Spiritual Magic and Wicca

Magic is, I have realized, the very soul and blood of the Wiccan religion.

No, I didn't say Witchcraft, and I didn't say spellwork-I said magic. No, they are not the same thing.

Magic is a word that has had many definitions, each more confusing than the last. Most definitions in some way connect our ability to alter manifest reality with our will to do so. We will that our lives will change, and so they do. In that sense, everything from casting a spell to getting a high school diploma is magic, as everything we do and every choice we make in some way changes our lives, for better or worse.

My own definition of magic comes from my view of the universe as a vast and interconnected web of cause-and-effect, and of the gods as the personification of that web. When I make a choice, I change that web, but it also changes me, because you cannot shift a single strand without affecting the greater whole. In this way Deity, the essence of the web of life, maintains the balance of energy. I change, I am changed. I make decisions, but so do countless others, and where our lives intersect we change each other.

I define magic, then, as an art: it is the holy art of change. It is a form of co-creation with Deity, using my own personal will and energy as well as drawing upon the greater energy of the web of life, whether through the use of stones, herbs, or the surrounding environment.

To me this is an inherently sacred act. I do not experience magical energy as neutral, as many magical practitioners do. I feel it as an overwhelmingly positive force, though it can certainly be twisted to harmful and dangerous ends. Anything beautiful can be deadly in the wrong hands.

Although any act that causes change in reality could be looked at as magical, usually in Wicca when we speak of magic we're talking about a certain kind of change, the kind that involves the normally-unseen forces that lie beneath the visible world. The knowledge of and ability to work with energy is one of the greatest gifts of Pagan belief; we do not deny or vilify the occult, and so we are given a powerful tool that, hopefully, we use for positive purposes.

Magic is casting a Circle; magic is casting a spell; magic is Drawing Down the Moon, calling the Quarters, meditating and chanting and dancing to open ourselves and connect to the sacred. If you come away from a ritual a different person, magic was at work there.

You do not have to be a Witch to use magic, any more than you have to be a chef to bake a cake. Witchcraft is the dedicated study and application of the arts of magic; calling yourself a Witch is in a sense claiming to be a magical professional, or rather, an artist.

Being a Wiccan, however, means working magic, even if you never consider yourself a Witch. Circle casting, for example, is one of the defining practices of Wicca. We call upon the energies of the four Elements, and create a temporary place of transformation and reverence, where the miraculous can happen and our innermost selves can come out to play; if that isn't magical, I don't know what is. So when people argue about whether you have to be a Witch to be Wiccan, or vice versa, I say that not all Wiccans are Witches, not all Witches are Wiccan-but all of us work magic.

Thinking of magic this way, as a blessed and essential gift from the gods, brings me to use it more sparingly and more wisely. I've said before that truly spiritual people tend to cast fewer spells-that's often true. But it's not because their lives are without magic. When you begin to feel the connection between yourself and all that lives, and feel the holiness of every moment, you think before you act, and only work spells when you know they are necessary, useful, and will be of most benefit to your life and the lives of your loved ones. Your life is filled with magic because you allow it to move through you, both into your life and into the greater web by your actions and attitude.

Perhaps a more fitting word for magic would be "grace," as it is something that flows from the Lord and Lady, and can just as easily flow from us. Just calling it "energy" doesn't seem to encompass the beauty of it; calling it "magic" invites a lot of negative stereotypes and arguments about what counts as magic and what doesn't. There's a certain stigma against the word "grace" as well thanks to the hang-ups many of us have from our early religious training. Regardless of what you choose to call it, what's more important is how you use it.

I used to think of magic as a completely separate art from things like prayer and meditation, but I've altered my views somewhat, and now feel that rather than being a totally separate thing, prayer is a form of one of the two major types of magic.

The first type of magic is that which is active; it is the kind in which we send energy outward, into the world, to work our will. Phyllis Curott calls this kind of magic "Wand Magic," as it relates to that particular magical tool; it is in a way phallic, projective, and moves directly and often very quickly toward our goals. I consider this "God Magic," a term appropriate for my own personal tradition. In my theology the Lady is the music, and the Lord is the dance; She is substance, He motion. God Magic is focused outward, on our daily lives and our surrounding environment.

Goddess Magic, then, is receptive; it works its change within. Drawing Down the Moon, for example, is Goddess Magic (what Curott calls "Grail Magic," as we become the chalice to be filled). This kind of magic is where prayer would fall, as prayer is an opening, a dialogue, communication rather than action. Goddess Magic has an inward focus, and works at the very core of our being, transforming our minds, hearts, and spirits.

A balance of these two is what creates true spiritual growth. We find security in our daily lives through God Magic, and then can turn inward; we grow and mature through Goddess Magic, and then use our energy in the world to work for change that we can see. This harmony is the harmony of the universe-light/dark, masculine/feminine, life/death, joy/sorrow, all meeting as one.

I work magic through spellcraft, but also through dance and chant-and, most especially, through writing. Another person might work magic through song, or raising her children, or volunteering, or meditation, or activism, vegetarianism, lighting candles…there are as many ways as there are Wiccans. Whatever you give your full heart to, whatever changes you…if magical energy comes from Deity, and is the essence of life and the sacred, how will you use it to change your life and the world for the better?

What is your magic?

Copyright 2006 Dianne Sylvan. All rights reserved.