Magic as a Way of Life

I hear some of my witchy friends deploring the fact that they don't actually do much any more to express their spirituality. No elaborate rituals, no particular observances.... I'm the same. 

For us magic is synonymous with our personal spiritual paths, so it can seem like a terrible failure of integrity if we're not actually doing any.

I tell my friends, 'You've probably integrated it into your life in ways you don't even notice any more.' 

I'm now more sure than ever that this is true. I've recently realised how very much it's the case with me. I realised it by contrast with the many people for whom it is not true because magic is no part of their lives. 

Some poetic experiences brought it home – some poems overtly about living a magical and other-worldly life as a matter of course – which my non-magical friends read as being metaphorical or about dreams or wishful thinking. I know this from comments people leave at my poetry blog on those particular poems. It's as if they can't quite hear what I'm really saying; it's too far out of their interpretation of the world.

That's no fault of their own – and in any case, they are there primarily to appreciate the poem and to comment on the poetics. But it interests me very much as witch rather than poet.

Working with Light

There's the poem I mentioned in my previous post here (this poem) which turned into instructions for working with light – real energy work with real results. I think only one commenter got it. Others were very appreciative, but more with the sense (nay, assumption) that it was a nice idea and that's all – something, perhaps, that could make me feel better, an imaginary remedy against imaginary evils. 

I link to my poems on facebook. My friends there include people I know in 'real life', some of whom are highly spiritual themselves in ways that include the esoteric, so there it was sometimes received as saying what it was indeed saying. One friend said she would immediately start teaching her very young grand-daughter how to use light in that way. Good! When I share these handy hints for free, it's nice to know someone finds them useful. How wonderful if all young children could be so taught.

Apart from that, the whole experience reminded me how often I myself use light energy in the ways I described in the poem. Often, I don't even think about it; when a situation comes up where it could be useful, I just do it. After all, it doesn't need any physical tools or great preparation, only intention and visualisation. 

At other times, such as in situations where healing is needed, I might be more deliberate in choosing to use this method, as I have a number of healing tools at my disposal. It can be a case of deciding which, or which combination, best suits the particular need in the particular circumstances. But anyway, it's a thing I do quite often, without perceiving it as a special magical practice, though it actually is.

Everyday Magic

The next poem is called Understand That This Is A Dream, so it's perhaps not surprising that some readers thought I was describing an actual dream, or a series of them. I was in fact writing to the idea that 'life is but a dream' (as it says in the old children's round, 'Row, row, row your boat...'). 

I took my title from an Allen Ginsberg poem, which might have made it clear – if everyone knew that poem, but of course not everyone does. (These days, no-one can know all the poems there are, even by famous poets.)

What my poem does is describe the events of the day on which I wrote it, some of them very mundane indeed and the rest quite commonplace for me, e.g. being 'inspired to wear / around my neck a silver dragon'. This one (not real silver so much as silver in colour):

Nearly all my jewellery carries energy, either by virtue of holding a particular crystal or by being in the shape of a symbol with power (e.g. a pentacle or a triquetra). I do get intuitive feelings as to which piece to wear on a particular day. Often I tune in on purpose when getting dressed for the day, but sometimes one piece or another will 'call' to me even before I tune in. I take such a call to be guidance as to what I need that day. (It might be protection, or extra insight, or the ability to communicate clearly and be heard ... whatever the particular crystal or symbol is empowered for.) 

This is such second nature to me, I forget that most people probably don't do it – just as I forget that it is one of the ways in which magic is incorporated into my everyday life. 

I forget too that many people (probably most) would think it sheer nonsense to believe that crystals etc, could have any power whatsoever. Others might credit it to the placebo effect, where the belief itself has results (giving the person extra confidence, for instance) which can show up in actual experiences. Some might, like me, realise that crystals have their own specific chemical compositions, and further suppose they can cause specific effects. Others would say the second part of that sentence is pseudo-science.

The point is, I take it for granted and it's an everyday part of my life. Most readers of the poem seemed to regard it as part of a dream – and not in the sense that life itself is a dream. (I would have thought that utterances such as, 'I seem to exist, along with a world / that feels real, firm to the touch' might have been a clue. But I guess I wasn't spelling it right out.)

Other things in the poem – such as 9 being a magical number, or a friend who wanted 'a jar with a red-checked lid' being given one almost immediately by 'someone who didn't know this' – are also commonplace to me.  

Spirit Visitations

People were kind and sympathetic about my poem, I Scarcely Realised, describing the turning point from when I longed for my late cat Selene to visit me in spirit, to the moment when I realised she already did – in her own way, which was always, even when she was alive, to use telepathy and plant images and ideas into my mind.

Then I went on to describe how, having finally understood that and thereby removed a block, I was able to feel it physically when she came and settled on my legs when I lay down, just as she used to in life. 

Some readers appeared to get it; others seemed to suppose it was wishful thinking or deliberate fantasy or something. (Hard to know what they were thinking; I am so far removed from a world where such manifestations as I describe can't be 'real'.)

So, in conclusion

1) I was surprised by the 'non-believer' response to these poems – and how general it was, even though there were some exceptions. Even people of a very spiritual orientation seem to prefer to think that the spirit world cannot be perceived by the senses in this dimension.

2) In showing me how different my own viewpoint is from the general one, I was able to see how much magic and the unseen are integrated into my life, not a separate thing tagged on or overlaid, or trotted out on special occasions, but just natural and normal and always there – as much there as the components of the physical world and all the behaviours which serve me well in the physical. In fact I don't generally distinguish them.

3) I do like the practice of ritual etc, too, and participate when more formal group ceremonies are on offer. I even sometimes create them for my own solitary practice. But I have also learned they are not absolutely essential and I am not necessarily failing at witchcraft if I don't do them.

4) What applies to me must surely apply to my witchy friends too. They are probably magical all the time, and don't need to beat themselves up for not doing more formal stuff. 

I think we're all simply living it.


Note: Light image is credited as Public Domain. 
The photo of the dragon pendant is mine Copyright © Rosemary Nissen-Wade 2019 and must not be re-used without my written permission.