What Is Magick?

Magick

What is Magick?

As we take a look at this concept, I want to quickly tell you why I spell magick with the “k”. In writing, since Wiccan students read so much, it is important to differentiate between the type of magic where we bend energy to manipulate an outcome and the “art of illusionary magic” such as the art of entertainment with illusionists. From the Occult type of magick which is the art of using energy to create and manifest change, it is not an illusion but more through the power of the mind. There is a distinct difference between them. I Don’t mean anything like telepathy or telekinesis. I mean the psychology of Magick. That is a whole conversation of its own.

In Wicca, magick is used with the intent to change or manifest the desired outcome. It is done with a purpose in mind. To clear any confusion as to what type of magic I am speaking of in this article, I will use the “K” when I am speaking of manifesting with intent as seen in witchcraft.

On the internet, it is easy to find spells that are clearly intended for entertainment and clearly serve no real purpose other than for entertainment. This type of magick is great! When you want to have a party or need entertainment, This is exactly what type of magician I will be calling on. However, these spells may be to change the color of your eyes which can be done without magick with a pair of colored contacts or other things that don’t really mean anything of importance when it comes to changing your situation or circumstances.

So, when I have a real need, I know to go to a Magickal practitioner of whatever type of cultural Magick I believe in. It is hard for me to trust a practitioner of a different culture if I don’t understand that particular tradition of Magick and if I don’t have any understanding of it, can I believe in it? Traditions are based on Culture. It does require belief in the practitioner, the magick, and the Tradition.

For the purpose of this discussion, I will only refer to Magick which offers an opportunity for the real benefit and I will not be speaking of the kind that is used to entertain friends at school or parties.

Magick is not black or white or gray. It actually has no color. It can’t really be seen by the ordinary physical eye. It is simply perceived. Much like electricity, magick is energy. This energy is both positive and negative and yet… is neither.

Confusing? Magick isn’t good or bad on its own but becomes whatever intent you give it. If you intend to use it for bad or negative purposes such as hurting someone or something in a negative way then for that instance, it becomes negative or bad. If you intend to use it for something good or positive then it is positive and good.

If someone asks you if you are a White Witch or a Black Witch, what they are really asking you is simply, are you a good witch or a bad witch?. The type of Witch you become will depend on how you use magick. It will depend on what type of intent you have as you use magick and magick is fluid. I honestly see All Witches as just witches. I have skills in a variety of things. I use crystals, herbs, and other things, I also hedge ride, sometimes I may do some kitchen witchery, and so on. How I categorize different types of Witches is simply by the traditions of their culture. So things like Wiccan Traditions, British Witchcraft, British Traditional Witchcraft, Hoodoo, voodoo, Strega, and other variations of the craft from all cultures around the world.

It is growing more popular in various traditions of Wicca that Magick should rarely be used if at all and some believe Wicca has nothing to do with Witchcraft or Magick. That is not how Wicca was intended to be and this is what I believe.

What I believe, practice, and teach is this:

1. Magick is definitely a part of my practice as a Wiccan.

2. It takes more than an incantation or the mere words and objects of spells to make something manifest or to create change with magick.

3. With experience, one learns that not everything needs magick to change because we learn that we possess personal power and simple action on our part is “all that is necessary to create change”. Magick is a tool that is used to help us take that action or steps needed in most circumstances where a little energetic influence is needed.

4. Magick isn’t a fix-all by any means and things don’t just manifest through osmosis. It actually takes action along with intent and will to make magick happen.

5. It is my practice and belief that Wicca is a tradition of Witchcraft and it is also a religious practice that includes the practice of Witchcraft.

6. It is not possible to be two separate religions such as Wiccan and Christian, however, it is possible to be a Wiccan Witch, Christian Witch, Jewish Witch, and so on.

7. It is always important to consult with oneself when deciding on what is right and what is wrong for one’s self.

8. I am not a Christian and there is in no lifetime any moral expectation that I should turn the other cheek and simply accept and allow attacks on me from others for any reason. People are horrible creatures and they do horrible things to others. We will NEVER be expected by any Deity to take abuse and to allow attacks. That is not what ANY practice of Witchcraft is about.
9. Witchcraft is about Empowerment, NOT disempowerment. Even In Christianity, God tells his followers to go into a land that God promised them. That land already belonged to another group of people and God told his people to go in and kill everyone, man, woman, and child. It was such a horrendous order that they disobeyed God and instead of killing everyone, they turned most of them into slaves and concubines. If we seriously take a look at religion, honestly, there really isn’t anyone except slaves that are expected to turn the other cheek and just take abuse and attacks.

