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friendship.

by Lilah Wild @ freestylewitchcraft.com Going back to white light, here's another reason why ODing on fairy dust is a bad idea: other practitioners. While you may have the sweetest of intentions in your work, not everyone else does. While the occult world should be full of intelligent, evolved, people - and to be sure, there's a fair number - it's loaded with flakes, manipulators, and seething voids of gnawing insecurity. A lot of minds get drawn in for the wrong reasons; ego strokes and popularity contests, being Better Than Thou, getting revenge on the world, cloaking a swinger's club in some pretty bibbity-bobbity-boo, etc.

It's really best to stay quiet about what you're doing. It keeps your workings safe from other people's meddling. These are some of your deepest secrets; you don't want to divulge them to someone with a big mouth.

Another reason to keep your magicks to yourself: people who constantly talk about their "power," especially to total strangers they've just met, sound like idiots. Talk about anthropology, talk about great books you've read, talk about beautiful rites you've attended, but don't talk about playing altar at a Black Mass, or being some great warrior in a past life, or any of that horseshit. Not only do you set yourself up as a braggart having something to prove(and having farther to fall), but this is really intimate knowledge, something personal that shouldn't be shared until you know someone really well. It cheapens the beauty of magick to be talked about so casually, like a parlor trick.

It's really good to keep a skeptical attitude when dealing with others in the magickal communities, because, yes, while there are lot of incredible people in the pagan circles, there are a lot of bullshitters who will try to take advantage of you. It's your best defense against anyone attempting to lure you into their little circle by flattering you with pretty words, or trying to make you doubt yourself, or talking about what potential you have and how only they can help you develop it, or trying to paint you as an outsider for not being part of their "clan." Fuck that. It's better to walk alone than be someone's lackey.

A friend is someone you know beyond their good sides, their surfaces, someone you know beyond parties and clubs and hangouts - you know their bad sides too, and can deal with them without losing yourself in the process. Be careful about what you give others, if it's something they can rip you off with - money, effort, possessions, intimacy, time, secrets, and most of all, belief. It's wise to only give away things you know you won't miss, should they decide not to return them. Take care in choosing the people you'll share your magick with.