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November 15th. 2009 ...
 Recovering From a Bad Coven Experience
 You Are Not A Tool
 The Dangers of Virtual Reality and Magickal Life: A True Story
 Diary of a High Priestess
 When Religious Intolerance Destroys Friendship
 Thinking With Your Heart
 Beauty in Death
 In that Moment: “Understanding Born From Sorrow”
 Raining Down A Different Kind of Peace

November 8th. 2009 ...
 Why Many of Us Will Never Be Christian (No Matter How Hard We Try)
 Making Your Life Magical
 Soul Connection: The Means to Finding Your Life Purpose
 How I Met My Soul Mate. Twice
 Perfect Love and Perfect Trust: Thoughts on Love and Loving
 Love and the Use Of Magick
 Spiritual Transformation
 Follow the Yellowbrick Road: Sometimes Staying on the Path Takes a Miracle!
 The Path: A Spiritual Chautauqua

November 1st. 2009 ...
 My Magic Doesn't Work! (Because It Sometimes Doesn't)
 Avoiding the Pitfalls of Paganism
 The Breath and Faking It
 Coming Out Of The "Broom Closet"
 Profound Fruit Loops
 Magick and Science
 I Want To Live A While Longer
 "Me Time"

October 25th. 2009 ...
 Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone Touring East Coast USA for Samhain
 Lemon Magic
 My Black Kitty
 Autumnland: Pagan Path and Paradise
 The Modern Coven: Importance of Documentation
 Crossroads Rite (Version 11)
 Perceptions of Life
 The Challenge of Acceptance
 The Circle of Life

October 18th. 2009 ...
 Honoring Our Elders, Leaders and Teachers
 Space Clearing: A Fresh Look at a Classic Tradition
 Group or Solitary: Which Is Best For You?
 Which Witch is Which? The Importance of Scientific Terminology.
 Soap Making 101
 How I Maintain My Spiritual Practice in a War Zone
 To Be or Not To Be – In Pagan Business
 "Fusion" Magick

October 11th. 2009 ...
 Italy, Clavicles and Witchcraft
 The Fairies of Samhain
 Horns of Gold, Horns of Red: The God as a Sacred Focus
 The Veil as Seen Through the Eyes of a Witch
 Owl Mythology, Folklore, and Magical Interpretation
 A Celtic "Young Goodman Brown"

October 4th. 2009 ...
 What Should I Put In My Book of Shadows?
 How Do You Draw Your Pentagram?
 Your Book Of Shadows
 How I Became a Wiccan
 Five-Point Witches’ Self-Healing Plan
 The Responsiblity of Elders of Pagan Paths
 My Curse
 Thoughts on Death
 Dinosaurs and Druidry

September 27th. 2009 ...
 When I Was A Christian Wiccan
 Shamanism: Seeing in the Dark
 Dream Invasion: What It Is and How to Stop it
 The Warrior Archetype and the Reemergence of the Goddess
 Twittermancy and Open Sourcery
 Past Life, Present Mission
 The Burning Times: May We Never Forget
 Ophiuchus, the 13th Constellation: A Call for Change
 Changes: Facing Them and Making Them

September 20th. 2009 ...
 How I Found My Craft Name (and Tips on Finding Yours!)
 Life Without End: Death From A Pagan Perspective
 Creating Your Reality
 My Road To Wicca
 Officiating At A Crossing Over Ceremony
 The Energy of My Beliefs
 Tree of Life in Wicca
 My Life Entwined With Death
 The Curious Case of Birds
 Who Sings Now? XVIII

September 13th. 2009 ...
 Yes Witches Can? Yes, Witches WILL!
 Coven or Solitary: Age Old Question. A Few New Answers (I Hope!)
 Organized Pagan Community: Good Idea Or Hopeless Cause?

