CIRCLE CLOSING
Adaption of Starhawk’s The Spiral Dance.
By the earth that is her body
And by the air that is her breath
And by the fire of her bright spirit,
And by the living waters of her womb,
The circle is open, but unbroken
May the joy of the Goddess live in our hearts
Merry meet, and merry part
And merry meet again.
When I first started work in the Craft, as a solitary, I hadn’t much use for the God. The deity Who attracted me was the Goddess. I remember communing with Her in candlelight, before an altar of old telephone books covered with blue-figured silk. I felt incorporated by Her, supported.
My concept then of the God was the God of the Christians. From my ninth year to my thirteenth, I attended an Episcopalian church, where everyone was too polite to save me, though I did enjoy singing in the Youth Choir. I found the Episcopalian services pretty on the outside, but within they seemed dry as dust. I tried to be moved, but I ended up yawning, more taken by my walks to church through the quiet, sun-splotched Sunday mornings than by the ritual. The most of God I sensed among the Episcopalians was the echo of a long-ago voice.
When I did feel a presence from the God, that presence was of God the Father. Jesus I always saw as a person, a visionary you had to respect; I never got in touch with the loving Christ. We see our gods through the archetypes we’ve found in life, I think, and I was reared in a patriarchal household, from which I wrenched fight by fight over a period of years. In that household, the looming male figure was my father, grey-haired before my birth, the raging patriarch. Though my father and I patched up our relationship as I started serious work as a witch, my wounds were still raw enough I wanted nothing to do with fathers.
One of the first books I read that spoke of witchcraft as a spiritual path was The Spiral Dance. I remember Starhawk’s descriptions of different versions of the God: the gentle, loving Blue God, the viny Green One, and the Horned God, the Hunter. But for me none of Starhawk’s gods rang true. They seemed merely constructs. The Blue God appeared too girlish, and for me green was female. I felt the Horned God as the most real, but frightening and lumpen, as if one would want to mate with a bull. I shrugged, paid lip-service to the God in the group rituals I attended, and on my own worshipped the Goddess.
Meanwhile, life went on. Though I had no vision of the God, I managed to enjoy His sex. In Ireland I had a fling with a 21-year-old boy with dyed black hair, who wore a black shirt his friend’s sister made; we drank too much ale and richocheted against the painted stone walls of his village at 2 a.m.. Back in Seattle, I dated a photographer, also younger than me, slender as a brown sapling, sarcastic; I eroticized the smell of developer. I dated men my own age, too, but I kept reverting. Take my intersection with the surly boy, a singer in a band: I fell in love with his pumped chest and pierced nipple, though we never once held a conversation without arguing. Or take my e-mail flirtation, which went on too long and was never consummated: spiky, poison-sweet, dysfunctional as a car crash.
That one finally brought me to full stop. Some of the others had been obsessions, too, but this one patently made no sense. He had a girlfriend; we’d seen each other in the flesh perhaps five times; we’d never touched. What was it about him that sent my head spinning?
Those attachments you get, which are too strong, in the end seem to have little to do with the persons who inspire them. We tend to worship the gods we see in our lives, and the corollary is that if we don’t see the gods, they try harder and harder to reveal themselves.
I came to the God slowly, through His fauns.
Luckily the gods will teach you lessons many times over. But even when you’ve learned a few things, nothing is for sure. This story I’m telling you now, none of it is “true”; it’s just the explanation I’m giving myself.
Right now for me, the God is a muse. He comes on as a lover, but he is not a husband, nor even exactly a friend, more a capricious mentor. Our relationship is only sometimes about satisfaction; mainly the point is longing.
The God inspires my fiction; the characters I find most fun to write are usually fauns. They’re not portraits of boys I’ve known, though on occasion they’ve started out to be. Often they begin as minor players, who then take on a life of their own. The God inspires them: fills them with His breath and sets them moving. As they move, they draw me into the work, and their touch inspires the other characters.
