The Next Episode...

So, I'm going to admit that the next two weeks worth of entries are actually backdated, and that I'm composing them all in one sitting on the night of February 25th. In my defense, I had an exceedingly rough last two weeks, but to those who care for such things as punctuality, I offer my sincerest condolences. That said, let's jump in.

This entry pertains to something that I've heard about but never really understood. In this case, I'll use the traditional Book of Shadows as my example, but really, you could use any supposed text that educates or elucidates in the supposed art of spellcraft. For those of you who aren't familiar with them, a Book of Shadows is the common term used to describe a coven of practicing witches' written record, usually including recipes for potions, rituals for any given spell, and general transcriptions of various feats of derring do.

Now, my question may be completely asinine, and if it is, feel free to let me know in the comments below. However, I'm pretty flummoxed by one simple point: WHY WOULD YOU EVER G-DDAMN WRITE STUFF LIKE THIS OUT? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it a bad idea to write anything based on content alone, I think that everyone should have access to (and actively partake in) the means to write whatever they'd like privately. But this is a group-based, group-sourced, group-available text which supposedly gives the users of it a great deal of power that most don't have access to.

Assuming it works/magic is real, my main problems come down to the ability of multiple people to use it. Number one, do you trust all of your co-workers/classmates/fellow religion observers? While they may share the same values as you at a basic level, that in no way means you agree with them a hundred percent. So what's to say they won't use their equally-to-yours granted powers to do things you wouldn't agree with? Or worse yet, to screw you over? Next, would you want anyone to be able to contribute equally? I see Wikipedia written all over this, and trust me, the scenario in my imagination is fairly benign:

"Sister Mary, I'm reading over Sister Gertrude's recipe for a potion of perceptiveness, and it says I need to obtain essence of butfur. What's a butfur?"

"IT'S FER POOPIN', HAW HAW! PWNED."

So yeah, there's that. Also, the unfiltered nature of the contents of the book also seems a little ill-thought out. That is to say, the books supposedly describe everything from the virtually useless minutia of the coven to the incredibly overpowering spells and what-have-you, the contents of the book can be likened to listing the recipe for oatmeal cookies next to that of an atomic bomb. Which is to say, bad news, especially if you're allowing anyone from a day-one initiate to a day-four-million senile to have access to it...

I dunno, I could just be acting obtuse. But am I the only one who's wondered that?

Odds-On Favorite

So, I promised that I'd get into a bit of opinion-tossing on psychic phenomena today, and I plan to. But as a preface, I'd just like to make two things plain; first, that I really have nothing to back up my beliefs (I guess at that point, it wouldn't really be a belief-system so much as just faith) and second, that I don't expect you to agree with me. That all said, let's dig in.

I already mentioned a while back that I'm pretty agnostic about the concept of the afterlife and paranormal phenomena as a whole. Do I believe it's possible that either or both of these things exist? Yeah, why not. Am I sure about those beliefs? No way. But while I may be aggravatingly ambivalent about a couple of the foundation areas of parapsychology, one thing I believe and have always believed in is luck. I simply think luck exists. I know that statistically, it shouldn't. I also know that may determinists/deeply religious would argue that there's no such thing as luck, just divine will. But, human logic and attributions aside, however irrational a belief it may be, I have it. I think that regardless of where you think it comes from or how subjectively constructed it is, every person has a certain level of luck in any given situation, luck being defined as the ability to have larger than normal probabilities of a positive or desired outcome in that given situation. I also think that this level of luck in a specific situation tends to carry over into other similarly-structured situations. Like different areas of aptitude or knowledge, some people are luckier at certain things than others...like one may be luckier at financial gambles, whereas another is better at socio-political risks, where yet another takes on physical chances with a fearless demeanor...

I sort of conceptualize it like this: all actions with multiple outcomes have a certain level of probability associated with each of those outcomes. In certain philosophical and (if I remember correctly) physics frameworks, all of these outcomes occur in parallel universes, leading to the idea of divergent realities, where everything is the same to one point, then the paths diverge around the different resolutions to that situation. So, if every action has multiple outcomes (because let's face it, "meteor to the face" is always a possibility), then those who have luck have the ability to "nudge" a decision in their favor, basically altering reality around them. The stronger the level of luck, the more ridiculous the level of probability shifting they can undertake with a reasonable level of increased odds...some things will always be out of reach, but the luckier you are, the greater the spectrum of possibilities open up to create that "positive outcome", relatively speaking.

So what does this have to do with psychics, magicians, and/or the paranormal? Well, looking at luck as a simple probability-boosting field, then maybe it stands to reason that many of the proclaimed psychics and magicians aren't exercising arcane art so much as just a natural ability of "luck" in a specific area or set of areas. Divinatory oracles may not speak to gods so much as have a higher than statistically reasonable level of luck in predicting events, though they reason their abilities come from divine sources. Magicians that can control the weather and move objects over distances without touching them just have incredible innate powers of probability shifting, sometimes to the extent of flying in the face of the laws of physics.

Now, most of this was just getting some mind-babble on the interwebs, and for the most part, is purely speculatory. The only thing I really believe in is luck as a concept and a part of our reality...and I wouldn't really hold it against anyone else to disbelieve that, though. It was, as I said at the beginning, a sort of leap of faith, and like all faith, some make the jump, others don't. But whether or not you believe in luck, I still wish it in abundance to you all the same :)

Lord and Master

Hey guys, quick heads up...while i really want to continue this amazingly prolific streak that I've kept going over the last five weeks, I feel like I need to pull it back a bit, so I'm going to reduce my output to only three a week rather than five. Hopefully that won't break too many hearts, but I'm thinking it's either this or risking burnout between this and "real life". 

Anyways, this entry is going to talk about an odd demon commonly known as Master Leonard, pictured on the right. Master Leonard, while being a demon of relatively little reknown in popular culture is supposedly one of the more influential demons in all of Hell. Specifically, he is the chief-master of ceremonies for all orgies, sabbaths, and black celebrations. In addition, he is the strongest sorcerer of all demonkind, leading to his being worshipped by practitioners of the black arts. His appearance is that of a man with three goat horns coming out of his head, a black face, and very "goatish" features overall. His overall demeanor is apparently very withdrawn and depressed, until a gathering occurs, at which point he becomes incredibly charismatic and outgoing. Outside of that, he specializes in transformation and shapeshifting into a variety of forms, which is fully in line with his capricious and tempestuous nature. As to any historically/religiously memetic reasons for his existence, it is postulated that he is the personification of one of the goats spoken of in Leviticus 16:8.