More magic

A question non mages often ask, when they discover you can do magic is "how do you do it?" and "can you teach me?"
I'll start with the second question, cause it's over quickly and leads to the first. I'd tell them to find someone else to teach them, first off I don't think I'd make a very good teacher and I'm not a very talented mage, so they're better off learning the craft from someone who really grasps what they're doing.
Besides, people with any magic affirmaty usually finds out along puberty, so earlier, some later. So it's not something you can teach, if people doesn't have the connection. might as well try to teach a mute to sing.

Now the how is more tricky, how to explain a sunrise to a blind man. When I first discovered I could do magic or more correctly, a kind old coot explained to me, why my laptop would constantly crash. magic and technology, doesn't go well together, but I'll get back to that.
Now, my awakening, as the circle of mages I loosely studied with refered to discovering magic was pleasent gentle. I've learned that the opening of the third eye (as it is also refered to) can be a harsh experience. mine was more like a slow discovery of a sixth sense.
And what a sense it was, personally I prefer the third eye reference. you see the world differently, when you open yourself to it, you see what's really there or what isn't. you can sense the magic, alround you, like wind across your skin, but more like it's your soul that gets goozebumps.
now you've learned to sense the magic around you, you've become aware of the flow of it. next step is using it and that's the dangerous step, where many mages without someone to guide them come to an ugly end.
To use magic, you have to draw a portion of it into yourself, like filling your hands with water, or drawing a deep breath. First of the it's the drawing in that's tricky, more than dangerous, cause like water, magic will slip from you if you don't control the movement. once you learn that, then it's when it starts to get dangerous. You also gotta know when to stop drawing on the magic you wanna use, like taking a deep breath, imagine not being able to stop. You'd lungs would burst eventually, magic's a little more volatile than air. That's the second step. when you've learned to draw in magic and stop, your body is now a container for pure energy, but our bodies arn't meant to hold onto magic. imagine the handful of water, the longer you hold it, the warmer it gets and eventually it will scald you and beyond that boil the meat right off your bones, if you don't let it go or use it. Magic is like that, and the more you take in, the faster it "heats" up.
The final step is using the magic you have store in your body, that is where you mold the magic with your mind and focus it into the effect you want. But the body can naturally hold more magic than the mind can naturally stand, so if you filled your body with magic and used it all at once, you'd spend the last moments of your life looking at the pretty lights as your mind ignited. Again, it's about control and focus. ofcouse the image I paint of a wouldbe mage keeling over with smoke pouring from the ears, eyes and hair aflame is the worst case senario. But many wouldbe mages, that unknowingly draw in magic and instinctively use it, often suffer an overload in lack of a better term. Their minds simply collapsing under the stress. The lucky ones get by with the worst headarch of their lives, others go out cold or into a coma. Others wake up damaged or changed or worse. Doctors tend to put it down as anuyrismes or strokes when people don't wake up, supposedly the effect on the brain are pretty much the same.

follow that explanation, I tend to get a third question "why do you do it?"
Because magic is awesome, it's magic. I don't have to worry about forgetting my key, cause I've set a charm on my door, so it will unlock itself at my command. Can't find aforementioned key, there's spells for locating it. I've never had anything but a cold beer, since I learne to use magic. and ofcause, a fireball is always handy in a pinch.
and using magic, feeling yourself filled with it, dancing at your fingertips, the secret wheels of the world yours to manipulate and turn. I'd say it was better than sex, but I really like sex. so it's a close second.
Ofcause there's a price, universal rule number one: there is ALWAYS a price.
Using magic wears you out, like any other activity. but not just physically and mentally, but also spiritually. often mages go over the edge, not even aware of it, cause they've lost their sense of self and the lose control and suffer the price of playing with the forces of the univers.

magic and technology: Mages and technology don't work well together, we can use it just fine, it just doesn't always work as it should around us, the more sophisticated, the more likely it is to malfunction.
and that's just when we're around, now using magic around technological gadgets, there's a recipy for disaster. Don't turn on your cellphone on a plane? Don't turn on your mage. =P
I've heard various theories on this, the one I find most probable is this; All human technology is based around electrical circutes, that run on the flow of electricity, which are electrons. charged particals.
Magic is not too dissimilar, being energy. So like EMP screwing with electronics, in a way so does magic.
That's why electricity works just fine without mages around, as magic and it exists on different planes. But when mages are around, we connect to the magic and broadcast interference, that screw with anything electrical.
A final strange detail, technology never gets permanently damaged. When the mage leaves, it works as intended again.

wizards, warlocks, witches and so forth

Magic is real, tangible and all around us.
I know this for a fact, for I am a magic user. I wouldn't go as fare as calling myself a wizard though. I dabble in the use of the mystical forces, I know a few tricks and a handy spell, maybe two. But me taking the title of wizard would be the same as claiming to be a guitarist, because I can play the first five cords of Metallicas Nothing else matters. (I really can, get me drunk enough and I'll prove it)
but the point remains, it's only impressive to those who don't know anything about it.

