In Marvel's latest run of the comic Venom, Al Ewing delved deep and started establishing some fascinating lore with #mystical themes.

For those of you who are not familiar with what the character Eddie Brock has been up to in the comics since his return which corresponded to the movie release, allow me to summarize for you:

Eddie Brock and his Other went on a wild adventure of self-discovery which involved learning that he had a previously unknown son with his late wife Ann Weying who had been raised by his estranged, abusive father in secret. Not long after, a pre-cosmic nightmare entity known as Knull was released by Carnage from a prison planet made of Symbiotes (which we learn were created by Knull at the dawn of time as weapons in a war with the Celestials). The entire arc culminates in Eddie briefly becoming a Captain Universe Venom and eliminating this new threat, as the Enigma Force is revealed to be the counterpoint Light to the Darkness of Knull. Ultimately, Eddie then becomes the new "King in Black" that controls the entire Symbiote Hive Mind.

Al Ewing takes this new status quo and develops it further by positioning the King in Black as the opposite number to The Beyonders themselves. Whereas these Ivory Kings operate as an external force trying to guide creation, Eddie has become an Onxy King whose purpose is to "keep the train on the tracks" as it were in symbiosis with the material world rather than being apart from it. I found this an interesting polarity as presented by Ewing.

The "Light Magicians" are those who, like the Beyonders, work from closed-off sanctums and attempt to affect the world from outside or above it. Ewing goes as far as to say that this requires a certain amount of self-denial and typically, but not always, leads people down a more heroic path. In contrast the "Dark Magician" works from the streets and gutters to change the world from within its very heart, and this path can create a taste for worldly power which tends to create villains - but again, not necessarily. He makes a major point of stating that neither has an inherent moral superiority over the other.

You see a lot of this reflected in the #HighMagick crowd versus the #LowMagick crowd. Ceremonial #magicians tend to be operating from above or outside the world, seeking solutions to problems by invoking powers from beyond the world itself. #Witches and #UrbanShamans come to mind as people who work mostly from within the world by interacting with the materials around them. I get the feeling I would more likely see a ceremonial practitioner offering food to a god or demon whereas I know Hexorian Mages who are advocating feeding the homeless as a devotional act.

Just a #MagickThoughtOfTheDay type thing.

Annnnd this is why I like have multiple well documented sources!

#TIL onion can be used to treat bee and wasp stings! 🐝 🧅 :spellbook:
#FolkRemedy #FolkMagick #lowMagick #grimoire

@Crazypedia Replying ever so very late to this thread, but there seems to be a lot of that going on lately with so many of us recent arrivals at Mastodon.

I'm going to throw out there pretty much anything by #LonMiloDuquette A great starting point is "Low Magick: It's All in Your Head ... You Just Have No Idea How Big Your Head Is" #LowMagick opened up doors and blockages for me & helped me to unlock some levels of prior religious programming that I had not consciously keyed into still influencing me the way it was. And, it's not at all a typical #grimoire or manual or how-to guide, it's more a series of personal Essays in a memoir style from a long time practitioner. Casual, non-intimidating, and yet quite impactful.

Also, his book on the #ThothTarot is possibly the best one out there on the #Thoth deck. I'd handily recommend it over #Crowley 's own writing on the topic. LMD is much more accessible and maybe even more informative.