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We live in times of great possibility. We live in a world filled with beauty and pain. Magic exists if we are open.
I attended Pantheacon this past weekend. I didn't get to hang out with compatriots as much as I wanted to this year. Partially this was the fact that I am still recovering from bronchitis and so made sure I was in bed at a semi-decent hour each night. The other was that I booked one too many rituals, panels, and presentations. So, while I got in a little bit of time with some of my author friends that I only see once a year, there were many others with whom I barely crossed paths. I also got in a bit of conversation and even some kissing with my other fine friends, but I didn't even see them very much!
The magic of possibility was evident everywhere, including in the sheer number of attendees, which was rumored to be well over 2000 this year. During my workshops, I was struck by the potential for change in these gatherings. When 180 people are all chanting "I am" and aligning their souls, what is not possible? When more than 300 people are dancing, passing along the Promethean Spark, change is in the air.
Pain was evident at the event, as well. So many people came up to speak with me after presentations and in the hallways, some of whom just wanted to thank me, but some of whom obviously really needed to touch base and tell their story. There is such a yawning need in the world, and everyone has his or her version of that. I am always struck by how much pain people are in, and how much they desire to find sources of connection. Luckily, there is juice and creativity to go around, as well, and connection is had in breathing together.
More and more these days I am expanding into being a "magic worker." It is the only phrase that begins to encompass my mysticism, Witchery, meditation, movement, energy alignment, voice, and ritual work. I'm too much of a non-dualist mystic to just be called a "Witch" anymore, besides the problem of there being no good definition for what that word means in our communities. It is still part of who and what I am, but I am also a magician, shaman, polytheist, and non-dualist mystic as well. I talk a lot about soul alignment, self-possession, prayer, and God Herself. Some Pagans understand this, but it causes others to scratch their heads. My religion is Feri, but my practice spans all forms of magic and spirituality, really. I carry a deep love of sacred sexuality, and the celebration of the flesh. I commune with the Limitless. So what do I call myself? For now, magic worker will have to do.
Our magical world is growing rapidly. I'm growing along with it, and see my brothers and sisters growing, and struggling to shift inside to accommodate the changes. We may never end up with a truly common language, but we still know how to have a good time. And the evidence from the hallways is: We're sexy as Hel.
I attended Pantheacon this past weekend. I didn't get to hang out with compatriots as much as I wanted to this year. Partially this was the fact that I am still recovering from bronchitis and so made sure I was in bed at a semi-decent hour each night. The other was that I booked one too many rituals, panels, and presentations. So, while I got in a little bit of time with some of my author friends that I only see once a year, there were many others with whom I barely crossed paths. I also got in a bit of conversation and even some kissing with my other fine friends, but I didn't even see them very much!
The magic of possibility was evident everywhere, including in the sheer number of attendees, which was rumored to be well over 2000 this year. During my workshops, I was struck by the potential for change in these gatherings. When 180 people are all chanting "I am" and aligning their souls, what is not possible? When more than 300 people are dancing, passing along the Promethean Spark, change is in the air.
Pain was evident at the event, as well. So many people came up to speak with me after presentations and in the hallways, some of whom just wanted to thank me, but some of whom obviously really needed to touch base and tell their story. There is such a yawning need in the world, and everyone has his or her version of that. I am always struck by how much pain people are in, and how much they desire to find sources of connection. Luckily, there is juice and creativity to go around, as well, and connection is had in breathing together.
More and more these days I am expanding into being a "magic worker." It is the only phrase that begins to encompass my mysticism, Witchery, meditation, movement, energy alignment, voice, and ritual work. I'm too much of a non-dualist mystic to just be called a "Witch" anymore, besides the problem of there being no good definition for what that word means in our communities. It is still part of who and what I am, but I am also a magician, shaman, polytheist, and non-dualist mystic as well. I talk a lot about soul alignment, self-possession, prayer, and God Herself. Some Pagans understand this, but it causes others to scratch their heads. My religion is Feri, but my practice spans all forms of magic and spirituality, really. I carry a deep love of sacred sexuality, and the celebration of the flesh. I commune with the Limitless. So what do I call myself? For now, magic worker will have to do.
Our magical world is growing rapidly. I'm growing along with it, and see my brothers and sisters growing, and struggling to shift inside to accommodate the changes. We may never end up with a truly common language, but we still know how to have a good time. And the evidence from the hallways is: We're sexy as Hel.
Thank you again, and I hope you're feeling better.
