Magic is about participation

magic is revolutionary

Somewhere in the doom loop of scrolling on social media I came across a stylized bright blue text post that read something like, “Magic is about control, and spirituality is about surrender.” My first thought was, this person doesn’t understand magic. 

Magic is a word that is very difficult to define, because it has become a vessel for so much cultural baggage. For some the word magic elicits ideas of make-believe or sleight of hand. For others magic conjures visions of practicing occultists, typically male presenting. For me magic implies something sacred. The word magic itself originates from a Persian word for a priestly class, or a cult of practitioners. Magic is performed by magicians, whether for theatrical purposes or for healing. To access or wield magic, one has unlocked some kind of wisdom, skill, or gnosis. But just what is that power that magic refers to? What were those ancient priests practicing? 

Those who practiced magic in ancient societies were perhaps selected for the role because of their proclivity, interest, destiny, or through other societal protocol. Perhaps magic chose them. When we practice magic we are embracing a dynamic participation with the universe. Magic awakens an awareness of the power of the cosmic forces both around and within us. When working magic, we are in collaboration with a host of spirits, elements, energies, and desires. Working magic is the act of channeling energy, of being a vessel for intelligence, of directing spirits with intention and permission. Magic itself is cosmic intelligence, and those who work magic do so with a wide range of intention and outcome. 

Over the centuries magic has been demonized by those who wish to dominate and control people. Those oppressive forces (religions, governments, fascists, and narcissists) understand just how powerful magic is as a tool for liberation, and therefore they must condemn it in order to succeed. Magic, when practiced outside of the narrow confines of christian or patriarchal thinking, is an empowering art that teaches the practitioner about their own agency, while also demonstrating how interconnected our cosmos truly is. Magic empowers us to tap into the love of all our ancestors, and to channel that energy into achieving our personal goals. Magic has us calling upon deities of land and mythos to support the health and wellness of communities. Maybe you are already wielding such magic. There is an immense amount of power at our fingertips. 

If we understand magic as a connecting principle, we also understand it to be a neutral force, readily utilized by the will of the magician, witch, or creatrix. Those who understand the true potential of magic to empower and destroy, are humbled by it. Similarly those who wish to exploit and dominate others have for centuries used magic to disempower, hex, and cast illusions to distract us from our own access to magic itself. Think of all the acts of sheer magic Jesus enacts in the biblical tales, and how fervently Christianity condemns the practice of occultism, witchcraft, and magic. Magic is not, or at least no longer, reserved for the elite few. The kyriarchy wields magic to suppress, while the people wield magic to liberate. Oppressive forces don’t want us to be attune to the power of magic, for they fear what would come of a population that is empowered, resourced, and artfully aligned with the cosmos. 

True magic is not manipulation. True magic is collaboration. True magic is participation with all that is and all that will be. One cannot be magically powerful without the collaboration of their breath which is air, their will which is fire, their imagination which is water, and their physical body which is earth. Through the medium of our animal existence, and the inextricable truth of our interconnection, we are able to practice magic. 

I am drawn to these ideas now, at such an important juncture in our collective evolution. I find myself wondering about the role magic plays in our revolutions, knowing full well how revolutionary magic is and always has been. Magic has been used against us, and continues to be used by the kyriarchy, to cast spells of supremacy and division. And we too have magic at our disposal, magic to bind and break curses, magic to weave together new systems of justice, magic to heal generations of harm. 

In these moments of mounting crisis, with systems of oppression deeply ingrained into culture and society, we must remember that big spells take time, intention, and layers of activation. The work that each of us enacts as hedge riders, wyrd ones, herbalists, oracles, is a part of a larger spell of enchantment that we are collectively casting. We human magic makers are not working alone or isolated. A solitary witch is a misnomer.  We fortify each other’s magic without even knowing it. By working our witchery we are affirming the power of magic. By communing with our spirit allies we are strengthening their ability to support us, to work with us, to effect change. When we speak to the rose bush, and ask permission to harvest medicinal herbs, we are also affirming the magic inherent in our non-human kin. All of these actions fortify our magic, our ability to collaborate and co-create, and actively deny those oppressive forces their ability to control us. Magic makes us ungovernable by reminding us of our interconnected agency for change, for healing, for repair. 

I’ll leave you with a quote that I’ve been tumbling through my system of late: 

“Sincere prayer could save us, but most of us in these days have come to doubt that prayer can change things, for we no longer think of Nature as a living being who can be requested to show us Her compassion.” Svoboda, The Greatness of Saturn.

May you sincerely believe that your magic is palpable, living, collaborating, and shifting worlds. 

What happens between the worlds, heals and changes all the worlds ~