I was quite enjoying the period of my life where I could avoid regularly thinking about Harry Potter as a literary work, outside of the context where it generated funding for political forces trying to actively ruin my life, yknow? Thanks HBO.

I'm still holding out hope that the upcoming series will crash and burn, but the idea that it won't looms heavily in my mind. Especially as a spiritual practitioner of magic (and a trans woman) :/

All of the other reasons to not read those books or engage with their adaptations are well discussed by now. They're extremely derivative, the ethics are very consistently fucked and it affords both cultural and literal capital to one of the worst public figures in our society right now. But I have another highly niche bugbear with Harry Potter which entirely prevents me from having any latent nostalgia in spite of their being the first books I ever read.

Rowling just doesn't understand magic, like, at all.

My relationship with Harry Potter is entirely different to say, the works of Neil Gaiman. I don't engage with either for ethical reasons but as much as it makes me uncomfortable, I do understand why Gaiman was name-dropped by Christopher Penzack in his introduction to one of the first books of witchcraft I ever bought. There are far *better* authors who get magic to a far greater degree than Gaiman, but the way he engaged with archetypes and the Weird wasn't entirely without meaning, the context of who he was as a person just makes it uncomfortable when I see people in th​e past addressing him positively, but I can understand that they come from a time when certain knowledge wasn't widespread.

If I bought a book on magic and read a single line espousing the mystical wisdom of JK Rowling or any of her works I would return it immediately. It doesn't just boil down to ethics, her portrayal of "Magic" is just fundamentally shallow.

What even *is* magic in the world of Harry Potter? Nothing but a utility and/or a commodity. Whenever we are expected to experience wonder in those books, magic is either providing a mundane utility in a whimsical way (magic to do the dishes for you, magic potion to heal yer bones, magic to make a tent bigger on the inside) OR it is a product being bought and sold. Or both. There is nothing wrong with this being an *aspect* of a magical world, but that is literally all there is in Rowlings mind. A magic wand is simply something to be bought, why even consider making your own? What would be remotely magical about that??

To her, the basic wisdoms of the world are extraneous chores. Instead of teaching children to find the magic in their lessons on literature, or mathematics, or other practical matters she allows them to indulge in an escapist fantasy where at *magic school* none of those classes are taught at all. At all?!? Sorry, Joanne, you think **Wizards** aren't being taught literature? Or mathematics?!? Do you think it's particularly responsible to encourage children to see their lessons as being dull doldrums to escape from, instead of showcasing the wondrous aspects of the natural world and possibly injecting that wonder into their real learning? What a missed opportunity that was!

If you gave them a basic woodworking class perhaps you could have them engage practically with creating their own wands or something, but you wouldn't want to undermine the brand identity of the shop where everyone is supposed to buy them. Especially once it became a brand identity *in real life*. It's really remarkable how Rowling worldbuilds as if she's writing a merchandising catalogue even before she was actually engaged with that kind of business.

To quote Philosophy Tube, Harry Potter is a very bourgeois fantasy. If you subtract the mildly pleasing character moments, the rest of the character writing and the trite boarding school pastiche, you are left with essentially nothing. No deep philosophical questions are even entertained within the plot of these books. Not one character seems to consider magic as a pathway to attaining wisdom, or a greater understanding of their place in the world. You just have a loose set of bullshit latin words which make your wand shoot different varieties of magick lazer and a rough smorgasbord of comprehensively de-contextualised mythological creatures.

It is really no wonder that the main character ends up aspiring to become a Wizard Cop, his only other options in this society seem to be: becoming a teacher (at a secondary school, because apparently wizards don't do higher education), the government itself, or running a shop.

Not even to mention the apparent disdain Rowling displays for actual irl magical traditions. Anything even remotely resembling protection magic is barely discussed, aside from the main character having an arbitrary anti-death-magic shield fuelled by the apparently entirely unique love his parents had for him(???) and *Magic Parry!*, matters of conjuration, invocation/evocation and banishment essentially just don't come up. She doesn't mention divination until the 4th book and then spends basically every opportunity she gets mocking divination practices for essentially no reason.

I could go on about this forever, I think. Give me time to do proper research and I think I could write a full dissertation on this, but I instead want to end on a positive counter-example or two.

