She isn't just baking cookies, stitching outfits, penning sketches, drafting stories, [doing surgery, writing briefs, managing associations, editing national business journals, running volunteer organizations, hiring for government agencies] alone in her sanctuary, in some isolated bubble of creativity. The [W]itch's work is more than simply personal expression. She is fully involved in and conscious of the ongoing creation of the wider world in which she lives. As such, her work affects others, as [] she is affected by others' presence; and it is becaues others are involved that she asserts such control over every task. Yet that control is not imposed on her; whatever she is expressing, the skilled [W]itch does so with complete freedom. Without the freedom to act as she wants or need to, her magical art is entirely compromised.
There are two basic keys that allow her this freedom.
The first is a profound understanding of her emotional self. . . . [She] know[s] that [her] power is dependent on an ability not just to feel emotions as they rise within or around [her], but to manage those forces of [her] human nature.
Emma Restall Orr in Kissing the Hag: The Dark Goddess and the Unacceptable Nature of Woman, pub. by. O Books.
Too many of us never even bother to attempt to manage the forces of our own human nature before stepping up and asking to command the powers of the universe. How many Witches have you known who couldn't manage, hell, who couldn't even control, their own emotions out of a paper bag? Managing the forces of our own human nature is an ongoing work. Have you begun it? How? When? Why? What do you do daily to grow in this area?
For me, recently, it's meant showing up to walk on the treadmill, even on those days when I don't "want" to do so, even when the stress of my workday would give me a "good" excuse, even when, left it its own devices, the force of my human nature could convince me that I "deserve" a day off. That seems awfully "mundane." But, if my word's no good on this plane, what can I expect it to mean when I move between the worlds and start making declarations? I have to wake up every morning and recommit. Because I believe with all my heart that I have been called to do the work of a Witch. What work calls to you?
Picture found here.
5 comments:
I love this post. It's really timely, too, as I've been working on my priorities in order to be more productive. I should print this out and paste it into my Druidry journal. Thank you!
As I once said, if you can't keep a vow made to yourself, what makes you think that your word is good with Any One or Any Place else?
Kathy,
Thanks! It's comments like yours that keep me coming back to this practice of blogging!
Lavanah,
Exactly. And we fail, I fail, we all fail, sometimes. But if this work is Our Work, we get back up and try again. If we're going to walk into the dark, call and command elemental powers and Goddesses of Unmeasurable Power, we'd better have done some work on controlling ourselves. IMHO.
Is it a matter of management and control, or more in the way of, as you wrote, commitment? A nice piece of advice I once received from a very wise woman: "If you're doing it, then do it." Simple enough--not always easy, especially when you really don't feel up to working out on the treadmill, but simple.
I was falling into rationalization. Finally started walking and exercising. Last night I wanted to take a nap. I got out and walked instead. Thanks for helping me to see what an important commitment that is; not just for my body but for my spirit and the surrounding energy.
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