Free Wicca School Blog

I should mention that Magick and Wicca are not inseparable, some Wiccans use Magick, some don't. The Gods give us tools, this is one of them.

What is Magick? Well, there is the Wiccan stock answer (let me pull it here from my bag of standard trinkets...) "Magick is the art of getting results."Of course, there is the more impressive "Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will," of Crowley's Magick in Theory and Practice, but unless you wish to impress that really cute Metaphysicist at work the first one's easier. I chose to define the Magic used in Wicca with Wicca in its definition "Wiccan Magick is change, directed by the Self, empowered by the Will and decided by Morality." An old name for alchemists and Mages alike is transmuter, one who transmutes (alters) one thing into another. The practice of Magick is taking one thing, and creating another.

There are four broad groupings of Magick in Wicca, along with Ceremonial and High Magick, which, while done by many Wiccans in ritual, are not religious in nature. These are Celebratory Magick, Ritual Magick, Healing Magick and personal magicks.

Celebratory Magick, Magick done in ritual to honor the Gods, is advanced prayer, as is Ritual Magick, which is the Magickal aspects of our rituals and ceremonies (to clarify, Ritual Magick is done at ceremonies, and Ceremonial Magick has nothing to do with Wiccan ritual practice.) Healing Magicks are self-explanatory, and Personal Magicks combine Celebratory, Healing and Ritual Magicks with "lesser" or "low" Magick for personal reasons. A example of Personal Magicks in a non-Wiccan setting are novenas published in community newspapers. They usually invoke St. Jude, and follow a ritual whereby the novena is prayed for a set number of days, then published, and the prayer comes true. This is a bit "hokey" for most Wiccans, but I know of two Catholo-Wiccan trads using Catholic saints that use novenas much as other Wiccans use wishburying and similar rituals.

Celebratory Magick usually is power raised in the circle, directed toward the earth for its own usage, or directed toward a god or goddess as a sort of token with a prayer. Think of Celebratory magic and regular prayer like a delivery service, anyone can deliver a telegram (prayer), but Celebratory Magick is like delivering a singing telegram, complete with flower bouquet and fourpart harmonies. We wish to show praise, glory, welcome and love for our Gods...how welcome is an intoned ceremony, complete with stifled yawns and rampant boredom. The Gods want us to be happy, to survive to the fullest and best of our abilities. "If I can dance wildly beneath the full moon, the sand between my toes and my shouts of joy echoing in the night air, how divine, how perfect, how holy.

There are primarily two branches or "sciences" of Magick used in all Wiccan Magick, Sympathetic Magick, which involves doing a symbolic action to achieve a real action, and Dynamic Magick, which involves using the body's powers in a non-standard way. A few Sympathetic Charms are given in part three, but a good lesson on sympathetic Magick can be found in any discourse on Wicca, and I'll leave talk of it to those with expertise. Psychic abilities, Healing touches, etc., are mind/body dynamics, as are all of the "untapped" powers locked within the Self.

The "Self," or "Integrated Total Self," which we spoke of earlier, is the entirety of the mentality and personality of a being. "Will," "True Will" or "Total Will," is the force of the Self. One of my students came up with the term "ITS Will," to remember the two and their relationship. You must understand that "The Will is the slave of the Self, and has no limitations."3 With that in hand, and a healthy dose of morality, the Wiccan improves his/her life as much as (s)he can. Strength of Will improves the level of "can", as does belief, but it seems that, as you grow in Will, you need less and find more enjoyment in the smaller things, so it's a bit self-defeating. I had the good fortune to "Fall in" with a group of Metaphysicists, nicknamed "the old men" because most of them were over 50 and argued over Metaphysics as easily as they argued over Talmud, and since, of the eight, seven were Jewish and the eighth a self-proclaimed heretic, Talmudic arguments came easily. Like a kid in a fantasy novel, I ducked into a coffee shop to get out of the rain and heard this whispered argument in the corner where four of the men were sitting. Being nosy, I got a drink, sat at the table next to them, put on my headphones (which were off) and pretended to read my book, listening intently.