This particular God-energy seems to work better for me driving fiction than real-life relationships. My fauns were never good boyfriends; I don’t think the Muse makes a good partner. His and my relationship is about tension, a pleasurable discomfort that makes me itch. I wouldn’t want that tantalizing, unfulfilling energy in an ongoing human relationship, but it feels right in relating to a god. It keeps me writing.
But the God will not be bound only into fiction.
At a festival, I saw a boy all in leather, crouched among greenery, looking up at me: black eyes, black hair, trembling lips with a fringe of mustache. I knew for certain I wanted him when I saw him take off his shirt. At the firepit, I maneuvered to sit next to him, warmed my cold hands on his thighs.
The Aphrodite shrine was full, locked, so we found the Pan shrine. Under a fake-fur pelt, we made love by candlelight. Something there was intoxicating as whiskey, something glancing, a bit heart-rending. I remembered him a long time, and I wrote him letters, though no permanent connection came.
It was only later I saw the God was laughing at me.
In the Pan shrine? Melanie, don’t you get it?
So it is often, I think. The gods don’t just come when you call. They make cameo appearances, and later you wonder why you remember that scene.
To see Him in your life, use your peripheral vision. Some people He comforts, some He teases; it depends on what He thinks you need from Him. But never doubt the God is there.
THE ELEMENTS
The Elements have been a part of man’s ancient and arcane lore since its
inception in pre-historic times. Different traditions associate them with
various things. The following list of correspondences comes from Starhawk’s
“The Spiral Dance.”
AIR:
Direction: East.
Rules: The mind, all mental, intuitive and psychic work, knowledge, abstract
learning, theory, windswept hills, plains, windy beaches, high mountain peaks,
high towers, wind and breath.
Time: Dawn.
Season: Spring.
Colors: White, bright yellow, crimson, blue-white.
Signs of the Zodiac: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius.
Tools: Athame, sword, censer.
Spirits: Sylphs, ruled by King Paralda.
Angel: Michael.
Name of the East Wind: Eurus.
Sense: Smell.
Jewel: Topaz.
Incense: Galbanum.
Plants: Frankincense, myrrh, pansy, primrose, vervain, violet, yarrow.
Tree: Aspen.
Animals: Birds.
Goddesses: Aradia, Arianrhod, Cardea, Nuit, Urania.
Gods: Enlil, Khephera, Mercury, Shu, Thoth.
FIRE:
Direction: South.
Rules: Energy, spirit, heat, flame, blood, sap, life, will, healing and
destroying, purification, bonfires, hearth fires, candle flames,
sun, deserts, volcanoes, eruptions, explosions.
Time: Noon.
Season: Summer.
Colors: Red, gold, crimson, orange, white (the sun’s noon light).
Signs of the Zodiac: Aries, Leo, Saggitarius.
Tools: Censer, wand.
Spirits: Salamanders, ruled by King Djin.
Angel: Ariel.
Name of the South Wind: Notus.
Sense: Sight.
Jewel: Fire Opal.
Incense: Olibanum.
Plants: Garlic, hibiscus, mustard, nettle, onion, red peppers, red poppies.
Tree: Almond, in flower.
Animals: Fire-breathing dragons, lions, horses (when their hooves strike
sparks).
Goddesses: Brigit, Hestia, Pele, Vesta.
Gods: Agni, Hephaestus, Horus, Vulcan.
WATER:
Direction: West.
Rules: Emotions, feelings, love, courage, daring, sorrow, the ocean, the tides,
lakes, pools, streams, and rivers, springs and wells, intuition, the unconscious
mind, the womb, generation, fertility.
Time: Twilight.
Season: Autumn.
Colors: Blue, blue-green, green, gray, indigo, black.
Signs of the Zodiac: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces.
Tools: Cup.
Spirits: Undines, ruled by King Niksa.
Angel: Raphael.
Name of the West Wind: Zephyrus.
Sense: Taste.
Jewel: Aquamarine.
Incense: Myrrh.
Plants: Ferns, lotus, mosses, rushes, seaweed, water lillies, and all water
plants.
Tree: Willow.
Animals: Dragons (as serpents), dolphins and porpoises, fish, seals and sea
mammals, water-dwelling snakes, all water creatures and sea birds.
