300 Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard
kinds. Learn to use your body and your mind as
finely-honed weapons of defense.- Retaliatory/offensive: Fighting back. Taking your
opponent out of action, so that not only can he
not hurt you any more—he can’t hurt anyone
else either. If you are abused, molested, assaulted
or attacked, by anyone, in any way (physical or
mental), report the person immediately to a
responsible adult you trust. Don’t put up for a
second with abusive behavior!
As a Wizard, there are various things you can do to
protect yourself and use in conjunction with the
defenses you have learned from your muggle teachers.
All magickal defenses should be used to strengthen
your mundane skills. Even highly-skilled magicians hike
or swim with a friend, avoid dark alleyways and unlit
parking lots, and refuse unhealthy, destructive, or illegal
temptations. Psychic shielding, amulets and charms,
totem animals, and spirit guides used with a healthy
dose of common sense and routine safety procedures
should keep you safe from harm. Eat lots of garlic, wear
your silver pentacle prominently, keep a lodestone in
your mojo bag, and get plenty of sunshine!Accidents
Accidents will happen. You can reduce their
chances of happening to you by not being stupid.
Protect yourself. Plan ahead, think things through, and
take reasonable precautions.Stupidity
“Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend
in vain.” —Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805)No amount of education or intelligence can over-
come sheer stupidity. This is what wisdom is for. If
you are going to insist on doing truly stupid things, no
one will be able to save you, and eventually you will
probably manage to kill yourself. Many people do.
To get some idea of the astonishing stupidity
of which people are capable, check out the “Darwin
Awards” at: http://www.darwinawards.com. These
postumous (“after death”) honors celebrate Charles
Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
Darwin Awards are bequeathed to idiots and jackasses
who contribute to the improvement of our gene pool
by removing themselves from it in truly stupid (and
often grotesquely humorous) ways.
Stupidity consists largely of doing things without
considering the consequences, like lighting a match to
see how much gasoline is in the tank or slugging a
police officer. I shouldn’t have to tell apprentice
Wizards not to do life-threateningly stupid things, but
I’ve certainly done my share in my life, and I’ve had to
learn some lessons the hard way! So just to give you a
heads-up, here are a few rather obvious idiocies thatseem to be fairly popular, by which countless people
kill or maim themselves each year:- Smoking cigarettes.
- Not wearing seatbelts, helmets, safety goggles, etc.
- Swimming or hiking alone.
- Hanging out or walking alone in bad neighborhoods.
- Underage drinking of alcohol.
- Using addictive drugs (especially “speed”).
- Driving drunk or stoned.
- Having unsafe sex.
- Being involved with violent or psycho friends.
Do I really have to explain why any of these things are
a dumb idea? You know! Just don’t do them, OK? I
promise you from the bottom of my heart and a lifetime
of experience—years from now, if you’re still alive,
you will deeply regret having done any of these. But
at the end of a long life, you will never regret not having
done them—for you will have doubled or quadrupled
your life expectancy, and survived to become a happy
old Wizard like me!
Or not. As always, the choice is up to you.Psychic Attacks
Psychic attacks may be conscious and intentional,
where someone is actively working to do you harm, or
they may be unconscious, where someone simply hates
you and projects constant malevolence towards you. If
you feel you are under psychic attack, talk to someone
you trust right away. Some of the symptoms can be:- Feeling totally confused and unable to pull
yourself together; - Suddenly becoming incredibly clumsy;
- Having everything seeming to go wrong, no
matter how hard you try; - Constant misunderstandings whenever you try
and communicate with others; - A sense of desperation and panic;
- Or—the very worst, on top of all the rest,
your Familiar becomes sick, or even dies.
- Spectrum 2.p65 300 1/15/2004, 9:32 AM