I would like to hear opinions beyond "Dead Wrong" and "Begging to Differ", because importance of emotion is a damn good subject I think.
Am I dead wrong and you guys beg to differ?
But I’m tired, and the lounge is out of beer! Whatever, I suppose I’ve got nothing better at the moment.
Is emotion important in magic, to what degree, and why or why not?
In order to answer this thoroughly we need to examine some smaller details, which means even more specific questions!
What role does emotion play in magic? Is this always its role, or does it change?
In my experience, emotion seems to be the fuel source required to create change. It must be mentioned that emotion and feeling are very broad terms. When considering feelings as a fuel source, we need not be limited to the traditional emotions of happiness, anger, joy, sadness, etc. Words such as desire, dissatisfaction, enthusiasm, and apathy are representative of feelings that can be used to create change, and will likely be ones not often considered as a possible driving force. Emotion is the connection with Divinity/Existence. If you intentionally break all emotions for a time - which is exceedingly difficult to do when considering an expanded pool of possible feelings as previously mentioned - you are closing off the route required to pull different circumstances into reality. Remember the formula for Tetragrammaton? No window.
This is the functional aspect behind emotion when performing magic, but there is another job for it to do: perceiving. We live in a causal universe, which is what can make the occult so frustrating at times. Any act of magic that results in real world change will look just like that - real world change. You cannot see or touch the mechanics of it in ordinary waking life, but you can feel them. This will often occur generally as a sense of good or bad luck. Honing the perception of your own emotions will give a clearer path of communication between the different parts of yourself, and result in more easily arranged and manipulated relationships with the worlds around you.
Perception alone is probably what I consider most important; a trusted intuition can lead you around most disasters before they have a chance to occur, and can lead to opportunities seized that would have been stepped around otherwise.
Does emptying one’s mind (entering a trance) also empty one of emotion?
Absolutely not. It is possible to ride the waves of elation or plummet to despondency while performing a mindfulness meditation. Try it. It takes some subtlety, almost a skill related with compartmentalization, but a usual trance state is mostly just detached observation. Awareness =/= Mind. Mind =/= Emotion.
I’ve got shit to do so I gotta wrap this up another time. Thanks for the nudge
@Vandheer, although I truly was tired and would rather have a drink than a thought
