Playing another kind of warlock in a new RPG, on a Wreck-Free Sunday

I started playing a new character in a new (to me) kind of fantasy RPG based on Palladium’s system. Our DM uses a different kind of character generation for games like this, where we role-play our character’s childhoods to determine our stats. The warlock class is completely different in Palladium in that their warlocks use elemental energy from one of the four aristotelian elements, and the character has to choose which “sphere” of energy he or she is going to use to cast their spells from. If your character chooses a single sphere they get three spells per level, but you can choose 2 spheres and get only 2 spells per level but have a wider variety of spells to choose from. I chose earth and air spheres because I had the best selection of healing spells with those, and because the warlock class was a pretty decent fighter without the use of magic.

I mentioned that we have a T-gurl living at the house, who moved in so that she wouldn’t have to sleep in her car in the church parking lot. Well we had a minor crisis at church tonight. Membership had gone through the name tags and updated them for all the new members we had gotten recently and the old tags were taken from the holders and put in a little file holder made for business cards so that there were enough tags for all the new and current people. The T-gurl was not a “current” member, so the tag holder we had altered to cover her old name with her feminine name was cleaned up and used for someone new and the old tag with the masculine name was put in the file. This caused a minor crisis for the T-gurl because it made her feel like her new identity was being denied in favor of her old masculine identity, which was something that was happening to her at her parent’s place. As you can imagine this was emotionally devastating for her, but we managed to find a way to repair most of the damages before everybody went home, in a way that affirmed her feminine identity as valid. Oh, and one of my old GF who was on disability for being bipolar and dyslexic and more than a bubble off kilter was there too as she had recovered enough to be allowed to drive again (I have never known her when she wasn’t on disability, I seem to attract people like that until they get back on their feet emotionally or at least get stable enough to function at some level in society).

Coming up on the 18th of this month I will finally be doing that ritual to end the spell to reflect the intentions of the guy who tried to kill me back in 2001 and who died back in 2002 after I started the spell to reflect his intentions back on him, but as I didn’t know he had died I kept the spell going through a second publically dedicated tool and that tool (hat) wore out and fell to pieces like the first. Well come the 18th I will burn those hats in a public ritual and dispell that public magic, and dedicate a new hat to creating good, safe bicycle infrastructure for the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. Just because I can’t ride at the moment doesn’t eliminated the need for infrastructure. I am not the only person riding a bicycle in this city. Expect to see some pictures from that ritual that night or the next day.

When we changed our cable package to include HD we also got a lot more channels that were HD only, which means I have that many more channels to ignore for lack of anything new or interesting to watch, except there are a few that sometimes have decent motorsports programming even this time of year. One of those channels will be covering Formula E racing, a spec series of all-electric racing. Personally for something like this technology I would prefer a spec motor with a maximum weight and volume for the battery and any controller, so that battery and controller technology would be pushed hard to develop as those are the parts of the e-vehicle matrix that are the stumbling blocks to widespread acceptance of EV in the mainstream. For commuting the infrastructure problem has been solved as there is always a place to charge when you’re at home, and there are more and more quick-charge stations popping up across the country for filling up for point-to-point driving that is outside the round-trip from home range of your vehicle. But anyway, this means I will be watching more Formula E, which means watching any Formula E because I did not have access to a channel before.

And I have yammered enough. I need to get to bed.

PSA, Opus

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Moving to my next step in being a witch on Wreck-Free Sunday

Today I’m taking my next step in being a witch in this day and age: passing what I know on to the next generation. I was approached by a young person to teach them what I knew about the Craft and the place it holds in the world and what that means to a practitioner of the Craft. I’m starting off with what some consider a strange place to begin, ethics. The ethics of teaching the Craft, standards I must be held to, and then the ethics of using the Craft in the world. Until I’m convinced my student understands these things I will not teach anything more. I hope my reasons will be obvious to all concerned.

