>>4355
>What is magic to you?
The power to meaningfully affect reality through will - which can be accomplished by mundane means but may also be accomplished by spiritual focus, outlook, and effort, which the world has largely forgotten, and the ways muddied and lost.
>Why do you want to use it?
I believe myself an atypical example of hope, optimism, and ability to perform good, and would like to enlarge my capacity for directly causing good, as I've found myself reaching limits of the flesh that I have reason to believe can be surpassed magically. I have a good number of people who look up to me for advice and assistance and would like to increase my capacity to help others and to protect myself and those I care about from harm as I continue to expand my social circle, as my path has signs of continuing in the direction of upward growth.
>How does your concept/perception of magic fit into your belief system?
My church doctrine teaches, and I similarly believe because of my own direct experiences, that all of material reality is made of consciousnesses that are subject to lower (mundane) and higher (what we call Priesthood, but can rightfully be called magical) laws, and that a righteous will can request or command the lower intelligences by the authority of their own nascent divinity as children of God, growing in an effort to become more like Him, the great Good or Truth. That all truth is made available to the children of God by God as quickly as they are able to handle it and can be trusted to handle it responsibly. That somebody capable of great good is also capable of great evil and that circumspection, rightness before God, wisdom, and foresight are all of extreme importance to any would-be practicioner; that to whom much is given, much is required, and that the path must be willingly sought, not forced.
To the other points - I have no problem believing that God has allowed prophets (mages) in the past to use what would be considered dark forces that are bound by laws or righteousness - the same power that allowed Christ to cast out devils would allow Solomon to command demons to build the temple, why wouldn't it? The same power that Christ gave his apostles, and was intended as an inheritance for any true followers of Christ.
>>4356
I have a primordial hunger for learning and growth, and thankfully have learned a good work-life balance and internal sense of when I might burn myself out, as has happened in the past, but as
>>4368 says
>Sometimes you want to break out of the mundane shackles and when the opportunity arise you will have to capitalize on it.
I've learned that if my worldview can't handle new (well-sourced and legitimate) information my worldview needs to change, and that it's useful to use the principle of rhythm (Hermeticism) to take advantage of energy going in the same direction as your goals - good to strike while the iron is hot, as it were.
>>4367
That's exactly why I'm here, I felt like I was doing a lot of reading but wanted to get started doing *something* to give it a proper test. Fantastic sources of homework for me, thank you - I'll get to work and report in after I've had an opportunity to give it a few tries. Thanks for the links.
>>4368
>Can you post books links or give at least a quick run down about them?
Best place to start is with the 13 articles of Faith, which was made specifically to declare in writing the general beliefs of our church - you'll find they're surprisingly accepting of questioning (the church was founded on a young boy taking a question directly to God), it's explicitly the case that we believe all faiths to have some truth, but we believe we have the greatest portion of truth - but we're still commanded to go seek out the good in the world and glean what truth we can from others.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/article/articles-of-faith
Core scripture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - we believe in modern prophets, with Joseph Smith the founder having had a bodily vision of Christ and God as distinct personages that instructed him to restore the Christian church on the earth as the world had lost its way. He was led to a collection of golden plates that he then translated, under persecution, that came to be known as the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. Of note is that there were also certain parts of the Old and New testaments that were clarified or retranslated by commandment of the spirit, called JST (Joseph Smith Translation), but we use the King James version of the Bible and believe in the Bible so far as it is translated correctly.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm?lang=eng
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot?lang=eng
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt?lang=eng
After the core stuff, the /fringe/ stuff is that he, Joseph Smith Jr. and his father, Sr., were practicioners of the then-popular Christian folk magic. The site has a lightly ex-LDS tinge but it has good info and is a great place to see it all at once. Of particular note was, before he advanced as a seer and translator, Joseph and other contemporaries used seer stones as a God-given tool, which was something stated to be available to every member who seeks it from God, something that's not talked about much at all in modern times.
https://www.lostmormonism.com/holiness-to-the-lord-parchment/
Also the dagger his father had that his brother received
https://www.lostmormonism.com/mars-dagger/
And the talisman that theoretically Joseph Jr. (first prophet of the modern LDS church) was wearing at the time of his martyrdom, though leadership since has declined to comment much on it.
https://www.lostmormonism.com/jupiter-talisman/
Importantly, a lot of this has been slowly coming to light as the church has been digitizing and opening its archives, making it easier to find and confirm for those who are looking into it.
