Erebos
February 11th, 2011, 12:33 AM
These are just some thoughts I've had rolling around my head, and I just thought I'd get them out and see what other people think.
In most traditions of pagan Witchcraft, the gods are considered immanent, dwelling within the natural world. The Goddess is the beauty of the green earth, the white moon among the stars, and the mysteries of the waters; the soul of nature who gives life to the universe. The source of all creation. All of nature is a manifestation and expression of her infinite being. The God, too, is immanent, as the spirit of creation itself. She is the birth-giver; he is all that is born, dies and is reborn, and he too is an expression of the source that is the Mother. The gods flow through all.
What does this have to do with magic? As we humans are a part of nature, and therefore an expression of manifest deity, we share in the divinity that flows through all and its power. Of course, the gods are greater and more powerful than we are, but we still contain the divine spark and have the "right" to direct the life force energy (called prana or chi) for our own desires.
Another reason why magic is compatible with the concept of immanent deity is because we don't believe the gods are transcendent, somewhere "up there" listening to our prayers, communicating with us rationally. For many Witches, divinity is everywhere, experienced and manifested through the life process. This kind of divinity is hard to communicate with rationally, as the Divine Life of the universe probably doesn't speak English (or any human language). Instead, we communicate with the universe through symbolism, through what many people call spells.
They are a way of communicating with what Starhawk calls Younger Self, the unconscious mind or the animal/appetitive part of the soul. In Feri Tradition, Younger Self communicates directly with the Deep Self, or the divine part of the soul, while Talking Self (the rational part of the soul, or conscious mind) does not. For example, telling the all-pervading Divine Life of the universe what you want only in words and prayers is often not very effective because a person is using their rational mind to communicate with something it has no contact with. Using props, like a green candle inscribed with money symbols for prosperity, and focusing on one's desire this way is a way of communicating with the unconscious mind in a symbolic language it understands, and it then communicates with the Divine Self, which is a person's connection to Divinity as a whole. In this way, magic is similar to prayer in a Witches' worldview.
I also believe magical practice is just a conscious, intentional way of doing what we do unconsciously all the time, manipulating the life force energy around us for our benefit (though whether it works or not in wither case depends on the tides in which it is flowing - often there are greater powers at work beyond ourselves). It is not supernatural or inherently mischievous, no matter what certain religious institutions say. Not to get into the history of social attitudes towards magic and what has been labeled as "witchcraft", but organized religious cults (in the social worship sense, not the modern sense) have always been suspicious of what people did outside of cult worship. The sociologist Emile Durkheim even distinguished religion from magic in terms of social versus individual. By his definition, the only difference between them was that religion was social, and magic was what one did on one's own, which had been a common notion throughout history. Religion and magic are often the same thing, distinguished only by what is socially acceptable and public rather than private and questionable (since it is outside of cult authority).
For the pagan Witch, then, magic is a way of communicating with one's own divine nature and tuning oneself to the natural flow of life force and directing it in one's favor. It is a way of experiencing something that cannot be understood rationally, and communing with the immanent divinity in the world through a language of symbols rather than linear conversation.
In most traditions of pagan Witchcraft, the gods are considered immanent, dwelling within the natural world. The Goddess is the beauty of the green earth, the white moon among the stars, and the mysteries of the waters; the soul of nature who gives life to the universe. The source of all creation. All of nature is a manifestation and expression of her infinite being. The God, too, is immanent, as the spirit of creation itself. She is the birth-giver; he is all that is born, dies and is reborn, and he too is an expression of the source that is the Mother. The gods flow through all.
What does this have to do with magic? As we humans are a part of nature, and therefore an expression of manifest deity, we share in the divinity that flows through all and its power. Of course, the gods are greater and more powerful than we are, but we still contain the divine spark and have the "right" to direct the life force energy (called prana or chi) for our own desires.
Another reason why magic is compatible with the concept of immanent deity is because we don't believe the gods are transcendent, somewhere "up there" listening to our prayers, communicating with us rationally. For many Witches, divinity is everywhere, experienced and manifested through the life process. This kind of divinity is hard to communicate with rationally, as the Divine Life of the universe probably doesn't speak English (or any human language). Instead, we communicate with the universe through symbolism, through what many people call spells.
They are a way of communicating with what Starhawk calls Younger Self, the unconscious mind or the animal/appetitive part of the soul. In Feri Tradition, Younger Self communicates directly with the Deep Self, or the divine part of the soul, while Talking Self (the rational part of the soul, or conscious mind) does not. For example, telling the all-pervading Divine Life of the universe what you want only in words and prayers is often not very effective because a person is using their rational mind to communicate with something it has no contact with. Using props, like a green candle inscribed with money symbols for prosperity, and focusing on one's desire this way is a way of communicating with the unconscious mind in a symbolic language it understands, and it then communicates with the Divine Self, which is a person's connection to Divinity as a whole. In this way, magic is similar to prayer in a Witches' worldview.
I also believe magical practice is just a conscious, intentional way of doing what we do unconsciously all the time, manipulating the life force energy around us for our benefit (though whether it works or not in wither case depends on the tides in which it is flowing - often there are greater powers at work beyond ourselves). It is not supernatural or inherently mischievous, no matter what certain religious institutions say. Not to get into the history of social attitudes towards magic and what has been labeled as "witchcraft", but organized religious cults (in the social worship sense, not the modern sense) have always been suspicious of what people did outside of cult worship. The sociologist Emile Durkheim even distinguished religion from magic in terms of social versus individual. By his definition, the only difference between them was that religion was social, and magic was what one did on one's own, which had been a common notion throughout history. Religion and magic are often the same thing, distinguished only by what is socially acceptable and public rather than private and questionable (since it is outside of cult authority).
For the pagan Witch, then, magic is a way of communicating with one's own divine nature and tuning oneself to the natural flow of life force and directing it in one's favor. It is a way of experiencing something that cannot be understood rationally, and communing with the immanent divinity in the world through a language of symbols rather than linear conversation.