“Seekers on the pagan path are in an extremely vulnerable position. In their quest for fellowship and teaching, they risk encountering those who use faith to prey on others. To empower the Seekers of our community, a Seeker’s Bill of Rights has been drafted. This tool will help to alert Seekers of a problem if a group or teacher violates any of the ten rights described. It will also serve to remind Seekers that while they do not have “degrees,” they are still human beings with rights and dignity. (Written by Charles Mars, Texas Local Council Member and 1999-2002 National CoG Board Member)

I. The Right to Verify Credentials

Seekers shall not be obstructed from substantiating claims made by a teacher or group. In the case of Elders that were inspired to create a new tradition, the Seeker has the right to know the circumstances surrounding the inception of that tradition.

II. The Right to Anonymity

Seekers have the right to keep their involvement in the occult a secret to preserve their personal & professional lives.

III. The Right to Financial Stability

Seekers shall not be required or coerced into taking on any financial burdens on behalf of a teacher or group.

IV. The Right to Compensation for Professional Goods & Services

Seekers have the right to be paid for goods produced and/or skilled labor from which they would normally receive an income. Seekers shall not be required or coerced into providing discounts or “freebies” on behalf of a teacher or group.

V. The Right to Sexual Freedom

Seekers shall not be required or coerced into sexual relations with unwanted persons, nor shall Seekers be restricted from sexual relations with consenting adults.

VI. The Right to Physical Well-Being

Seekers shall not be required or coerced into submitting to any form of physical injury or abuse.

VII. The Right to Abide by the Law

Seekers shall not be required or coerced into committing any illegal act.

VIII. The Right to Consistency

Seekers have the right to expect consistency in policies by a teacher or group. Seekers should be formally informed in a timely manner of any policy changes.

IX. The Right to Separation with Impunity

Seekers have the right to discontinue association with any teacher or group without fear of harassment or reprisal.

X. The Right to be at Peace with One’s Conscience

Seekers shall not be required or coerced into committing any action contrary to their own sense of ethics and morality.”

These are the standards that I must uphold and abide by to teach the Craft. There is no certificating agency or organization that forces me to do this, just my own sense of morals and ethics. That I was able to <Ctrl C> <Ctrl V> these into this document only speaks to how widespread not having morals and ethics was early in the modern era of the Craft.

This next part I can’t copy and paste because this isn’t universally agreed upon, yet. This is the ethical and moral use of magick, using one’s will and tools to inflict change upon the world and the people in it. It is far from a settled question, with many arguments about it from many different angles on the same situation. So these ethics about the use of magic are shared with a few people, and when pressed about it those who don’t share my opinion will say that these are not bad aside from being overly restrictive.

Magick is your will, exercised freely in accordance with your desires.

You have a right to not use magick under duress. No one can force you to use magick against your will to do things you do not agree with. This is pretty universal.

You may not use magick against the will of another person except to save a life or prevent harm.

This one is where things start getting contentious. Some people say that using magick is how to dodge the use of physical or financial power of others so using against the will of another is “just how things are”. There are others who say that saving life is the only reason to use magick against the will of another person, that unless life is in immediate peril than ethics prohibit them from using magick even if someone is injured because of inaction. Also there is some disagreement about the definition of “against the will”. My personal definition is “to enact action that is counter to the desires” of the targeted person.

A good example of this is the use of love spells. Using a spell or set of spells to force someone to love you is a violation of this by my standards. Making them horny so they jump your bones is fair, because the decision to jump your bones is still under their control, not yours. You hope you will be the target of their desire, but you can’t make them desire you specifically. Making yourself change so that you are irresistible to them is fair, because again the choice remains with the person you desire to fall in love with you and the changes are made to you and not to them. Now I want my student to be able to tell me why this is important, in their own words, and to give other examples of using the Craft that might violate this standard.

A good criterion for use of magick in emergency situations is would you be allowed to use a gun if you had a concealed carry permit? This is a “bright line” standard. Where things are more murky is doing something against something that is not an immediate danger but more of a long-term threat. Example for this is Ethan Crouch, the teen “suffering” from “affluenza” in the deaths of 4 people and the permanent maiming of 2 more when he stole beer, got roaring drunk, drove one of his father’s trucks, and hit a group of 7 people at the site of a broken-down vehicle partially in the road. Would you use magick against Ethan to make him conscious of what he did? Why or why not? Would you make him more than just “conscious” of what he did and try to inflict a little punishment on him? Why or why not? Explain and use examples.

Thus endeth the lesson.

PSA, Opus