An offer

I am feeling very generous today.

I have decided to offer a magical gift to the first 5 people that ask for it.

People can choose between a magical drawing to atract money and another to get  laid more often.

The drawings will be sent by snail mail.

There is only a catch.

After a month of having the drawing those that receive it are required to post here the results.

Interested ?

Magic, Sorcery, Effort, Success and Starcraft

There is always a joker that says that magic doesn't work, and that if it did we wouldn't need to make any effort.
We could have money without a job/business.
We would get laid everyday because the most gorgeous girls/guys/groups of people would appear on your front door naked and with a bottle of Scotch/Beer/Champagne.

So, if this doesn't happen it is because magic and sorcery don't exist and we are just a bunch of deluded idiots.
When I was young I did my best to explain magic and it´s  strengths and limitations,  but that kind of joker doesn't pay attention. Nowadays I just laugh and say that magical workings are like Starcraft Cheat Codes.
You start playing and you don't progress fast enough, or the game is too difficult, or you're just too lazy...
You use the cheat codes.
Operation CWAL - your upgrades are faster, and your buildings get done in a fraction of the time. That can be a spell to open paths and to get the best help to you.
Black Sheep Wall - You get to see all the game. That is divination, allowing you to know what your enemies and adversaries are doing, but also the oportunities that lay ahead and that one could miss otherwise.
Show Me The Money - you get a lot of minerals and gas. The magical equivalent are workings to bring money and resources to you. You get bank credit where your competition is left wanting, your clients pay in full instead of leaving you waiting for the money, you discover new business/clients or your boss gives you a bonus when everybody else doesn't get anything.
But with cheat codes or spells you have to play the game to win, you have to make an effort.
It is then that the most obstinated idiots say that there is a cheat code on Starcraft that allows one to go instantly to the next level without any effort.
My reply is that it gets the person to the next level, but it isn't fun. And enjoying what one acomplishes is every bit as important as getting it.

Message

You are the terror of the world,
You prey upon the muggles,  wreck marriages, make womens miscarriage.

In your ignorance and arrogance you believe yourself to be a god but you're nothing but a joke.
And nobody is laughing. 

Professional courtesy and idiots

Most muggles don't have a clue about how much magic is working around them. On their jobs, on their marriages, all around them professionals or dabblers are working, creating circumstances that will change their life. The muggles that are slightly aware of that make an effort to avoid being collateral damage. Against an unjust boss, a hungry ghost, an envious person wanting to wreck their marriage, or just plain old bad luck.

They hire people like me to protect their jobs and to keep their paths open. That is good for them and for professionals all over the world.

And the good professional cleans the muggles path, remove curses, blesses them, and if need be, kicks the client's ass to make sure that they have a chance.

But there is always an idiot, that instead of working against the workings of others decides to make a name for him/herself by attacking the other professionals. That is stupid because quite often the workings will keep damaging their clients even if he/she is sucessefull in wipping out the competition. It also attracts unwanted attention. We are a paranoid breed and the demise of one of us makes all others smell the blood. Besides most have friends/companions/students/partners that in al probability will act against the attacker. The result may be one of the endless and petty witch wars that plague our existence.

My advice ? Don't attack another professional unless you have a damn good reason for it. And if you do, gather as much help as possible and make sure that he/she is dealt in such a way that others don't want to risk attacking you.

Sorcery... and diapers

Powerfull and full of oneself as only a sorcerer can be, the truth is that sometimes we also live unpleasant situations.
There are workings that required prolonged fasts. By prolonged I mean any fast over 4 days and by fast I mean having nothing but water. Water. No fruit juice, no lemon juice, no soup. Water.

After the 4th day your bowel already got ride of everything solid, and you evacuate liquid goo. My advice is that when you reach that point you start using diapers. That way if you fart and some liquid escapes, it will be contained by the diaper and not stain your clothes.
And believe me, those stains are impossible to remove, it doesn't matter how hard you try.

