novenovembre
What does the term "black magic" mean to you? I've been studying the occult since the middle 1970s, a fair few years now <smile> and to me and most serious occultists it means magic that is indigenous to black-skinned races. Since the late 1980s I've learnt a lot about Australian Aboriginal Magic, much of it very gentle and all of it based around ensuring life and growth - it is black magic. Conversely, the magic I practice, which comes from a Western European tradition is White Magic, even if I choose to Bind or Curse people or situations.
Magic designed to enhance tends to be referred to as "walking the right-hand path", and magic designed to limit is called "walking the left-hand path".
So ... how does he know? Does the card have a moving picture? And no ... my copy of the RW does not have a moving picture.
If your friend knows anything of the occult (positive or negative), he's know that in the Northern Hemisphere, clockwise is Deosil (following the path of the sun, positive) and anti-clockwise is widdershins (against the flow, or negative). He's also know that in the Southern Hemisphere this reverses. The coriolis effect, a natural meteorological phenomenon on which this belief is based, also does not and cannot take effect on things smaller than about fourteen metres in diameter, too.
You have met the devil? Do tell. Red is the colour of blood circulation and therefore of healing. It is the colour of Fire and therefore of warmth, energy and protection. How is that negative?
Horns symbolise animal life, the vigour and energy of livestock, and the gift of food they give to their human tribe. How is this negative? Shouldn't an Emperor be able to ensure that the population he rules have sufficient protein?
Nakedness represents innocence and purity, having nothing to hide and no reason to hide it. How is this sinister?
And you get to see her upright. Seeing yourself as you really are (as she would be seeing herself) is absolutely crucial to positive personal development. How is this sinister?
In manufacturing pharmacy, you often pour two or more measured liquids into a joint receptacle to produce the final blend. In fact, pouring substance A from a test tube meant for it into a test tube meant only for substance B, will contaminate the B-test tube to the point where even after sterilisation it can't be used.
And that's from modern pharmacy, which grew out of alchemy. How many years' study does your friend have in either discipline, pharmacy or alchemy?
Look like, to whom?
We are water-based life-forms, and live on a Watery planet. The origins of life have to do with the blending of different organic chemicals in primordial waters. But they would never have been given a kick into actual reproducing life without electricity and geothermal heat - elemental Fire. Water needs Fire to become Life. How is that sinister?
<smile> If it was a little white book inside the actual Tarot deck and not an accompanying book written by the creator of the deck, let me tell you, these are rarely written by the creator of the decks, usually by hack copy-writers employed by publishers who know even less than most of us. LWBs are famous for it.
I would dearly love to hear your friend's credentials.
Again, read my previous posts for the points all of you raised, which I won't repeat....now, let me be a simpleton, as I obviously cannot compete with you in black or white or red magic, or in tarot for that matter....neither do I want to....I was a baby when you began to study these things, anyway....and I have a passionate but very modest interest and knowledge in this field....so, what is black magic ? What most of us think it evokes, right or wrong. Of course you are free to practice whatever magic you want, and call it what you like....call it yellow magic if you wish....
The cards don't have a moving picture, no, but the snake and the other figure in the RW, and the feet in the Sephirot, clearly show which way the wheel is turning.
Have I met the Devil ? Not that I am aware of....but with all due respect, I think you know very well what I meant....classic, traditional iconography-which is probably crap to you, but nevertheless is evocative to 99 per cent of the population of certain concepts- works so that certain images awaken certain thoughts in people, much like the dog in the experiment hearing a bell and going to his bowl to eat....I think someone who uses a certain imagery, knows very well what he is evoking....just like the flames underneath Temperance, to answer senecar, I dare anyone to claim that, when they see flames like those, they wouldn't think of hell rather than alchemical fire of anything else....
Nakedness in the Star was not the point I made. Of course there is nothing wrong about that.
The little white books iside the deck when you buy them are all crap, of course, but I wonder why, of all the decks I've come across and all the booklets I skimmed through, NEVER had I come across that explanation for the Devil....are you saying it was the hack copy writer's joke ?