Funny thing the unknown. A conversation I somewhat participated on twitter recently dealt with the topic and how mankind how dealt so… well with it all along. Which is not at all. The unknown and human interaction with it is an incredibly important topic and issue for pagans. Its where the fear comes from as regards us. Its why today the majority of people accept us in these secular days. Superstition is basically a fear of the unknown and today in general it is lacking because things that we believe in for most people are not unknown quantities – there is a scientific answer for it. Or so people rationalize.
When we talk about magickal work, dealing with unseen energies that people have not heard of; or gods and ways of worship people are unfamiliar with we bring in fear into their life. To be frank I see it often enough within the community. Which is why at times there seems a need for a lot of us to categorize x means this, nothing else. That way it is known and finite and definite.
The second reason to which the unknown is so important to us as magick-workers as opposed to pagans is the experimenting that goes along with it. That is for me, I’m not much of one to follow through on the tried and tested techniques. I want to know something from the inside, understand how it works. As with most knowledge our society is based upon – linguistics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy most of this throughout the ages has come from occult scholars and theorists. This willing exploration of the unknown, the taste for adventure and at times the failure, sometimes catastrophic that is a consequence, is crucial to furtherance. To growth, of the individual, the race and the path.
For a final little story. I remember when young loving the night. I loved the darkness it brung, fear wasn’t in the unknown. What I knew was there at the time didn’t really cheer me up much instead the void of darkness and black allowed for hope of things good and nice to come from it. Its a side to me I have not lost, my taste for the new – be it beer, food, knowledge or people – has not since been quenched.
