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Do You Believe in Magick?
By Tarish
Witchcraft, Wicca or simply The Craft—these words conjure up different pictures in different people's minds. It touches the imagination, to think, or to know that this ancient craft/religion/philosophy/way of life is still practiced in our high tech society.
The practitioners of these paths are not crackpots, or the disillusioned, at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale. For the most part, they are intelligent, well-educated and solidly middle class people, who have made a commitment to the spiritual side of their lives. Witches live in constant wonder at the magic of the world around us. Learning how to use the energies inherent in this world, to perform magick, is only one side of the Witch's life, however. Most dedicate a good portion of their lives to performing the Great Magick: the conscious evolution of the soul.
As a practicing Witch, one must be dedicated to an ideal. "How can you believe in magic?" someone once asked me. "How do you know it's raining?" was my reply. If you get wet, you can assume it's raining. If your life is improved via an insubstantial, unprovable something, you can assume it's magick. Whether you choose to call it a miracle, an answer to a prayer, divine intervention or whatever, magick will work in your life as it has in countless millions of lives all over the world, throughout the ages. It is a simple matter of faith; a trust in your own ability to recognize and take responsibility for your own destiny.
People have explained some parts of the magick that were just taken for granted in lives past. They call it science. That does not negate the power of the magnet! When something inexplicable is explained, it tends to lose some of its glamour. The healing arts were, for many, many centuries, considered within the realm of woman's magick. Just because men now predominate in the field, and the principles of why and how things work are more clearly understood, by no means negates the very real power of what we now call medicine.
Of course, there remain a myriad of areas in which people have not penetrated the mysteries. The human mind is only slightly better understood than it was two hundred years ago. Inexplicable events and phenomena and confuse, while scientists work diligently to explain, qualify, quantify or disprove their very existence. It is, I believe, a sad commentary on our modern world: that the wonder and mystery of things must be ripped away or else they don't exist. Sometimes, there is more wisdom in the simple faith of the Shaman, or wise woman. They do not `know' how the magic works, they only know it does. Many so-called scientific breakthroughs have been a direct result of studying the folk magick of our more technologically primitive brethren. Although modern society has advanced by quantum leaps, technologically, our spiritual evolution has yet to catch up. As a species, we have lost our balance and threaten the very fiber of life itself. Witches strive to maintain that balance, and to assist in our own spiritual evolution.
As a Witch/Wiccan, I worship Life in the personification of the Great Mother and the Lord of the Hunt. These are my "Gods," although, in truth, it is Life itself, the Source of all being, which is at the heart of my reverence. We all contain elements of that life force within each of us. Sometimes it is instantly recognizable and sometimes carefully disguised, but every thing contains a particle of divinity.
If you are just coming to the Craft, there are many teachers available. Books (which in lives past would have been burned as heretical ramblings, along with their authors) are widely published. The secrets are revealed for all that would choose this path. I recommend Starhawk, Cunningham, Buckland and Sybil Leek. The Witch of Salem, Laurie Cabot has recently published a wonderful work called The Power of the Witch. But, the most important part of becoming a Witch is feeling. Open yourself, your soul, your mind and your body and it will come. Whether it is a simple white candle lit on the first night of the full moon, or an elaborate ritual, complete with magical robes and clouds of incense, it is the feeling that's important.
Whether you call Her Cerridwyn, the Cailleach Bheara, Isis or Mary, the Goddess that is within you is the feeling you get from watching the daily rising of the sun, or your wonder at the phases of the moon. Cernunnos, Osiris, Ye, Dambhalla or just God, He is that spark in you which revels in the wild places of the world, or moves you to higher expectations of yourself.
Witches do not worship the Devil; we do not relish power over others. We recognize the Light and the Dark in all things, for without one, the other could not exist. We strive always, to keep the Light in our lives, balanced against the Dark side of our nature, which is Human.
Through many incarnations, our spirits develop. If you have studied Cabbala, this is path working between the spheres. Even if you have not studied, the working is the same. Practice, in every facet of your life, the tenets of the Wiccan Rede "`An it harm none, do as thou wilt," but carry it further.
Now, on the cusp of the Aquarian Age, things are changing, and so is the balance. Pagans, mystics and spiritual people of all ways are tipping the scales, ever so slightly, toward the Light. If we can manage to keep our wonderful Earth, Gaia, alive, there is yet a bright hope for our primitive species.
Blessed Be! |
