About internet witches and wishful thinking

I am writing this post following a discussion that occured on a forum of Italian witches. Basically, one user noticed that some people she had not liked very much had had disgraceful accidents. Although she admittedly had no thought of hurting these people, she concluded from this that she may have some obscure power, therefore feeling sad and guilty as she had not wished for this to happen. Apart from telling an interesting story about the kind of readership Italian forums about stregoneria tend to attire these days, this also points to the issue of witchcraft, psychic abilities and spellwork. The particular discussion I had on the forum, however, was not with the user who opened the thread, but with another who jumped in explaining that this was absolutely nature and an expression of the first user's amazing psychic abilities. My WTF! rolled out copiously.


The theory of the second user, whom I will name 'Prue', was that by finding these people annoying the first user, whom we will call 'Piper' had practiced a form of sympathetic or imitative magic, thus causing those violent accidents to her acquaintances. Prue went on describing how herself, thinking of a friend's friend on a Thursday and Friday, had caused her death on a Saturday. The ranting went on explaining how this was all normal, and rooted in psychology as an exact science.

Look how my psychic power is
embodied by my self-blowing hair

As you may have guessed, I am not holding Prue in much consideration. I find very annoying those so-called witches who go around online forums giving patchworked explanations to, honestly, silly question. Piper seemed to be struggling to be honest, and I would not have told her I found her question silly, but tried to explain what I know about coincidences and psychic abilities. Prue found in Piper's struggling an occasion for showcasing a very fragmentary and superficial knowledge on a series of subjects.

She held that it is possible, and indeed very normal, for people to be able to obtain what they want by intensely thinking of it. So if you really hate someone, think about him or her choking and they will choke. Prue called it sympathetic magic, because by having bad thoughts you are making bad things happen. How convenient! But if it so, why aren't we all rich, without enemies and with plenty of lovers (and all dead, very possibly?).

The idea that all that is needed for magic to happen is to think of it is a misconception about how spells work. We do not know how spells work, but we do know how to make them work, how to do the trick.A pianist can improvise an amazing play, if he knows what sounds the keys make and how to play them. A great cook can make a delicious meal with leftovers, if he is skilled and knows his ingredient. Wishing for something to happen is not enough. Any witch that does practice imitative magic knows that for effective, long-term results there is a lot of work to do, and that it is not enough to write 'someone's name on a piece of paper' to produce significant, and lasting changes, as Prue argued.

 In particular, some people seem to radicalize the idea that the will is the base for magic to the point that they argue that it is the only think that one needs to get results. Of course magic done out of the spur of the moment, with few things at our disposal, can be very powerful. But even then, the witch must be able to how to use them. This is what the practice of witchcraft is, I think.

Sometimes it is not enough to think of it,
you might also need to shake your hands
a bit.

know

Prue replied to my argument stating that I had misunderstood everything, and that indeed a work of imitative magic mainly acts upon the operator, therefore if I make a dagida (which she kept referring to as voodoo doll) with the aim of making, let's say, someone's teeth fall off his mouth, the effect that the spell has is to make me see that person toothless.

Really?

Why would I go to such troubles, as witches have always done, to elaborate ways of materializing similarities in ritual arrangements, techniques of creating dolls with specific features and made of particular materials, go to great lengths to get a witness of the person... to just see 'her' bald, which would also make me crazy to other people's eyes as I'd be the only on. She kept saying that it really is all about psychomagic, and that if you want to make someone bald you can rely on popular herb remedies (which I have never heard about, as she was particularly talking about making people bold) or rely, as she did, on chemists who would smuggle chemical components. It is at the network of chemist smugglers that I rose my hands and I surrendered.

What the fuck? 

Witches do magic because magic works. Especially solitary magic often requires dedication, discipline and repetition. It is ego-centric and anthropocentric to think that when bad things happen that favor us, it happened because we wished for it. Of course, one's attitude and thinking plays a great role in one's life. But if you want to earn some money, it is not enough to think of it. Doing magic is what produces magic, it is not enough just to think of it to make it happen. Witchcraft is a thing of doing.

Oops..I involuntarily unleashed a dragon
flame, maybe I am witch and kalheesi!

Some skilled witches can cast spell one the astral plane, but although this may not be particularly difficult for those with a fervid imagination and a mastery of breathing and trance techniques, it is surely not a simple matter of thinking nor of imagining it. It requires vivid active meditation skills, a knowledge of magic and clear intent. Not something you make happen 'accidentally'. And one should also consider that Piper was no pre-adolescent in the midst of poltergeist madness, but a grown woman with kids.

Why do I care so much? Because it is unfair that people that clearly have no experience of magic, and little knowledge of other subjects (I have neglected  Prue's explanations of the psychological roots of sympathetic magic, which showed no knowledge whatsoever of the Freudian and Jungian concepts she was trying to put together. Oh, wikipedia!) go around telling people to have powers. When I started doing witchcraft, and landed on the internet, I had my head full of misconceptions and poor understanding. I found people who kicked my ass, and pushed me to go and study hard. I think I was lucky, and they showed respect towards me as a person when they took my silly questions seriously and gave me indications towards the most meaningful answers, telling me: you are wrong.

Witchcraft is not about going after amazing obscure powers, but learning how to use the power within and around us through the practice, not wishful thinking and confused speculation. It is true that there is no one path to witchcraft, but it also true that there are practices which have meanings that are relevant to what we do, and those are the tenets of witchcraft which is not only about being a witch but also about the crafting.