Goddesses: Aphrodite, Isis, Mariamne, Mari, Tiamat.
Gods: Dylan, Ea, Llyr, Manannan, Osiris, Neptune, Poseidon.
EARTH:
Direction: North.
Rules: The body, growth, nature, sustenance, material gain, money, creativity,
birth, death, silence, chasms, caves, caverns, groves, fields, rocks, standing
stones, mountains, crystal, jewels, metal.
Time: Midnight.
Season: Winter.
Colors: Black, brown, green, white.
Signs of the Zodiac: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn.
Tools: Pentacle.
Spirits: Gnomes, ruled by King Ghob.
Angel: Gabriel.
Name of the North Wind: Boreas, Ophion.
Sense: Touch.
Jewel: Rock crystal, salt.
Incense: Storax.
Plants: Comfrey, ivy, grains:barley, oats, corn, rice, rye, wheat.
Tree: Oak.
Animals: Coworbull, bison, snakes (earth-dwelling), stag.
Goddesses: Ceres, Demeter, Geae, Mah, Nephthys, Persephone, Prithivi, Rhea,
Rhiannon.
Gods: Adonis, Athos, Arawn, Cernunnos, Dionysus, Marduk, Pan, Tammuz.SPIRIT /
ETHER:
Direction: Center and circumference, throughout and about.
Rules: Transcendence, tranformation, change, everywhere and nowhere, within and
without, the void, immanence.
Time: Beyond time, all time is one.
Season: The turning wheel.
Colors: Clear, white, black.
Tools: Cauldron.
Sense: Hearing.
Plant: Mistletoe.
Tree: The flowering almond.
Animal: Sphinx.
Goddesses: Isis, the Secret Name of the Goddess, Shekinah.
Gods: Akasha, IAO, JHVH.
An altar is, customarily, an area set aside for meditation or worship, or for working magick. A shrine is ordinarily an altar, specifically dedicated to a particular energy or deity. What is the purpose of an altar or shrine, besides creating a special place for your ritual or worship to take place? There are many answers, and I offer this as a guide for beginners and more experienced people as well.
When you transform a physical area or location to focus on a divine spirit, it is then possible for that spirit to manifest in the material world. Whether it is a god or goddess, an elemental or one of the fey, it has a space and energy to create from. The idea is to cause this to be a special and sacred place of honor and adoration of the deity or spirit, so put plenty of desire and effort into your creation.
To build an altar or shrine, begin on the correct day and hour for your chosen purpose. You may determine the day and hour by looking it up in a table of correspondences, in one of Scott Cunningham’s books or in The Spiral Dance. Start fashioning a place by contemplating how much space you have to devote, where you might like it, how accessible the area is to you and how secluded it is. Importantly, if you do not wish people to ask a bazillion questions, situate your shrines where they will be private. When you think about the purpose of the altar or shrine, the deity will help guide you where best to build it; just follow your feeling or instinct.
Next, clean the space, both physically and energetically. Do a clearing or banishing with water, incense or whatever you usually use, and at the same time clean the area well. Wipe it down and take away anything that was there before. (If you wish to replace an item on the altar, cleanse and bless it first.) Once you have accomplished this, purify and bless each item for the altar and place it in its correct position. Each piece is like an ingredient in a dish; it adds to the final product. There is a distinctive energy that is produced by an altar once it is blessed, and you will come to enjoy sharing the energy there.
If what you want to create is a shrine, say a prayer of dedication to the specific deity, and with your intention and desire affect the space to be sacred to that deity. Also, as you bring in each item you may anoint and dedicate them one by one, for more power, or you may wait until the whole shrine is set up and dedicate it at the end, as a whole. Chant, sing, play appropriate background music, burn incense, do whatever helps you be in the energy of the deity you wish to venerate. Put as much energy into anointing, placing and praying over the items as you can to make the shrine very powerful indeed.
