A Magician

Barbossa ate his mice yesterday. I hated to make him wait that long, usually he gets his food on Saturdays, but of course PetCo was out of mice. I debated whether to try thawing a mouse for him, but even being hungry won't entice him to take what he views as a second-rate meal. I've tried before when he's gone a few extra days without eating, but he just flicks his tongue out once or twice and then refuses to do that, so I didn't bother yesterday.
Anyway, he ate three mice and today he has not moved an inch. He is stuffed.

Tybalt did not eat last Friday, he's still refusing the frozen mice, so I'm going to have to get him a little baby mouse again. I hate doing that. It feels so evil, they really are so defenseless. They can't see or hear and I'm putting it right in front of a snakeling to be eaten. The only way I get through it is by thinking that I love my snake baby more than I love the mouse baby, but still, I wish he would go back to eating the frozen ones.
My mom and my sister refuse to even contemplate the idea of what's going on upstairs in the snake room.

I'm reading a book called "Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley" by Lawrence Sutin which is, you guessed it, a biography about Aleister Crowley. I've recently taken up the study of ceremonial magick, note the spelling of magick, the "k" differentiates the type from the Vegas-sleight-of-hand magic. Ceremonial Magick is also quite different from what we call the New Age movement. It is not Wicca, which is considered "low magick". Ceremonial magick is "high magick". This doesn't make it good or bad, just clarifies the type of rituals and studies that are required to be able to perform it. Low magick was always the stuff that witches did, charms and spells, very earthy stuff. High magick involves alchemy, Thelema, astrology, etc. the stuff that requires knowledge and studying. I've practiced low magick, mainly Celtic Wicca for many years, but I've always been interested in high magick. I have a book that's been smoldering in my bookcase for almost 10 years. I got it as a gift when I turned 15, which is lessons in this type of magick. It follows the teachings of Aleister Crowley, who is still one of the most influential magicians that ever lived. He is ALSO called the most evil man that ever lived. Now, I don't take anything by word of mouth, so if he is called evil I want to know why. I want to make up my own mind about it, which is why I got this book from the library. So far, I don't really see "evil" anywhere. Yes, he is unconventional, a bit selfish, and maybe not the nicest guy to walk the Earth, but he wasn't murdering babies to sacrifice to Satan, or anything like that, so what's the deal? He did not even practice black magick (well, not much of it) and he was able to bring Ceremonial Magick back into the public eye. He also shared (because he stole them) the secret documents, rituals, and teaching of the Order of the Golden Dawn, which for magicians now is a treasure trove of information. Let's at least thank him for that.
Anyway, all of that to say that I like the book, and I like how the author gets out of the way and let's Crowley's actions speak for themselves. To me, that's a good biographer.