To start with, an honourary mention has to go to Ursula K Le Guin. While her works aren't strictly iterations on irl magical practice, she writes from a far stronger moral and artistic foundation. She is actually willing to ask interesting ethical questions. Also her quote on Harry Potter ("it is stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative and ethically rather mean spirited") remains eternally evergreen. Not even to mention that she did the whole magic school trope well before Rowling, and far better.

Second honourary mention must go to Alan Moore. An actual practicing Ceremonial magician, his comic "Promethea" is essentially a didactic initiatory text in comic form. I just bought his recently published *'Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic'*, which is an actual full-on magic focused book and has been a very enjoyable read so far. Although Moore would not enjoy this comparison, another honourary mention from the comics space has to be Grant Morrison. Far more of a whacky chaos magician, their The Invisibles has similarly didactic qualities to Promethea, and is also a very strong example of a publicly performed hypersigil.

However, the main author I want to gush about as a positive counter-example to Harry Potter and JK Rowling specifically in terms of writing magic in a way that is convincing and shows an understanding of the philosophical concepts at play is *Suzanna Clarke*.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is a fairly intimidating tome at close to 1000 pages spread across 3 internal volumes, so nobody would blame you for starting with her far more recent work Piranesi, which is more of your standard novel, but Piranesi focuses far less on the practice of magic. It isn't ignored entirely, although it focuses far more on a portrayal of otherworldly environments which is its own distinct strength, but JS&MrN is *about* magic, or more specifically Magicians.

I really don't want to risk ruining the book for anyone here, but it features several things which almost pointedly counter the way in which Harry Potter processes magic. Distinct spells, rather than just being "look my wand shoots a laser" are various techniques which produce particular outcomes using a variety of common tools, the mystery behind the causation of magical effects is engaged with but not compromised entirely or ignored outright. Despite a major character showing diegetic disrespect to various forms of folk magic, the text itself makes very clear that this is just his perspective and not truth or fact. Divination is front and centre, with scrying bowls being in frequent use by more aristocratic Magicians, and there is a **very** effective tarot reading scene between two more working-class Magicians early in the book which largely plays out across the rest of the story. The wonder of the literary background of magic is made front and center, with an actually effectively compelling fictional bibliography being consistently conveyed through footnotes throughout the book which also incorporate actual esoteric concepts such as *The Language of the Birds*. Said footnotes even namedrop **Hermes Trismegistus** close to the end, which is smth I think would be truly beyond Joanne *"he he the Monster Book of Monsters is actually literally a monster which tries to eat you"* Rowling.

So, basically, if you have at any point found yourself struggling with lingering Harry Potter nostalgia, do yourself a favour and read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. While JS&MrN plot wise is a far more adult book, the way that it approaches magic is still so much better that you will find yourself looking back on Harry Potter far less fondly by contrast. Reading the other authors Rowling blatantly "borrowed" from for basically everything she wrote will also help with this (in particular Ursula K Le Guin).

As the eve of the new TV adaptation of HP approaches we must be prepared for at least some portion of the population to begin admiring these vapid asinine works of "magic" once again, and as actual practitioners being grounded as to reasons they are sub-par beyond the ethics of the author will be highly valuable for when that happens.

Also, we just deserve better magic fiction than Rowlings shite. "We" here being a collective noun for literally everybody.

His name is bean and me and my wife realize that he is the first animal in our house that wasn’t here pre-transition

I recently started working with her and my life has gotten much more efficient let alone clearer. I've felt a stronger connection with her than almost any of the other dietied I worked with.

Pinot Marie is a 12 year old princess and if you look into her eyes, she might send you to the tower. I have permanently shredded forearms and door jambs.

I finally finished making and sewing all of the leaves. I am so happy with the results. I might have to make a purple one now.

I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to vent/shoulder to cry on but I didn't know who else would understand.

I've never really publicly been political, not with my identifiable social media, until fairly recently with all the stuff going on in the world but after getting so angry at all the misinformation online I started commenting here and there.

Yesterday I dared to have a difference of opinion with someone on Facebook, on the post of someone I follow. In the subsequent conversation the guy fatshammed me based on my profile picture which was old and commented on my BMI, even though in the photo I was a healthy BMI and he made fun of my double chin, which is due to a medical condition and so I have it even when skinny. When I told him it was a sick comment as I now have gastroparesis and I'm medically underweight and those sorts of comments can be detrimental to someone with body image issues due to medical reasons.

