My guest this week is author Ailsa Abraham, with a point of view on living with magic you may not have thought of. (I have preserved her British spelling because I wanted to.)
I'm grateful to Maggie for inviting me to contribute today
as both of us write about magic. So I would like to take a look at how our
attitude to magic has changed in the last half century or so. I'm fortunate
enough to be hurtling towards my 60s, and when I was a child the words “witch”
and “magic” conjured up images of a wizened old crone, warty hooked nose,
pointy hat, stirring her cauldron and muttering evil spells.
This always struck me as a little unfair as I come from a
traditional family of witches although even amongst ourselves that word was
considered pejorative. We “had the Sight” was about all we would say of
ourselves. We followed traditions handed down through generations, we read the
cards and we knew when people were going to die. We were healers and “soul
friends” — the ones to whom the others come for tea and sympathy, knowing that
their secrets will go no further. Sometimes that is the most healing thing of
all — to unburden to a third party who will listen without comment, offer no
advice but allow a spilling-out of all the unwanted baggage. We talk a great
deal about detox but perhaps what my family has been doing all this time was
allowing a detox of the spirit.
Shoot on to now and we have Harry Potter, Sabrina the
Teenage Witch, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer et al. Magic and witchcraft have
become not only acceptable but desirable. How did this come about? How come my
mother had to use her own status as a threat when I was being bullied at
school,
“I'm a witch and if
you continue to beat Ailsa up, I will turn you into a toad and you into a cat
so you can eat him! Do you HEAR me?”
(She was a bit formidable my mother!) and after that we were
pretty well shunned by the rest of our community in a small Scottish town. Now, however, every wee lassie who can slip
on the velvet, weigh her neck down with sigils, and wear a ring on every finger
can call herself a witch and expect to be taken seriously? In sixty years? How
so?
It started with Gerald Gardener in the 1950s resurrecting
some old traditions, cobbling them together with his Masonic rites and calling
it Wicca. Sorry, chaps, but that is the truth. Modern day paganism can claim no
more foundation in “ancient wisdom” than any other belief system. What my
family practised was merely a repetition of actions carried on from mother to
daughter with very little reasoning of why or wherefore. My grandmother, a
fearsome witch, was also a strong Calvinist who respected the Sabbath. She
would have been affronted by any talk of gods and goddesses.
The truth lies somewhere in-between. I am now a practising
Shaman and I can tell you that the link through the ages is that nebulous
notion of “Spirit” a word used by Quakers too. Christians call it God or the
Holy Spirit. Native Americans call it the Great Spirit Each religion has its
own name but the idea is the same. It is the reaching back to the caves of our
ancestors and trying to make contact with their concept of living with
Nature. Witchcraft, magic is no more
than making contact with the idea that we are
part of this planet and we have to share
it with all other life forms, animal, plant, mineral. Respect for each other
engenders a more fluid way of living. Contact and renewed contact each day with
the spirit of all living things around us teaches an acceptance of the cycle of
life, birth, death, decay, rebirth. Acceptance of that banishes fear. Lack of
fear gives the courage to try to change things.
It isn't rocket science. It's natural force – it's magic.
Changing for the better.
Thanks! just what I thought, but never put into words. --Leafynan@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteMaggie Secara's interview with Ailsa Abraham, author of Shaman Drum, reveals that Ailsa is a practicing witch of the "old school " where it's an ancient way of living, passed from mothers to daughters; as natural as breathing, and not the current fascination of the Wiccan path. Great interview blog.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully said. Things of the Spirit can be impossible to put into words; what it is like to live knowingly with Spirit is almost as difficult. Well done.
ReplyDeleteA friend sent me your article here, and I loved it. It was written so simply yet eloquently. It really felt wonderful to see that your witchcraft practices paralleled mine so closely, though I'm the only witch in the family other than my children--at least that I know of. Thank you for sharing this and many blessings~
ReplyDeleteI'm delighted to see that Ailsa's article has struck a chord with so many people! I had a feeling it would. Thanks to each of you for your comments
ReplyDeleteI'd just like to add my thanks for all who took the trouble to comment. I'm delighted that it resonated with so many people, enough to recommend it to friends. I'm afraid it was a very "compressed" version but glad that it made an impact.
ReplyDeleteBlessings to you all xxx Ailsa