When is the map the terrain?
Aug. 7th, 2013 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fuzzyjayling posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
plural_magicThis came from a discussion I had with a friend the other day, in regards to this plural/inner-spirit/guide type of magic.
Most of us who work with this kind of magic or spirituality have, in one way or another, an inner or other world that we visit in order to contact these others. Visiting this place is often referred to as journeying, but that is typically in an explicitly shamanic context. You journey to an otherworld and meet guides who give you advice, direction, support, or other help. (Sometimes a kick in the behind. :) What is that place, and where is it?
On the other end of the spectrum, some have a feeling that this space is actually an inner space, or perhaps an other-space with which they're associated; but in any case, it's very personal.
A while back, I had started to wonder, myself, if they weren't the same thing. Creating working analogies and metaphors is a fundamental concept to us. We turn a little wheel, and a big car turns. We speak into a phone, and our voice comes from the other end. Perhaps the most poignant and topical example of this is that there was once a version of the game Doom that would represent programs running on a computer as denizens of the game, and firing upon them would shut down the programs.
I've come to think of that space as a truly inner one, one that maps onto something external. Something that makes it comprehensible and topical. Perhaps the people I meet there, whether they are in their "true" form or not, are avatars that may be populated by beings outside me. In this way, they exist both inside and outside. Information and change feed both ways. So, in a metaphorical sense, the map has become the terrain, and vice-versa.
Discuss! :D
(Definitions)
Most of us who work with this kind of magic or spirituality have, in one way or another, an inner or other world that we visit in order to contact these others. Visiting this place is often referred to as journeying, but that is typically in an explicitly shamanic context. You journey to an otherworld and meet guides who give you advice, direction, support, or other help. (Sometimes a kick in the behind. :) What is that place, and where is it?
On the other end of the spectrum, some have a feeling that this space is actually an inner space, or perhaps an other-space with which they're associated; but in any case, it's very personal.
A while back, I had started to wonder, myself, if they weren't the same thing. Creating working analogies and metaphors is a fundamental concept to us. We turn a little wheel, and a big car turns. We speak into a phone, and our voice comes from the other end. Perhaps the most poignant and topical example of this is that there was once a version of the game Doom that would represent programs running on a computer as denizens of the game, and firing upon them would shut down the programs.
I've come to think of that space as a truly inner one, one that maps onto something external. Something that makes it comprehensible and topical. Perhaps the people I meet there, whether they are in their "true" form or not, are avatars that may be populated by beings outside me. In this way, they exist both inside and outside. Information and change feed both ways. So, in a metaphorical sense, the map has become the terrain, and vice-versa.
Discuss! :D
(Definitions)