Magick is the use and control of energy used to create CHANGE IN YOUR LIFE AND THE WORLD IN WHICH YOU LIVE.

There is never a reason for a Witch to use violence, or bully anyone to control them because Witches have control over themselves and therefore can properly influence those around them. The more knowledge and understanding a Witch has about people, the world, and everything in it, the wiser the Witch becomes. That is why it’s so important for a healing Witch to never stop learning. You will never know everything there is to know and the more you know, the more power you possess.

Learning about Magick from an instructor is only part of the learning experience. When it comes to magick, it takes experience to really comprehend what it is and how to use it. It is a process of transformation of the practitioner.

One skill of being a witch should include a “Bullcrap” detection skill. That is the magick found in having a firm sense of self and the use of critical thinking. Being familiar with your shadow side as well as who you are with a firm foundation in integrity is one of the true goals of a witch. That is one of the most powerful skills of a Witch. A Witch can’t make real healing progress in life without establishing that first. In American Society today, so many people are being manipulated and controlled to throw themselves “under the bus” for the cause and agenda of the politicians, which only furthers the politician’s agenda of oppressing the population and not the people’s lives.

How this is happening is simply because many of these people are wounded and vulnerable. They don’t have a strong sense of self and self-worth, and they don’t have critical thinking skills. They don’t know what they don’t know. It’s the responsibility of the Witch to see through all the lies and deception. Witches have that power IF and only IF they choose to use that power. (hint: learning accurate information about the world around you and how it actually functions is a key to critical thinking) Using the skill of critical thinking helps the Witch wade through the crap with just a little effort. But with all things in Witchcraft, that too is a choice. Critical thinking must be developed. It is a journey of transformation.

Going to mainstream college is not going to help you with critical thinking any longer. They have amputated that part of education to keep the new generations ignorant of Disinformation and Misinformation. I’ve already seen the changes since I’ve been to college. I didn’t learn critical thinking in college. I learned it through the school of hard knocks. I’ve had a lifetime of lessons about the world and how it functions in real-time.  I grew up in a Narcissistic type of abuse, and I had to get really good at fact-checking. Being autistic gave me certain skills or drive that helped me understand the world around me as well.

 

Exorcising the Evil Spirits from the Pentagon, by the Fugs.

 The biggest thing about Magick and Witchcraft is that it doesn’t require you to use it. It is just a choice you have. Seriously, it is perfectly acceptable in modern times to Simply do some little things like collect cool witchy knick-knacks and other cool things and put on your label of Witch, and as long as you burn some herbs and candles once in a while and you appreciate crystals and collect feathers, and you do it with a spiritual intent in mind because you believe in it, that is perfectly fine. 

Not everyone wants to be a powerful witch. Some people just want to feel connected to the spirit a little deeper with certain spiritual practices such as carrying a rabbit’s foot or burning sage. It is perfectly fine to simply have an appreciation for the craft and simply be a part of this community. It is perfectly fine to simply be a believer and a supporter of witchcraft and to include some of the practices now and again when you hire someone to help with Magickal needs. We all have some connection to ancient wisdom that has been passed down from our ancestors. All ancestors of all humans. It is found in the mundane world around you. It is found in your granny’s traditional holidays and superstitions that we have since dismissed.

I have been revisiting my family traditions as well. I come from unique culture, and some of that has been left behind through the years, and some of it has been lost through antiquity from generation to generation. In my own personal practice, I have removed a lot of the Christian influence from my practice, but I can’t take it all out. I have modified those Christian practices to work with my Wiccan ones. In my immediate family, my family traditions started to become lost when I was about 5 years old, and my mother was visited by Christians. Our culture already had been heavily influenced by Christianity, but it was in a very different way. Much like Christian Witchcraft but from the flavor of our culture.

A lot of what I practice is folk magick.  However, I still do use some of those Christian components in some of my magick, as well as the Wiccan ones. I still sing praises unto the lord and things like that, but I also sing praises to the goddess and other pagan chants. My focus is slightly different but just as effective. I didn’t learn how to read “playing cards” or “tea leaves,” but I have discovered a different set of skills for my life than what my mother’s path was.

For, I grew up with a lot of abuse. This abuse wasn’t because of my autism. They would have abused me anyway. They abused all five of us kids, and I am the only one with Autism as far as I know. Before I really discovered the ancestral pagan connections within my immediate family traditions, I had to go through almost 6 years of therapy to uncover what was buried under all that trauma and pain. Once I had removed layer after layer of trauma and pain with my therapist, who helped me put this crap in its proper perspective, it was then that I started seeing the connections of what I will call “influence from my ancestrial past”. Ok, I’m talking right down to Irish Soda Bread, holiday traditions, and superstitions that are passed down. My mother had a lot of little sayings that she used a lot to communicate certain lessons about human traits, behaviors, or expectations.

