On this note, @Timothy there is something I wish to ask. Is it possible to make this forum more private and secure?
We do have the Lounge for that purpose. And since it;s only accessible by Regular members, it means there’s less activity and easier to keep things focused.
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I agree, this would be perfect solution.
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completely agree, sir.
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I’m new here but I’m glad to hear this a space without politics is refreshing. It divides people too much these days and has far too much negative energy. And right now people are changing in consciousness. The last thing we need is people to get turned off because of politics. Not to mention so many that talk about politics are very uninformed and have not even researched what they are talking about from both sides.
What attracted me to this forum was the name (as I have always believe that is our nature, hence my screen name, I believe we all are.) but also the interesting discussions and people helping people. Politics these days causes so much resistance and I’d hate to see it change this forum.
These days saying your political affiliation or view can end friendships, lose business and can even subject one to attacks.
It’s almost like telling a Born Again Christian you are an Occultist or Luciferian as people now have been brainwashed to have almost no political tolerance and judge people only on their politics and what they have heard on Fox or CNN which I don’t like.
I’m in the middle I hold both Liberal Views and Conservative and I can hardly speak my mind online without losing friends from one side or another. And when you do speak them, you rarely change anyone’s mind, so it’s almost pointless as both sides are in echo chambers. So I think it’s best to leave it out.
There was a time when people didn’t discuss religion or politics and while I am for open discussion I’m not sure discussing it openly has had much if any benefit on people’s personal lives. I was very active during the last election cycle, and honestly I wish I had put that time into improving myself and my life.
The only politics I’d like to discuss is that of Angels & Daemons as I have heard from so many Magickians it’s all Politics and just different sides. Yet they work with both routinely. So if anyone has any good resource for that discussion or topic please let me know.
PS: After really reading this thread…
Why don’t the people that are really upset about this get together and start your own forum?
You know the reason Lamborghini exists, is because the founder had a Ferrari and made some suggestions to Mr. Ferrari and he told Mr. Lamborghini to stick to tractors (His Business) so he got pissed, then motivated and started Lamborghini Automobile. Had that not have happened there would be no Lamborghinis.
So if yo’re not happy with the rules maybe use it as motivation or a catalyst to start something better?
I have no dog in this fight, I’m tired of politics as stated above and new here so it makes no difference to if politics is included or not as I would not be involved in it. I came here to discuss and learn about Magick and the LHP…
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Well, with respect the forum HAD political magick topics (group workings to effect political change, which included discussion and networking) for several years, and this rule is the change, but whatever.
“Unity” is all well and good but it always eventually turns into “the nail that stands out must be hammered down” so I am more interested in addressing practicalities than philosophies: implementation, not theorisation.
Having read all the PMs and e-mails I have received on this topic, a final essay: I have repeated the proposal of a Category and so that’s covered and done, Timothy may approve or reject this as he chooses. I believe it would solve 99% of any concern about politics on the forum, but if it’s not in his vision, that’s that.
To play devil’s advocate, consider the following: yes, prohibiting certain categories of discussion abruptly kinda sucks, but at the same time so does having to navigate the current political climate and the ever-present threat of being misrepresented, however cynically and dishonestly, as BALG openly supporting any specific political view in a manner that then encourages any of the range of online nutjobs, fanatics, and yes – paid shills – to start fucking with threads and generally causing a stink both here, and on other social media.
I don’t know if there was a specific incident or some reason for this rule coming in, or whether Timothy or someone else foresaw that becoming an issue, and I struggle to see how the forum was riven with divisions since we all seem to be getting along pretty fine, left and right, Xian and atheist, but whatever.
BALG is primarily about educating people in magick, this is about shifting/resetting the forum as support for that and reorienting people’s personal exercise of power in these wider areas to group PM workings, and other platforms we may choose - I already have ideas for my own mapped out.
If Timothy declines the proposal to have a Category off the main forum for this, then going forward if a topic veers inadvertantly into politics I am going to simply convert all or parts of it to PM, this will inevitably happen because topics drift, and only if I suspect it’s being done maliciously, or with intent to waste my time and keep pushing the boundaries, will it become a problem.
So stop the “can we meme/can we breathe/can we fart” stuff because that’s silly, the rules against preaching operate in a similar way and it doesn’t stop us all believing in whatever invisible friends we want to.
Likewise, flagging shit to prove a point just wastes my time, so please don’t do that.
I think that’s all I have to say on this, the forum remains a great resource, therefore I don’t see this as make or break for me, if you honestly do then maybe go do something else and see how you feel in a month or so, whether you miss the 98% of the topics here that were not into that area anyway.
This is not what I want but if not having something easily accessible makes you give up on political magick to dominate the world, then maybe you need to find another pastime.
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Now this is a suggestion! If there are people concerned over magical threads becoming political, why not just lump them into a place for those people to avoid and their opposites to frolick to? It’s not as if politics is un-spiritual! The section could even be titled something along the lines of ‘politics, economics, and other systems of control’, because they are how people get controlled and there is magic in those hills.