Once you have accomplished this, it’s time to invoke the deity and ask that deity to lend his or her presence and power to your shrine. Be respectful, be sincere, be reverent, but do not forget that the gods do have a sense of humor. So do not be totally surprised if something unusual happens. When you are finished, spend some time communing with your chosen deity, and hearken to the small (or not so small) voice that will speak to you.
You might try creating small altars or shrines around your house and yard. Even the workplace can become an area of worship if you are discreet and use your symbology wisely.
I have a main altar that contains my ritual working tools, a couple statues of the god and goddess I traditionally work with, offerings and some other magickal items that are special to me. I create other shrines depending on what energies I am currently working with. I have had in the past and know several people who have a shrine blessed to each god or goddess they work with. A shrine can be a nice focus for bringing in more of the energy of a specific deity.
It’s a valuable idea to keep a journal of your communications with the gods, so that over time you can look back and see how you have grown and changed in your approach. Be conscientious; keep your altars and shrines clean and well-organized (unless they’re to Eris!). Spend time engaged at your shrines every day, and you will come to have a very close relationship with the gods. Raise energy for them, and offer gifts…. remember the gods and they will remember you!
Items that you might want to place on your altar or shrine
For a working altar, you will want a number of magickal tools including, but not limited to:
For a shrine, you will want:
The suggestions following, regarding shrines to specific deities, will aid you in starting shrines, but use your personal preferences and the colors and items associated with your particular deities.
For Aphrodite, I recommend a rose-colored altar cloth, rose quartz, a statue or picture of a beautiful woman or sexually explicit photos, some Aphrodite incense, red candles, shells, pink or red flowers, water and a condom or two. Her colors are rose, red, orange, white and pink.
For Pan, think green! Provide a green or brown altar cloth. Pinecones, greenery, wildflowers, phallic-shaped stones, statues or pictures of the god, goats or a beautiful man are good, as well as animal skins (especially goatskins), Pan incense, green or brown candles, earth, mushrooms and phalluses (dildos). His colors are brown, tan, forest green, leaf green and teal blue.
For Hecate, remember she is the goddess of magick and witches as well as the goddess of death and transformation (destruction). For her, I have a black altar cloth, a crystal ball, Tarot cards, crystals, dead and living flowers, animal skulls and bones, Hecate oil and incense, black candles, an oil lamp and a threefold statue of Hecate. She likes her devotees to write poetry and songs to her, and she is somewhat jealous. Her color is black.
Mabon is the time of the autumn equinox, and the harvest is winding down. The fields are nearly bare, because the crops have been stored for the coming winter. Mabon is a time when we take a few moments to honor the changing seasons, and celebrate the second harvest. On or around September 21, for many Pagan and Wiccan traditions it is a time of giving thanks for the things we have, whether it is abundant crops or other blessings. It is also a time of balance and reflection, following the theme of equal hours light and dark. Here are some ways you and your family can celebrate this day of bounty and abundance.
Mabon is a time of balance, when there are equal hours of darkness and light, and that can affect people in different ways. For some, it’s a season to honor the darker aspects of the goddess, calling upon that which is devoid of light. For others, it’s a time of thankfulness, of gratitude for the abundance we have at the season of harvest. Because this is, for many people, a time of high energy, there is sometimes a feeling of restlessness in the air, a sense that something is just a bit “off”. If you’re feeling a bit spiritually lopsided, with a simple meditation you can restore a little balance into your life. You can also try a ritual to bring balance and harmony to your home.
Hold a Food Drive
Many Pagans and Wiccans count Mabon as a time of thanks and blessings– and because of that, it seems like a good time to give to those less fortunate than ourselves. If you find yourself blessed with abundance at Mabon, why not give to those who aren’t? Invite friends over for the feast, but ask each of them to bring a canned food, dry goods, or other non-perishable items? Donate the collected bounty to a local food bank or homeless shelter.
Apples are the perfect symbol of the Mabon season. Long connected to wisdom and magic, there are so many wonderful things you can do with an apple. Find an orchard near you, and spend a day with your family. As you pick the apples, give thanks to Pomona goddess of fruit trees. Be sure to only pick what you’re going to use — if you can, gather plenty to take home and preserve for the coming winter months. Take your apples home and use them in rituals, for divination, and for delicious recipes that your family can enjoy all season long.
