One down, a few to go.

[silveradept]

Orientation things happen this week. Had a computing orientation today - learned the proper nomenclature for the SI-specific servers I'll be using and receiving services from. Had to change out a password because it didn't fit specs. Work solid tomorrow - then two orientation days solid, then work on Friday.

Then grad school. I'm approaching this a little more seriously than my undergraduate, I suspect. Maybe it's because I'm staking a career on this set. Need to go to Financial Aid and check my aid packages against actual tuition schedules and see what happens on the weird chance that my loans might exceed my tuition. It's all stuff, anyway. Stuff that, were it in correspondence form, would probably invoke the attention of the Society Against Trees. Since they might not be the Hoovers of CO2, they're catching a bad rap almost everywhere.

The other thing I said I was going to talk about tonight, why I half-jokingly refer to myself as a Fortune Cookie Teller, has to do with something that may be at the heart of the magical world and its operations. It's something that I think would aid the magical consciousness, if we actually stopped and thought about it for a bit. And then forgot about it, in a sense.

So what is this mystical force? It's nothing more than the power of coincidence. "Coincidence? I thought we were talking about magic?"

We are. But semantics might be getting in the way. We're generally taught that a coincidence is "A sequence of events that, although accidental, appear to have been planned or arranged." (Quick definition from dictionary.com). The key here is the word accidental. A coincidence is a random event or series that we ascribe meaning to after the fact, or so we think. Yet, many magical systems work on the principle that one is utilizing will and energy to impose a pattern upon the outside existence. (I'm pretty sure most, if not all, of this has all been said and done before. I say that about a lot of things, whether it's true or not. Might be that things that appear self-evident to me are foreign to others. But I'll forge ahead anyway, on the slim chance this is new ground.)

Now, if one is altering the pattern of the tapestry, then one suspects a large amount of energy needs to be raised. At least, that appears to be the case, as judging by the rituals of many magical systems. Lots of energy produces desired result. Utilize large energy sources such as gods, angels, demons, daemons, spirits, stones, et cetera. Perhaps pour energy into receptacles like stones and crystals for a longer-lasting effect or for long-term energy. Lots of energy, but is it perhaps like rolling a boulder up a hill and then getting out of the way and running behind it as it crashes down the hillside? Lots of energy expended, sure, and a good result hopefully waits at the bottom.

Wouldn't it be easier to craft a snowball with sufficient mass to make sure it kept going down the hill? If it's good packing snow, it'll pick up mass as it goes down (or, if you craft it like a Katamari ball, it'll pick up whatever it feels like along the way). Same effect, but how much less energy have you just used? And it doesn't necessarily require special tools or equipment - just good packing snow. How much easier is it to swim with the current until you find one going in the right direction, rather than trying to paddle upstream? (This is the principle of wu-wei, "action without effort" that I'm trying to describe - the Tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao and so forth.)

If nature takes the path that requires the least resistance, the least energy to achieve the purpose, and if magic utilizes that energy, would it not also follow those patterns? Does magic follow Occam's Razor when left to itself? (Naturally, some works require a bit more structure to divert the flow of the energy into the right or preferred places. Still, even then nature will take a path of least energy.) Just how much energy do you really need to achieve something? Not as much as you might think, if all these principles above work.

So where does coincidence fit into this? It's the path of least resistance. You do a work to draw more affluence energies and you start getting asked to work longer hours. Coincidence? Sure. The result of your magic working? Could be. (This is a good example of why there may need to be a little structure, even in a completely Chaote working. The Tricksters are precisely that.) If you pay attention to the coincidences in your life and trace them back to your attitudes, you may find correlations you never thought you had.

Tomorrow, I'll deal with some of the implications. Right now, I'm got a mean headthrob that's telling me to get to sleep and stop staring at my computer monitor.

Comments

[greyweirdo.livejournal.com]

The problem with coincidence is you don't notice when it doesn't happen. The famous example is the Isralie Fighter Pilots daughters. At one time (according to legend) all the fighter pilots in the Israli Air force only had daughters. At first glance this seems like an amazing coinidence that should be investigated, but it failed to point out the ratio of sons and daughters the ground crew had, or the command staff or the janitors in Newport News who have no daughters at all. If you start hunting the statistics down you'll find that it's just a fluke, shit happens. Now if all the daughters of pilots grew up to be lesbian tennis champs, that might be something. People look for patterns and annomolies. People are so used to the fact that the world opperates largely at random that when something unusual like a chance meeting at the top of the Empire State Building of two twins, one of whom is very old because the other one went at the speed of light... that must mean something. This also goes with the 6 degrees of seperation thing which is also completely bunk. It's been proven to be bunk more times than it's been proven true, but it sounds so darn good. It means that this all means something.

That being said, you do get farther if you look for the path and guide your energy along it. And looking at your own actions and attitudes is always going to be a big help. It's helpful to look for causes of things though, jsut trusting that it was chance is never a winning stratgey anyway (I know it sounds like I'm contradidting myself but I'm not)

If you really want to know what goes on though it requires an enormous attention to detail, because every bloody butterfly is a thunderstorm waiting to happen.

[silveradept]

All of that's true, and in a sense you're leading into the next part raising those questions. The random part's not going to go away. But it may be harnessed for beneficial uses.