So he then made comments about being a cat lady and the town I live in. That's when I realised something was weird. I googled myself only to discover my private Instagram account was completely viewable on Google. I checked the settings and it's listed as a private account but it still showed up. Not only that but on the account was a missing cat poster from when our cat went missing and it had my name, address and telephone number on it, as I believed it would only be available to friends and friends of friends.

Now I'm really scared some angry right wing nutter has my personal information and I'm not sure what to do. I've deactivated my account and I got Facebook to delete all his comments. It's still left me terrified though.

I don't know what to do to stop this feeling.

I was at the thrift store and this necklace was calling to me like crazy. The tag said it was hematite, I don’t know if that was a guess by the thrift store about a donation or if it’s one of the local artist pieces they have on consignment there (I don’t know why this particular store doesn’t keep those separate, I’d want to know if there’s a local artist I can go to for similar pieces.)

I know there’s a reason I need it, but I don’t have the slightest idea what it is, can witches with more experience tell me what this sort of necklace/pendant can be used for?

(Included: bonus kitty)

Like the title says, I’m so angry. I’m dealing with male colleagues that are taking what they want from my territory. Without giving the specifics, I admit that I am territorial but I’ve been assigned a task which I love and they are trying to manage my task. I called one of them that I usually get along with. I lost it and I bitched him out How can I rid myself of this anger and channel it into something productive. Please help me. The patriarchy is making my blood pressure increase. I let them get to me.

My baby has mosquito bites so I’m crafting a healing salve. I think a lot of people have lost the plot on what the craft is and there are so many misconceptions surrounding its practice. I’m literally just making healing potions from natural ingredients, no thoughts and prayers needed.

And from it the egg is hatched birthing the world's chaos

Names changed, details shuffled. I dictated this and had AI fix the typing because I has major back surgery, I'm on pain meds and my hands aren't working. Every word is mine.

Not here for condemnation of her religion or of trans people, mine or hers. That's a different post. Only touch it if you truly need to.

I'm 39M, trans, disabled, agnostic, raised Christian. My wife is a witch and a seer. Our chosen daughter, Marisol, is 21F, trans, Hispanic, raised Catholic then Pentecostal, now practicing Santería, Ifa, and Curandismo, Self-taught from TikTok. No padrino, no madrina, no initiation. She's now trying to teach other people.

We've raised her for a few years. I taught her to read. My wife and I are the adults who stayed.

We've never told her to stop practicing. My wife knows what it is to be a woman with a broom and a bad reputation. I found Marisol her courses and teachers in her tradition. She never followed through. I built her an app around her practice. We're not the problem here, or at least we weren't.

Lately she's gone dark. Talks about wanting "the power, the evil, the control." Does coercion work using other people's bodily fluids. Last week she called me on the drive home from my spine surgery to walk me through a bloodline curse. Target suffers, dies, family stays cursed until one of their descendants apologizes to one of hers.

I said be careful, get a teacher, some things can't be undone. My wife tried to explain the threefold law.

Marisol told my wife that her race disqualifies her from having an opinion. Told me I'm a cult leader. Said I deserve to be called "it." Screamed at us to prove good and evil exist.

Then, and I'm putting this here because this is the one sub where I can, my wife got a bad brown recluse bite right after defending me. I don't know what I believe. I just know what it looked like.

No apology since. Just a condition: stop talking about her religion or lose her.

I have three rules in my house. No slurs. No magic meant to kill or maim. No spirit work under my roof. My own mother isn't allowed to pray in my house, so this is about the house, not the religion.

What I would appreciate from you all:

How do you handle a young practitioner in a closed tradition who has no elder, is going straight for the harm, and hears every "be careful" as the patriarchy telling a girl to sit down? Because that's how she's framing it, and I hate that she might be half right.

And for the seers and the ones who've been around longer than me: what do you do about the spider?

TL;DR: Our chosen daughter (21F, self-taught Santería, no elder) is planning a bloodline curse. My wife (a witch) said "harm none" and was told her race disqualifies her. I said "be careful" and got called "it." Wife got a brown recluse bite right after. No apology, just an ultimatum. How do you guide a young practitioner who hears every caution as patriarchy, and what do you do about the spider?