymen misattributing it to magic.