| Natural and Folk Magick, Philosophy and Practice. What is Magick? The first thing I need to do here is to define for you the word ‘magick’. There are 3 basic definitions of magic: The first is the ‘magic’ of the illusionist, the stage magician. The second is Hollywood magic, the ‘point and shoot’ stuff you see in the movies. What we, as pagans are interested in is a completely different sort of magic, the careful manipulation of the subtle energies within and around us. No trickery is necessary here, there are no special effects, no lightening bolts or puffs of smoke. The magick of real life witches manifests in such a way that it is barely noticed by those who do not know what to look for, in a way that compliments the forces of nature. So how does this all work? In short, we don’t really know. Some can feel it, all can learn to use it. Magick is a skill not a gift. There are many theories about what magick is here is a summary of how I see it: All matter has certain properties: Take for example a quartz crystal. It is a solid. It is clear, it is hard, it defracts the light. We are told that it is composed of silicon dioxide, of atoms held together with powerful bonds. At normal temperatures these atoms vibrate within their lattice, they have kinetic energy, or so we are told. Now imagine that the crystal has a different sort of energy, an etheric energy, separate from the physical qualities of solid, liquid, gas and energy, we call this spirit, or soul. There is a term you often hear in magical practice, ‘as above so below’ this refers to the connections between the mundane and spirit worlds, a change in one effects a change in the other. The consciousness of the human allows us to tune in to our own etheric energies (or Magick), we can manipulate them, raise energy and project it. We can also learn to connect with the energy or soul of other beings, if you hold your quartz crystal in your hand you may feel its energy, try holding the tip a short distance from your fingertip and see if you can feel it then. Natural or Ritual? Practising magick is a way of using our connections with this energy to bring about change.There are essentially two systems of magick. One is ritual magick, where one makes a change within ones own energy, or focuses a particular type of energy, the energy is raised, or focused within the body and released. This is aided by ritualized practices and psychological triggers. Chanting, dancing, visualization, drawing symbols, invoking the energies of appropriate deities in order to produce an extreme concentration on the need. Ritual Magick requires much practice in the form of exercises and smaller rituals before one becomes a proficient practitioner. Natural magick takes less formal practice, and is learned through trial and error. When practicing Natural Magick one gathers together a variety of objects that have combined energies that correspond with the intent. This can be as simple as picking a sprig of heather to wear for luck. In reality the classifications of magick above are impossible to separate, in most rituals a corresponding inscense is burned to attune the senses, candles may be rolled in herbs, magicians anointed in oils, planetary alignments are noted. In natural magick the practise of gathering the ingredients and making a charm with a specific intent is in essence a mini ritual; very few Natural magicians would fail to charge a charm with some energy of their own. So, I propose for you a new classification, Ceremonial Magick and Folk Magick. I am going to deal with Folk Magick, so I will explain a bit more about this. Folk Magick is magick we have practiced for years without realizing it. When the advent of Christianity alienated Ceremonial magicians, Folk Magick would have been seen as normal practice: Have you ever touched wood, saluted a magpie, thrown salt over your left shoulder, broken a match to prevent bad luck, looked after money spiders and ladybirds, thrown a coin into a well, thrown confetti at a wedding or wished upon a star? These are all remnants of traditional Folk Magick. Pagans have adopted and modified this practice for their own use, often with tremendous success. Folk Magick can be simple to do and have great effects, so how do we go about it? Before you start Why? The most important ingredient in any spell is intent. Magick is too important to be messed with for no good reason, it is important to consider the consequences of your actions. A spell for more money might sound like a fantastic idea, but think about it, nothing comes from nothing (Natural Magick also obeys the rules of Nature), if you want money for nothing, this means that some poor bugger is out there doing something and getting nothing. If you are going to work for your new wealth, you will have to make sacrifices elsewhere. It is impossible to have a fabulous job, a fantastic love life and a feverish social life, as a great jazz composer once said, somethin’s gotta give. So here lies the important take home message, Magick is not an easy way out. You can’t bring about the impossible, nothing will happen with a flash and a puff of smoke, Magick is hard work, before you start, make sure that there isn’t an easier option in the mundane world. It is very important to make sure that you are prepared for the consequences. While we are on the subject of intent and consequences it may be appropriate to address the less pleasant side of magick: curses, hexes and manipulation. There are many pagan codes of ethics that forbid all of the former; i don't feel it is my place to judge anyone or tell them what to do but what i will say is this: Be extra careful with these practices. When you perform any type of magick you will almost always take some of it into you or raise it before you send it on its way, some of it will stay with you; some believe in karma or the threefold rule, that what you send out will come back; even regardless of this you will be affected by whatever magick you perform. This is great news for those healers out there, but please think carefully about curses. There are rare and extreme cases where people would be prepared to take on anything for the sake of revenge, even death, in most cases however a simple brick through a window will do! Why trouble the greater forces of the universe with a job you can do yourself. BACK NEXT |