>paradoxes
One of my earliest learnings was that truth often lies between paradoxes, that extremes are often illusory, it's part of what helped me break out of comfort and start looking to know for myself.
>truth difficult to transmit via writing or words
Our church believes in direct revelation from God through the light of Christ, which we believe is granted to all mankind, to discern between good and evil. We're additionally granted through holy rite access to the Holy Spirit, as long as we live righteously, which is something that manifests somewhat differently for each person and that must be learned through repeated effort and study and meditation - at this point I'm depending mostly on this trained skill of spiritual discernment, which has served me well many times in my life and helped me avoid a lot of unnecessary pain, and pointed me in the direction of much good, even if at first I knew not why nor for what end - following that prompting, which I describe as a fastening of my soul, as if struck to a post with a nail, a fixing, a certainty upon which I can gather much certainty because of its fixed nature as I test it; it gives me the strength to push off of, like a wall or the ground under my feet, in a spiritual sense, if that's comprehensible. You're totally correct, words alone struggle to convey perfect truth, which is all the more reason for me to be interested in pursuing spiritual practices.
>mortality salience
I've mostly taken it as "I should do what I can in this life because my time will eventually come, as it does for all men" - and that has allowed me to gain a lot of peace as I try to live each day as if it were my last, to not leave anger between myself and others, to not leave a loved one without letting them know I care about them and their righteous ambitions. I still hope to live a while, as I have projects I believe will help humanity, but I'm living a path that, so far, I would be happy to face God and say I did what I could.
>LDS Christ
I'm currently seeking a blessing that's relatively occult in the LDS doctrine, the Second Comforter, or the actual physical manifestation of Christ to speak face to face as a man speaks to another man - something not often talked about in the church, but mentioned time and time again in scriptures as the greatest blessing somebody can obtain in mortality, as it is an assurance of the safety of your eternal soul, turning faith into knowledge, to sustain you through the troubles of the fallen world and to enable you to assist others into the path of knowledge. I have not yet received this blessing, but I've had lesser manifestations in visionary dreams; I once got to witness the Nativity directly, and felt with all of my soul that Jesus is the Christ as I fell weeping in wonder at the foot of the manger - which intrigued me, when I awoke, still full of that wonder, because the LDS church doesn't place particular focus on the Nativity itself, choosing to focus more on him as the resurrected Lord and an actual personage that you can communicate with. I've had other, less exciting experiences that were less direct, but I've experienced the power of repentence enough to know that his power is real, real enough to draw upon and to make significant changes in ones' life. Absolutely something that clicks when my prayers "go through" - sometimes I've found myself doing rote repititon and I've corrected by doing it with actual focus, doing it not because I'm "supposed" to but because I actually care to communicate with God has done wonders for my relationship with God. Re: Catholic-LDS Christ, it's the same Christ ultimately, but we believe our church has received specific instructions and responsibilites especially relating to missionary work and preparing the world for the Second Coming - to whom much is given much is required. I love all genuine faiths, have no qualms with the other Abrahamic faiths or sects of Christianity except where they fail to assist the individual believer in their path of personal ascension and their relationship with God and their own sense of personal responsibility - anybody who outsources their thinking or standard of truth is missing out on great blessings. I've had good discussions with a good number of Christians, agnostics, and atheists all.
[Expand Post]
>Audiobooks
As I mentioned previously, I really liked the Kybalion and Hermeticism as a whole has been useful as a framework for diving into esoteric things, its symbolism makes enough intuitive sense to me to be practically applicable, providing names to some of the phenomenon I'd recognized and already started living by, but hadn't yet heard in other places.
Manly P. Hall's works (Secret Teachings of All Ages, Magic - A Treatise on Esoteric Ethics, Esoteric Alchemy, Initiates of the Flame) is kinda hit or miss for me, as some of his conclusions feel like they're putting the cart before the horse, though I'd have to review the specifics to give any one solid example. I've been somewhat interested in the concept of the Kundalini but there's a lot of sensationalism around it, which has me looking more into Chakra meditations recently. The relationship between it and the Kabbalah has been interesting to ponder.
>The Spirit, how it manifests
Explained above, search nail in my post.