From booksellers sorcerers and cyber-pagans.

From booksellers sorcerers and cyber-pagans.

Let your closest relationship be with the gods

you worship and not with your social media.

While it is true that I am very regular with social networks, for me it is inevitable because it is part of my job, managing the accounts of other clients for the two agencies with which I work keeps me very focused in the world of social networks, I graduated as a publicist in 2013 and my area is precisely managing profiles and social networks, and although it is difficult for me to keep my academic/professional life in my spiritual/professional life, I do my best to keep it that way and until now I think I have achieved it.

My Twitter account is permanently active, it is my window to the world, it is literally my way of doing catharsis, sharing with my readers, with my friends, with my followers who support me, it is my way of taking ideas from my head, sharing notes and thoughts, funny pictures, great places, etc ... But I try to maintain a line and a firm position between both worlds and over time I have achieved a balance.

While my Instagram may be full of photographs of my candles and amulets, these are taken after the rituals, and mostly I do it to share the recipes with those who follow me, but not to show off, much less will they see me performing a ritual in a live Facebook, not by the intervention of the cameras, I really do not think that the device has any negative effect that I can not control, it is rather for two reasons that I think are quite logical, and which I have maintained against any argument that they have thrown me to defend the opposite.

First, for a topic of concentration, in the middle of my rituals, before and after them I like to feel focused on 100%, I do not tolerate any kind of distractions, and you can not give 100% of you, if 36% of your brain is busy focusing on the photo, the video and setting up snapchat filters.

Second, out of respect for my tradition, I'm not a Catholic, but I do not think Catholics go to mass and broadcast it on video, but I do not know much about their religion so I'm not really sure what I write here, and if They do, well, that's wrong. When you are in the middle of a ceremony or a spiritual session, you are having a private meeting with the creator gods of the universe, they descend to listen to you, look at you, encourage you, motivate you and encourage you to follow, listen to your complaints, your laments, and help you Heal in any aspect of your life that you need.

When you are reunited with the ruling god of your pantheon, you dedicate yourself to him or her, just as they dedicate themselves to you, and I do not think you can dedicate yourself 100% to them if you are focused on finding the correct angle of the camera for your Instagram post.

It is a matter of total respect and consideration, if I admire the American pagan community and its community of witches, it is that although they have all the facilities of the internet (much faster than you can imagine outside the USA) and make use of absolutely all social networks, they always seek to organize all kinds of talks, forums, events and festivals where they can meet face to face, celebrate the celebrations of the wheel of the year, perform all kinds of rituals in groups and long forums, talks and workshops to deal with various topics about the esoteric world and sorcery, and although it is true that we can find a lot of prejudice around, because there will always be those who only see the glass half empty and point out that all this is done only for money, beyond empty criticism, the money involved is not able to stain these events in any way, so far I have only attended the events organized in the state of NY, mostly by an agenda item, among other minor things, but to each of the events that I have attended I have found the same result:

Sorcerers, magician shamans, and sorcerers with real trajectories, mixed with the common sorcerer, the sorcerer of the city, the apprentice who is entering this unknown world.

World-renowned authors, many of whom we read in our early years in witchcraft and renowned as Judika Illes and Christopher Penczak, among many others who slip into these events to approach you and hold workshops, in addition, who does not want the opportunity to have signed a book of your favorite author ?.

Believers and practitioners of all the diverse pagan and neopagan currents (Asatru, Wicca, Druids, sorcerers, etc ...) Mixed in complete harmony, interrelating, talking, attending together the workshops achieving a peaceful coexistence, thus demonstrating that all this war "who is better than who" and "who has the most beautiful altar" is only a vague idea that exists in the virtual world, but at the moment of truth, we are all part of something bigger than ourselves and that attracts us to these places to realize that if we are part of a huge pagan family that has not stopped growing.

Although I miss those times of going to the esoteric books section of the library, subscribe to the mailing lists of publishers waiting for their extensive catalogs of books to order the newest in the genre, although it was exciting to organize these forums of skype and yahoo where we saw each other's faces, I must admit that now the internet is available to everyone.

The internet makes us realize how big we are as a community, now we can participate in huge virtual forums of conversation, follow our favorite authors (and not to show off but now I'm even friends with several of mine on facebook), and keeps us abreast of the esoteric or spiritual events and organizations that interest us the most.

Likewise, and like the same magic, the internet has its respective pros and cons, is full of trolls, haters, pretty ridiculous memes and fake people with fake names and fake photos with which you must be very careful, in addition the internet unfortunately It supports and promotes piracy in large part, I had to leave several Facebook groups when I noticed that they were uploading files full of books by my favorite authors, at that time I was writing my first book for a small print shop In Venezuela, he was also working for the publishing company Circulo de Lectores de Venezuela, a company that literally sank with the rise of piracy and left a total of 3,500 people unemployed throughout the country.

Who does not miss those long Yahoo mailing lists, where people really wrote, and shared very broad thoughts and reflections, was something made for those who really like to read and study, many times I even print them, because Many of these emails that revolved around a common theme were almost books full of information that went through the filters of many people, and they were gold.

Now in the social networks are saturated with information, much of it information that you do not need, to the point of being overwhelming, and all this without mentioning that in social networks we limit ourselves (because if the post is very broad nobody reads it and nobody shares it) so you have to limit yourself to writing the whole idea in less than 200 characters.

Let's not forget that social networks also give us that positive look, that touch of positivism that we study so much in marketing, that "like", that "comment" that tells you that you are doing something right, that makes you believe that you are on the way correct, and that puts you in the same box of those pink characters who do whatever it is for the "like", the problem when people get used to it, when "like", that positive reinforcement you receive, is more important than the content you share, is the problem there, when people get so used to giving everything for that like, and without realizing it, they stop contributing real good material, just because they are focused on the likes, because many times the ego only he asks for more positive reinforcements.

Another problem that brings the internet to the pagan community, is that we find all these bookstore sorcerers, who have read a couple of books and believe they know everything, I have often encountered trolls that harass me on the internet trying to "correct my work" because it does not go with one or two books that they have read.

For example there is a lot with the subject of rituals and spells, you can perform hundreds of spells, and you can do them very well, and have the results you want, but there is always an egocentric to correct you, just to show you "how much they know "in theory, and not so much in practice.

Because to identify an herb, that anyone does base on photos and books, but go to cut the grass personally, dry it in your house and use it for your own spells, that's practice, and in social media times, that practice is worth gold, but not for those who follow you on social networks, but for you.

Yes, it is true that the internet has unfortunately given more power to haters and trolls, and now many people also write in a blog without knowing what they are talking about, so everything we find on the internet must be swallowed with an extra granite of salt, even now it is quite normal to meet people who come to chat with you at 5 am to evangelize and tell you that you worship the devil, understand, "why to bother going to knock on your door on a Saturday morning, being able to just open your chat window to bother you from the comfort of your home? "

But also the internet has allowed us to form huge discussion groups, these groups where some 5 thousand people are added but only 50 participate, but those fifty people are worth gold, and for those fifty people who are now only a click away, it is worth keeping our presence on the internet, to share the links of our favorite books, to invite others like us to these events of pagan celebrations in our country, and even to chat and share the details and experiences of our spells.

But as I always write, as long as you are light, as long as you know how to shine, no matter how dark the cave you enter, you can be light and illuminate the path to others who come after you.

With Love & Respect

Elhoim Leafar