Witchvox Article

Author: Kestryl Angell
Posted: April 8th. 2007
Times Viewed: 2,979

Recently, it is all over the news where celebrities are being �caught with their pants down� over racial slurs, backbiting remarks against each other, tearing at the fabric of the illusion of the �Peaceful American Community� that Hollywood is supposed to be so integral a part of creating in the framework of our society. Even within pagan communities themselves, a place where many claim to have found the first bit of peace in their spirit in their entire lives up to the point of their discovery of paganism grow more and more rife with stories of people that have, in their own way, attempted to serve their community and been shunned due to human mistakes or misunderstandings. America�s illusion says that Americans are supposed to be Keepers of the Peace.

But Americans, and in many cases humans in general it seems, have forgotten that there is Power in words.

I was trained in classical music from a very young age. Because of this training, my ears have been fine tuned to hear tone before I even hear actual words. As well, I have come to understand over the years the reasons why the Celts, the Native Americans and so many other cultures taught their deepest and most spiritual lessons to rhythm, dance and in rhyme. The cadence, the effect on the body, mind, heart and spirit, the effect on the chakras�all attribute pieces of the beautiful stained glass window of reality that is the Power of Words.

Everyone has had the experience, in or out of Circle, of feeling truly and deeply moved to their deepest self by a piece of music or poetry. The way a High Priest or High Priestess speaks a lesson, their tone and manner focused totally on opening the hearts and minds of their students that sets that lesson forever in the mind of those attending them or the way a Shaman or Medicine Man or Woman guides their patient through a Journey or necessary healing process to the rhythm of a Medicine drum, all are designed to not only speak the lesson, tell the journey�but to set it indelibly into the brain and memory so that we do not forget.

In the day and age when it was still dangerous to know the legal names of coven mates, knowing a single word�a name�could mean death and the end of entire family lines, no matter what guilt or innocence was the truth of their existence or beliefs.

Do you, as a magickal person, honestly believe that there was not a time when Words of Power were used far more frequently than they are now? Do you honestly believe that science fiction is the only place where something like Frank Herbert�s concept of the Voice, held in his works in the Dune series�where single syllables could be used to shatter bone, burst organs, bring down entire cities? If you truly believe this, look at the way that the cruelty of words spoken in haste can shatter families, permanently scar minds, hearts, souls and weigh heavily on our Karmic scale in the long run.

If we truly know that words have Power, this means that we must consider more carefully how we speak to and of each other. This is not to say that we should become completely unrealistic in the �sunshine� we spout, but rather we should speak the best reality we may into being.

Rather than simply wishing each other �Happy Holidays� a holiday season or wishing for �world peace, � why not truly speak with clarity and vision the positives you see possible in this world. Instead of finding fault with a child�s grades or social performance, teach them pride enough in themselves, their families and their community that such things wouldn�t even occur to them as long as they have the academic support their personal learning curve requires.

Instead of �preaching� our faith or hearing only �preaching� in other�s words about their faith and beliefs this time of year, why not listen with compassion in your ears and find the commonalities with your own, sharing those with a smile and a warm heart (Merry Meet, Merry Part, Bright the Cheeks and Warm the Heart�from the long Wiccan Rede, sound familiar?)

When we speak of our faith, speak of what we ourselves practice�not just the history of those that died for our faith. Speak the beauty, not just the once-mysteries and mythologies. Speak the usefulness, the daily contact with Deity, the ways that the Universe reflects Its Infinite Wisdom and Complex Simplicity to you as an individual every single day, instead of finding the reasons to nit-pick your neighbors or their lives to death or place personal judgment on other�s lives for reasons of pride, ego or simple human differences of opinion.

Spend less time finding fault and more time finding blessings�no matter how small or unlikely the arrival or package they come in. Spend less time speaking poison, thus poisoning your own heart and spirit and drawing the same to yourself in the process�if you live by the Law of Three or other like law of balance in your system of beliefs. Sing praises over your own life and accomplishments instead of doubt that you�ll ever truly �get there.� Find places to smile each day instead of facing a list of stresses and duties alone with a sense of dread in your heart, mind and voice.

