Ex Penna

Don't Be Fooled by Pretty Magical Theory

There are those among us who, with the best of intentions, wish to take the fangs away from the serpent and show witchcraft as totally benign and safe.  They want outsiders to view us as regular people, soccer moms in mini vans, middle aged men with out-of-style pants.  Some of us are just that, of course, but it is their personalities and not their practice which dictate such things.  Inside we are very much a different breed.  Our outlook on life and its trials must certainly be different from the fatalistic viewpoint of the average individual thinking that there is no real influence he can possibly exert upon the world.

Witches are not helpless creatures, nor are we tossed by the idle winds of chance.  We step up and grab the ropes of our ship's sail and guide her home to the port of our choosing. Sometimes such bold gestures interfere with the course, directed or not, of other ships. When that happens--according to this witch, at least--it's just too damn bad.  If I am to be in charge of my own life, others around me will have to take charge of theirs because I might make things messy for them otherwise.  This attitude is called wicked and I embrace it completely.

Witchcraft has always had a side that was wicked: wild and untamed, unadulterated by societal norms because it sits outside of them.  It is not something that manners or wealth or the law can affect.  To be wicked is to work with your own set of morals and your own idea of normal.  No one outside can dictate this to you.  I say to you now that it is okay to be wicked.


The Bold are Rarely the Bullied

Those who speak openly about their practice of magic are the very last ones to receive ridicule for it.  When I was quiet about my magic (many, many years ago), I was rabidly scolded about the peril in which I was placing my immortal soul, the jeopardy I brought to my husband, and the waste of a life that I was leading.  That was when I was meek and

Yet, I have never had a complaint about selling such items, nor have I gotten bad reviews (thus far, at least) because someone's evil magic made evil things happen.  I speak freely on all topics which are posed to me because I believe with certainty that my practice is valid, traditional, and needed within the magical community.  And from the looks of the items that have sold especially well in the past, this is quite true.


We Need the Dark

I don't mean this in a "necessary evil" kind of way.  On the contrary, the dark side of nature is a good thing and one we crave.  Humans are free beings and yet we constantly exert our influence upon one another, in mundane as well as magical ways, that augment that freedom in one another.  The things which restrict are lessons of great value: like the shell which binds the baby chick, we learn to grow strong enough to overpower these ties and break free of them.  We then may go out into the world ready for anything.

Adversaries teach us, as well.  We learn what we are capable of when we are pushed to the brink.  Who are you when no one is looking?  Who are you when things go all wrong, when you have to strike back, when you are alone in the world?  Who are you then?  It will sting, but an adversary will teach you the answers to those questions.

Being the adversary for someone else tells us about human nature and the kinds of impulses which drive our actions.  We get the chance to see who we are when the tables have turned, when we have ultimate power, when we can do whatever we like.  Of course, the secondary part of being one's enemy is that, generally, the target has done something terribly wrong and is being made to pay for it.  I don't understand why it has become an unpopular thought but bad people deserve to be stopped.  Maybe I'm too much a matriarch, but if you mess with those I care about you must prepare to have your ass handed to you. Of course, if we want to look at this in the sense of "tough love," I might just be saving a person from a much worse fate that awaits them by stopping their string of poor choices before it truly gets started.

Because magical belief systems are autonomous we can experience these lessons personally.  We don't absorb the flow of the world through myth or rules or threats about the afterlife; we feel them directly and interact with them.  We are students of nature and teachers of one another.


Delight in All Aspects of Nature, Outside and In

It's been said that nature is cruel.  Things do not get dealt to us fairly.  The good die young while the hateful live on.  Justice is not served with equal measure and force for all crimes.  Some live in suffering and want while others frivolously waste their good fortunes.  But life isn't being mean.  Nature is indifferent.  These things don't have meaning to the natural world.  We are each dealt a lot and we live with it.  That is all.

There is something gutless and dull to my mind about a view of nature in which everyone is cared for and tucked up tight.  Nature is wild and uncivilized and it's best that way.  Within every living thing, ourselves included, is a spark of this untamed element.  It is our darkness, the part of the human soul that is free and unafraid.  It's the part of you which not only connects to the truest essence of the world, it is that essence.  You are a part of the unbound laws of nature.

The system was never intended to be fair.  You're not given "only what you can handle," you're just given something.  We're here to use that inequality to grow and become more than we were at our beginning.  Evil makes us evolve, inequality is the hull upon the seed of our potential.  If you want to put down roots and grow strong to reach the sunlight, you're going to have to break out with all the force you possess.  Your only other option is to rot.