NOTE: For a complete list of articles related to this chapter... Visit the Main Index FOR this section.
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Article ID: 13629

VoxAcct: 356319

Section: words

Age Group: Adult

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| Making Your Life Magical

Author: WitchGeek
Posted: November 8th. 2009
Times Viewed: 1,680
Most Wiccans and witches – and many other pagans – practice some form of “magic” (often spelled “magick” to distinguish it from stage illusions) . Magick is a topic at which most modern westerners would likely scoff, and doubtless this attitude throws into question the credibility of those who claim to practice it.
We do not believe in the “supernatural“. All that exists that is part of this universe, is part of nature itself and is therefore “natural”. If intrusions from other universes or realities happen in this one, then that too is part of its natural processes. In other words, everything – everything – can be rationally and scientifically explained; we just don’t know all of those explanations yet.
We accept that there are many things about this universe that we not only cannot explain in concrete terms, but things of which we’re not even aware. Bear in mind that there was a time that germs, bacteria, and viruses were all completely unknown to humanity; a microscopic world of living creatures has surrounded us for as long as we’ve been on this planet and we only recently learned of it.
Scientists have never actually seen an atom, and many modern physicists feel confident that evidence indicates such incredible things as multiple universes. We’ve learned so much, but that which we still do not know boggles the mind while thrilling the imagination.
As I have said many times, being a witch or a pagan is more about what we do than what we believe. Whether it’s a magickal activity or a religious ritual, we engage in time-honored rites that – for whatever reason – just seem to work for us. It’s a bit like exercise; one need not understand advanced kinetics and physiology in order to benefit from a brisk, daily walk. Nor does one need to understand ritual and magick in order to reap its benefits; those who do it regularly will experience mental and spiritual gains.
But this post isn’t about magick; it’s about life.
I have an Egyptian-themed altar/shrine at home, and among the items on it is a statue of Thoth. In Egyptian mythology, Thoth was – among other things – a god of writing, magick, and science. I’m not sure what initially drew me to him, but my attachment is long-standing and strong enough that I made an altar for him and the goddess Bast.
By day, I’m a computer programmer. I write, using computer languages, things like this:
begin select responder, recipient_role into v_emp_user_name, v_recipient_role from temp_notifications where message_type = itemtype and user_key = v_requisition_no and notification_id = history_record.notification_id; exception when no_data_found then v_emp_user_name := null; v_recipient_role := null; result := ‘COMPLETE:N’; end;
…and when these words are “executed”, they result in the taking place of literal, real-world actions.
Remember Arthur C. Clarke’s famous statement, “any sufficiently-advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic“? It is easy to see the parallels between what I do by day and the concepts of magick. I use special languages full of words that have power, and yet I must order these words properly for them to have the desired effect. Sometimes they definitely backfire! But most of the time, I get the desired results.
Over time, I began to think of Thoth as having a modern role in addition to those normally attributed to him: the “patron saint” of computer programmers! But then, more recently, I made another connection. If what we pagans call “magick” isn’t supernatural, and if what computer programmers do is so similar to the methods of magickal practices… what, then, separates the two? Is it merely the fact that we humans have a scientific understanding of computer processing?
If modern magickal workings were to be defined scientifically tomorrow, would we put a new name on those activities and cease to call them “magick”?
I’m fond of blurring lines. A line that we’re forced to cross is no different from a line that holds us back; true freedom happens when there are no lines. And true magick happens all around us, every day.
Aleister Crowley defined magick as “the art and science of causing change in conformity with will”. We all do this, every day. For instance, when I sat down to write this post, it was something that I chose – to share my thoughts – and because my will to do this was strong enough, I made the time and put forth the effort. It is art (writing) and science (grammar, spelling, word processors and the Internet) , it is change (because this document didn’t exist before I wrote it) and it was my will.
Am I trying to diminish the practice of magick? Of course not. Instead, I am suggesting that we bring magick into our everyday lives… where it belongs. Learning to see the “magick” in the things that we choose to do means seeing those things in a whole new light… because when we realize that those elements that make up an act of magick exist in so many of our daily actions, we begin to see ways that even the mundane can be made special.
In many eastern philosophies, adherents are taught the value of living in each and every moment:
"As you practice Zen in your life, you will see that living in the present moment is like living heaven on earth. Even though we can all deal with this one moment right in front of us, we rarely live in this one moment right in front of us. We don’t know how. We have been conditioned since our early childhoods to live in the future or the past." -Everything.com, Zen: Living in the Moment
Seeing ordinary actions as magickal is one way of helping us to live more consciously and building in us the habit of “living in the moment”. Yet it works in the other direction, as well… for as people who have studied the ways of “magick”, we are already trained in the skills necessary to embrace a magickal life.
This is convergence; when the ordinary and the magical become one in a person’s life, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The ordinary takes on new vibrancy, and those energies, which are normally reserved for our rituals suddenly, work their way into our everyday lives.
Footnotes: http://www.everything.com/zen-philosophy-living-in-moment/
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