You will likely be surprised when you begin to recognize the small ancestral things from your own family. If you are adopted, then you will find power in that as well. In fact, it doesn’t even matter about your RACE or ethnicity. That doesn’t matter. It is about reference and connection. It is about Correspondence. I do believe that we find our power through the connections that we grew up with. That is why I say ancestral. It is exciting when you discover the “Witchiness” within your own family traditions. That is what Witchcraft really is. It is a way of living and thinking and believing, and how you perceive the world and others around you with humans becoming Globally connected, we should expect to see a blending of cultures within our own local environment. That is the nature of the Evolution of society.

Humanity, like witchcraft, is ever-changing, but the core principles must stay the same if we want to keep the power. We must understand the principles of magick and spirit and the material physical world. There are many worlds to discover. Does magick require everyone to work giant spells or to be the most powerful and wise witch? No, it doesn’t. But it does sort of expect the witch to be honest with themself and recognize where they are at on their own path and that there are others who are more powerful or who have a deeper understanding of whatever aspect. They learn to become wise enough to say, ok, I’m not all-powerful. It’s because I don’t want to put that much effort in, I just want to do some basic stuff like cleansing my space and reading cards and dressing up, so I will pay a more studious witch to do magickal work for me. (ego can be a real problem in this community)

And yes that comes with a fee. Wiccan or not, if you are going to have someone do magickal work for you, Pay Them. Even if it is to teach you Wicca. You pay them for their time, effort, and resources. This ain’t the catholic church. None of us have given our lives to the church, which pays for everything. We don’t have that option, and as a future Witch, your first lesson is to take responsibility for yourself. There is more to all of this than I can tell you here in this One Single Post.

So, when it comes to magick, there are many schools of magick, and that is why it is so controversial, not to mention craziness from Christianity is being brought into it on some High so-called morality crap that is not moral at all but simply disempowering. So let’s take a look at some of the Moral and Ethical thoughts around magick.

• Some people want to primarily do curses and use it to cause mayhem and destroy the lives of others and things like that without any consideration of consequences or any consideration of how they are affecting others. These people feel that their every whim should be at their beck and call and that any moral and ethical rules applied are unnecessary.
• Some people believe that the consequences of doing negative things like destroying someone’s life and curses have consequences. Some people believe that whatever they send out will come back on them and affect them too.
• But there are people who are very much into disempowering people by shaming them and bullying them into  Not using Magick to protect themselves from others who intend them harm. We see this when someone attacks you physically or energetically, and you do something to protect yourself, and it works, and everything turns out good for everyone, including you. Then the disempowering ones will try to manipulate you into not protecting yourself by telling you that you are a bad witch because you protected yourself.
• Some people believe that there is a time and place for all schools of magick and that no School of magick is Good or Bad, but it is completely dependent on the practitioner’s own core beliefs and personality. If the practitioner is a bad person, she will use it for evil the majority of the time. If the practitioner is a good person, he will use it for good the majority of the time.  (learn about the principle of polarity– hermeticism– Kybalion)

To be honest, it doesn’t matter what school of Magick you believe, as long as you stick with one school of practice at a time while you are learning. All will work out because the magickal path is a path of discovery. It will transform how you think, feel, believe, and how you perceive the world around you.

And the best part about it is that you can be a modern witch in the Witch community and never even practice more than some light rituals and stuff. You don’t have to be an all-powerful Witch to be part of the community. All it requires is A belief in it. My niece, Joi, did magick as a Catholic with some guidance, and it worked just fine. Anyone and Everyone can use magick, and many already use it unconsciously. It truly is a natural human skill. And what separates the witch from the mundane person is that a witch uses magick intentionally, which is empowering as opposed to just swinging with the pendulum and getting bashed about in the world.

Regardless of what school of witchcraft you practice, chances are you are likely studying Magick of some type. I use a type of folk magick, but you may have an interest in other types of magickal thought.

I do recommend, especially if you are an atheist who can’t relate to the religious parts of some practices, to learn all you can learn about Quantum Mechanics/physics as you embark on your journey. Magick isn’t specifically linked to Religion. I happen to find strength in religious practices, but it is NOT required. I assure you, Magick is not dependent on Religion or wearing the label of “Witch.”

Magick is the art of manipulating energy.

Magick isn’t good or bad. It Just Is…

Stay focused, stay empowered,

Summer Song