{"id":461,"date":"2009-12-17T21:17:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-17T21:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/the-dilemma-of-using-magic\/"},"modified":"2009-12-17T21:17:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-17T21:17:00","slug":"the-dilemma-of-using-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/the-dilemma-of-using-magic.html","title":{"rendered":"The Dilemma of Using Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Those of you who know me in the real world \u2013 or those of you who\u2019ve been coming to this blog and reading the posts that aren\u2019t there \u2013 know that I\u2019ve had a very heavy load of work-related stress for the past eight months in general and the past eight weeks in particular. I\u2019m not to my breaking point, but I can see it from here.<\/p>\n

In the material world, I tend to favor material action, but this situation seems to call for using every tool in the toolbox \u2013 including magic.<\/p>\n

The skeptical say the danger of using magic is that you\u2019re relying on something that isn\u2019t real \u2013 magic doesn\u2019t work. On the contrary, perhaps the biggest danger of using magic is that it works too well. But magic doesn\u2019t give you what you want \u2013 it gives you what you ask for, and what you work for. Parse your spells as carefully and precisely as a corporate lawyer writing a contract, or you\u2019ll find Coyote or Loki or some other Trickster laughing while you slip on a cosmic banana peel.<\/p>\n

So I set out to carefully and precisely define what I want and need. I spent several hours going over what\u2019s wrong, how I got there, and what needs to happen to make things well. When I finished, I read it over carefully\u2026 and it sounded an awful lot like \u201cput things back the way they were before work went to hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve said before, I\u2019d make a lousy Buddhist<\/a>, but the Buddhists are right about one thing: suffering is caused by attachment (the Buddhists are right about a lot of things, most of which I have trouble accepting). And while suffering is by definition unpleasant, it\u2019s also a good motivator. If a factory hadn\u2019t closed in 1995 I never would have left Chattanooga and all the baggage of living in my home town. If another factory hadn\u2019t downsized in 2001 I never would have left Atlanta and formed the connections and relationships that are so helpful and so pleasant in my life now.<\/p>\n

If I put things back the way they were, what opportunities for growth may I be turning down?<\/p>\n

When I came back from the Druid Gorsedd in August I said I had seen what was possible: Pagans living successful lives in the mundane world and then working and practicing on off time. I was building a network of connections in the Pagan and UU worlds. I was prepared to spend the next 20 years becoming a wise Druid and using my professional career to finance it all.<\/p>\n

Is this stress and suffering calling me to something else? And if so, what?<\/p>\n

If I work magic to reset my life, I will inevitably work toward a vision that\u2019s based on what I know \u2013 incremental changes from what I am\/have now. On the other hand, if I say \u201cGoddess, put me where you want me\u201d then I open myself up to things I\u2019m not thinking of now, but I also fail to take responsibility for where my life goes\u2026 which is also likely to be incremental changes from what I am\/have now.<\/p>\n

It seems the magic I most need to work now isn\u2019t to fix my job, it\u2019s to open my eyes and ears to what I\u2019m truly called to do and be.<\/p>\n

Whatever that is.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those of you who know me in the real world \u2013 or those of you who\u2019ve been coming to this blog and reading the posts that aren\u2019t there \u2013 know that I\u2019ve had a very heavy load of work-related stress for the past eight months in general and the past eight weeks in particular. I\u2019m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Dilemma of Using Magic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Those of you who know me in the real world \u2013 or those of you who\u2019ve been coming to this blog and reading the posts that aren\u2019t there \u2013 know that I\u2019ve had\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/the-dilemma-of-using-magic.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Dilemma of Using Magic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Those of you who know me in the real world \u2013 or those of you who\u2019ve been coming to this blog and reading the posts that aren\u2019t there \u2013 know that I\u2019ve had\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/the-dilemma-of-using-magic.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-12-17T21:17:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/the-dilemma-of-using-magic.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/the-dilemma-of-using-magic.html\",\"name\":\"The Dilemma of Using Magic\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-12-17T21:17:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-12-17T21:17:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"Those of you who know me in the real world \u2013 or those of you who\u2019ve been coming to this blog and reading the posts that aren\u2019t there \u2013 know that I\u2019ve had\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/the-dilemma-of-using-magic.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/the-dilemma-of-using-magic.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/the-dilemma-of-using-magic.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Dilemma of Using Magic\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. 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