Count Your Blessings
Mabon is a time of giving thanks, but sometimes we take our fortune for granted. Sit down and make a gratitude list Write down things that you are thankful for. An attitude of gratefulness helps bring more abundance our way — what are things you’re glad you have in your life? Maybe it’s the small things, like “I’m glad I have my cat Peaches” or “I’m glad my car is running.” Maybe it’s something bigger, like “I’m thankful I have a warm home and food to eat” or “I’m thankful people love me even when I’m cranky.” Keep your list some place you can see it, and add to it when the mood strikes you.
Honor The Darkness
Without darkness, there is no light. Without night, there can be no day. Despite a basic human need to overlook the dark, there are many positive aspects to embracing the dark side, if it’s just for a short time. After all, it was Demeter’s love for her daughter Persephone that led her to wander the world, mourning for six months at a time, bringing us the death of the soil each fall. In some paths, Mabon is the time of year that celebrates the crone aspect of a triune goddess. Celebrate a ritual that honors that aspect of the Goddess which we may not always find comforting or appealing, but which we must always be willing to acknowledge. Call upon the gods and goddesses of the dark night, and ask for their blessings this time of year.
Get Back to Nature
Fall is here, and that means the weather is bearable once more. The nights are becoming crisp and cool, and there’s a chill in the air. Take your family on a nature walk, and enjoy the changing sights and sounds of the outdoors. Listen for geese honking in the sky above you, check the trees for changing in the colors of the leaves, and watch the ground for dropped items like acorns, nuts, and seed pods. If you live in an area that doesn’t have any restrictions on removing natural items from park property, take a small bag with you and fill it up with the things you discover along the way. Bring your goodies home for your family’s alter. If you are prohibited from removing natural items, fill your bag with trash and clean up the outdoors!
Tell Timeless Stories
In many cultures, fall was a time of celebration and gathering. It was the season in which friends and relatives would come from far and near to get together before the cold winter kept them apart for months at a time. Part of this custom was storytelling. Learn the harvest tales of your ancestors or of the people indigenous to the area in which you live. A common theme in these stories is the cycle of death and rebirth, as seen in the planting season. Learn about the stories of Osiris, Mithras, Dionysius, Odin and other deities who have died and then restored to life.
Raise some Energy
It’s not uncommon for Pagans and Wiccans to make remarks regarding the “energy” of an experience or event. If you’re having friends or family over to celebrate Mabon with you, you can raise group energy by working together. A great way to do this is with a drum or music circle. Invite everyone to bring drums, rattles, bells, or other instruments. Those who don’t have an instrument can clap their hands. Begin in a slow, regular rhythm, gradually increasing the tempo until it reaches a rapid pace. End the drumming at a pre-arranged signal, and you’ll be able to feel that energy wash over the group in waves. Another way of raising group energy is chanting, or with dance. With enough people, you can hold a Spiral Dance.
Celebrate Hearth & Home
As autumn rolls in, we know we’ll be spending more time indoors in just a few months. Take some time to do a fall version of spring cleaning. Physically clean your home from top to bottom, and then do a ritual smudging. Use sage or sweetgrass, or asperge with consecrated water as you go through your home and bless each room. Decorate your home with symbols of the harvest season, and set up a family mabon alter. Put sickles, scythes and bales of hay around the yard. Collect colorful autumn leaves, gourds and fallen twigs and place them in decorative baskets in your house. If you have any repairs that need to be done, do them now so you don’t have to worry about them over the winter. Throw out or give away anything that’s no longer of use.
Welcome the Gods of the Vine
Grapes are everywhere, so it’s no surprise that the Mabon season is a popular time to celebrate winemaking, and deities connected to the growth of the vine. Whether you see him as Bacchus, Dionysus, the Green Man, or some other vegetative god, the god of the vine is a key archetype in harvest celebrations. Take a tour of a local winery and see what it is they do this time of year. Better yet, try your hand atmaking your own wine! If you’re not into wine, that’s okay — you can still enjoy the bounty of grapes, and use their leaves and vines for recipes and craft projects . However you celebrate these deities of vine and vegetation, you may want to leave a small offering of thanks as you reap the benefits of the grape harvest.
