Hello, All, Introduction Options

Hi. I've been on a philosophical quest for a few years now, and I'm seriously investigating magick. I don't consider myself experienced in most directions, and I haven't settled on a path. I have some interest in chaos magick as an approach to developing practices that work for me in my particular circumstances, and in Asatru. I've read some of Dion Fortune's books, meditated a bit, and done some Tarot reading, among other things, but heretofore magick hasn't been a major focus for me.

I was raised as an evangelical Christian, but eventually left the faith. I spent some time contemplating metaphysical naturalism and trying it on for size, but in the end I don't see that I can arrive at the conclusion that the physical world is all that exists. And I have some experience that leads me to believe that symbolic operations can have profound effects on our own minds; whether they can affect the world outside our own heads I do not know, and seek to learn by experiment.

Nice to meet you! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Welcome on.

Explore the boards, do random searches on topics that interest you, and wonder into topics talking about things that do. I find the areas I know next to nothing about the most fascinating reads.

One word of warning, there are many topics that will challenge you, you may feel resistance at what you believe to be your core. Anything that gives mean emotional reaction, I see as something I need to explore and something I need to understand why I have the feelings I do.

This has caused me in recent years to explore some topics I truly found utterly disgusting. Some I find I not only continue to be repulsed by them, but now it is more focused, I know why. Others I admit I changed my mind about, while discovering what are or where the reasons I thought of them as disgusting.

Another thing to keep in mind while browsing the boards. We all have a different set of beliefs that we all fall back on. It constructs our “map of heaven” for lack of a different term. As we explore that map changes, gets more detailed, we see more in it then before, but it is usually always the same map. On the flip side there are many who just start on this path through rebellion, so their map has to be the opposite of those who surround them. Later it is not as important, but many will be using terms that seem the antithesis of your map. This is not a place to argue about that (usually), simply share when you know something that might help someone in his or her stated purpose.

One thing I would recommend if you are able. Take yoga classes or something that disconnects you from the one area you are most familiar with. After a year or so, evaluate it by seeing how you connected it to things you already knew.

Then evaluate if you can let go of those ties and just accept things as they come, without adding meaning based on your past to them.

It is impossible to totally do without years of practice, but some people I like to follow philosophically have said always try to master at least 2 very different traditions. This way you can compare and contrast at any point.

At this point I see the wisdom in that, before it seemed like a lot of extra work for nothing.

This post has been edited by paxx: Nov 7 2007, 01:35 PM