I don’t understand this culture of “nobody’s craft is better than another’s.”
In what world is this true? Are there no doctors better at their healing than others? Are there no sculptors who are better at their craft than their peers? Are there no scholars more learned than their colleagues? Does it not then stand to reason that some witches are indeed “better” at their craft than others.
Is it possible for one to simply *feel* like a witch and adopt that title as a mark to claim some of the associated power? Certainly. And there are many who do little else than this. Some more sincerely than others.
However, to imply that all approaches are equally valid, that all create success, or that witchcraft is something which requires minimal effort is simply. not. truth.
And further, to adopt such sentiments to heart, and spread them as foundational teachings representative of the craft to others is to misstep. It not only does a disservice to your own practice, but to the craft as well.There are people who have devoted their lives to learning, working, and refining their practice. To flippantly cast off the importance of dedication, devotion, and discipline in the magical arts is to dishonor the nature of the work and the spirits whom attend to you.
Truth. There is no ONE way to all of this. And if someone is trying to sell you that there is, then close your ears to such falsity.
There are, however, better ways to accomplish the work than others. This is a part of why certain practices and lore have stood the test of time. Unfortunately for many, there is no quick and easy route to obtaining such things. To assume that a witch who just started practicing is in any way a match for one who has been diligently studying and practicing for decades is to insult both the craft and the dedication of your elders.
No. A person who has this level of experience, and the wisdom that comes with it does not deserve your friendship or respect on a personal level simply because they’ve been at it longer than you. Many of the greatest magicians and witches I’ve known could quite easily be described as assholes, at least on occasion.
This does not diminish the work they have done. Or more importantly that witchcraft, if you want to get good at it, requires actual work. Or that, even if someone more experienced than you behaves in a fashion that you find arrogant, or is critical about your practice, their points and the value found in them may not have value.
Witchcraft is not about us all getting along.
It never has been.
That’s not the end goal.Powerful people often have powerful personalities and strong opinions. Get enough of that together in one place and the result is rarely going to be folks standing in a circle sweetly agreeing with each other and nodding heads.
There are times where things should rightfully be pointed to as being of little use and not germane to the study and practice of what has traditionally passed for witchcraft throughout the ages. Or at the very lease, suffer a bit of poking at for being silly.
People died, and still do, in the name of witchcraft. To treat it with flippancy, or as fashion does a discredit to all of those people (practitioners or otherwise) who were martyrs to the craft. It besmirches the work of those people who have have dedicated their life’s work to the craft.
Let’s talk about dedication shall we?
Are you willing to die for your craft? Would you be willing to stand in the face of an inquisitor and tell them to fuck off should you find yourself in their grasp? Is that the level of love and devotion you have for it? Do you truly believe that in the current era this is an impossible scenario that might be not faced by this generation of would be witches?
Or is witchcraft simply a way to tell yourself you’re different?
Something fun to do on the full moon?
Is that true dedication?
Something worth dying for?
Something which gives honor to legacy?Your craft may not look like mine. And it rightly shouldn’t. But if your expectation of what will make you a stronger, better, more effective practitioner is that your work be beyond reproach or critique, particularly when you put your works and words out there for the consumption and adoption of others then the person you do the most disservice to is yourself.
The standard I hold for others in the craft is not one born of ego. It is the standard I hold for both myself and my students. My work is not without its flaws or beyond critique, nor is my practice, or even my dedication at times. And I have faced the critique of others, both friends, and strangers.
Some of them were teachers who strengthened my craft.
Some of them were assholes.
Some of them were both.Thank you for saying more eloquently what I’ve been trying to express for a long time. Validating everything anyone ever does accomplishes nothing and is counterproductive to the entire community.
Nobody wants to admit that you need to put in hard work to accomplish great things; they want instant gratification from magick like everyone has since the dawn of time, this is nothing new. What is new is the common acceptance of this mindset to the point where dozens of people come out of the woodwork to berate you for daring to imply that magick is a skill that needs to be learned over time.
Magick is a craft. It is not anything you want it to be. It’s not adopting an aesthetic and then declaring that you’re a witch now. It’s not something fun to do on a full moon. It’s a skill that you learn and practice to achieve a certain goal. If you don’t have a goal, you’re not practicing anything. You’re just playing pretend.
While I agree with many of the points here, and as a serious practioner myself,-not everyone WANTS to do great things.
Some people need to paint the Mona Lisa and some people are content to doddle idly in their spare time.
The difference is that someone who just doodles doesn’t call themselves an artist, yet someone who makes glitter jars and reblogs emoji spells will happily call themselves a witch.
Not to put too fine a point on it but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the ~no craft is better than others everyone is valid uwu~ crowd and the “if you do magick just for the results you’ll be disappointed” crowd are one in the same.
