Picture Credit:http://petitecreme.deviantart.com/art/Sad-Witch-402748122
When you take on a leadership role in any community, questions become a part of your daily life. This is no different in the witchy community. Those of us who take on a leadership role through YouTube, Facebook groups, etc. get questions everyday from people who are curious about the path or new to the Craft. One question that frequently comes up for many of us is, "How do you balance your busy life and the Craft?"
Now on the outset, that might seem like a reasonable question for ours is a path of action. Being a Witch doesn't end with Samhain. It is a year round, daily kind of thing. Recently, the adorable Joey Morris (www.starryeyedsupplies.co.uk, https://www.youtube.com/user/starryeyelillady) interviewed the inspirational Molly Roberts of HerSpeak (https://www.youtube.com/users/HerSpeak, mollyrobertsmagick.blogspot.com/ ) for her series, "Views With Verse". Now Molly and Joey are both very busy witches, so naturally, the question arose, "Molly, how do you balance your Craft with your busy life?" Molly had an excellent response which inspired me to thought and this post, "Some days are just not magickal". I will post the link to the interview. I should note that I came into the interview during the second hour so if time is pressing, you may need to skip ahead, but watch the whole video at some point.
Pondering Molly's response, it occurred to me that the real reason this question comes up is that the questioner does not truly understand the nature of the witch. In other words they don't fully comprehend what it means to be a witch. As I mentioned earlier, being a witch does not end with Samhain. We are witches by nature, all the time, 24-7, 365. Therefore, everything we DO is magickal. Molly then went on to give some ways in which she expressed her magick on a daily basis but I kept pondering why that question would come up at all.
I realized that we often become so mired in the mundane that we IGNORE the magickal. We may not always have time for circle casting, ritual-based, spell-craft, meditation or the like. But that is normal. Our problem is that we take for granted the magick in the very mundane activities in life. We refuse to see the magick in the everyday. For me, being alive IS magickal. Magick is transformational in nature. Therefore, anything that we do that transforms something IS magickal. Taking a shower, brushing our teeth, cleaning the house, organizing or changing our sacred space, cooking, putting on makeup, even brushing our hair are ALL magickal.
Being a witch means that you are always MAGICKAL. While some days may be harder than others to incorporate formal spellcraft, it does NOT mean that you are not creating magick. When you use an herb for cooking, you are placing your intention into that meal for pleasure, nourishment, and flavor. Hence, you are creating magick. When you wear a piece of jewelry that is scared to you, you are creating magick. When you wish someone well (or ill!), you are being magickal.
For a witch, magick is in the very fiber of our being. It is our core. It is what centers us, not the other way around. And in acknowledging the magick that we create in our everyday lives, we achieve the balance that others think they are lacking. So go out, transform something from dirty to clean, boring to exciting, sad to joyful, for even a smile can perform magick in the life of a stranger. By recognizing and paying homage to the magick that surrounds us everyday, we balance our busy lives and bring our magick to others!
View the interview here:
https://youtu.be/gAYY7F2tDNw
Blessings,
Rev. Natalie Sedgwick, HPs