I agree with the hunger statement.
I deeply resonate with the ideology of being a magic(k) worker. Many of my friends and tradmates to not understand this concept. If I have gone too long without working energy and moving forces things start to stagnate. I lose who I am. I am a shaman, father, wicca, chaos mage and countless other titles. At the end of the day you just have to know me in order to know me. You likely are the same way.
Keep shining. Always.
I really enjoyed the Warrior workshop. I'm going to start adding it to my practice and see what happens since I'm in need of the tool.
Since everything from Sunday night has been currently filed under "vague and amazing", what are the words to the song we sung at the Ritual? I have them in my brain in scattershot.
We turn with the cycles of the fertile earth
We burn with the power of a million stars
We turn with the cycles of the fertile earth
We are children of great promise
We are inheritors of magic's spark
We are children of great promise
We dance the light out from the dark
(this is
Then we can unleash it upon other parts of the world. I got some spots in mind, where I'd like to turn it loose.
You ever been to Spark Collective? Philip, you might like it!
I loved the Promethean Spark ritual. Simple in structure, but. But. With voice and movement, costume and incantation, a throng attuned to the current opened the portal between heaven and earth.
Speaking of the Promethean Spark, the NY bookseller that I ordered an alchemy book from sent me a signed picture postcard of Prometheas from Rockefellar Center. I've been marvelling at the message the picture sent to my soul.
With Love in the Work,
Swan
Interesting. I got a clear message from Divinity this past weekend that the word "Witch" is, in many ways, too limited to describe exactly what those of us who practice ecstatic Witchcraft are actually doing. In that particular moment, Divinity suggested "world-shapers" as a replacement for "Witches." I don't know if that's a better alternative, honestly, but I am also looking for alternatives that more accurately express exactly what I do.
We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.
I'm very interested in your explicit identification as a nondualist. I've been doing some reading and thinking about nondualism and body theology lately. It seems to me that, with all of our talk about the sacredness of the body, mind/body nondualism *ought* to be the default position of most pagans, yet the experience I've had in most circles where the conversation comes up suggests that this is definitely not the case. (At Gus diZerega's death practices workshop at ConVocation last year, one participant even likened his body to his Ford F-150: "I love it, but it's not *me*.") We Westerners grow up in a culture where the mind/body split is so taken for granted, even by most avowed secularists, that it permeates our thinking. This may relate to your posts about theology from a while back: maybe what we need are some clear statements about what nondualism *is*, and why it's a better match for the values we claim to espouse as pagans than dualism.
Thanks
"My religion is Feri, but my practice spans all forms of magic and spirituality..."
Wow, that is an amazing way to put it. Thanks :)
Maybe we should all explore the possibilities that exist when we define ourselves more broadly.
I'm also ultimately nondualist. My current practice is reaching back a decade and drawing together the strands of magic(k) and the Sufi-Hindu synthesis I practiced before. It finds me bringing together the concepts and work of the Witch and the Adept, which I see as in some way mirroring the Sufi or Theosophical notions of a divine hierarchy (though I reject the medieval notions the metaphor of hierarchy draws from and see it more as a fluid body anchored by a few Adepti). It also finds me awakening to the concept of a God as world-soul, in relationship with Whom this work can be acquired and enacted.
[btw, email me about that drawing. not sure what you want, but i have time to do it right now!!!]
we rocked it!!
all kinds of good stuff. thank you for letting me sing in the mad cult rites, i love that sort of thing. :D
That sounds like quite an event=- The closest I've come is Starwood & it sounds like it's not even close....
Edited at 2008-02-21 12:57 pm (UTC)
I am one of the people who came up afterward. My friend came to one of your classes for her first experiences with Feri and was so pleased and opened by what she learnt and experienced. Thank you.
I am also one of the people who is hurting. I've (very) recently realised that I -do- have choices, no matter what the situation is. And some of the choices lead to better results than others. And some choices that lead to better results are difficult and short term painful for me anyway.
And so much of this is so very new. Make choices? Stand by them? Let people know, clearly and gently (when I can) where my limits are and what will happen if they are crossed? Hold to that? Do all these things instead of... just slowly fading away and out of sight?
It feels painful. It feels scary. It is hard. Judging by the results it yields, it looks like a good set of choices for now, but it's still really new and really hard.
I'm trying to tell myself this is like physical training and that it's gonna hurt until I learn how to use the "new muscles." I hope that is at least somewhat true.
Again, thank you for teaching.