[HPforGrownups] Re: American Schools of Witchcraft and Wizardry

[Juan Carlos De La Cruz]

No: HPFGUIDX 27032

On Date Monday 01 October 2001 09:50, You Wrote:
>    If Wizarding Americans are anywhere near as mobile
> as Muggle Americans I would guess there's been a lot
> of cross cultural magical contact. Young American
> Witches and Wizards are probably trained in multiple
> magical traditions. Which might give them a distinct
> edge against the likes of Voldemort who can't even
> remember all the ins and outs of his *own* magical
> culture!

         That make me want to put my couple sickles on it. I 've been reading 
about Magic rught after finishing my 4th HP book, and both them HP 
Schoolbooks, and I found certain interesting data. 
When I was about 11, (Not SO many years ago), I starte don my very personal 
quest for spirituality, and I read about several different cultures and 
spiritual POV's, name it Mormons, Hebrew, Jehova's witnesses, Krsna's 
teachings, the very Catholic Church I was baptised in, and the likes... 
I finally ended up embracing MetaPhysics, under the teachings of writings by 
the likes of Emmet Fox, and some other Venezuelan authors I would not mind to 
name right now).
By some curious experience, the group we had, in which I was learning and 
practicing (Which was some sort of a very little Hogwarts school every 2 
Sundays in which we had a couple adult groups, a little kids group and a 
teenagers group, each one with it's own "guide" or teacher, and a 
"headmaster" for all of them, being the adults group -at least one of them- 
the more advanced in topics and rituals and experiences... ) dismembered 
after our "headmaster" had some kind of nervous breakdown and started mixing 
up things in a way we might call dangerous... (think about HP Meets V 
Extra-Terrestrial Invasion.. u may figure it out now) I Found myself putting 
it apart for a long while after this "incident", and remained like that for 
some years.

Then after HP (Which I was very reluctant to read at first stage) I was 
wondering about Magic itself,  and sorted we WERE actually performing some 
kind of magic itself. What we might call by different names on different 
tendencies, may be the equivalent of a Spell, even to Pray might be 
considered so, being that it is the power of our thoughts expressed into our 
voice which gives that "change" needed (Well, lots of theories about this 
issue), no matter how do you call it, may it be "Pray", or "Spell", or 
whatever...

But the truth is, we do perform changes in our extra-corporeal structure when 
we do this sort of things. Spirit, itself.

Lately, after reading HP stuff and hungry (as all of us are) for book 5, I 
started lurking again for more mind food, and a friend of me who is a Wiccan 
wizard (Or so he says. :) and astrologer, lend me a book about Magic, on it 
historical and conceptual terms, and I found something very, very interesting 
I would like to share on this topic...

Magic, in the very deep end, is supposed NOT to have a concrete guideline, as 
it depends on the energy it casts from the one performing it. What is 
commonly called "The book of shadows" for most wizards, is merely a scrapbook 
they SHOULD be able to compile on their own, based on their inner 
experiences, and that MIGHT be based on some other teachings and writings. 
BUT in the end, each one has and performs his/her special, INNER and very 
personal kind of magic, whatever this may be... the concept remains as one, a 
single one.

Therefore, a cross cultural contact between magic schools would or would not 
determine whether a school shapes a pupil or not. Have you noticed how spells 
can vary from one character to other? (Obviously excepting the "trade mark" 
ones, as "Crucio" or "Expelliarmus", which seem to have an Author registry. 
But as one is said at a point... it does NOT really matters whether you pray 
the "Holy father" pray word by word, or yuo make one of your own as long as 
you're "talking" the same way to the same "target"...)  Then what I figure 
out Wizardry schools do is to OPEN some kind of portal within the ones which 
already show some talent to it, in order to develop their INNER potential. 
The way how to do so might also be unimportant, being that if the pupil is 
prepared, a cross-cultural contact would only give a POV to share, but not 
neccesarily change a "School".

In other words, the School may be within each one...

Pretty long for two sickles, I Guess. 

------------------------------
Juan Carlos De La Cruz.
DeGoPro.com General Manager.
SysOp.Tech and Op Dept.
IFX Networks Venezuela

Profesionnal Musician and Composer.
Proud Hogwarts student at Ravenclaw.

"Ah, music," Dumbledore said, wiping his eyes.  "A magic beyond all we do
here!"
          -HP and the Sorcerer's Stone