Fever

"Fever! In the morning

Fever all through the night."*

You have started doing magic long (or not so long) ago. You have managed to have a balanced life, a good job, good health, perhaps a significant other (or others). People consider you lucky and some of you "luck" seems to rub on you friends and family. You're not a mystic, but rather someone that brings change to the world.
You have a good life and there isn't much that you want or need. You don't need to do much to maintain your life as it is.
And then it starts.
A longing. A desire. Something nagging you.
You're balanced and don't let people see that there is something worrying you, something you can't define.
You check and recheck our shields, traps and other defenses, and create a few new ones. You do divinations and give offerings and every pendulum and spirit says that nothing is after you.
The unrest deepens.
You  do a major working to get answers, and the only advice you are given is to do what you love.

Do what you love... what you love...

Slowly they start to show up in your life, like moths around a flame. People that need help. And you help them. You help one, and another and another, and you realize that you have never been so happy. You are doing magic, a lot of magic, you are doing what you love.

*music Fever, sung by Peggy Lee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EYxoAJ3Boyc

Magical Attack

One thing that will sooner or later happen to a magician is that he/she will be attacked.

That is inevitable and not a big problem, UNLESS…

…Unless the sorcerer/sorceress falls into the three most common traps.

1-      Becoming paranoid and shooting in all directions. Inevitably someone that can hurt him/her will be seriously pissed off and send something really nasty his/her way.

2-      Believing that one is invulnerable and totally out of reach of others.

Some years ago I witnessed a discussion about this between two friends of mine. She believed that it would be required something almost like the magical equivalent of a nuclear explosion to enter her shield. His answer was to create a very small servitor that went totally unnoticed and wrote on her shield “a… was here !”.  I am NOT joking.

3-      Believing in all the media hype, drama and propaganda and expecting a magical attack to be something thunderous, with dozens of demons popping up and Death Himself/Herself/Itself  to show up in a chariot pulled by hundreds of lost souls to drag the victim to hell.

A good magical attack is usually far less dramatic, unless the caster is seriously trying to cause waves and show power not only to it’s victim but also to others that may be witnessing it (and by others I don’t mean just other magical users, but also other type of entities).

Effective magical attack against a magician/witch/sorcerer is usually far more subtle (Most people don’t bother with subtleties when dealing with muggles).

As an example let me tell you something that happened to me.

First of all for a couple of days I couldn’t sleep, which should have warned me that something was wrong. I do not loose sleep and if I am agitated I simply choose and use one of several techniques to calm me down and get me to sleep in a matter of minutes. I didn’t even remember I knew those techniques.

Two minutes before the alarm clock started to ring I switched it off and decided to get out of the bed. I closed my eyes, opened them, dragged myself out of the bed, and started walking towards the door, closed my eyes, opened them, dragged myself out of the bed, and started walking towards the door, closed my eyes, opened them, dragged myself out of the bed, and started walking towards the door, closed my eyes, opened them, dragged myself out of the bed, and started walking towards the door, closed my eyes, opened them, dragged myself out of the bed, and started walking towards the door. After a while I realized that I had seen and done it before and that each time I got out of the bed the room become darker and darker. I willed myself to wake up, but still travelled to the bed and out of it for two or three times more.  I woke up in pain, panting as if I had run a marathon.

Took a very hot shower, because I was freezing,

Went to take breakfast, and although it wasn’t a healthy breakfast at least I didn’t eat the tons of food that I wanted to.

Got out of the house and went to the office. By the time I arrived there already knew something.

Care to guess what ?

Read back what I wrote. Fatigue, cold, hunger…

I was being vamped, either by another magician or by a spirit or construct sent by a magician.

Now pay attention, please.

A good attack always strikes simultaneously on several levels.

Knowing that, I took advantage of being the first to arrive to the office and banished, banished, banished and banished. Cleaned the place as much as possible in the little time I had to prevent surprises that could have been there for me and to make sure that there was harmony between my colleagues and me.

By lunch time I had already decided that I would wait for whatever was feeding of me with a few astral friends and that I had to bless everything in my life to help eradicate whatever could have been sent my way.

I also took a decision that most of you will consider unwise. I decided not to strike back against the magician that had attacked me.

The reason is simple. Most will stop when realizing that their attack was detected and eliminated and I had more important things to do than a game of magical attack ping pong. I hit you, you hit me, I hit you… waste of time.

However I am no saint. If I am attacked again by that person, I will retaliate with extreme prejudice. And then he may see Death Herself getting out of Her Chariot and picking him up to take him to greener pastures.