Getting Started On Your Spiritual Education Path
Any spiritual practice requires research and study. Witchcraft is no different
than any other path. Here is some basic info, words of caution, and suggestions
for reading and starting your research.
How Can I Learn More?
If you are one of the many people looking for information on how to become a
witch, there are a few things you should ask yourself first.
1. What is your reason for wanting to be a Witch?
If your reason is simply so you can cast a spell, it’s the wrong reason and you
might find more information if you look for Spellcraft, than Witchcraft.
If your reasons are truly from an interest in the faith or you feel drawn to the
Craft as a religion, then you maybe on the right path. But you should learn more
and make an informed decision.
2. Are you willing to live by the spiritual laws as a way of life?
If you are, or if you’re not sure, do a lot of research on your own and find out
as much as you can about the path you’ve chosen.
3. How Do I Get Started?
Read, learn and read a lot more. Do your own research, and not just from magikal
books or reference manuals. Through studying history, other religions and how
they all inter-relate and interact. I have a favorite saying for this type of
education: “Books can give you knowledge. But only your own personal experiences
give you wisdom to decide your own path.”
Words of Warning.
Don’t take one persons word or teachings as the only truth or as the only way on
this or any spiritual path. No one person has all the answers for you. Only you
know what rings true within your own heart and soul.
When it comes time for you to chose a mentor, be very cautious. There are a lot
of novice people claiming to be a High Priest or Priestess.
The best advice I could give is find someone who can prove they have practiced
the path for several years (my standard is 10 years or more).
Don’t just take their word for it.
Find someone who is willing to answer your questions without charging you money.
Taking a class and paying for an instructors time is NOT the same thing as
finding a “spiritual teacher”. (Classes are wonderful for making new friends and
learning in a group.)
What you should really be looking for is a mentor or guide, not a person who
thinks they have the right to tell you what to do or believe.
Lastly, always question!
Question everything you are told and everything you read.
Research other material to validate what you are being told or what you read in
a book.
Make sure that a book is supported by other books and by history itself.
********************************************
Where Can I Get More Information?
You can begin your study through several publications. Below is a list of a few
I like. If you’re truly interested in beginning your study, start at the top and
go through the list. You’ll also find an extensive resource on our Books &
Resources page.
But if you can’t wait, start now through the many wonderful web sites on the
internet. Of course I like our site, but it’s not the only pagan education site
on the web.
You should start with the basics, an understanding of metaphysical principles.
Then move on to the lessons of the craft. It will make your journey into magik
much easier to understand and utilize.
***************************************************
Where Can I Get More Information?
My students start their research on these first 4 books to gain basic
understanding of the spirit, energy and your own inner awareness. To be read in
this specific order:
* Spirit Guides by Iris Belhayes
This gives you a basic understanding of how you can work with spirit to learn,
advance and enlighten. Something that’s key to any spiritual development.
* Opening To Channel by Sonya Roman & Duane Parker
This builds on Spirit Guides. Where the first book gives you the basic
understanding of spiritual guidance; this one tells you how to better
communicate with spirit. Not just spirit guides; but the Divine as well.
* Living In The Light by Shakti Gwain
This book describes our responsibility and accountability to our own path. I
love this book and feel that it truly changed my life. So I added it to my list.
* The Spiral Dance by Starhawk
The first book into Witchcraft. StarHawk and Dorien Valiente are, in my humble
opinion, the mothers of modern Witchcraft. Both have a great understanding of
the path, it’s spirituality and purpose.
******************************************************
What Path/Tradition Do I Chose?
When you are starting your research, the “tradition” should be the last thing on
your mind.
Before you can find a practice for your beliefs, you have to understand the
beliefs.
When you have established this base of knowledge, I would suggest you follow
your heart.
If you feel drawn to Faeries, research Faery Traditions, or Native American
cultures research Shamanistic practices.