Magic is natural force, the fifth element you could call it. Though it'd be a simplification of something that is refered to as magic, cause it's hard to narrow down, what it exsactly is. Magic is energy, but also possibility and life. But not tied to life as such.
Think of it like the earths magnetic field, a second layer of energy evolping the planet, running in currents along ley lines around the globe, there are eddies, currents and malmstorms of it. places of powers, areas of void. It is a living thing, but not alive.
you know, never mind. people have written inch thick teories on what magic is and how it works and where it comes from and where it goes. Magic is magic.

And then there's the users, commonly refered to as mages (magic users). Wizards, Sorcerors, warlocks, witches, sharmans, voodo priests, medicin men and so on.

Wizards are the most common, for the simple reason that they write their knowledge down. where most others magic users are self taught or instructed by exsample or word of mouth.
Wizards on the other hand. Any wizard worth his or her staff (wizards can be both genders) will have a library of books, scrolls and tablets. with spells, theories, rituals, wards, potions and enough self importance to make the better part of hollywood look meek.
Some wizards even gather together in courcils or schools, but generally wizards tend to keep to themselves.
Now magic users are rather uniform from the get go, to be able to able to use magic. you gotta have the talent and be aware of it. The Talent or gift or spark or ninth gate or what ever they may call it is simply the ability to tap into the magic around us. The way a seeing person can use the light of day to see, as oppose a blind that live in darkness. Now you got the talent, Then there's how strong it is and how much you train it.
Wizards employ magic via spells, it's a series of tried and tested ways to get a certain magical effect. The trick is, you use your body to draw in the magic around you, the focus it with your mind and generate an desired effect. Sounds really simple right? try and remember back when you learned how to whistle. Using magic is a whee bit harder.
The use of words and gestures helps focus the mind, the words rarely have direct relevance to the spell, but it's easier to make a fireball, if you say something that sounds fire like. Arch mages are supposedly able to make the heavens rain fire and earth heave, by just willing it. But I doubt that's really true.
So problem is, if you don't have a spell book to give you some hints, you're in for ALOT of trial and error (personal experience btw) Before you get anything resembling the effect you want.
But a spell book really only give you some hints, because it's the mind that focuses the magic and shapes it, and no two minds are totally alike in the way they imagine things. So what worked for one mage, won't most likely work quite as well for another.
Hence a wizard always have a private spell book with their own version of various spells. sorta like a private cookbook, you know your favorite recipies by heart, but most you gotta look up before you use them if you wanna get them right.
Staffs, wizards in particular use staffs. using the right wood or metals, a staff can help you focus your spells better, sorta like a magical lightning rod. popular myth is that old men just felt like having something to lean on and wack their apprentices on the head with and it turned out to helpful casting magic.
Rods are, well shorter than staffs and thus less effective. but on the upside, they are also draw less attention and fit nicely in a coat pocket or back pack.
Wands. Unlike in certain movies, arn't a must have to be able to cast magic. most wands, are more like a ready made spell, you channel magic into them and you get a particular effect out of the other end, usually something that makes things go boom or woosh.

Now opposit wizards are sorcerors and the two are at each others throat like you wouldn't believe. Almost as bad as the darn vampires and werewolves.
Where wizards use spells to use magic, sorcerors weave magic. it's hard to explain, but in a way their connection to the magic is greater and their grasp of it more intuitive. You can compare it someone who only knows the poems they've read in a book to someone who can compose on the fly. It's not, that sorcerors can't learn or use spells. it's just why bother, when they can just wing it and get the same effect.
So, while sorcerors tend to be rather powerful, compared to wizards of like strength of talent. They don't have the same milage, as the way wizards use magic is more controlled. and believe me, using magic takes it out of you. like taking pushups with your brain and mind you, it's pure energy you are using your body and mind to challenge. burning out is a very real and very litteral danger with mages, particularly sorcerors.

clocks a'running. I'll continue this segment in a latter post. It's about time to get to work and got a charm to work a map.

Heaven and Hell

Crashing at a friends place, she's an angel for lending me her couch, feeding me and letting me leech on her internet connection.
And speaking of angels naturally leads to the subject of the heavenly and hellish hosts. I could properly write a load about either party on their own, but seeing as they are sort of two sides of the same coin, it'd be strange to leave one side out.

The basic story we all know, God created the angels and all was good. Then God created humans and some of the angels felt abandoned as God paid them no attention with the humans around. Chief amoung them was Lucifer, a war in heaven followed ending with Lucifer and his followers cast into hell.
Now that was an eternity ago and the Angels got stuck in heaven and the devils recide in hell, but the war has been raging on so to speak, a subtle chess like covert war.
There are skirmishes where angels and devils duke it out. But they focus on us humans, working behind the scenes.
You see, there is the rule of free will. we humans are free to do anything, choose our own destiny (I suspect this is one of the reasons that some angles and devils look down on us, which makes no sense, but more on that later) But with the freedom of choice comes consequence.
Heaven or hell.
Angels and devils cannot, litterally cannot, even with their impressive powers, cannot force a person to do ANYTHING. They can trick, extort, threaten and kill. But if a person won't do something, they cannot make him. and this is very important. (also the reason it's called demonic possession and not devil possesion, but that is a matter for another time)
Because while devils and angles battle eachother, they also fight each other for us. As fare as I can gather, souls are very important and some people have extraordinary souls or fates or something. But as fare as I've been able to gather, there is a greater plan in the works and the angels and devils work behind the scenes to ensure their side gets the long end of the stick.
I don't know why, I suspect most of them don't either, they just follow orders, doing their job, their duty. Angels and devils are all about duty.

