What drives people towards magic?

[Vertigo_Kiwi]

I always feel like the odd one when I say I don't have the desire to learn magic. I'm just the type who feels more comfortable praying. And I guess I'm too full of doubt to accomplish anything with magic.  

[maenad nuri]

Vertigo_Kiwi

I always feel like the odd one when I say I don't have the desire to learn magic. I'm just the type who feels more comfortable praying. And I guess I'm too full of doubt to accomplish anything with magic.

After the initial, "Im PAGAN, look at what I can do!" wore off, I didn't really have any drive towards magic either. It's a new thing.  

[Greeneyed_falcon]

I started at the praying and listening end and just drifted towards magic. Doesn't feel like a big deal to me, just part of how I am  

[Poisen_Lotus]

Well I would have to say power. I don't use magic very often but when times get tough it's nice to know it's there, like a security blanket. There will always be situations in which your helpless ( a lost cat, a sick grandfather) magick provides you a way to do something and take control of your life. And it makes you feel all that spiritual warm tinglynes. And let's face it everyone loves the feeling of fresh endorphines. Plus the occult is the prospect of the unknown. People generally deal with the unknown in two ways. They fear it and stay as far away as possible, or are intrigued by it and are drawn in. I was a type B personality.  

[Conan The Barbie Doll]

I think many people are drawn to magick and Wicca because it's not the norm, it's different, it's alluring. So most people come across it in their youth, and, (if theyre not doing it just to rebel and piss of their parents like most fluffies are doing) they stick with it, and grow as a result of it.


Just my opinion. wink  

[Cirrus Mystallow]

For some reason as a child I have always been attracted to Magic and my parents were all pretty new age and for somereason I freaked out at 11 and then started researching it... Didn't do it to rebel from my parents cause I've kind of converted them...  

[Sir_Catherine]

TheDisreputableDog

Sometimes it's hard to really classify the distinction between "mundane methods" and "magic." Like, what's the line? Using the tools and trappings of practices that have been identified as magic in the past? Pelta has always been a fan of getting rid of such "crutches"--is she not doing magic? Is magic just a metaphor? Is magic doing things that "normal" people wouldn't expect? It confuses me sometimes.

Pelta

This thread is very soon going to get into the sticky territory of "what exactly is magic?"

This sounds similar to trying to define what exactly constitutes a miracle. It's very very subjective; one of the reasons science is hesitant if not out right antagonistic towards both.  

[Fiddlers Green]

Conventional sciences offered inadequate answers to my questions.
The arrogant and ignorant attitude of utter knowledge I encounter convinced me that there was only self serving and oft self agrandising smoke and mirrors to be found in that direction.
Also, the banal approaches I encountered irritated me, and the over application of Appeal to the Easy Answer (Principle of Parsimony) finally caused me to look elsewhere for explanations.

I found those explanations, and they were neither counter-intuitive, nor incompatible with the portions of conventional physics, chemistry, and biology (and other hard sciences) which had managed to offer insight before them.

I am a naturalist.
I have never seen anything that I would call, upon careful study, supernatural. It is all a coherent application of cosmological constants across poorly studied and oft ignored samples.

Put simply, the desire to pierce a web of lies and observe the true workings of existence motivate me.

In knowledge there is power.
With power I can affect change.
Thru that change I can perfect myself.
Thru Perfection my potential is realized.
The realized potential slays the lies of false limitation.
With the death of the Lie, I am Free.  

[Saint Of Demons]

What attracted me was the self power that was involved and to see what i was truly capable of even though i haven't started to do much at the moment it is still what has attracted me and what will probably keep me going i want to see my limitations and see if i can go beyond. (i'm bout as far as runics and taking that road then when i hit highschool i'll probably start going through many books seeing as i can go to the public library then without a parent on my a**)

I don't mean to use this for my own self advertising and purposes but if anybody has some tips or facts or anything along those lines as to what to start off researching such as books and such along those lines, or can provide helpful tips as to what i should try and stay away from and anything else a new 'explorer' into the subject would need to know, so please pm me and help a beginner out lol i'd really appritiate the help.  

[TeaDidikai]

For me, the question isn't about "attractions".

When I was three? Four? My Nana told me if I wanted it to rain I should plant a penny beneath a certain tree and it would. I did. It did. Thus- the idea that magic is wasn't really questioned.

I continue to do things I know work. It's pragmatic. If I had used it and found it didn't work, I likely wouldn't use magic at all.  

[TatteredAngel]

I always looked for magic, proof of magic, something. As a kid, I tested every dumb child's theory of magic and superstition, went ghosthunting, built houses for fairies. I was not easily convinced, and I was raised to be a skeptic, and to investigate. I spent a lot of time being disappointed, and a lot of time jumping at shadows.

What attracted me to magic, as it were (as opposed to any other godly, spirity, or other supernormal occurrence), was the idea that I could do something. That I didn't have to go find the fairies or the spirits or what have you. It offered a measure of control.

I think my views have matured somewhat since then, and I do not just haphazardly try things to see if they do something (my "lolz im a weather witch!" phase) but I think a lot of the feelings remain the same. I crave interaction with magic, and as far back as I can remember, I always have.  

[patch99329]

Nuri

Vertigo_Kiwi

I always feel like the odd one when I say I don't have the desire to learn magic. I'm just the type who feels more comfortable praying. And I guess I'm too full of doubt to accomplish anything with magic.

After the initial, "Im PAGAN, look at what I can do!" wore off, I didn't really have any drive towards magic either. It's a new thing.

I'm another *raises hand* smile .

Although...even from the start magic never was a big thing for me. I came to paganism, having found what I believe and searching for a label to match biggrin
I do use magic though...just not often smile