Parenting for Magicians

General Discussion
1

I thought it might be nice to have a thread where parents and non-parents alike can share how they would introduce or are already teaching their kids about Magick. All questions, ideas, tips and experiences are welcome!

Firstly I would like to add that I am not in favour of forcing my ways down my kids’ throat. I believe it is at all time imperative that kids don’t feel pressured or not able to ‘just be a kid’ anymore. Hence I ALWAYS try to keep a playful approach. If my kid shows no interest in a particular exercise, picture or book, I just leave it for what it is.

I also try to not lose track of reality and keep in mind that perhaps later my kids will resent me for this, for ‘making them feel weird in society’ and may never be interested in Magick again. One way or another You. Are. Going. To. Fuck. Up. You can try your very best, but that’s it. Such is life, we all incarnated here to learn and one day those precious kids are going to have their very own unique view on life.

Anyways, back on track. To complicate things even more, the fact that most magicians have to lead a double life in order to still be able to navigate smoothly through society, does not make it any easier and inevitably leads to children receiving double messages. One way or another your kid is going to talk about what it does/see/hears at home, or what mommy and daddy are doing/saying.

From a four-year-olds mouth: “Mommy and daddy are going to use condoms again.” This may sound funny, but it shows exactly how we often don’t realize that virtually EVERYTHING we say or do is picked up by our kids and interpreted as ‘normal’ or ‘the way to go’. To your kids you are The Big Example, and in that respect having kids is a very grateful experience. They are your mirror, look into it, and LEARN about yourself.

Now, about Magick, basically what I try to do is to ‘dress up’ exercises as harmless kids games. CREATIVITY is extremely important in this respect and aside from the already obvious challenge of parenthood in itself, ‘disguising’ Magick and energetic exercises can sometimes be a real headscratching experience.

Here are just a few examples of what I put into practice:

In order to stimulate the immune system, daily tapping of the thymus gland can be very beneficial. So I just ‘play gorilla’ and beat my chest with my kids. It’s healthy, it’s non-suspicous and it’s just plain fun.

Viewing auras: my kids are still a bit small for actually conversing about this, but what I do for an introduction is hanging up some drawings of people with the aura around them. The main reason kids lose their clairvoyance can -in my opinion- be explained by the fact that nobody ever talks about it with them, resulting in the fact they will disregard it after a while as non-important.

Closing your aura: we all know some exercises to protect our auric field, but to explain this to a kid you need to ‘get down’ to his world. Instead of telling them to visualize being in a purple cocoon or whatever, I tell my kids that they’re in a ‘little house’, then I tell them to stretch their hands out, turn around in their house and then close the door by crossing their arms and telling them no one can enter now.

Voilà, that was it for now. Looking forward to any input ya’ll may have!

2

I think they should learn evocation.

3

Well, I prefer they learn to wipe their own asses before starting with evocation. :wink:

4

Well, I prefer they learn to wipe their own asses before starting with evocation. ;)[/quote]

One time a demonic king willed me to shit myself to teach me to keep rogue elements of my mind under control. See the shit was kind of a metaphor for that…but yeah…

5

The first thing kids should learn about magic is the magical laws of cause and effect. If the child is misbehaving, send a demon to punish them! The child will soon learn not only about the wonderful world of magic, but also about doing as they’re told!

Sorry Kyra but I couldn’t resist >:-)

But seriously, if I were inclined to tell my kids anything at all, I would introduce them to the light fluffy new age stuff first. I don’t have kids but both my sisters do, and one sister is a new age fluff. She made it fun for her young ones to bless the garden and give thanks to the garden and angel spirits etc. Worked pretty well, they were into it while they were young but just forgot/ignored it all when they grew up and got into whatever kids are into… lego, play stations, nintendo ds?

6

I remember that my wife, my son and I were walking in the woods and we were talking about nature spirits. He was 8 years old at the time. He was quite interested because at our house he saw all the strange objects and my altar, and such. So he regularly asked questions about it.

Before I continue there’s something I must add: the mother of my son was not the same as the woman I was married to. I divorced his mother when he was 3 years old, but he regularly spent the weekends with us.

So, to continue, in that woods I had this feeling that it was time to show him something. So I said to him: "Find yourself a nice tree, one that attracts you the most and use it as an altar. Then close your eyes and ask the spirits to do you a favor and specify what it is that you would like… After that, leave an offer for them, such as a bit of your candy for instance, and then forget all about it.

So we just kept walking, the three of us, and chattered the time away.
When we reached the border of that reservation I was thirsty and I proposed to have a drink at a nearby tavern. When we arrived there, there was a fair. Of course, my boy wouldn’t have been a child if he wouldn’t start nagging and begging, and please, please, please… let’s go to the fair. I gave in but I had to call his mother then because we would be later at her place, had to drop him off there. She didn’t mind so we went to the fair. We visited all kinds of attractions and in the end we arrived at the bumper cars (is this correct?)
He chose one and so did I, my wife stayed on the boardwalk. And we had a lot of fun, yes. It’s been ages since the last time i sat in a bumper car, so I was feeling quite good.

And then came the surprise: while being an idiot together with my son, I looked up and my wife wasn’t the only one anymore who was looking at us; his mum was there as well. Never happened before. Our son went crazy when he saw her and litteraly begged to chose a bumper car as well and to join in.
Well, we had an awesome time, the previous family being reunited one more time.

Later on, my son came to me and whispered so no one could hear it: “Dad, that’s what I asked in the forrest. I wanted to have fun with you and mum, like when you still lived with us” It was gorgeous to see the look on his face!

I’m sure that this was an experience that he will never forget anymore.
He’s 14 years old now, and of course, like every normal kid in his puberty, he’s all about reasoning and explaining. But no worries, the seed has been planted and is dormant now,… But some day :slight_smile:

7

There is nothing that will benefit a kid more than knowing death magic.

8

Bran that’s a really awsome story. Your son sounds like a great kid, you should be proud.

Don’t worry mate, he’ll soon warm up to magick soon enough, Im sure he won’t be able to resist it once the mid-late teen rebellion thing kicks in. Lol.