I've havn't had a chance to talk to an angel, I've talked to a fallen one and a few devils and my experience is, that Angels arn't inheriently good and devils arn't through and through evil. They just do like they're suppose to be doing. protect the lords creations according to his will or seduce them into doing evil and twarting the designs of the creator and futhering the fall of man. Think of it as a serious case of OCD. But instead of washing their hands manically or counting sidewalk slabs, angels er obserssive do gooders while, devils gotta make mischief. not because they want to, they just have to, it's wired into them.
Ofcause like humans, they come in all sorts and shades, so some have it worse than others. so there's truely evil devils and there's divinely good angels.
The fallen angel I talked to insisted that the angel of Death infact had a fondness for chocolate and cards, but I think he was a little deep in his cups by then.
But getting off track, the OCD thing is the root of their emmity towards humans. angels and devils resent humans for our free will, the freedom to choose our own destiny. While theirs are set down they day they came into being or were born or turned. The lore is a little patchy there.  
strangely enough as they do infact have free will as fare as I can gather, otherwise they wouldn't be able to fall.
Fallen angels, or devils (or risen if you will, but they're generally refered to as fallen also) have left their respective realm, deserted so to speak. The fallen angel I spoke to, explained that an angels has to lose his wings to fall and a devil his horns. Then they can walk the earth, free to choose their life as a human would. Now being able to make the choice to fall, indicates a freedom of choice. so whats the hazzle. mainly I think the resentmen is there because, it's always been there. there's no real reason. we're the center of their existance and they don't know why exsactly, it's just the way it's always been.

Now, there's more classes of angels and devils than fleas on a dog and the fufill all sorts of functions and gigs. But as far as I can gather, the more powerful, the rarer are their appearence in the human world and according to the bible and other scripture it's something to be thankful for. God might have been viscious in the old testament, but it was the angles that dealt out the punishment.
The fallen angel explained to me that there exist a schisme in heaven, roughly translated into new testament and old testament. the new testament angels are more liberal as he phrased it and tend to genuinly care about us. while the old testament angels view us as cattle to watched over, third reich with white wings were his words. unnerving.
Hell on the other hand is full schismes as I understand it, it's entertaining and keeps people on their toes as it was explained to me.

well it's getting late, time to tug in.
I'm starting to realize what a daunting task I've set before myself.

Introductions

My line of work, or the life, or the call. What I do has a wide range of names, but a pretty vague job description. But to put it in simple terms, I hunt monsters. When revealing this I encountered the response "like in supernatural" a few times. so well... yes like that and no, not at all.

Monsters arn't universally evil, nun eating, ophranage burning, nail a baby to your hat fuckers. They are as a rule like you and me, some are relatively nice, some are assholes. Most just try to make it in this loonybin world of ours. Ofcause, that some have to eat nuns to survive does mottle the goodVSevil a little.
Incidently, word of caution. To non humans, monster has a ring like nigger or spic to it. For some reason it's okay for them to use it, but if you say it to their face, count yourself lucky if you come away all limbs attached. (part of the reason I choose to be annonymous, should a non human read this blog)

But I digress, while I've hunted a non human creature more than once. I consider myself a scholar, sage, book worm, etc. Than a sword and shotgun hunter. For one thing, I'm a coward. Secondly because, unlike a large part of the hunter community (not that there's much of a community real, but more on that later) I realize that a large part of the creatures we share the planet with arn't inherently evil and are perfectly content to live us alone, if we leave them alone.
So you can see where the problem with less than well balanced men and women, kicking in the door and turning over the bed to see what goes bump in the night might upset some non-people. To such a degree that I've heard that there's some non-humans out there, that hunt hunters.
This feud came uncomfortably close recently, close enough to lose me some hair on the head. so I've decided to share some of what I've learned over the years here, partially for the strictly egocentrical purpose of my work not going to waste due to my untimely death.
But also that I might give some understanding of some of the things out there.

This will be a long project, because if you think humanity is diverse, then you havn't see anything until you look into the dark corners of the world.
As a favorit writter of mine once said "if you look long enough into the abyss, it will eventually look back and wave hello"
But I plan to get around to the most common non-humans. that you might run into. Such as Devils and angels, vampires and werewolves, various magic users, dragons, trolls, faries, ghosts, demons, goblins and more.
I'll try and make my blog as coherent and organized as possible, but I might as well admit right now it's most likely a lost cause.
Well, I've almost used up my time on this computer, so until next time.