I am a witch and I believe in magic.

This is at the heart of my being.   What does it mean?   When Sheila invited me to write with her on here, I was excited but cautious.  Many years ago I had defined myself as a  solitary witch.  Since then I have happily walked my own road,  secure in my own magical world, performing my own personal rituals and making my own private obeisances.  I have never explained my spirituality to anyone.  Having publicly  (if anonymously) declared myself a witch, I found myself wanting to explore what I actually meant by this.  Was I really a witch?  Do I really believe in magic?

I started  (as is my way!)  with the dictionary.  I have a strong belief in the power of language.  I looked up the word witch.

“Witch – a woman thought to have evil magic powers.”

I did not like this but decided to pursue it anyway.  To me – a large part of being a witch is looking clearly at things and being honest with my Self.  The word evil bothered me.  I looked that up next.

“Evil – profoundly immoral and wicked”

I was still unsatisfied so I looked up moral  (this looking up is going on for a while, but there is a point to it!)

“Moral – concerned with the principals of right and wrong behaviour –based on what is considered right or acceptable in a particular society”

This felt better – in our society it is considered acceptable to exploit other people, hurt animals, worship money and possessions, go to war.  I do indeed decide for myself what is right and wrong and my decisions are often at variance with “what is considered right or acceptable in a particular society”

So far – so good.  I went on to look up magic.

“Magic – the power of apparently influencing events by using mysterious or supernatural forces”

Just to be absolutely clear – here are two more dictionary definitions –

“Mysterious – difficult or impossible to understand.”

“Supernatural – attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding”

The word wicked, I already knew, has it’s roots in the word wicca.  I was proud to be wicked.

These definitions all fit me perfectly.  So as far as the dictionary goes, I am fully entitled to say that I am a witch and I believe in magic.

I would like to write some more about magic.  Scientific understanding is a good thing but is, despite the prevailing wisdom, extremely sketchy, and over time has repeatedly been forced to admit itself wrong.  The earth is not flat.  The atom is not the smallest building block  in the universe.  Matter contains energy.

Life comes out of death – this is now a scientifically held view.  We are all parts of a whole – again this is current scientific belief.   One thing leads to another – all of our actions have repercussions.  We are only beginning to recognise the truth of this and we still don’t understand the extent of it.

A scientist called Backster took some cells from the mouth of a world war two navy veteran.  He put them in a room seven miles away and connected them to a polygraph, which measures the cells ability to conduct electricity.  He connected the veteran to another polygraph and showed him video footage of battle in the pacific.  Stress causes activity on the polygraph.  On this occasion the polygraph, viewed on simultaneous video pick up, “jumped” at the same time on both polygraphs.

To my mind this experiment is an example of someones thoughts and emotions having a physical effect on matter that is miles away.    Witches have always known that this is possible.  This I call magic.

For me, being a  witch is about taking part in transformation.  Both of my self, and the universe.  Witch is the same thing really.  It is about awareness,  cause and effect.  I engage in rituals which I believe make a difference.  These are not superficial, staged performances, but deeply thought out, strongly felt acts of  integrity and magic.

I am a witch and I believe in magic.