If your faith does not make your spirit smile enough to share something of its Light with the world around you, then my friend, you need some work on you first�and like the Christian Bible says, �Judge not, lest ye be judged� and �Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.�

No man or woman is above another on the scale of the Universe�but all are on various levels of the spiral, all learning, all growing, all paying debts and moving up and either fast or slow, they are finding ways to make themselves and their world better. Some are just a bit further along in the process than others and those are our treasured teachers and Elders. Yet, all in life truly have something to teach if only you are brave enough to listen to the lesson when the package it comes in doesn�t seem pleasing to your senses at first glance.

Just as many mythologies tell stories of Gods and Goddesses taking the form of injured animals or ugly or deformed creatures to teach lessons to the ones they were in the story with, so too does the Universe often scream our lessons in that tone of voice that makes us wish we were deaf on every level or put them in a package we find so distasteful we might not stick around for the lesson itself, no matter how sweetly delivered from the distasteful representation�it is often part of the test the God/dess gives us, one that we commonly fail.

However, if we are open to the lesson, even when it is yelled or screeched or even when it is in the simple deafening silence of darkness, the power of words remains a truth that cannot be denied. Therefore, it is necessary that we take responsibility for our use of this magick in a far more active way than many often choose to keep on their everyday mouth and perceptions. However, as aware and ethical magickal folk, it cannot be said too often that awareness is only the first step.

There is a large difference, when working through life issues, in sharing your experience and speaking poison over the hardships of your past. There is a difference between sharing positive information that you have to share and insisting another must use the information just as you have in their lives or practice or it will immediately invalidate the information in your eyes.

There is a difference in speaking an honest disagreement with an issue or person and defaming them out of bruised ego, hurt feelings or mistaken sense of prideful or righteous indignation. There is a difference in realizing that shadow must exist for light to have its balance point, but when something already has a momentum of its own, it is not always correct for us to �add our two cents worth� to the engines by pumping our own poison into the process.

Not if we take seriously the idea that we will eventually reap what we sow.

If you are aware that the words you say and how you say them are like seeds in soil and what you bring back to you is the harvest of those words, think about the words you speak in a day. Do you speak brightly, positively, encouragingly to the world and your reality and those in it? Or do you speak doubt into your every sentence?

In your attempt to be a �realist� have you become a �pessimist� instead? When ill or in pain, do you speak the truth of the pain or issue and truly seek help or do you play it up for attention and shun any real assistance?

When you bring up a difference of opinion with someone, do you bring it up or do you attack him or her with it and then expect him or her to �understand, because they are your friend� and then become upset when they do not react as you expect them to? Do you take responsibility for your own expectations?

All these are examples of the places where the power of words is often simply forgotten or conveniently passed up in favor of the more instant gratification of a snap decision or reaction. Being Children of the Light, attempting in some small human way to be reflections of our Gods and Goddesses, do we honestly think that our Deity would speak in the poisonous terms most human beings use on one another every single day? If you do not know what I am talking about, read a newspaper or watch the evening news or an episode of Jerry Springer.

Insults, invasion of privacy, making jokes of infirmity or life circumstances beyond the control of the center of the joke, finding joy in other�s pain or thinking peace comes out of war are all ways in which even the words themselves can show us they are not what will draw us the most positive ends if the magick of words is truly something we understand and choose to manifest in our every day lives.

Instead of arguing how horrible it is that places like Macy�s and Wal-Mart Corporation are �forbidding� the Happy Holidays greetings in stores in favor of using a strict �Merry Christmas� (or �Happy Easter�) policy, why not try something different?

Of course it�s horrible they are denying others their holidays as well in society and putting forward such a prevailing discriminatory front to their business, but do we really need to RE-state the obvious? Why not plant more positive seeds instead?

Try, through this and every holiday season to give the gift of using a voice of compassion, a voice of sharing, a voice of joy, wisdom, peace and beauty.

Just share the joys of all of the various holiday seasons as you pass others at home, at work, at the store. And even if it is only in a few words, delivered with a smile, you can share a bit of this magick that is the power of words simply by planting the seed with a voice that says, �Have a Happy Holiday, whatever yours may be.�

See what harvests come your way; you might just be pleasantly surprised.

Brightest Blessings!

ABOUT...

Kestryl Angell

Location: Columbia, Missouri

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