My Most Earnest Piece Of Advice For All Magical Heroes And Practitioners In General Will Always Be To

My most earnest piece of advice for all magical heroes and practitioners in general will always be to remain critical of those who take up a title of ‘leader’ or ‘mentor’ in magical spaces.

While I find it so important in life and in magic to be soft and trusting, too many times has that kindness been seen as weakness to those who tout a position of power (whether that position is of an elder or teacher, by someone who claims ownership of a movement or idea, or is bureaucratically instated).

Respect should be something that is inherent in all directions, not something that needs to be earned. Never feel like you are less worthy to practice or take up space in a community because you do not have the same knowledge or tools at your disposal. If you are ever made to feel that way, or if you suspect others are being made to feel that way, the best thing you can do is distance yourself from it and perhaps start something new.

However, too often I’ve seen an earnest project turn into a cult of personality and I caution anyone who feels the need to start an intentional community, magical or otherwise, without the proper emotional maturity and experience with working with a diverse group of individuals.

I appreciate the apology. I know that this community means a lot to you and it shows! Again, this was never about not acknowledging the existence of physical magical heroes, I (and it seems others as well) did not understand the terminology and sincerely wanted to know more.

There is not a lot of information available about why people started to come together in this way and I’m always interested to learn more. But I do wholeheartedly believe that there is space for all who feel drawn to be magical girls, regardless of history or approach.

Can someone explain to me the actual difference between ‘physical’ and ‘astral’ magical heroes? Most of the folks that I have come across that label themselves ‘physical’ heroes don’t really seem to have a practice rooted in or working in this reality? They seem to still rely heavily on astral work and reality shifting.

For example, I suppose you can argue that my approach is ‘physical’ since I have an established magical practice utilizing tools and techniques that are tangible in the here and now (not that they couldn’t also be used out of the current timeline or on the astral) and I work to better our current and shared reality. I don’t really assert that the ‘physical’ or ‘astral’ distinction has to be made but if people feel that they need to use those labels, I think the community has to do a better job explaining the difference in approaches.

I was probably away from Tumblr long enough to miss a lot of the alterhuman/therian discourse that has been circulating. To be fair, discussions around ‘otherkin’ were just peaking in popularity around the time I abandoned my old account (not for any reason besides being busy with other things and it was mainly used for creative reference anyway).

While I personally do not use any of those labels to identify myself nor do I feel compelled to thoroughly define myself in that way, perhaps I always figured everyone had experiences that triggered very specific emotions and bodily memories that were not quite describable by ‘normal’ means. Then again, I similarly felt for a long time that everyone wondered what it would be like to be a different gender or that everyone dealt with executive dysfunction to some degree—only to come to the realization years later that it was surely not the case.

But these feelings of ‘otherness’ within the self is part of what I was alluding to in my manifesto when I say that ‘We are fragmented and multifaceted’. Of course each of us is allowed to explore diverse interests and aesthetics but it’s more than that: within each of us is a series of refractions of experiences and emotions like if life was light filtered through a gem or placed in front of funhouse mirrors. It can be beautiful and terrifying and lonely to be confronted with disparate feelings or memories and contradictions within ourselves.

Can someone explain to me the actual difference between ‘physical’ and ‘astral’ magical heroes? Most of the folks that I have come across that label themselves ‘physical’ heroes don’t really seem to have a practice rooted in or working in this reality? They seem to still rely heavily on astral work and reality shifting.

For example, I suppose you can argue that my approach is ‘physical’ since I have an established magical practice utilizing tools and techniques that are tangible in the here and now (not that they couldn’t also be used out of the current timeline or on the astral) and I work to better our current and shared reality. I don’t really assert that the ‘physical’ or ‘astral’ distinction has to be made but if people feel that they need to use those labels, I think the community has to do a better job explaining the difference in approaches.