Hi Occulties,
Today’s part of the lecture on misconceptions and myths is one I find most tedious and tiresome, but mostly just… I’m baffled how it even persists among the muggles, neophytes, and a portion of the masses. 🙄 Luckily, it should also be a bit more brief than my previous lectures on this.
Misconception: If someone is a bad or immoral person, if they are selfish, materialistic, or use magic for selfish gain, they will never be any good at magic, and furthermore, people who are not compassionate towards others are incapable of casting spells.
Reality: This has absolutely nothing to do with skill or power in spellcasting and that people believe it after centuries of saying the polar opposite - that practitioners of magic are evil and immoral people by default, which is also false, - should be the first clue it’s a myth.
For some, the journey of learning and developing the skill of using magic is, at its core, a more noble journey than it is for others. For many it does not start in a noble way. We find ourselves interested because we want a particular lover or we want money or we want fame or power or many other self serving notions, and so we seek out magic as a solution.
This is no different than a person learning most any skill. Some people become doctors because they want to make money and others because they want to cure a certain condition that has plagued themselves or family (so to aid in preserving their bloodline,) and others to help people. Some people become lawyers to defend the wrongly accused, others for money or power. Some people build homes because they want to house the homeless, others because they enjoy the work, and others because it pays the bills. All of these people most likely found they had a bit of a knack for the field they ultimately chose to pursue so they developed the skill. It is the same for those who work spells.
Anyone can learn to competently use magic. Not everyone will become good at it. Some will have an innate ability, and others will always struggle. At no point does anyone’s morality have any bearing on their innate skill. I’ve met a fair number of complete fucking assholes who are amazing spellcasters, and some deeply compassionate and wonderful people who’s magic was tepid at best. I’ve also met assholes with garbage magic and saintly folks who could knock your socks off.
Some see magic itself as evil. Therefore those who use it must, in their mind, be evil. Some instead believe it is a holy force and therefore must only be wielded only by the holy. However, I’d like to say as the chaotic neutral that I am, it is neither because it is like calling rain good or evil, or fire good or evil. Neither is evil. They are desirable and good at times, and at others deadly and damaging. So we must understand that magic is also helpful as it is harmful, and good and bad and neutral. It can be used to harm and to heal and to help.
since we do not live in a cartoon we must also understand the villain is the hero and the hero is the villain depending on perspective.
But mostly we must also realize that sometimes we do harmful things that are done for good reasons. Killing another is wrong, but what if I kill someone who is trying to kill my family? Killing is still involved but I’ve saved lives by killing the would be killer, yes? So by that, sometimes even good people must do bad things…the lesser of two evils of you will.
However this isn’t a discussion on morality, as much as trying to help you understand that someone can be absolutely the worst and biggest degenerate and still be a very skilled doctor or craftsman or swimmer or gardener or any number of things. Because being a piece of shit human does not make you unable to be skilled.
The myth that someone must be saintly or must be evil to be skilled at spellcasting is merely propaganda used to keep people from using magic or to only use it on a manner these people feel is appropriate. So if someone tells you someone must have no skill if they are an unpleasant person, know you are dealing with someone who is either trying to manipulate you through fear or propaganda to only use magic as they see fit or knows so little of magic as to be incapable of educating others.
Spellcasting - use of magic - is a skill, and the morality of how it is used does not denote ability. Period.
~Cat
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