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NO comment toward either position regarding this thread but your post made me laugh out loud. Well written homie.
I definitely am now in agreement with this peace treaty even more than before after reading this “Each month, thousands of witches cast a spell against Donald Trump.”
What is the point in wasting your energy and magical prowess on that? There’s more terrible things in the world that thousands of magic users at once should help. This peace treaty is definitely for the best.
I support this proposal.
While I admit I’m still not clear what the originating needs were behind the ban, I feel and hope this solution allows the most likely reasons (of either user complaint and/or liability issues) to be met, while maintaining the erstwhile freedom of expression enjoyed by the user base.
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I agree with a private category for political workings as well. Fixes a lot of the problems associated with this.
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nothing will stop people from doing what they want to do, it will just make things more annoying
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i dont agree with no politic stuff
i agree on making a private section for politics that only the regular can access, tho
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It’s very true. I just hate seeing people make a mockery of who we all are. And what we do. I recall getting particularly steamed when I saw Fox News talk about Wiccans and witches while laughing and mocking them. Before giving an 11 second apology later as they didn’t realize how many there actually are. But being angry certainly does no good.
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Okay I guess it’s time for me to chime in on this here.
Overall I’m not sure I like this new rule, because like it or not politics has been heavily woven in with magic of various kinds since before written history. It just doesn’t feel right to allow one half of the matter and not the other. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, open a history book and look into how the Celts got their chief kings, the Mayan priesthoods, Egypt, and of course Germany and yes. Yes. America. Yes. I said it. America.
But also, and more selfishly, I didn’t find the forum because of the advertising campaigns which I had stumbled across again and again. Truth be told, what ads I found relating to BALG were annoying to me. They seemed pompous and overbearing. I’m not interested in penis sizing when it comes to workings. I want results. =^-^=
I finally joined up in the forum when I’d been looking to find other magicians who were not out to topple America, as it just seemed to me every time the subject came up in the news. (We’re gonna bind this person! (See article posted by Kaye as an example.) We’re gonna hurt that person’s free will!) So when i came here, the threads-now-gone made me want to kiss everyone here. I wasn’t alone, and for the first time in a VERY VERY long time I could feel it. That I wasn’t the only one willing to take the other path for what they felt was right.
I stayed because of the threads-now-gone. No other reason. Most of the topics here are… blah to be honest. This is why I rarely comment on them. I just don’t have much to add to some things. And when I post my own stuff, I pretty much get the silence of the lambs in return. And that’s okay, because mostly I was here for my quest contained in the threads-now-gone.
Sometimes there would be things said that, yeah, I could see why the moderator’s smackdown. I’ve even had one of mine edited when I got a bit too overzealous.
I’ve had good conversations with people who do not lean the directions I lean. And there were some things in the threads-now-gone that I didn’t agree with either.
Maybe the lounge area will come into effect. Maybe not. At least I know I’m not alone in my efforts, even if my reasons to participate here have been cut to something like 25%.
On the bright side, Eva, this is pretty much occultic tradition. 
But I do have to point out, since learning I’m not alone, on the magical front America seems to be locked in a witch war. We’ve got people binding people and others wanting to do worse, back and forth. Pink, no blue. Pink. I said blue.
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That’s my favorite scene from that movie
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So, synchronicity led to an interesting discussion with Elon Musk that gave me some food for thought about the impact of the fact that BALG is Goo- … hmn, visible to an AI that is storing and analysing all the questions and responses written here …
I’m still supporting the proposal, as preferable to a ban but also preferable to the status quo, and hoping it’s possible to set a subforum up that is non-search engine indexed.
Talking, thinking and communicating is important, and when it can be taken out of context, it’s important we can do that privately, so I think it’s a Good Thing to get the mentioned topics OFF the node tree feeding into the AI. Mostly because I don’t trust what it would be used for once it’s cached far out of the control of the mods here. Is that doable?
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Gotta say, I think this is a poorly thought out move. Most of us here focus our magic on improving our physical lives, and politics is an undeniable part of most things in life. Aside from that, the removal of politics could limit the discussion around magic. Imagine you had a bowl of chips, they’re nice, but they could be improved by adding some salt, vinegar and a sauce of some description. Politics is like adding that bit extra to improve the flavour. Say for instance we’re discussing how best to remove a troublesome person from our lives; we could go the traditional curse route or we could perform a ritual aimed at pushing that person down a different walk of life to ourselves. Both have their merits and the addition of points on ethics and morality could enhance that debate. Fundamentally, those points on karma, ethics and morality are going to be influenced by a persons politics; it’s essentially a discussion between right wing and left wing world views. Aside from that small example, politics will inevitably play a large role in any discussion centred on changing some aspect of society: a large part of many practitioners work.
The removal of these discussion topics may well reduce the activity on the forum and kill its most interesting topics. I like to believe that the majority of us are level headed enough to discus topics we may disagree on, but still get along at the end of the day. Anyway, that’s just my two cents on the matter. I’ll be interested to see what effect this actually has on the forum.
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