Desmond, I'm so sorry but I have to disagree with you here.

You, my dear, are fortunate amoung most here. You were raised in a nation and a culture where the "old ways" were not forgotten and done away with in the face of modern Judeo/Christian philosophies. The old folk magics of your country and culture live an breathe in the hearts and minds of the people. This is not the way in most other places.

There are most deffinately steps to learning your way around this thought process and this practice of magic. The first is learning to control yourself and your imediate environment.
Untill you can control yourself there is no way to control anything else and to be honest, you don't have the right to.
This is why there are so many books and teaching programs out there.

Confidence in spellcasting comes through time and experience. That is part of the conflict here. Most don't understand that this an experience driven path. You will only get out of it what you put into it, that includes scholorship. We must know our roots and learn the teachings of our elders if we are to progress in competence and understanding. We must understand the history of our race ( the human race) if we are to remember how to integrate ourselves with nature. After all we are creatures of nature who seek to live outside of it rather than immersing ourselves and enjoying this ride called life.

I'm not saying that you need to spend all your time reading and studying because you need to put what you learn into practice too. Otherwise you just become a walking encyclopedia without the experience to do what you have read about. You must also know fact from fiction. Holywood has done a great disservice to the magical community. They can't show that some things take years to accomplish. Everything has to be done in an hour. So that is what a lot of people out there expect. "I cast the spell and <poof> everything I want is right there right now". It just doesn't work that way.

You can't walk around on this path cocksure and supremely confident untill you have put time in grade. You have to pay your dues in order to start to get what is going on.

What if there is no fiction? What if everything is about beleive. Santa might be fiction, but he has more effect on us than most great politicians. Actually he is an enemy of the Christ. Almost no one is reading the bible at Christmas any more. Some says Santa is Pagan, and other says he is a trademark for the coca cola company. I don't know. maybe both. In either way, almost all children love him, actually even if they don't beleive in him. The Christmas isn't just the same without the Santa.

What would happen if without warning Santa just dissapeared?

Yes, books are good in there way. And school is great to. But You need to look out for the brainwashing traps. Name one person with great scholarship that isn't brainwashed? Books do the same. How many hasn't argued about what C G Jung actually believed? Well, he said himself that not even his "associates" would ever understand him.

So how too know that a book isn't a lie? I don't know, because many of the books out there is written from the same source.

I see it like Hollywood actually has done this community a great service. They have dig up old believes and made a story around it. Of course, if you can't look between the lines you will be brainwashed from the movies as much as from the schools and books. But if you can read between the lines and feel if it is right for you or not, then you could actually learn from movies, and games too. Just go to youtube, that is a huge source of useful information.

Besides, it is mostly Marvel who has made the Aiser faith go on. There comic books about Thor and Odin. (they couldn't even keep the real names.) Most here is forgotten first because the Christianity, and now because the science. No one here actually follow the path. It's just a part of history.

There is most deffinately such a thing as fiction. It's just that most fictions have some root in reality. Like Santa, he was I beleive a real man but he went around embodying the principles the Jeshua ben Joseph taught. I have never found anything in Santa's practices that suggest otherwise. If people have stopped reading the Bible around this time of year.... Well, I call it backlash. We know that Yule was a subverted Holiday along with all of it's symbolism and traditions, as was Easter and Halloween. As for what would happen if Santa disappeared.... I don't know, I would hope that we would find it in ourselves to be that generous beacon of light that Santa represents.

I agree that you can't take any one source and keep it at face value. You must double and triple check everything no matter where you read it. Multiple translations of old texts and things from different perspectives are very important. However you can't walk around in fear that the world is trying to control your thought processes either.
The propagation of fear and conspiracy theories is probaly the biggest forms of brainwshing that our current civilization knows. I think that Jung knew that and that he started to stop it very early. But I think that we would need to start a new thread to debate the philosophies of Jung.

Scholorship has taken such a back seat to Holywood that most don't even think to look between the lines for the truth of a thing. Entertainment is a great thing. We all need moments of escape, but at some point we have to step back into the flow of the reality of life and deal with this messy, glorious, and entirely fascinating experience called life.

The Asir and Vanir were never in any danger of disappering. At least no more than the Celtic Gods, the Etruscians, the Greeks, or the Africans. These are Gods and thought processes that sing in our souls. They resonate in our DNA. As we step into the new phase of existance they will continue to guide us through the continuing trials of being a spiritual entity having a material experience. I don't fear the Gods disapearing any more than I fear the sun rising.

Damn good point, April! .....and I agree!

Just because you are an minority Doesn't mean you aren't an majority.

If What you say is true, than all you beleive in and all you do is a lie. Because the majority says so. But you beleive in what you do, right? So why would my minority be more wrong than your minority? And Why would you judge my minority if you judge the majority.

The majority judge us all, you judge us all. All judge each other and nothing and everything is real. Nothing and anything is fiction.

If you disagree with that you just agree that you judge. And who are you exactly to judge? cause I know, there is many scientists who would Say your beleive is false. Does that make them right? Or is you still the only compass? Well, good for you. Your beleive is fiction. So welcome to the fiction club where all our lives is fiction.

Maybe nothing is fiction. Reconsider that.

Desmond you lost me here.

What are you trying to say?