Now, as a teenager, I'd tried Satanism, I think most of us do when we realize "conventional" religion doesn't fit us. From there, I went into a very "dark" neo-goth Crowley sect and wore all black, but I was the only female there, and I quickly realized that being the love object of a batch of intelligent but wasted (in more ways than one) teenyboppers was not my idea of study, and I'd read in passing more Crowley then they'd read in "serious study." At the time of the "meeting" with the old men I was absolutely lusting for intelligent metaphysical conversation, but my tea was gone, and I had to go back to the counter for another.

Providence, or maybe the rituals praying for serious discussion, stepped in, and while I was at the counter, one of "the Old Men" told the woman they were out of sugar at his table. She was busy as hell, so I grabbed the sugar carrier from a nearby table and told her "Finish what you're doing, I'll give them this one." I had several pieces of jewelry made by a boyfriend in copper and I was wearing a thick bracelet on my right arm with various metaphysical phrases and symbols of protection upon it, and a few choice phrases from metaphysical tomes.

I purposely stretched my arm a few inches from the guy's nose to place the sugar carrier on their table, repeating "notice it, notice it, notice it," inside my head, and sure enough, he saw it, and asked me about it. I asked him if he knew what it meant, and he said yes, and asked if I did, and I translated. I'll tell you right now, a few nights before I had Jonah, a good friend and Clansman, write the inscription out for me, because I could not read the Script. I bluffed my way in, though, with a few choice Crowley quotes, a bit of Hermetic philosophy, and a mental note to "do my homework" if they invited me back. I was asked to pull up a chair...it was the first of several times. I learned that year two vital lessons, Magick WORKS and as a rule, Metaphysicists are sexist pigs, and the older they are the worse it is.

If you wish to do "more" magically than the simple healing charms and such, begin your "training" by fixing the damaged Will and the damaged Self. Get rid of your addictions (smoking, too) by affirming that you Will to not have them. If you find you cannot quit, your Will is weaker than the addiction. I've been "hooked" on things before, and by inflicting my Will, I stopped. Anyone can, it's just a measure of the ethic of Self- Responsibility. It's willpower, and if I have one thing, it's willpower. I've "detoxed" people by going for the ego, and if anyone out there is addicted I'll tell you right here that I'm a coward, a great, shivering coward who cries at movies and is so agoraphobic that the forest at night scares me half-witless, and I was strong enough to
quit...what's your excuse?

Once your Will is beginning to heal, test it and strengthen it with little affirmations of Will, like conquering fears. Most of us are walking wounded, by affirming the Will, you heal some wounds and keep from becoming walking dead. I'll warn you right now that as you grow and learn in metaphysics, you will begin to detest it. The stronger you become the more you know, the more you know the less you like. I cannot stress enough how much better it is to gain enough power metaphysically to have Total Self and Total Will and choose to use them only for inside improvement. I've seen so many good friends go into the "Death" of knowledge that I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Many of us, strong Will or not, don't live through that stage of development, and frankly, I think most of us don't want to.

If you use your Will outside of a religious and moral context, it's not Wiccan, and a decision may come as you grow in Metaphysics that morality isn't a question anymore, but a hindrance. I would never be so bold as to tell anyone that they are wrong, but if it gets to this point, take a mental "vacation" for a few weeks, do no Metaphysics and no ritual, then read over your journal(s.) You may find that your changes are the work of an outside force, maybe a "teacher" and that you need to "adjust" your path. Balance reigns supreme in Metaphysics and nature, and a slow descent into darkness or over-zealous goodness will begin to cause harm.

As we integrate our Self, we need to improve all of it to stay "balanced." Just as you wouldn't hammer a nail with a rusted hammer with a loose head and a broken handle, doing Magick with an imperfect tool (Self) is dooming the act to imperfection. Improve the body, improve the mind,improve the Karma, improve it all. It's not easy, but remember Constant Improvement. An essential if you plan to incorporate Magick into ritual is that you know what you believe and why, and that you've answered many of your basic life-questions.