If you feel drawn to your Irish heritage, research Celtic traditions.
If you feel drawn to your Scandinavian heritage, research Norse traditions.
If what you’ve heard about Wicca appeals to you, research the various Wiccan
traditions. And so on.
The point is, the tradition you chose should ‘feel’ comfortable and natural to
you.
***********************************************
What Do I Call Myself?
For now, if you need a label, call your self a “beginning pagan”.
After getting an understanding of the basics of belief and metaphysical
principles, my students are required to pass a written and oral test.
At that time, they’ve earned the right to claim the title of Apprentice. Some
chose to change it as Apprenticing Witch, Apprenticing Pagan, or for those who
have the ambition and desire, Apprenticing Shaman.
Some people think they can study a tradition and claim the title of that
tradition.
There are many Wiccans who follow that practice.
The problem is, many traditions such as Wicca, require a process of initiation
before claiming the title.
To many practitioners of those traditions that require initiations, claiming the
title without the formal education is seen as disrespectful and insulting.
There is no shame in claiming that you are a “beginning practitioner”.
Many established Pagans, Priests/Priestesses and Elders will have a greater
admiration and respect for you if you’re honest about your standing.
They will also be more likely to help you and answer your questions.
And one day- YOU will be the “teacher” to a “beginner” 
author unknown**
by Janice Van Cleve
When I began this article two years ago, I got nowhere. Either I was not ready to write it, or the article was not ready to be birthed, or maybe the world was not ready to see it. It languished for months until one day my editor gave me a deadline. Suddenly I was ready, the words came forth, and you are reading it. Was it magick? Certainly my skills and knowledge continued to grow over the years, but they were not enough. It took a need to kindle the will. The will found the path that knowledge alone could not. A deadline is a powerful spell!
So what is this thing we call magick and how does it work? Its very name conjures up images of mystery, delight and power. Its tools are everything from “an eye of newt and toe of frog” in Macbeth to “the Force” in Star Wars. It has been judged both good and bad, depending upon the outcome or the perceiver. It either explains the unexplainable or creates it. Magick reaches beyond the reality we know.
The reality we know is relative. Science continually extends our capabilities to discover and to document our reality. We all recall the old movie: Natives capture explorer. Explorer uses magnifying glass to start fire. Natives are awed. They embrace the event as an act of magick. To the explorer, it was just basic science. What is magick for one person may not be magick for another.
Thousands have died of HIV/AIDS, but now new combinations of drugs are apparently able to restore T-cell counts and hold the fatal disease in remission. Lives that used to focus on early death are now faced with the challenge of life, career and old age. Was that magick? It took years of methodical research and countless tests to produce the drugs, yet the effect was to transform lives and create futures where none existed before. So what was a reality yesterday may not be a reality today.
As science continues to observe, analyze, synthesize, replicate and document the unknown, it converts the latter into knowable reality. This act itself may seem magickal to those outside a particular field of research, but the fact that we know that somebody knows how it works — even if we don’t ourselves — removes it from magick to science. Even the practitioner does not need to know how it works as long as the procedure produces predictable results. Many medicines were invented by wise women of the village from their own experience, which later have been revalidated by modern doctors. Shamans at Stonehenge may not have known modern astronomy, but their observations allowed them to predict the seasons and eclipses with accuracy.
Most everybody loves to watch magic tricks. My favorite is the rope trick. When the magician slides that knot off the end, we marvel and applaud. Yet we know that the magician presents us with a disconnected reality, by hiding the intermediate steps in the process. We deliberately participate in this disconnected reality for our amusement. While we ourselves may never discover just how the trick was performed, we are nevertheless confident that it is indeed a trick and not really magick.
So if science continues to expand reality and trickery only manipulates our perception of it, where is the magick? Somewhere the power of the will must operate to make the impossible possible, to span realities, and by definition to do so with deliberate intent.
