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- Jan 23, 2024
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I am here advocating for the total disregard of anybody involved in paid occult mentorship.
It's a parasitic industry fueled by social media.
I make this appeal to people who consider themselves students, and those who consider these gurus as peers.
I do not believe that the occult community benefits from this model of growth.
If you are a magician with something to say, write a book, teach people, do as you please; but if you start padding your income with "How to Do Magic" classes, I'm going to regard you as far, far less of a magician than if you weren't offering that. Those who can, do.
"You think everything should be free!"
No. I think people who teach practical magic - who would otherwise be unremarkable as magicians - should be regarded as suspicious at best and more likely as con-men.
"People pay to learn all sorts of things!"
In most fields of human activity, the activity is tangible and the teaching is demonstrable. Nothing like that exists for magic. From an objective point of view there is absolutely no way to tell the difference between who is totally full of crap and who is solid gold in the field of magic.
Sure, learn the history and whatnot, the literature, the tradition, and pay for your academic education in those things. I am not against paying for knowledge.
But occult practitioner gurus are different. They propose to teach something effective, useful, and something for which they profess competence that you could use. So does a martial arts instructor, music instructor, or dance instructor. Pay those people, and anyone can see that something real is being taught. That doesn't exist for magic teachings.
Nobody with better things to do is going to think it's worth their time to sell Zoom classes to goobers from the Internet and then babystep them through whatever they concocted as a babystepping program.
And realize I am not here saying that anything you might get from these gurus is bad or false, although some of it will be for sure. And if you have doubts, for sure, go ahead and pay, and you will see what I mean here. I think the majority of these functions will lead you down a dead-end path, something that was ultimately drafted as a product for sale. That tells you someone got a good sense of the literature and the market for it. But people who connect with real magic, and continue to do so, it rarely if ever comes out as something that could be packaged and sold on subscription, and when they share it with you they won't have a coupon code.
It's a parasitic industry fueled by social media.
I make this appeal to people who consider themselves students, and those who consider these gurus as peers.
I do not believe that the occult community benefits from this model of growth.
If you are a magician with something to say, write a book, teach people, do as you please; but if you start padding your income with "How to Do Magic" classes, I'm going to regard you as far, far less of a magician than if you weren't offering that. Those who can, do.
"You think everything should be free!"
No. I think people who teach practical magic - who would otherwise be unremarkable as magicians - should be regarded as suspicious at best and more likely as con-men.
"People pay to learn all sorts of things!"
In most fields of human activity, the activity is tangible and the teaching is demonstrable. Nothing like that exists for magic. From an objective point of view there is absolutely no way to tell the difference between who is totally full of crap and who is solid gold in the field of magic.
Sure, learn the history and whatnot, the literature, the tradition, and pay for your academic education in those things. I am not against paying for knowledge.
But occult practitioner gurus are different. They propose to teach something effective, useful, and something for which they profess competence that you could use. So does a martial arts instructor, music instructor, or dance instructor. Pay those people, and anyone can see that something real is being taught. That doesn't exist for magic teachings.
Nobody with better things to do is going to think it's worth their time to sell Zoom classes to goobers from the Internet and then babystep them through whatever they concocted as a babystepping program.
And realize I am not here saying that anything you might get from these gurus is bad or false, although some of it will be for sure. And if you have doubts, for sure, go ahead and pay, and you will see what I mean here. I think the majority of these functions will lead you down a dead-end path, something that was ultimately drafted as a product for sale. That tells you someone got a good sense of the literature and the market for it. But people who connect with real magic, and continue to do so, it rarely if ever comes out as something that could be packaged and sold on subscription, and when they share it with you they won't have a coupon code.