See, I think magical practice is a really cool ritual, and I do think that ritual can be valuable and useful and important and great. It's all of those things because of how it functions as a symbolic framework--it changes what we think about and it can even change how we are thinking. Sometimes we all need that. I know I still do.
But being useful doesn't mean something must be happening there which isn't verifiable and requires wishful thinking to believe. I read tarot cards (both for myself and others) because I think it's a fantastic meditative tool that gets me to think of things and about things in ways I don't tend to do without it. There's a difference between doing this, and actively trying to petition the Great Will of the Universe for answers, isn't there? It's meditation as opposed to divination, and while I'll never dispute the usefulness and reality of the former, the latter just doesn't seem to sit on very strong evidence.
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chiming
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Date: 2010-11-09 08:27 pm (UTC)From:But being useful doesn't mean something must be happening there which isn't verifiable and requires wishful thinking to believe. I read tarot cards (both for myself and others) because I think it's a fantastic meditative tool that gets me to think of things and about things in ways I don't tend to do without it. There's a difference between doing this, and actively trying to petition the Great Will of the Universe for answers, isn't there? It's meditation as opposed to divination, and while I'll never dispute the usefulness and reality of the former, the latter just doesn't seem to sit on very strong evidence.