Alright but????
Doodles lead to great pieces?
Sometimes people only want to give a certain amount of dedication to something and that doesn’t make it any less than it is.
The need to be better than or more important than others by comparison in this thread is so fucked like…. Call yourself whatever you like but you don’t get to dictate the level of ‘realness’ as based on the comparison of your own work….
I agree with OP in a lot of ways for their own specific views but this becomes literal gatekeeping when you think a word or title cannot be used by someone else who isn’t up to your own self decided standards…
Fuck off.
It’s not ~literal gatekeeping~ because one can stop you from calling yourself whatever you want but we’re also not obligated to take it seriously or validate a bunch of lazy bullshit.
Someone said in this thread don’t call yourself a witch if your not serious that’s gatekeeping hello.
No one wants you to take them seriously or validate them like sorry, hi the world does not revolve around you.
Criticism is one thing, as I’ve said, holding other people to your own standards and considering them less than you is another thing entirely and while you’re obviously entitled to feel that way WE DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT IT lol so stop telling us all about it.
Go be The Best somewhere else if it’s that important to you.
If you don’t care then what the hell are you even upset about? Stomping your feet and demanding people stop posting shit that totally doesn’t bother you yet you’re somehow still mad about is a pretty funny way to show just how much you don’t care 🙂
I don’t care how much better you are than I am I care that you think it’s necessary to point it out time and time again without any actual evidence or proof or literally anything to justify the claims you’re making.
You can try to paint me as a childish brat if you’d like but it would better suit you to actually read what I’ve posted and argue against my points instead. 🐸
Your entire post was about how much you don’t care, what else am I to address? Quite frankly I think the fact that you’re taking this as an attack on you personally says more about your confidence in your abilities than any criticism I or anyone else could possibly leverage at you.
No amount of histrionic pearl clutching about elitist gatekeeping is going to convince me that ~everything is equally powerful and valid uwu~ so I suggest you do yourself a favor and block me if it’s this upsetting to you.
I’m not upset???
Lmfao what?
Don’t feel personally attacked at all?
I’ve never once suggested everything was equal in power or obtained the same way, in fact I’ve argued against it.
This strawman you’ve built up is really impressive you’ll have to teach me how to do it so well.
Dunno, y’all have seems to created a great straw man of me. Doubt you need much help there.
I literally said I agree with most of what you’d said and then pointed out I was addressing the thread as a whole not just you….
Were you too busy insulting other people while in the same breath asking I change my phrasing and being snark to catch that? If so it’s fine. Also I thought you’d finished with me.
Caught a second wind? Ready to throw down for round two? I’m still a bit out of breath from our last tussle.
You’re adorable. ☺️
I think the original post is valid and makes some good points. Personally, I don’t care about titles. If all you do is post sigils on tumblr and call yourself a great magus, I don’t care. Some may argue that takes away from other magi that do put much more dedication and research into their work. That they call themselves by the same title diminishes the perception of what that means. This may be true, but I don’t practice magick to impress people. I really don’t care what people outside of my own tribe think a magus is or what it entails. The proof is in the pudding, and if they want to eat crappy pudding more power to them.
I also think that a good magus constantly exposes themselves to magick outside of their comfort zone. I do respect other people’s magick, especially when I know they have put in the work, even if it does not resemble my own belief structure. To believe you have a monopoly on the truth leads to dark places. I may work harder and learn more than the next magus, but to think my beliefs must be held sacrosanct leads to dogma and conflict.
People just starting their practice or casual magi should be given all the leeway they want to experiment without drawing hostility. People who master a given subject often teach. Why? Because they know that becoming a specialist leads to reality tunnels. They risk becoming moribund in their own thinking. A student will often approach a subject with fresh eyes. They often ask basic questions, but those questions are why the master started on their path in the first place. They are the big questions that we need to keep sight of and keep us from being mired in minutia.
This is why I am a big exponent of group magick. There’s so much to learn from seeing things from another perspective. I may not share their belief system, but they make me ask good questions of my own, and give me ideas for my own explorations.
People who do the work should be respected. If I can tell that someone really has put dedication into their craft I will obviously give their words more weight.
Once again, I agree with the original post, and it is mostly saying what I just said with different words.
I think one of the inherent flaws of occult knowledge is that it is in some respects, “hidden.” When people are first exposed to it they may believe that they have come across some great secret. In their eyes, this knowledge is so rare they believe they have become an expert just by the virtue of discovering it. Check out the Amazon kindle store for proof of this. Either that person will learn more, or they will become frustrated when they encounter people who truly have done deeper research and have more experience.
Once again, not sure how to change this other than to ignore them.