Nature only realizes you're there by the influence you wield.  You needn't attempt to create a life of ease, only that you are able to create the best life possible and use your talents to their greatest effect.  You may discover that the trials of your life have given you a unique


Related reading includes  What It Feels Like to be in the Broom Closet, How to Get What You Want,  Black Magic Badass: Curses, Coercion, and Collateral Damage

Images from:
wallpaperstock.net
Amazing Science Fiction magazine for August 1973
fedfull.com/?p=144

The days of the week are named in remembrance of Teutonic Gods and Goddesses and their attendant heavenly bodies.  We've heard that plenty of times already.  Some of us actively use this information to guide our magic, but most of the time we are taught to be driven by a larger wheel--the phases of the moon.  Maybe the days of the week just seems to simplistic a system, or perhaps it's just that planetary days are linked with planetary hours, another plotting method that has fallen out of popular discussion mainly due to the complexity of it.

However, the days of the week are not complex at all.  It's a bit of information we wake up every morning having at hand.  It's simple and easy to access for a host of uses, both magical and mundane.  Each day has its own influences, based on the deity and the planet, and its own strengths, weaknesses, and highest use.  That's what we'll be talking about today.

Having an organized mundane life is something essential and yet so often overlooked. Keeping your world in a regulated state means that you will have more time and energy to devote to your magical work.  A clean environment, an orderly home, a workspace devoted to your art--these are helpful things to cultivate for maintaining an environment free of the energetic clutter that can easily distract you from your potential.  Think about coming home from work, opening the door, and switching on the light to reveal a turbulent mess in your house. You sigh, you wilt, and suddenly, whatever energy you had has totally evaporated. Now imagine you do the same thing, but instead of a disaster, you see only a neat and organized space ready for anything you may wish to accomplish there, even if it's only to curl up in your favorite cozy chair and read a book.  Your emotions, energy levels, and will power have completely changed based on something so small.


Sunday--the Sun

• Magical uses: Keep the illumination of the sun in your week by starting strong and looking at the big picture.  Work magic as a good deed, to improve the state your magical--or mundane--community, put efforts toward your life pursuits.
• Mundane uses: Air out your home, do things that increase the worth of your good name.

Okay, so I'm taking a moment to completely sell myself out in the name of something greater, namely my work as a non-fiction writer.  Bear with me and I hope we can work together to make your Monday at work more bearable by talking witchcraft, community, and the incredible future that awaits us both!

As I mentioned before, I am in the works of my fourth book for publication and really hoping to get this one out to the people as soon as I can.  I would love your help, though--your feedback, your comments, your suggestions, and--most especially--more of your great quotes!

Besides all that, my online presence is something I don't always remember to mention so that you will know all the ways you can see what I do and contact me about it.  So please take a moment to checkout the following links:


Quill's Occult Supply on Etsy

Quill on Facebook

Quill on Twitter

Quill on Pinterest

QuillAndInk@ymail.com

Preventative Magic

Here we have the protections and shields, the harmony and peace spells for home and work.  Keeping things running smoothly is key to effective magic in other parts of our lives. After all, if your job stress is keeping your mind occupied, how will you ever have the focus for a love spell?  Cast spells to keep your life tidy and take care of problems before they erupt.


Immediate Magic

These are the charms, formulas, and tiny works that you can do right away when something goes wrong.  Keep a bag of powder, a vial of potion, a bit of string to tie knots into, and you will have magic at hand all the time.

Immediate magic is all about being small and fast.  For straight-forward problems without any nuance, you can either work with the off-hand forms mentioned above or use the kind of itty-bitty spells that have proliferated the internet.  The standard example of this is the placement of items (putting crystals in the corners of the room, carrying herbs in your pocket, or tucking a slip of paper with a magic symbol in your shoe), but it also includes the little combinations like chanting over a lit candle or dissolving ink from a magic seal in water and drinking it.


Modifying Magic

• Planning ahead
• Keeping up with changes
• Knowing your goals

My Preventative Magic Moment

Years ago, my husband worked at a very dangerous, and not at all safety-conscious, outdoor job.  In a disastrous accident, one coworker was injured and believed the reason for the injury lay with my husband.  This was not entirely surprising based on the instigating attitudes of the other members of the crew, plus the aggressive bosses whose only interest was blame and termination, not prevention and training.

So there we were, a young couple with two small children and for the sake of an accident in an unsafe workplace suddenly on the edge of homelessness.  Nothing had yet happened at this point.  All the workers went home and the injured man went to the hospital.  He said he would decide the next day what he would recommend happen to the person(s) involved and we were terrified.  So I set to work.

My spells revolved around cooling whatever anger he actually had about the accident, ending the influence of those who just want to stir the pot (of which there were many), and finding resolution that injured no one.

