Sunday, May 17, 2009

Judging other's talents

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a ritual and witnessed something that I wished wouldn't have happened: I watched someone get told that they did not have any mage-sight or mage-hearing.

This conclusion was based on the fact that the person could not see or hear something that the leader of the ritual said was there. Well, I did not see or hear it either, and everyone knows that I see and hear weird things all the time. And I have been around this person enough to know that she has some type of mage-sense.

(Note that I am not happy with using the term mage-sight, etc.; it is just what this person was using to describe the ability.)

And there is a possibility (at least fifty percent) that there was nothing actually there. I will not go into why I believe that except to say that the ritual leader unknowingly failed a simple test, and I spotted the resultant mistake (think cold-reading and you will get the idea).

It disturbs me that a judgment was made of someone's abilities based on one test. It disturbs me that I suspect that it was a false test. Even more disturbing is the fact that it was seven year old girl that was told she had no mage-sight and no mage-hearing.

And it really disturbs me that I had much the same thing done to me when I was a kid, but that is a whole another issue, isn't it?

I don't want to think about the damage that might have been done here, but it is rather hard not to. As I said at the beginning of this post: I wished it would not have happened.

6 comments:

Magus Obsidianus said...

This type of thing bothers me a great deal. For one thing there is one school of thought that says spirits are pieces of your subconscious, in which case another person couldnt necessarily see them. I dont know if I buy into that train of thought, but I dont see a 7 year old seeing it either way. For another thing, Magicians train themselves to see astral things, a seven year old girl hasnt. And lastly, why was a 7 year old in a ritual anyway?

Lavanah said...

Painful enough to contemplate even before you mentioned that the person spoken to was 7 years old. The speaker clearly has no human-sense.

Suecae Sounds said...

Making children feel inferior is definitely one of those things that I think is very negative and potentially disruptive.

We should make them grow in self esteem in whatever they put their mind to (and which is positive for their growth).

Morgan Drake Eckstein said...

It was an open wiccan ritual.

Barry Ira Geller said...

Passing judgement on the Speaker is just as problematic as his passing it upon the young girl.
Wiccan ritual can vary a great deal between covens and lineage. In my perception there no magical accidents and someone certainly felt this young girl had certain talent or she would not have been brought. However all of us require training and practice and your HP / HPS is no exception especially in the Astral vision. Agreed, young children were traditionally "more open" to the Inner Planes -- as the author(s) of the Abra-Mellon practices confer. IMHO someone, perhaps yourself, should take her aside and give her a better understand that it is truly up to her to accept/reject the Speaker's statements -- which could well be a reflection upon the Speaker's personal spiritual advancement at the current moment -- and leave it to the child to karmically grow from the experience -- just as I have and you have, Morgan :-) (You know me from Pat Z's list as BarryG)

aprilenchanted said...

Having once been a 7 year old with talents and abilities in this area, which were flow stopped by the actions of a Catholic Priest, I have to say I am much disturbed by this revelation. As if we don't have enough problems in our community. Now our own clergy (who I often have little faith in anyway) are passing along unhelpful information to children which will only serve to stunt or stop their development altogether. How lovely.