Original post from June 4, 2021, with a bit of an addition
I’m returning to Dion Fortune’s definition of magic, popularized by Starhawk: “Magic is the art of changing consciousness at will.”
Of course, they weren’t just talking about magic, but about doing magic on purpose, or in another, less sympathetic word, witchcraft. And it’s the most difficult and most basic thing there is.
Consciousness is the means through which we perceive the world. It determines what we experience and how, what kind of world we live in, and what kind of people we are. Everything that happens to us or around us is filtered and colored by our consciousness, which can allow more or less connection, happiness, meaning, communication, understanding, discernment, and much more.
Having the ability to change our own consciousness is the difference between being the master of our destiny and being a victim of circumstance. Because only then, no matter what the circumstance, we will find a beneficial way to inhabit it, instead of being dictated to by habitual patterns.
And it’s so not simple, because the simple thing is to go with our habits and our conditioning, with what we have learned, with what everyone else thinks or does. The ability to change consciousness, to choose how to approach something or someone – when the approach is largely what determines who or what will meet us, what our experience will be and what the results of the interaction will be – this is the most inconceivable thing in the world. This is the art of the witch.
The ability is mysterious. It can be learned, but not according to a plan. There is no algorithm. That is why it is called an art. Learning it is more like waking up to something, and learning how to return and wake up to it again and again. Like any art, it can only be learned by practice, by apprenticeship, by long years of devotion. It is a journey that involves our whole being and changes us irrevocably.