OK, this is what I would call bad magic:
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A Dutch woman, who had meticulously planned her own funeral after the death of her husband last year, died next to the grave in Amsterdam where she wanted to be buried, a newspaper reported.
The 65-year-old widow probably died of a heart attack while she was visiting the family grave where her name, but no date, was already inscribed, De Telegraaf daily reported Wednesday.
The woman was carrying a bag with her containing her will when she died and had already organized details of her funeral including the music she wanted played, the paper said.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the notion of “bad magic” as an extension of Sartre’s existentialist notion of “bad faith,” as applied to a modern pagan.
Bad faith, in short, is “a philosophical concept first coined by existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre to describe the phenomenon wherein one denies one’s total freedom, instead choosing to behave as an inert object.”
Similarly, bad magic is where one denies one’s ability to create one’s reality, and acts as if one’s actions have no bearing on what happens.
So for this woman, to have obsessed over the details of her death arrangements, brought about (on a metaphysical level… I’m not talking about scientific cause/effect here) her own death under those circumstances.
Another way to put it: be careful what you wish for. You might get it.
Perhaps ending her life in this manner and place was her intention all along Jim? An act of empowerment the ultimate in personal choice. Rather than denying that she has the ability to create her own reality it sounds like she embraced that fully and willed herself dead to be with her husband. OR It could be just a bummer of a coincidence.