Sometimes in conversations offline and online I hear the phrase that everything is relative in magic, that experience doesn't matter, that a neophyte just starting off can do what a more experienced magician can do.
This relativism is complete and total bull*&%$ and if you, my dear reader believe in, then I have a bridge I want to sell you.
I think this relativism stems partially from the American philosophy that we all have to be equal to each other, but also because there is a decided laziness in many a magician. The idea that one should have to work at magic, to actually put effort in is (Gasp!) horrible.
Well the american philosophy is wrong. We are not equal to each other and we never shall be. I've met some people who have a natural talent for magic and I've met others who couldn't magic themselves out of a paperbag if their lives depended on it. By the same token I've met people who have a much better aptitude toward working with mechanics or math or computers and people who couldn't balance a checkbook to save themselves. Each an every one of us has our own talents, our own proficiencies, some things that we're really good at. And we also have things we're not good at. Mathematics is something I shudder to do, unless it's basic math, as an example and if you show me a car and ask me to fix it, I'll tell you a good mechanic to go to. Now admittedly I could learn about how to fix a car or I could practice my math and I might over time develop some proficiency at it, but I can guarantee that a person who has a natural ability to understand Math and works at it as well, will always be a better mathematician. Some people just have an innate ability, a disposition to understand a particualr skill such as math better than other people.
But note the key word work, the word that a lot of people are allergic to (and who can blame them in this world where work can be equated slavery). You have to work at a skill to increase your proficiency in it. I have a lot of natural talent with magic, less so with writing (which might surprise some of you). If we use the argument that experience is relative with writing then when I started writing at the tender age of ten, my writing was publishable and just as good as the writing I do now. But this argument doesn't hold water. My writing at the age of ten was horrible. It was creative, but it was horrible. I had to work at improving my writing to get it to the point where I could get it published. Even now I'm still improving my writing skills, by writing every day. My publisher recently told me that Space/Time magic was a much better written book than Pop Culture Magick and I believe her. I've had a year to improve my writing and the amount of writing I do in academia, LJ, and the articles I write has, in it's own way improved my skill with writing.
