I am often asked (by youngsters who really do want to learn!) what is magic? Is it like science?
Well, where to begin? It means so many things to so many people. Over the centuries a great wealth of knowledge, that was once thought to be magic, has been proven to be true as "science". In the very early days of humans, everything was "magic"!
When my teacher began to teach me witchcraft I didn't know that she was a witch. She just seemed to be telling me things that I was not being told at school; telling me about old legends, old Gods.And telling me about things of nature; how animals lived, how insects lived.
All this went on until I was about ten, or a bit older.I asked her if she was a witch. She said that she was not! So I asked if there was such a thing as magic. She said,
"Take a few tiny seeds in your hand. Look at them. Do you know, that if you put those seeds in a jar, they will stay exactly the same for hundreds of years? But, if you put those tiny seeds into the ground and add water and sunshine, you can watch them grow into plants. They will grow big and strong,and grow flowers! And then the flowers will produce more seeds, and it can start all over again. That's magic. Now, how much magic do you want?"
By the time I was a teenager it was obvious to me that Mrs Marshall was a witch. Witchcraft was becoming more widely known, even though it was still against the law.
I asked my teacher to explain witchcraft to me. She said,
"Witchcraft is the knowledge of the few, for the benefit of the many.It is not about Gods, or Saints.It is about how things work. How the Earth works. How the Universe works."
So I asked, "Then witchcraft is magic?" She said,"No, it isn't. Witchcraft uses magic to change things. There are two kinds of magic. Natural magic and "applied" magic."
I asked,"What is applied magic?"
As usual, I was told to write it all down in my notebook. She said.
"Magic is all around you! Every day! Let me give you an example of simple magic. You have watched your mother do it. But, unless you know what magic is, you don't see it!
Take an amount of flour. Some water, some yeast. A little salt, a little sugar,a little oil. Mix them all together. Would you eat it? If you ate that soggy mess, it would not only taste terrible. It might very well make you ill! But,if you add heat to that mixture something strange happens. It changes into something else.It becomes Bread! And that! Is magic!"
I said, "But that's just science!"
And my wise old teacher said,
"Of course it is! Magic IS science!"
Yes, magic is changing one or more things into something different.The change could be in self-awareness,attitude. The immediate environment.Or material things. An example of natural magic would be two gases,Hydrogen and Oxygen changing into Water. Or a caterpillar changing into a butterfly or moth. A sample of applied magic could be mixing Tin with Copper; the result would be neither Tin nor Copper. It would be Bronze.
You are reading this on the internet. A series of "on-off" switches changing electronic impulses into the symbols of language. Well, that's magic! Isn't it?
A spell is a ritual attempt to change something into something else by magic.
Thank you, all! I have been asked so many times to teach. But it is very difficult to teach on-line. I am trying to teach simple magic, but magic can get very much more complex! For instance, science has a wonderful electronic machine called Geophysics.It can find hidden water, hidden cavities, hidden walls, and of course hidden metals. I can do the same thing holding two metal rods.The difference is that I know how "they" do it! But, as yet, science does not know how I do it! And neither do I! It is just another mystery of magic.There are others, but as I have said, difficult to teach on-line!