Who can do such things with more deliberate intent than marketers? Think about it. “Things go better with Coke.” “The Friendly Skies of United.” Joe Camel. The engineering that goes into a marketing message is one of the most highly developed sciences in the world. Millions of dollars and countless hours are invested in creating a perception that will catch on with the public and become a household word. Nobody uses tissues; they use Kleenex — even if the tissue in their hand is a Crown Z product. Nobody photocopies; they Xerox — even on a Canon copier. These are examples of very successful brand marketing achievements created and abandoned as business dictates. They have no basis in science. After all, things go very well without Coke, the skies have no friendly emotions, and camels don’t smoke.
Marketing creates powerful realities, not all of which are intended or beneficial. The Nike swoosh is a registered trademark with legal standing in court, while a 20-year relationship between two lesbians with children has no standing. A high-school student is suspended from school for wearing a Coke T-shirt on Pepsi appreciation day. (I’m not making this up. It happened in Atlanta!) A child in Detroit was even killed for his sneakers because their brand and style had been elevated by advertising to have a higher value than a human life.
Is this not magick? It is an act of will that deliberately alters reality on many dimensions in symbolic language. It is widely understood, and it has clear, tangible outcomes that are not always intended. By extension as a tool of the state, it has created nations like the two Koreas and has eliminated nations like those of the Native Americans. It both imposed apartheid in South Africa and overthrew it. Marketing’s magick bubbles only bursts when marketers cannot sustain the illusion, as when the lofty rhetoric of clashing ideologies is reduced to counting chads.
The Internet has also changed reality at will. A Montana rancher, hundreds of miles from the nearest library, who has never been out of the country, is completing his doctoral thesis on eighteenth-century Russian literature from the University of Minsk in Belarus. A surgeon in Kinshasa, Congo, is performing a delicate operation with the help of a team of specialists online at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York.
The Internet has created a connectedness of human consciousness unparalleled in history. It has created a new dimension where virtual images have all but replaced the tangible entities they represent. The almost instantaneous transmission of human thought and emotion, brain to brain, across hundreds of miles is very nearly an out-of-body experience — a “sending.”
Is this not magick? Parties can transcend physical reality to operate with deliberate intent in a virtual cyberspace and affect tangible outcomes. They can enter and exit multiple webs at will. From warfare to Wall Street, lives and fortunes are directed by digital images.
Disappointed? Were you looking for magick in a cauldron and found this article telling you to look in a computer? Were you looking for magick in an incantation and instead found it in a commercial? The word “magick” has been used in many different and often conflicting ways. Starhawk in The Spiral Dance defines magick as “the art of changing consciousness at will.” She calls magick an art of elaborate metaphors, not truths. She warns us that if we use these metaphors “for glib explanations and cheap categorizations, they will narrow the mind instead of expanding it and reduce experience to a set of formulas that separates us from each other and from our own power.”
From this viewpoint, magick is not only an alternate reality to be reached and relinquished at will, it is also a personal consciousness of ourselves in relationship to the interconnectedness of all people, and ultimately the interconnectedness of the whole universe. Magick is not about changing tangible things or intangible images so much as it is about changing our own personal relationship to them.
Years ago, I bought into the patriarchal, suburban, career Yuppie philosophy and alternately valued and despised myself by those yardsticks. Then came the layoff, the collapse of my savings, resume rejections and finally the emergency room at the hospital. I had to let go of the old yardsticks. From inner values, I visioned a new place for myself in the world that had more to do with who I was instead of a corporate title. I learned to give generously and to receive graciously, to be part of the flow rather than looking for paybacks. As it turns out, I prospered even by the old yardsticks, but it didn’t matter anymore. I took risks I could not have imagined earlier, and I achieve incredible goals as commonplace occurrences in the new flow of my life.
Was that magick? Indeed it was. Often we read stories of ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things. We read about their courage or determination, and sometimes we reflect how different their attitude is from our own. Coaches say attitude is everything, and counselors teach us that affirmations help build our self-esteem. However, unless these become integrated parts of our lives and we become integrated as well into the whole universe, they will have no magick for us.
A cup may be half-empty or half-full. Neither science, nor tricks, nor marketing, nor computers can change the volume inside the cup. A pessimist may complain; an optimist may be grateful. But the worker of magick? She drinks!
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