Though I've always been a very spiritual person, as
a kid, I was a scientist. Many of my friends online and in real life would
find that extremely hard to believe now. I think I wanted to know as much as I
could about this earth that I had come to. I said that I
believed in magic (I was a self-proclaimed unicorn expert, and I still am), but
I don't think I did. I didn't believe in magic, but I wanted to.
I wanted to with all my heart. I used to look for unicorns in the woods behind
my house (as though unicorns would live around houses, with noisy Main Street
at the bottom of the hill). I know I'm not the first kid to feel this way, but
usually kids start feeling wistfully doubtful (and eventually, seriously
doubtful) of magic as they get older. I started out wistfully
doubtful, and now I'm a witch.
In a compendium of
stories about witches called Under My Hat, there is a story by
Holly Black about a girl who goes to a Beltane ritual (it is the only truly
realistic story in the book). The girl is sixteen, and feels exactly like I did
as a child. She didn't believe in magic, but she desperately wanted to
believe, and like me, she was drawn to Wicca by the very possibility that
magick might, possibly, be real. In church she expected the angel statues to
come to life and start singing, just as I expected unicorns to come out of the
woods.
As a kid, I thought you
had to stumble across magical lands to get to one, like all
the heroes and heroines in books do. I expected my dream catcher to turn into a
portal, but it never did. Now I know that to reach the
Otherworld, you have to create it yourself, which is what I did. Does that make
it not real? As a kid, I thought that if it's just your imagination, that means
it isn't real, because that's what adults always say.
"Of course it's
all happening inside your head, Harry, but why should that mean it isn't
real?" -Albus Dumbledore
My favorite quote.
Similarly, when I tried to astral project, I was
imagining what was going on instead of nonphysically experiencing it, and I
remained fully conscious of my body. I thought I must be doing something wrong,
until I read in a book that this always happens at first; the
actual experience of it develops overtime. I also realized that I tend to
underestimate my own capabilities. I thought I wasn't good at meditation, but
actually I was so good at it that I didn't recognize it! And
who said you had to sit still to meditate? I can't sit still for long periods
of time! I meditate by pacing.
My ultimate fear as a
child was that by the time I reached my current age, the magic would be gone. I
knew full well that most children lost their belief in magic and fantasy as
they got older. No portals to secret worlds. No unicorns in forests. No magic.
Not real. Only children can believe.
But since when have
I been like everybody else?! Instead, the opposite happened. I had to get a
little older to understand magick as it really was.
So now that we've
gotten that out of the way, always remember that you can do
magic and that you're never too old for it. Ever. So what is magick, and how
does it work?
We don't know. That's
the point. Precisely the point! As soon as we figure out what
magic is and how it works, it's not magic anymore. Being able to send a message
and have the recipient get it instantly, and to get a reply in a few seconds,
was magic less than a hundred years ago. Being able to make carriages move
without horses was magic about 200 years ago (now we use them every day; we
call them "cars"). Being able to cross an ocean in a day was magic.
Being able to cure diseases was magic. Thunderstorms were magic. The rising of
the sun was magic.
Science is wonderful,
but it can really ruin things sometimes! I could write a whole other document
on bridging the gap between science and magic, but we don't need to talk about
that now.
Magic is ambiguous. The
human brain hates ambiguity, which is part of why science
exists. But as soon as we figure it all out, the mystery's gone. The fun is
gone. So I can't tell you exactly what magic is or how it works. But I can tell
you what it does.
Before I explain that,
let me quickly explain the spelling. Witches spell it "magick". This
is supposedly to distinguish it from stage magic, but I don't see any need to
distinguish magick from magic tricks! I use the "ck"
spelling to distinguish it from fantasy magic. I believe all the kinds of magic
we see in fantasy novels are possible on the Astral plane (going back to
"of course it's happening inside your head..."). Unfortunately,
though I might feel a tingling, purple fire will not actually shoot out of my
fingers on the physical plane.
Contrary to popular
belief, magick is not hard, nor does it take eons to learn. Everyone-- everyone--
is capable of it, but it requires a certain kind of understanding. Sadly,
magick is not as dramatic as some people expect it to be, but it makes a huge
difference in your life. I'll give you an example:
Have you ever been
told-- by parents, teachers, friends, or anyone else-- to be positive? There
are studies showing that optimism can make a significant difference in your
life. It will make you happier and even improve your health. It will make your
day go well. (Chapter 14 of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is
a GREAT example of this!) Don't worry, be happy! There are actual studies
showing that this works... but no one knows why.
This is magick.
A bit of a buzz kill?
Maybe, for those of you that were expecting whizzes and bangs and flashes of
light, riding on broomsticks, and turning people you don't like into toads. But
it actually is quite incredible. All of a sudden, you are living a better
life, just because you chose to be happy.
Magick is about setting
intention. This was a small example, but the same idea can be used to influence
much bigger things. There are many different methods of setting intention. In
this example, the intention is set with the choice alone. It is set with the
changing of your mindset from negative to positive. But there are more powerful
ways to set intention. It has long been believed that words have power.
Speaking your desires aloud, whether in a cute little rhyme or just a
statement, will set the intention more strongly. Preforming a ritual and
invoking/evoking spirits will set the intention even more strongly.
It will summon a powerful energy (the spirit) and direct the energy to create
the change that you want to happen. If the outcome is physically possible, your
intentions are good, and you have no doubt whatsoever, it WILL work.
Magick is one step up
from prayer. Prayer is the exact same idea, but magick is stronger (there's
also quite a difference between begging a spirit to do something for you and
respectfully commanding it. Witchcraft is based on the idea that you DO have
power!).
People often ask me if
my spells work. I can't usually answer that question. I tend to do rituals more
often than I cast spells, and when I do cast spells, they come into effect as
soon as I forget about them (which is just the way they work). Magick has a
rather indirect effect.
The first lesson a
witch must learn is that he or she has the power to influence the world.
Witches should look for magic in everything. Science has explained what
thunderstorms are. But why do they happen? Why does such a show of power appear
in the sky? Why is the sky so beautiful when the sun sets? Nature is designed
so expertly, adapting to environments so precisely, that it's like someone
designed it. What is fire made of? Yes, we all know its combustion, and
combustion is a chemical reaction, but what is that and why does that happen?
Humanity does not like these questions, this ambiguity. We like to know everything.
But as soon as you know something, you don't believe in
it anymore. It loses its magic. If someone were to actually see a unicorn, the
unicorn would not be as mysterious and beautiful. It would just be another
animal with some cool abilities, like the thousands of other animals whose
unique abilities and diets and shapes and phosphorescence and locomotion and
methods of reproduction were once magical. No wonder Santa Claus never lets anyone
see him! Belief is the most important thing. Belief is key. As I explained
above, it's easy to mistake wanting to believe with actual
belief. If you actually believe, you will need no validation. If there
is any doubt in your mind, your magick will not work. The
signs you're looking for will appear, but you'll miss them, and say they
weren't there at all. One time I saw a pure white dove perching in a tree at my
Congregational church camp. I thought it was Jesus watching us. A skeptic would
tell me that the bird was not a sign, but just a bird. Of course it was only
ever just a bird! What makes it a sign is that I noticed it.
Skeptics will be
skeptics. Haters gonna hate.
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