Gender affecting magick

[Aeternus]

We exist in a such a limited understanding of infinite,
A speck of dust floating on a quasar in a vast ocean of chemistry.



While our individual souls are limited by the material conditions confining our subjective experiences, that does not mean our experiences are invalid or valueless. Infinite iterations of infinite possibilities may mean that in one of them, your genetic makeup may have changed, but that doesn't mean the experiences of others in this infinite infinities landed them their own perfection.

We may not be able to access the sum of the alephs, but that doesn't make each individual infinity impossible.

Small mindedness does not leave room for magic, yet very often do magicians have small minds.

I say none of this to particularly insult any individual, but to draw attention to the possibility of misconception of Truth.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I agree that, some individuals who don't know about the perpetual infinity aren't aware of the existence of it, and that they don't comprehend most of it.

I can't say that magicians often have small minds, that would be an insult to magicians who, although on different ways of the Craft, practiced and gained knowledge for years.

I believe that what makes a magician small minded is either the dogmatic programs that he might still be in (the current version of Christianity or corrupt versions of Wicca, Angelology, Demonology, Sex and Chaos magic etc) and such things can really limit one's way of thinking, often with long-term effects, if not cured when the time is right.

 

[Xenophon]

In an infinite universe, all impossibilities are possible, including ones which we cannot bear to conceive of as possible.

If a magician cannot conceive of such things, I must imagine their magic to be of the weakest sort yet, far devoid of the purity of creation. A magician so daft as to suppose Truth can only be sent back to the Library to study as a neophyte.

Anyone with half an education can evoke infinitudes 'pon το απειρον bounded by the Great Abyss. Whether we actually conceive a guzzamned thing is rather doubtful. Mostly folks raise goosebumps on themselves like a jerkle circ of Boy Scouts telling ghost stories. A mage is measured by what he can effect, not what he can claim to have imagined.

 

[Wintruz]

Not counting harry potter, name one book your country has written since LOTR/Narnia.

i.... i meant something with culture in it

Given grammar alone, I vouch that you and I are on very different wavelengths in terms of what we consider "culture". Less Tavener, more TayTay in your case I'd think. That instinct is supported by your including popular fiction in the category of culture. This is not to say that I'm a literary snob: unlike esteemed @Xenophon, I thought the Harry Potter series to be an emotionally powerful and deliriously enjoyable rewrite of British pagan themes (especially from the Germanic and Celtic traditions) and, in a lot of ways, popular fiction has become a locus where Romanticism can still influence the hearts and minds of people. I remember a response to "Jewish Gnostic" Harold Bloom's heavy criticism of Harry Potter concluding that while "adult" literature asked "does my butt look big in this?", Harry Potter asked "What is the relationship between love and death?".

If Britain had never produced another book after the 19th century, it had already sealed its position in the highest echelon of the world's literary producers. However, aside from innumerable recent Oscar-nominated films based on British novels, Terry Pratchett, Rowling and Iain Banks, I'd say that Britain still leads in the rarefied air of "high literature" while major moments in popular fiction are more of a lightning striking twice in a generation type set up. Anna Burns, Hilary Mantel, Julian Barnes and Alan Hollinghurst are all recent Booker Prize winners from Britain, revered as demigods in "cultured" circles around the world. Booker Prize nominee and former president of the Royal Society of Literature, Marina Warner is spoken of in tones previously reserved for Angela Carter. Louis de Bernières is still producing gorgeous literature. Ethnically Japanese but a British citizen and deeply immersed in an Anglophilic vision of the world, Kazuo Ishiguro recently took the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Of course, for all your claim of yearning for "culture", you've heard of none of these people, much less engaged with their writing.

 

[Shaman]

A bit like using "People of Walmart" to stereotype Americans.

In any case, that's Birmingham. Over a hundred miles outside of the London area. You'd probably like Birmingham. It's the least white city in all of Britain. You won't find them terribly progressive and inclusive though.

Birmingham is my home and a melting pot of cultures. It's truly a great city.

To be on topic, I think gender does not matter much. Maybe some entities have preferences for the gender they want to work with like Lilith but it does not matter much.

 

[Xenophon]

Given grammar alone, I vouch that you and I are on very different wavelengths in terms of what we consider "culture". Less Tavener, more TayTay in your case I'd think. That instinct is supported by your including popular fiction in the category of culture. This is not to say that I'm a literary snob: unlike esteemed @Xenophon, I thought the Harry Potter series to be an emotionally powerful and deliriously enjoyable rewrite of British pagan themes (especially from the Germanic and Celtic traditions) and, in a lot of ways, popular fiction has become a locus where Romanticism can still influence the hearts and minds of people. I remember a response to "Jewish Gnostic" Harold Bloom's heavy criticism of Harry Potter concluding that while "adult" literature asked "does my butt look big in this?", Harry Potter asked "What is the relationship between love and death?".

If Britain had never produced another book after the 19th century, it had already sealed its position in the highest echelon of the world's literary producers. However, aside from innumerable recent Oscar-nominated films based on British novels, Terry Pratchett, Rowling and Iain Banks, I'd say that Britain still leads in the rarefied air of "high literature" while major moments in popular fiction are more of a lightning striking twice in a generation type set up. Anna Burns, Hilary Mantel, Julian Barnes and Alan Hollinghurst are all recent Booker Prize winners from Britain, revered as demigods in "cultured" circles around the world. Booker Prize nominee and former president of the Royal Society of Literature, Marina Warner is spoken of in tones previously reserved for Angela Carter. Louis de Bernières is still producing gorgeous literature. Ethnically Japanese but a British citizen and deeply immersed in an Anglophilic vision of the world, Kazuo Ishiguro recently took the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Of course, for all your claim of yearning for "culture", you've heard of none of these people, much less engaged with their writing.

My experience with Potter is rather colored by the sorry fact that, during COVID, I had to teach the books to kids online about nine times. After awhile it got to be like one of those pop songs that radio stations play every 10 minutes. Call it PTSD: Potter Traumatic Stress Distaste. The stories are well crafted and the author does not telegraph her punches when it comes to plot. (Interestingly, I had parents drop hints about my stability when I pointed out that at least some of the names in the story are historical personages. This was the same mama who told me I "must be mistaken" when I said Germans ever fought the Japanese in the run-up to WW2. The Von Falkenhausen expedition gets glossed over in today's history.)

 

[SkullTraill]

This thread is derailed beyond salvation.