... and why I'm glad I don't live in one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amML9u74AXg
I've been watching alot of this guy's videos on Taoist Magic recently (note: this is not an endorsement, and I have no affiliation with him) as I recover from a bout of manflu and started to reflect on the peculiar nature of living in or working with communites who believe in the existence of magic:
1. Everybody does magic.
Even amateurs have a basic grasp of what the Taoist guy in the video calls "natural magic", the use of sympathetic magic and astral links, and will use it to better themselves, usually at the expense of others, but will also hire professionals to do stronger work for them.
2. Most of the magic is malefic in nature.
Whether it's to secure a job by stealing the luck of another person, or to kill a rival in love, or to get more customers for your store by compelling people to buy, it's almost always coercive in nature and seen from a zero sum game perspective - for you to succeed, others must fail - and so the best way to get what you want is to destroy others who want what you want. There is rarely any degree of self reflection or idea of self improvement in the way that we might mean it in the West. (This is an observation, not a value judgement.) Similarly, if anyone becomes very successful, they will go to great lengths to conceal their success, because they become targets to have their success stolen through magical means.
3. Because most magic is malefic in nature, there is a large emphasis on cleansing and protection.
I saw it mentioned in a thread not too long ago that the idea of maintaining spiritual hygiene and protecting yourself on a regular basis is absent in many Western forms of magic (to the detriment of its practitioners). Sure there are some who do a daily LBRP, but this is simply not the same thing in design or in effect.
4. A corollary of #1 is that there is a professional class of magic workers who make a living off of magic.
Yes, there are a few magicians in the Western magical traditions who make a living from it, but they are few and far between, and the model seems to be very different - many seem to follow the self help school of success and sell courses and books rather than do magic for clients directly.
5. A corollary of #5 is that magic is a business, and the magic business is pure cut throat capitalism at its finest.
The belief is that if you are a poor magician you are very likely a poor magician and no one will hire you. Magicians will do their best to destroy the competition maligning their reputation to outright cursing them. WHich means if you are a professional, you end up spending alot of your time cleansing yourself off and protecting yourself.
I used to do alot of astrological work or members of the East Asian community and noticed all of the above. After relationship/marriage issues, the most common questions were about curses and witchcraft/black magic. Many people were familiar with ways of removing and throwing curses and/or knew of the most powerful alim, imam, pandit or baba in the community to do the work for them.
This goes back to a much earlier question posed by AxisMundi about a difference in the culture in which magic is take for granted. I still feel that they produce some of the most effective magical workers, but it comes at the cost of living in a very dog-eat-dog sort of society. It's capitalism on steroids with some extremely nasty spirits thrown into the mix and the end result is a low-trust high-fear society.
I suppose it could be argued that we in the West live in a society that is just as malicious in the way we act towards one another, but from personal experience, having the ability to spiritually fuck someone over* (and having to be constantly on guard against such things) adds a degree of unpleasantness that makes me rather glad that magic is not taken for granted in good old Blighty.
What about you? Do any of you have experience of living in or working with communities who believe in magic?
D
* As an example of what I mean by spiritually fuck someone over, not too long ago I met the family of a woman who had been possessed by an extremely hostile spirit who had been making her and her family's life intolerable for over a decade - and all because someone did not want her to get married before they did