What the Heck IS Magic, Anyway?
I’m going to do my writing for the #2019GrimoireChallenge just directly on my blog for the time being (I didn’t want to stick these in the middle of my OBOD course work). But anyway! The first research/journal prompt for Week 2 was Magic: what it is and how it works.
The answer to this will literally differ vastly depending upon who you talk to. So for sake of not ruffling feathers, etc. etc. this is my gnosis of the above topic.
Magic is, to put it most simply, the act of changing, attuning or manifesting something within one’s self, the world, or the web of fate and circumstance.
Now, I know that doesn’t really seem very simple at all, but stick with me for a few more paragraphs. Magic, for me, can be sort of split up as thus: the magic of life/being/awe, the magic of working change within one’s self-which can be accomplished in a number of ways, and the magic of working change in the web of fate/circumstance/etc.
The first is those moments that are magic- looking up and being taken aback by an inky sky full of stars, the way a cold wind hits you as it rips over the bay dragging a storm behind it, the way a song can make the hair on your arms or neck stand on end, or the gentle peace and awareness of wind whispering through the trees. This also applies to the magic of creating, of giving life to inspiration as it strikes us. Creating art, music, poetry, prose, gardens, literal LIFE, all of those things are magic, and they aren’t thought out spells or carefully constructed rituals, they are just the parts of life that make our lives feel, well, lively.
The second, working magic within one’s self is identifying parts of the self that need improvement, love, healing, expression, whatever, and giving them what they need in order to become more full, healthy, and grounded people. You can accomplish this with spells and rituals- by all means, those things are powerful psychological tools that help us to mentally make the shifts we need in order to actually make the changes we need in our life. This can be brought about through meditation and visualization, or through the very very mundane act of sitting down, goal setting, and getting your shit together. It’s self-alchemy, and in many ways I think it’s more important than the third type of magic.
Working magic to affect the world about me, change the web of fate, etc. is what most people usually think about when they think about spells and rituals. We raise energy and focus in order to will positive (or negative perhaps) outcomes into being. Spells work by utilizing tools: herbs, crystals, candles, etc. which energetically align with our desires, and help us to focus our intentions.
Magic in the second and third instance operates on the idea that like attracts like, if we are positive and put out our intention, the Universe will provide us with just that. If we focus on becoming a better, healthier person, and put energy into taking the steps to accomplish that, we become better, healthier people. It’s a matter of creating the changes first on a small level- in our minds, and then sending the energy out into the universe, like a ripple in a pond which (hopefully) affects the change we want to occur.
