What makes you interested?

[thief_and_a_liar]

I thought I would make a thread about what makes people interested in magic.

So, why am I interested in the occult? It all started with the Sandman comic I think, and the simon necronomicon, that was advertised in a Conan the barbarian magazine. I was for some reason interested in Tarot cards, and it  lead to books on the Qabalah. Golden Dawn rituals, goetic demons and lovecraft-inspired work led me further down the path of magic. But why was I interested in the first place? I like fantasy, and for me magic is just that: Fantasy. One can realise ones potential in other ways, and the imagery can be more mundane, and practical. My journey ended in meditation, and now I only focus on music, these days anyway. I am looking for a daily regime that is not influenced by the golden dawn, thelema or mindfulness. Maybe I will try yoga, I dunno. Still, I am very much interested in the occult, and I am reading several books on the topic, although having read a thousand books already, there is nothing new. I have practiced magic for over 20 years, but still consider myself a beginner. And I am a magician for life.

[Versling]

What got me interested? I came to magic from a Dawkins-like skeptcism having steeped myself in sciency concepts since I could read. Then I accidentally made consensus-reality change by believing at it. When I came to realize that this change should never have been possible, consensus-reality changed back. I call it consensus-reality only because more than just myself witnessed this change and reversion.


Simply stated...


My own personal clear-cut evidence that belief manifests (and visa-versa) is what got me interested in the subject though I didn't realize I was interested in, "magic," until years after I began playing around with it.


By the time I equated my research to anything related to magic I'd already developed my own alphabet along with advanced methods of sigilization and charging. I'd even managed to get around the problem that many people have had using Negative Words in statements of desire.


If you're unsure which system is for you I suggest working on your own. We are all the same universal being looking at itself from different perspectives.


There is infinite value in developing your own system of magic that stems from your own view of the world; both the process and the end result are worth every second spent on it.


But where to begin? I started with the alphabet mostly because I felt the latin characters held too much history. They'd been used to spew too many lies and too much ignorance to be considered useful in the experimental sense. "Fifty Shades of Grey," was written using the latin alphabet. If that isn't motivation enough to do magic with a different one, I don't know what is.


The most powerful form of divination I've ever come across is available only while one is a beginner with an alphabet; mistakes have to be common. The technique is to simply write out the different possible outcomes of the situation in the unfamiliar script. The outcome written with the best penmanship and the fewest spelling errors is likely to be the one that happens (or offers the best advice). The better one gets with an alphabet the harder it is to find mistakes in the printed outcomes which in turn makes it difficult to know which outcome/advice to trust.


My own alphabet makes up for this a bit by taking advantage of everybody's natural (but variable) tendency towards dislexia. Every character mirrors another character either vertically or horizontally (or both) so mistakes are far more common even with a lot of experience.


Anyway, I hope you find your path. :)

[Placid Distortion]

For me, it's always been about the magick in itself.
Honestly, I don't remember a time when I didn't believe in magic/k, sure I had to be taught the concept at some point, but I don't remember that, and sometimes the belief was more loosely than others certainly, but even when logic in the rest of the world insisted it wasn't I never quite bought into the disbelief. I took to seeking it out in hopes to find it at its essence, but with a fairly casual approach; I don't remember going out of my way to find it, but I followed potential pathways where I saw them as I came upon them. Long story boring, I took the Discordian trail over to Chaos Magick as a path later on and found that it suited me much better than the more basic pagan paradigms ever had, I liked the fairly simple practical tactics where I found them, it felt closer to what I was looking for. However, I think it was about 3 years ago that I found my way to DKMU, possibly right around Chelseanacht as I recall seeing the LS and number references to 17 plastered all over the various chaos magick groups on facebook, and found that the original intentions and objectives resonated with me because they struck me as pertaining to exactly what I'd been looking for. Though even then, I wasn't doing much in the way of active practice yet though, until about 2 years ago (give or take a few days) while at a crossroads of the metaphorical variety; I made a conscious decision to do more with magick, to take practicing it more seriously, to put more effort into it. About 6 months into that I came across a particular essay on direct manipulation that just felt like it hit the nail on the head in terms of the kind of magick I was looking for, that I'd finally found it and could get to work on practicing it as a preferred style. I still use other techniques depending on what feels most appropriate, and I don't always get in as much practice as I'd like to, but it's how I generally try to roll by default as often as it occurs to me to utilize it. However, finding that much was the easy part despite it taking so long; still working to rewire my perceptions to be a bit more receptive to relevant experiences. As much as I may not have bought into disbelief, I still tend to have at least one foot planted firmly enough in the rational side of things that it can make seeing past them the real challenge, for me at least.

