Baxil [bakh-HEEL'], n. - More on magical polarity My Sites [Tomorrowlands] [The TTU Wiki] [Photos]
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December 8th, 2006
04:41 am
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More on magical polarity
Based on comments to my previous post, I'm not the only one wondering about this: What's the relative prevalence and strength of magical polarity?

By "polarity" here, I mean the phenomenon I described that caused me trouble at ritual -- a mage, due to some combination of instinct or training, finding it easier to draw in energy from one side of the body and push it out from the other.

For example, I am "dominant-in" -- I'm left-handed, and on that dominant left side I find it much easier to draw in energy (and then push it out on the right). I also call this "counter-clockwise polar" because I'd be much more useful passing energy around a circle if that energy were circulating counter-clockwise among the participants.

Not everyone is polarized, and there's no "right" direction; it's just one of those things that happens, like handedness or sexual orientation. In my limited experience, polarity isn't necessarily tied to handedness, although I'd be curious to see some hard numbers for it.

Feel free to point your willworking friends at this poll; the bigger the sample size, the more useful the data gets. If you don't have an LJ account but want to chip in, leave a comment.

Poll #884510 Polarity vs. handedness
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

The following best describes my energy polarity:

View Answers

Left-handed and dominant-in. (Counter-clockwise polar)
1 (3.6%)

Right-handed and dominant-in. (Clockwise polar)
0 (0.0%)

Left-handed and dominant-out. (Clockwise polar)
0 (0.0%)

Right-handed and dominant-out. (Counter-clockwise polar)
9 (32.1%)

I haven't observed a preference.
9 (32.1%)

Clicky thing! (I don't do energy work but want to vote anyway.)
9 (32.1%)

I would describe my polarity as:

View Answers

None at all
4 (14.3%)

Slight
7 (25.0%)

Moderate
5 (17.9%)

Severe
1 (3.6%)

Clicky thing!
11 (39.3%)

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From:[info]natetg
Date:December 8th, 2006 04:07 pm (UTC)
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What about hand-foot (or hand-nose) polarity?
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From:[info]baxil
Date:December 8th, 2006 08:45 pm (UTC)
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That one hasn't bit me nearly as hard, and it's never come up as part of my training. If enough people show interest, I can run a second poll on it.
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From:[info]perlandria
Date:December 8th, 2006 05:35 pm (UTC)
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My lack of observed polarity may have be:
- I am unobservant
- I am easily right/left balanced in general. I'm just learning Baseball on the wii and I naturally apply progress and learning from batting lefthanded to batting righthanded
- I am dyslexic
- Being dyslexic, naturally ambidexterous, and having a horror of losing the function of one hand and never being able to ooooh write again, I go out of my way to crosstrain left and right. (with exceptions. Western Calligraphy? right hand. Brush Calligraphy? left hand.)
- The center, ground and crown school of energy work, and high incidence of reiki users, in my group of friends has energy flow going up and down or backward and forward more often than left right. That said, when I try to remember being part of a circuit, it was left in, right out. But I didn't set the circuit.
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From:[info]baronlaw
Date:December 8th, 2006 05:51 pm (UTC)
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Although I am a barely a beginer at such things I always thought of my polarity as starting at my base and headed upwards. But maybe I did not understand the question or my concept of polarity is not the same.
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From:[info]baxil
Date:December 8th, 2006 10:34 pm (UTC)
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I would not be surprised if other willworkers have used the term to describe a different phenomenon. I'm just using "polarity" because I think it fits the situation, not because of any existing definition.

Are you saying that it makes no difference to you whether you go left-right or right-left, but it does make a difference whether you draw up from ground or push down to ground?
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From:[info]baronlaw
Date:December 10th, 2006 11:21 pm (UTC)
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From the ground to the sky, no I don't have a left or right preference I am aware of.
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From:[info]kistaro
Date:December 8th, 2006 06:40 pm (UTC)
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Similar to others here, I don't have a left-right preference but I consider myself moderately polarized anyway. That's because my usual pattern is wings in, hands out, with the occasional bout of firebreathing-like throat out for good measure. Wings-in (and tail used to ground) is not the most practical polarization for group work, but in retrospect I should have called it slight polarity; it's what I usually do, but it's not a problem for me to reorganize it at all. (If I have to create a new shield quickly- something I haven't had to do for a while because I maintain it carefully, but it's happened before due to needing heavy empathic shielding in a stressful situation and not giving it enough energy- I usually build that out from my wings.)

For the record, I'm right-handed, but left-armed: my right hand has much more dexerity, but my left arm and hand are significantly stronger. This is probably because I usually try to leave my right hand free when carrying stuff, so it's my left arm that usually does any heavy lifting.
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From:[info]starlightforest
Date:December 9th, 2006 12:20 am (UTC)
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My answer is "sometimes-to-usually" - on some occasions (not sure what the triggering factor is), what feels "natural" or "best idea" switches, and I go in with the dominant and out with the off hand.
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From:[info]dragonzuela
Date:December 10th, 2006 05:59 am (UTC)

random comment

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I had a dream last night that I was able to identify another dragon because she was drinking a beer called Baxil's Brew.
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