A little bit Witchy…
It can be a strange thing…to be a Witch. No, this isn’t one of those egoic and way too-overdone “It’s so hard being magickal in a mundane world” treatises; this is a blog of a more subtle chord. A true Day in the Life of a Witch, perhaps?
I woke up this morning and had a shower, before I showered I read a few pages of Raven Grimassi’s Wiccan Magick. Yesterday I finished reading Magick in the West End by Kala Trobe, the witty and insightful English Witch whose occult anecdotes both inspire and challenge. The day before that I finished reading Modern Wicca by Michael Howard (on the day that I also conducted a workshop in Brisbane – Initiation and the Path of the Shamanic Witch), one of the most recent endeavours to illustrate the evolution of both esoterica and persona aligned with the revival of the Craft in Britain in the 20th century. Simultaneously to this, I am studying flower essences for hatred, resentment, bitterness, over-worrying, depression and meloncholy, for an exam at uni today. My mind is also in a few places concurrently…thinking about my Imbolc handfasting to my partner Greg; mentally organising (involving copious e-mails) my impending tour of the US for my most recent book (By Land, Sky and Sea); thinking about the blessed aspirants in my coven and the upcoming new moon esbat; and also receiving messages on my phone about yoga and meditation tonight, as well as Hermes, Odin and Kali revelling in wonder and wyrd with a fellow priest. All this and I haven’t even taken out a candle, lit it and muttered anything in psuedo-Latin.
Obviously I could do all of the above (especially the reading of Pagan and Witchy texts) and be no more magickal than the average check-out chick at the local supermarket (then again, she could be calling up and commanding Goetic demons in her bedroom at night). It’s all in the meaning; the feeling, too. I could contextualise it this way:
I once described spellcraft as acknowledging, accepting and affirming magick. Well, being a Witch is those three thing s as well. We have to acknowledge, accept and affirm Magick in order to celebrate it. Through this divine process emerges a magickal-awareness of the cosmos and we align with the hidden potencies (the Gods, the Immortals, the Spirits) and become allied. When I say I have friends in high places, I often mean it quite literally, if not, energetically/esoterically/spiritually.
If, as Mircea Eliade, has postulated – that the universe is multi-dimensional by its very nature/structure and that those who are called shamans are the individuals endowed with the magickal skill to be able to traverse the worlds – then I am more alive than most. I am alive to my purpose. At my most recent workshop (mentioned above) a friend and fellow WildWood priestess mentioned that shamanism is one of those defined set of skills meant for the gifted. Absolutely, I would agree. However, the world is different now. We have 6.3 billion people and growing, versus the scattered nomadic tribes dotted around the planet in the Palaeolithic. There are far more shamans (Witches, mystics, priest/esses, etc.) alive and working today because there are, by comparison, so many more people. I happen to be one of those shamans…Witches…shamanic Witches!
Tomorrow I am going to sit in my uni’s library and finish two assignments due the very next day. Not very magickal? Well, consider that while I do it I will be reflecting my mind back to events such as drawing down ancient wolf-cloaked deities and emerging from the Samhain circle needing solid ground to recover from something obscured in memory (whilst watching 20+ Witches frolicking in a circle to the ambient glow of candle-light). And yes – I will also very much be astralling out to Hermes every now and then for a bit of r and r. Perhaps I’ll even aspect the Great Lord for a while, just to give my assignments that extra oomph.