So all in all, I got interested in magick by magick itself, mostly the curious desire to explore its essence and potential, but just as much to say that I can.

[Versling]

About 6 months into that I came across a particular essay on direct manipulation that just felt like it hit the nail on the head in terms of the kind of magick I was looking for, that I'd finally found it and could get to work on practicing it as a preferred style.

Ooooo what was the essay?

[Don Chaote]

Results.

[arkytior]

About 6 months into that I came across a particular essay on direct manipulation that just felt like it hit the nail on the head in terms of the kind of magick I was looking for, that I'd finally found it and could get to work on practicing it as a preferred style.

Ooooo what was the essay?

was about to ask the same

[Placid Distortion]

About 6 months into that I came across a particular essay on direct manipulation that just felt like it hit the nail on the head in terms of the kind of magick I was looking for, that I'd finally found it and could get to work on practicing it as a preferred style.

Ooooo what was the essay?

was about to ask the same

"Just.Effing.Magick" by Arjil, which eventually became the basis of an entire lecture series he gave on direct manipulation via the Learning Annex on FB.

[arkytior]

oh yes, that's plain great.

[Rasafar]

For me, it began as a departing from Christianity, starting around age 19. From there was a series of doubtings and explorations of alternative faiths...shopping the spiritual super-market.

Eventually I found something as seemingly as benign as sacred geometry. It seemed the most apparent manifestation of some sort of 'order' to the universe I found myself in. That led into looking into the Golden Dawn, but not being content being spoon-fed bits and pieces without understanding but just because that's how "things were done", I never delved deeper. Eventually winding up on ye olde Occult Forums, and then later on the merged forums for DK/MU.

For me...I guess it's partly about an "unknowing". I wasn't around, as far as I know currently, before I was born. I didn't bear witness to anything that was alleged to have happened before my lifetime...and I came to the eventual conclusion that I could not actually "know" anything for certain. With a questioning of all reality, it collapses. But then, to be able to collapse it in a way that works for you? That's interesting. I could directly observe the probability waveform manifesting before my eyes every day, my biological hardware rendering before me the data that could be nothing more than swirling bits of probabilities or numbers being crunched in the background of the universe.

It was about control, yes, but the ability to determine one's one path, observe actions and their reactions, and creating something new.

With a few interesting events centered around phantom to physical contact, in remote-viewing, "fluffy" things like psi-wheels (psipog forums) and astral constructs, I concluded that there just is more to it than what appears on the surface. The exact machinations of this generally unobserved realm unknown, yet I was convinced there was more to it than what I could readily observe on the surface.

Overall, I maintained a relatively armchair sort of slack about it, aside from a relevant major working and the results of minor experiments, I mostly read...put a few pieces together when I could, but it didn't start coalescing until the past few years or so  when it started to click.

Now I'm going through and starting from square 0. Reading again, but with the intent of application, experimentation, and hopefully progress can be measured.

[Seisatsu]

In 2011 or so, I left my Christianity behind on the roof of a hotel in LA, during AnimeExpo. I was really really high (for one of the first times) and this homeless guy came up to me and started talking about quantum mechanics and shit. Something I had been trying to get rid of finally just snapped and my entire value system reorganized on the spot. It was a really great feeling. I gave the guy $100 to travel back across the states and eventually we became good friends, though that's another long and bizzarre story.

Not long after while on a trip to Germany with some friends, I stumbled mistakenly upon the Principia Discordia while absently wikisurfing, and it really struck a chord with me. I've been warped in the head ever since. Then, it turned out that the German friend we had gone to visit was also a Discordian! I guess my primary reason for being here is that I am in agreement with the Principia's claim that the world is currently awfully short on creative disorder. I want to learn to use magick to make the world a more adventurous place. Therefore, my eventual lofty goal is magick that can affect the outcomes and potentiality of an entire world.

I had been studying Chaos Magick on and off for a few months, when while searching for related Internet communities (of which there are sadly few at this time,) I came across the DKMU website just a week or so ago and knew I had found a valuable tool and resource for my pursuits, and people with the same general goal as mine. I've stuck around ever since.