'You attract idiots at their most idiotic,' a friend said the other day. Of course she's right.
It must be something to do with my... I suppose I would have to call it karma, because I don't have another word. The magical actions we undertake literally attract all sorts of other actions and entities, although I'm still not into banishing. I would rather be forced to deal with what my actions attract, since that is usually a learning experience for me. Among the things I have learned are:
1. Some people will never be happy, not even, especially not, when they get exactly what they think they want.
2. Some people just have to be left to make the same mistakes over and over again, because they will never learn from them.
3. Some people are incredibly attached to what they will tell you is the source of their misery, whether a bad relationship or one of the classical sources of oppression like gender or race. The source of their oppression is so much part of their identity they will never be able to cope without it.
4. Some people fear change above all fears. Attentive readers of Uncle Al will recall that this was his definition of 'black' magic.
The opposite approach for the magical practitioner welcomes change, always seeks to examine self as part of a full and frank inventory and recognises that different ' stuff is going to come up as part of our work. Sometimes we end up mediating this to other people. Guess that's why witches get burned, they can't face their own karmic debt.
Hey ho.

Sovereignty

I have been thinking further about the difference of opinion which I talked about in my last post. I'm quite gratified, actually, that I put the sovereignty of the individual at the centre. There was a time when I wouldn't have prioritised the witchly perception that I won't just stand for things as they are, but the change has to happen in me first. The strength of my will makes the change then happen on all planes.
This is a magical turning point for me, seeing how magic my perception actually is 😃

Surprise!

I surprised myself this week by having an altercation with my boss. Now you may say, Don't be ridiculous, Hound, you could start an argument in a phone box. And of course you're right - what surprised me was the position I took, so this post should probably be read in the context of the last one.
I surprised myself by saying that if someone keeps making the same mistake in life, sooner or later they have to come to the conclusion that since they are the common denominator in this, they must put some consideration towards what they are doing themselves to create the problem, and how they can change.
The specific case was about abused women in relationships, and my boss surprised me by having none of it. She told me that the abuse is never the woman's fault, and I agreed. She told me the man needs to take responsibility for the abuse, and I agreed with her. She told me that if you have the sort of mindset where being abused becomes normal, you can't see an alternative, and I agreed with her. I said that in those circumstances the problem is the acceptance of the problem and that is what needs to change first.
She actually horrified me, because it felt like she was allowing no power to the woman. To me the power would be seeing there is a problem, apportioning blame, and then taking the power by doing whatever you have to do next.
Of course I get that it so difficult to do this. I also fully understand the repercussions (a good deal of the fracture in my relationship with my mother is because she refused to believe me about a difficult thing when I was much younger). I suppose what I'm saying is the witchly thing that while bad things happening to you may be the complete fault of another, part of moving on is a frank inventory of how it happened, including how you have yourself allowed the situation to develop. For example I have reflected on what I failed to do when I was in the hellish situation of being managed by Zippy. Of course the irony is that then the universe doesn't present you with the same situation.
So wife beaters are scum and deserve karma. I could tell you the words of a little invocation I say to the goddess in the evening, because it will make my position on wife batterers, queer bashers and paedophiles clear. The thing here is that a victim should not only be a victim. Getting power involves introspection because it you accept power you have to acknowledge when you have failed to exercise power and not been sovereign over your person and life.
The question is 'Will this give me power or take it away?'

Dead Wife Batterers Don't Reoffend.

I'm afraid I don't have his details but if any witches reading this can join in stopping a real c*nt in his tracks the Hound would be very grateful.