Witch Tip
Consider this: the Placebo Effect IS magic. Magic is all about directing your intent/energy to gain your desired results. Giving someone a sugar pill with the INTENT to ease their pain is providing them with something subconsciously charged with the intention to heal. If both you and the person receiving the pill intent for the same results, that’s twice as powerful.
So if you’re creating a spell bottle to calm you in times of stress, and you find that it works, but you worry it’s just the Placebo Effect… perceive it as the most “scientific” way to identify and label Magic.
@quartzbomz
I’m just one cunningwoman, but here’s my take on this concept as I see it through the lense of cunningcraft/ traditional witchcraft / etc.
There are two fields, with folk sitting in them. In one field, there is a fire, with many people gathered round it, staring into it. They say, this is the fire of Science, and naught exists but that which is within its light!
These are fools and sycophants. They disservice their own ideal.
Then there are the true champions of science, within the same field, but moving, looking away from the fire, darting over to the other field from time to time to snatch branches so the fire of Science may burn brighter and illuminate more.
In the other field is a forest. Many gather outside the forest. They say that it is the forest of Magic, and that all within it is untouched by the light of Science, and is theirs. They look over at what the light of Science has accomplished, and where it casts its glow, they sigh and retreat, for they believe what is lit by Science cannot hold the secrets of Magic.
These are fools. They disservice magic by claiming that its power is lost when given words; when aspirin is extracted from the willow, they cry that the willow has lost her power. When a word is made to encapsulate a concept not understood, when something new is discovered and the Old Ways are cast in a new light, they worry that the meagre secrets they have are simply shadows cast by Science.
The wise, who walk the crooked, winding paths between and around and within and without, know two things:
Firstly, that the forest is so, so much deeper than is known by those afraid to leave the last of the light behind.
And secondly, those champions of Science giving a new name to an old Power is not a defeat, it does not take away the milennia of ancestors honing their Craft, for here is one truth oft forgotten: all of science has only been made possible, in the last couple of centuries, by the hundred thousand years of magic before it. The fire of Science is kindled with the wood from the forest of Magic.
Beautifully put!