Dear M
Thank you for your e-mail and for taking the time to share your views.
I'm usually a very openminded person, but you pushed me too far. i read the
occult and FAQ section, and for lack of a better word they p****d me off. i'm
wiccan and i'm not possesed by a demon. there is NO such thing as black or
white magic. magic is neutral in itself - it's what you do with it that's
good or bad.
I'm afraid I have to strongly disagree with you. Magic is the manipulation of unseen forces. How you label them (white, black or lilac) is irrelevent. The logic is not unlike that used in the nuclear debate. There are those who say that nuclear energy is neutral, depending on whether you use it to generate energy (good nuclear energy) or weapons of mass destruction (bad nuclear energy). It's a point of view that ignores the harmful side-effects of both, for peaceful nuclear energy has dangerous side-products (nuclear waste) and sometimes there are disasters (Chernobyl). Thus the issue is divided into two further categories, viz. nuclear energy is dangerous no matter how you use it, and those who say (as you do in the magic example) that's it's how you use it.
My experience is that magic falls into the first category, namely, that it is dangerous no matter whether you are using it for supposedly "peaceful" purposes (let's call it "soft-core" magic for wont of a better term) or for aggressive purposes ("hard-core" magic), such as trying to manipulate people.
I understand your position well. Most proponents of nuclear power said it was safe and controlled but time has proven them wrong. Today people are still divided. No doubt the matter will again come to the fore when an old nuclear Soviet sub or a decaying Eastern European reactor explodes. But by the time that happens it may be too late. Thus it behoves all honest and caring people to examine the issue openly.
That is all I ask of practicioners of the occult. That passions get involved is hardly surprising since there will always be those who will maintain that it's all "harmless" and those who will maintain that it is terrifyingly dangerous. I belong to the latter camp for reasons I will explain in a moment.
I really don't think you should be calling my beleifs stupid.
you obviously don't know anything about wicca, satanism, paganism...
satanists are not evil.
There you are are sadly wrong. I know a great deal about them. And whilst I believe that most wiccans and even satanists for that matter believe they are serving a higher cause it is not until they hit the "hard-core" stuff that their illusions are shattered.
I have 2 satanist friends - they don't always wear
black, they have good grades and don't go aroud doing drugs, drinking, or
having sex.
No, indeed not. These are stereotypes. Most don't go around in black but I do know that a very large proportion do take drugs, drink heavily, and have sex. I have met them!
in satanism it just teaches you to stand up for yourself, and if
someone attacks you or something you have the right to fight back, unlike in
christianism where you have to be perfect and everything is a sin.
This is what they want you to believe. I know several Wiccans (one ex.Wiccan) whose fundamental philosophy is "do what you like so long as you don't harm others" but it is next to impossible to define what "harming" someone is unless you have a universally agreed set of values. What you may 'think' is harmless for someone may be the very opposite.
As to the "right to fight back", this is a complex question, and is coupled with situational ethics, so I will pass that one by for the moment, if you don't mind.
That Christians believe they have to be perfect is, sadly, a half-truth, because the Christian paradigm is so often misunderstood (by Christian themselves more often than not). Most Bible-believing (to make an important distinction) Christians believe that the quest for human perfection is not possible because man lacks the spiritual tools to achieve it. Rather, they look to the One who alone has achieved perfection, the God-Man Jesus Christ. In much the same way that a small child looks to a stronger adult for the protection he cannot give himself, Christians look to the God-Man for the perfection they cannot achieve in their own strength. As a child places his hand in the hand of his mother, so a Christian metaphorically places his hand in the Hand of Christ. It is really that simple.
I don't
mind if you have your beleifs - i don't care if you wanted to have the whole
page on how much you love god, christ, jesus, whatever. you can quote the
bible as much as you want and i don't care, i will respect every word you say,
but when you bash my beleifs and try to shove yours down my throat, i get mad.
i know this probably won't do any good, but i just wanted to try to set you
strait.
Well, I'm glad that you have been caring enough to let me know what you feel. I have had very different reactions from hard-core occultists, believe you me!
I think you should open your eyes - you have been taught all your
life to beleive in god and you have probably never thought for yourself(i'm
not saying this is true but from what you say it sounds like it is).
There I'm afraid you are wrong. I had no religion when I grew up and became an atheist. I later got involved in Buddhism and the occult, practicing astral projection, etc.. I have had a long walk through different religious beliefs and paradigms and experienced something of the forces that lie behind them. Indeed, I was very antagonistic to Christianity when I was younger because of the hypocrisy and lifeless propositionalism I saw. My belief in God came when I encountered Him and Satan in a long struggle. If that interests you, you can read about it at:
http://www.nccg.org/012Art-LifeStory.html
if you
go around telling people that are a different releigon you are going to end up
getting a big kick in the @ss.(sorry about that, but it's true.)
:-)
Like the nuclear controversy, the issue is actually not about different religions at all, but religion (trying to earn salvation or the selfish and unrealisable pursuit of happiness through hedonism) vs. coming into the realm of God through simply accepting what has already been done for us. Most people miss that in the same way they hedge the real issues of the nuclear controversy -- they get sidetracked in smokescreens.
I am sorry you got hurt by what I wrote -- if it's the material I think you were reading, it was aimed at hard-core satanists who are into torture, sexual abuse, and murder (sorry, they really do exist, and in large numbers). I will try and get something up on the "soft-core" adherants because I know their motives are often sincere and they believe they are doing good. Sadly, nearly all hard-core satanism starts with apparently innocent involvement with the milder Wiccanism and the like but in the end they are just different degrees and aspects of the same, horrible reality.
If you are sincerely interested in blowing the smokescreens away I would be happy to share what I know. If there is an absolute truth (as there must be for this universe to hang together and operate so smoothly) then we ultimately have nothing to lose in searching for it. If you think about it, it's actually the ultimate defence and self-preservation instinct -- ignoring the possibility of an ultimate truth is not unlike a suicide quest. No-one really wants to be ignorant.
Kindest regards
WEBMASTER