What is Magick?

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.