Recently a friend of mine was gravely insulted by some magickal practitioners. This was not a simple snub or failure of civility, it was an outright attack on his personality, magickal bonafides and even his body. This has enraged me, but it also brought a question to mind.
To wit: Why would people who claim to have an understanding of magic (within the bounds of their faith) go out of their way to insult a fellow practitioner?
I think it comes down to the fact that even these people who claim that their lives revolve around a magickal faith don't really buy into the consequences of that knowledge. They don't believe my friend, and those insulted on his behalf, can do anything to them. That we are powerless.
Nothing could be further from the Truth. I know I, and some others I have spoken to, stand ready to use our arts and gifts to redress this wrong. I just think it's funny that people who spend so much time making magickal protections and talismans to protect themselves from occult assault would so casually enter into conflict.
Hubris is thy name.
People like that don't fear recompense not because they feel the people they act out against have no power, but rather that they feel they are more powerful than anyone they know. It's ego related.
ReplyDeleteSome people thrive on conflict. This can be good (like the people who really shine and keep calm and focused when everything goes to heck) or bad (people who go out of their way to cause conflict because it gives them their jollies). Sometimes people aren't even fully aware they are poking a hornets nest. Some of them honestly (and delusionaly) believe that they are the injured party and everyone else in the world is out to get them. These types of people scare me.
All in all, magical practitioner or not, we are all people. There are bad apples in every group. It absolutely sucks what happens, and I firmly stand beside the thought that if you hurt the people I care about, expect there to be consequences of one sort or another....but I am also never surprised that there are people out there in every walk of life who seem to exist to cause others every type of pain imaginable.