I like this definition of magic:
Magic is the art of sensing patterns, following the energy, and doing it all while staying centered and tapped into your creativity. What emerges is total transformation. What can also emerge is a very practical application of all that esoteric stuff, a vehicle through which we can use our whole skill set to bring positive change to the greatest number of people, while living by our core values. In other words, a very cool business.
If you've read my posts for a while, you know that one of my recurring themes is that Witchcraft should make one more effective in the real world. It's frustrating to me to see so many Witches and Pagans whose lives just don't work. Can't hold a job even in a good economy. Don't have a clean, safe, nurturing living space. Have serious health problems that they don't address. Can't manage their finances. Don't really have a working daily practice. And, IMHO, there's a circular effect. When my life doesn't work, it's more difficult for me to sense patterns, follow energy, stay centered, and do magic.
It's high Summer, and one should always make hay while the sun shines. And, the Moon is waning, a good time to get rid of clutter and chaos in all its forms.
Christine Kane (at 6/30/10) has some great suggestions for gaining control of your living space.
Thorn Coyle (at 6/28/10) has a very inspiring podcast up about caring for your physical body -- your main instrument for doing magic.
Many of us have a three-day weekend coming up. What one thing could you accomplish this weekend that would put you in a better place to do magic?
Picture found here.
11 comments:
Rather than watch something go up in smoke, smolder or spew fire with no other purpose than to delight the eye I will choose to create, nurture and respect Mother Earth. I will transplant a little pine tree that chose to sprout up where no pine tree could survive. I will put up another bird house and lay out some bark strips for the birds to use as padding for their nests. I will pray for the cleansing of the Gulf and praise Mother Nature in her efforts to restore the seas, and Father Time for his patience with our mistakes.
For the BEST reading about taking control (on so many levels and ways) of your home:
1) "Spirit of the Home: Making Your Home A Sanctuary" Jane Alexander
2) "Spiritual Housecleaning: Healing the Space within By Beautifying the Space Around You" Kathyrn L. Robyn
3) "Goddess at Home" A. Bronwyn Llewellyn
Love these books and re-read and enjoy them each time ....
Jan at Rosemary Cottage
My home is fairly tidy, but I find myself throwing more and more interesting objects into the ivy for the fae. This weekend -- before the heat wave re-emerges -- I will tend my outdoor shrine. It's no one's fault but my own that I built it under a pear tree.
I will have both of my daughters home for this long weekend for the first time in a very long time. As I am grounded, centered and supported by family as much as the land, I will spend the evening hours outside, with my daughters, watching the fireflies and talking quietly.
I needed to read this today. Thanks.
That's a marvelous definition. I've been wrestling with a good way to describe magic, and you've hit right on it.
It is a marvelous definition, especially the parts about the wonder of being in the flow and about bringing positive change. However, in matters of civil rights, the positive change may not be necessarily for the _greatest_ number of people (directly), it may be for the those few/minorities most affected by injustice, which then effects justice for all.
Second, since we are, as a society, practically through the looking glass, I am one who is loathe to go in the direction of things like economic success as a measure of people's effectiveness. That's a little oversimplified and lends itself all too easily to schools of thought such as social darwinism and the more hapless applications of books like the Secret, which is far too simplistic in light of theories like super-symmetry, except for the qualifier of "seeking to provide something of value, selfless of sorts, which is then rewarded by the Universe" or along those lines. Again, some of those rewards may be a swift kick by the establishment with all the attendant stressors to health and wealth, which have always, as a fact of history, been part of the deal.
wadr (mad props to you for yours), I was more tracking with your post the other day that linked to AD about G Wiz and some of the ingredients of transformation of our economy. I would put my modest nest egg on the likelihood that a lot of people who are struggling are of the ilk AD described. Theirs is a place in a transitional economy that will emerge from the ashes. Until then, the community will be more apt to make inroads and harness the strengths of all when there is a shift in what qualifies as evidence of good mojo. Everyone has to reach beyond their comfort zones.
As far as messes go, a friend of mine once worked for a micromanager of a boss. Upon returning from being out of town for business, his boss attempted to browbeat him by coming in his office and saying, 'I went through your files while you were gone and I have to say, it was a complete waste of my time." My friend just smile and said, "Really? I'm sorry to hear that." Sometimes it's about feng shui and sometimes it's about the law of diminishing returns.
Along similar lines, in the past, I have invested funds, time, heart and soul in civil & employment rights endeavors which have paid, and continue to pay, dividends that are largely intangible for me, may have tangibles for others, but nonetheless sustain and enrich my spirit. Likewise, there's a certain mojo of putting on one's fins and creating dual vortexes, more commonly known as treading water. Lastly, I just watched Wall Street tonight and wrote down this quote, spoken by Martin Sheen to his son, Charlie, in a contentious exchange about values: "What you see is a guy who never measured a man's success by the size of his wallet."
Always remember that there are those who struggle in an economy that is riddled with corruption. That they stay afloat at all is a testament of their strength of spirit. I would hope these are exactly the kind of people our community would embrace and seek for their gifts, stamina and character. Gimme your tired, poor, weary, scarred, battle-tested and true...
peace, UUgal
Wonderful and inspiring comments!
UUGal, for some reason, your comment posted several times; I've deleted all but one. I'll agree with you that economic success is no measure of a person's worth. And in these economic times, anyone can find herself out of a job, without insurance, etc. But in "normal" times (and I fear that John Michael Greer is correct and we're facing adjusting to a "new normal"), being able to support yourself and your family at a minimal, reasonable level (and, of course, there's a "zone of reasonableness") does seem to me to be part of being effective in the world, having a base from which to do magic, help others, achieve balance. Of course, in our society, especially, there's a tendency to slip out of balance in the opposite direction, acquiring "stuff" as if that were the point of being here. As always, the secret is balance.
Hecate, thanks for the cleanup on aisle one. The original comment got bloggered a couple of times before posting. You chose wisely ;)
These days, I find balance by drawing distinctions between what kinds of acquisitive behaviors are most problematic [insert example of the day here] vs. ones that are a matter of personal preference (filers v. pilers, archiving for posterity, etc., as examples). I don't think that in light of the "new normal" our focus should be on micromanaging one another's lives over minutiae, although the new normal sure does facilitate the temptation and it really is astonishingly common as a new currency in what passes for civic discourse. In other words, what's most easy for us to focus on isn't necessarily the most productive. Like shadows on a cave wall, no matter how detailed the outline, it's still just a 2-D silhouette.
I agree with Derrick Jensen that for some things, a few degrees of individual change in one direction or another isn't going to make much of a difference. Instead we need to set our sights on higher levels in the system, usually policy, and primarily whether or not it provides for meaningful feedback loops and whether or not it allows for individual differences. For me, work in these areas stands to provide the greatest good for the greatest numbers of people.
This is a great topic for more discussion and I want to thank you again for the space and the links. Here's a 10 min vid I found at kos earlier tonight on what science has to say about "what motivates us." Enjoy :) uugal
RSA animate: Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=player_embedded
Thanks Hecate, I am glad you like my (newly minted) definition of magic. Regarding the issue of injustice and civil rights, that's where the piece about core values comes in. Success means very little unless it is steered by ethics, and means way more when it is.
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