Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Opinions Are Not Gospel

Well I’ve again stepped on someone’s toes and pissed them off. While I do not go out of my way to intentionally do that, it happens from time to time. It’s what happens when you’re outspoken. At times I’m willing to make a stand whereas most tend to sit idly by and let things fall where they may.

So then is the real problem about ego or is it passion? Probably with me, a little of both. When you’re passionate about something you tend to spend more time, money and effort at it than you do at much else. If you have no passion, then your JuJu sucks.

You like to stay alone & do the lone ranger thing? Good for you! Hermits have always been either held in fascination OR fear by others. It’s a choice that unnerves folks because as humans we’re social animals by nature. We like to hang with others of a like mind and discuss and do things that interest us. 

Ever been at a coffee shop around a bunch of nerdy intellectuals who you had SOME common interest with? One may want to discuss Kafka or Stein and the conversation actually gets interesting but when you bring up Metaphysics or the Occult, you can hear the crickets chirp. So you feel alone and just figure no one else likes what you’re so esoterically interested in.

I’m not out to hurt (let alone bully anyone) hell I’ve suffered bullying for years as a kid and a couple of times as an adult. Ever been bullied by an intellectual? It’s NOT funny like they make it appear on TV and you’re just supposed to sit there and take it especially if s/he is your ‘friend’ or acquaintance.

My problem is I’m too damn open when someone asks me my opinion. But people take opinion as if it’s gospel. Um it’s NOT folks! Hello? It’s O-P-I-N-I-O-N. If I don’t like the way something is and I’m asked about it, I’ll say so. Oh my that automatically makes me a jerk. Well you’ll have that because it’s just an opinion and more often it’s an opinion based on the limited parameters either the question or situation demands.

I had a friend and co-worker ask me about his Scion when he got one of the first of them. It was turd brown. No really it WAS turd brown color. Ugly damn thing. A turd brown box rolling down the road. Now this guy was a part time stand up comedian at comedy clubs and he took offense to what I said! LoL I had a ball with it and got him later to admit the color was turdish looking.

And then there’s times when I will say what I like about something and what I don’t like. Funny how when you say something you don’t like that too can piss people off. Excuse me? Opinion here! This doesn’t mean I think it’s bad ALL the time but man people are bitchy when it comes to something they did. Some practitioners love tearing into someone else’s book and tearing it apart.

Even if I can’t stand a book because the author didn’t explain some things fully or what have you, I DO TRY to find something GOOD to say about it even if it’s just the pretty cover. If I can’t do so without being truly jaded, then I won’t write the review and try not to mention the book or author to others. If asked about it, I’ll simply say I’m not a fan and leave it at that.

Do I get pissed off at bad reviews about my own books? ONLY IF they’re taking pot shots at me and not what’s presented in the book. I’ve had a couple of folks point out some things in reviews that made me think about the revisions so it could be made easier to understand. My book, Pragmatic Magics has been around since 1994 when there were only books published by individuals through vanity presses or they had to be accepted by sheeple publishers who were (& still) putting out pablum on the market.

Odd thing is when I sold my books from home, I rarely got anything negative from folks. Usually the emails were about clarifications (again which I noted for future revisions) or to tell me about how something worked for them. I’ve had that occasional email of “Hey Moloch I did X and nothing happened” and sometimes through process of elimination, you discover WHY Joe Wannabe didn’t get what he asked for. So you try to help him by suggesting some things to help him get past the block.

It’s all you can do. For the longest time I did not sell anything on my site other than books and eventually people wanted the formulas I recommended or they wanted a Spirit Familiar or a Thrall so I opened shop to help and make some money. Today I like helping folks as best I can. I’m still outspoken - some say obnoxiously so - but that’s okay many like me just the way I am. I don’t pretend to like you then stab you in the back; if I don’t like you, you’ll know it.

You don’t see me trying to ride a wave of media & festivals like so many do. Been there, done that in the beginning. That’s for people who like to camp out and deal with lots of smelly types who dislike bathing. Plus it’s difficult to hold a conversation with someone when they’re on an acid trip or buzzing on some substance while you’re clear headed. GODS that’s a pain! They ask a serious question, you try to answer them and they just nod their head and ask you about stuff you’ve already answered before! Arrgh.

Nor do you see me trying to study a topic for a year and then write a book on it. Really? A year? Yes a ton of people do just that. It’s stupid but they do it anyway. I wrote PM in 1993, six years after I’d been involved in the world of Sorcery. My ex will tell you I lived, ate and breathed the Occult. We didn’t have kids who needed to be at soccer practice; we weren‘t all that interested in sports; we didn’t do much drinking/partying so my wife and I never went to many parties; just did our own thing.

There are people out there who got involved in Vodu and after a brief time wrote books on it. Some folks did the same with Enochian Magic; others the same with Evocations and so on. That gets old. You can be a good writer and know very little about a subject to pull off a full length book. But the vast amount of that is surface knowledge and they have nothing deeper than what’s on the surface.

In my opinion, Sorcery and other forms of Occultism takes several, long years of practical study and work to get good at. Your ego better be prepared to be assaulted by the Spirits who will enjoy throwing doubts in your path.