That night, several hours after the spells were complete, the phone rang.  It was the coworker.  He'd been released from the hospital and called as soon as he got home to say that he was sorry for how things turned out at work.  We were both shocked at the idea that anyone would apologise for getting hurt!  My husband waved away the apology and they spent the next 30 minutes patching things up and apologising to one another (a symptom of two painfully polite upbringings).  The whole thing blew over and nothing more came of it.  We couldn't have been more relieved!

In this instance, the time to begin working on what might happen was the very first moment I heard about the problem, before opinions could gel into actions.  Preventative magic paid off.


My Immediate Magic Moment

My husband and I were at a big sunny barbecue, a rare outing during the summer of my pregnancy with our second child.  It was in celebration of a job well done for the crew who was responsible for an entire remodel of a local department store.  Everyone was having a great time playing games and enjoying the terrific spread of food when the storm clouds started to roll in.  Whispers and jokes soon turned to sad comments about such a nice party needing to come to an end at its very beginning.  My husband looked at me and we knew what to do.

I used one of the many charms for deflecting a storm.  My husband engaged others in conversation while I stared at the sky.  Breathing out my words, I let them disperse the dark clouds above us, repeating them in an unending string until it felt complete.  In a few minutes time, I noticed a change in the lighting: the sky was already brightening.  The thick roll of storm clouds had broken up and in their place were white tufts and streaming sunshine.  The party was back on!  We celebrated in high style the rest of the day and into the evening.

This is the kind of thing I wish more witches were adept in.  With immediate magic, the problem has already begun and you need to work while everything is in motion.  Being able to shut out the world around you and cast a spell right this moment is both challenging and rewarding beyond what I've felt from carefully timed and prepared works.  It's always great fun to see if you can do it and to what accuracy.  If for no other reason, you should always stay in good practice so that when the situation arises for immediate magic, you will be ready.


My Modifying Magic Moment

This was a big one.  I was seeking a job but had a lot of requirements.  No, I'm not the fussy type who demands a high paying job with zero stress and long vacations.  I am a willing worker and have been all my adult life.  But now I needed work that would be able to fit into my already full schedule.  It wouldn't be easy.

So when that job presented itself, I was overjoyed.  But a single stone in that road was so significant that it may as well have been a concrete blockade--my job was already taken. The person in question was on the way out but not before finding safe landing in new work somewhere else.  Not being a risk-taker meant that it was unlikely for this person to find anything quickly.  Time began to slip away, and with no progress, I grew impatient.  So I went to my workroom and brought out my best spellbooks.

I sought a job similar to the previous one--taking into account the security this person craved--and cast my spells with care.  This was pretty big; not only was I rerouting something in my life that I cared about, I was doing the same in someone else's.  The results were very important to me, so I plotted things slowly.  I made some petitions, too, and laid papers on my altar with descriptions of the soon-to-be empty position with my name across the top.  A short while later I heard the good news that the job was available and I was to start immediately!  The previous employee had found the perfect vacancy and now my own vacancy was secured.





 Related reading includes  Spells You Can Cast Today for Free,  The Secret of Powerful Magic

Images from:
blog.lib.umn.edu/jaku0040
windling.typepad.com/blog
whitemagicwitch.com/basic-preparation-for-casting-spells

As you know, I've been working on a manuscript about fame in the magical community.  I have profiled the lives of the legendary occultists whom we all know, but I also want to hear from people on their way up.  Do you consider yourself magically ambitious?  Do you have talents that many other practitioners would be interested in?  Have you done something large scale such as hosting a festival, leading workshops/classes, or running your own store?  Do you dream of doing any of these things?  Then I need to hear from you!

25 Most Influential People in the Birth of Modern Paganism (American Wing)

25 Most Influential People in the Birth of Modern Paganism (European Wing)


In researching magic users of note for a writing project I'm currently engrossed in, I discovered these excellent lists.  They are certainly food for thought.  Even if you do not practice any form of spirituality with your magic (and I am a big advocate of keeping the two quite separate on most occasions), you will certainly have felt the hand of these individuals, be it in the book market, the festival circuit, or on the streets.  These are the visionaries who saw through the haze of how things were to how they ought to be.

Read, ponder, and share, if you like.  What would be your list?  Do you have plans to ever see your name upon it?

Cloaks, bell-sleeves, ruffles, lace, ribbons, and crushed velvet.  Gem tone colors billow in the incense-heavy breeze at a Pagan festival...or fairie festival...or Renaissance Faire.  Who can tell?

Magical folk are largely well aware of the number of eye-rolls that these clothes now garner.  Traditionalists seem the most disapproving, mainly because fancy dress was not a part of what our ancestors would have done.  But, then again, there is a lot that we do differently from the older generations.  That's just part of working within a living tradition.

And, conversely, witches know of very few reasons for the modern practice to continue. Most of us are not practicing magic in a way that deeply resonates with that era and the fabric, cut, and colors of our current clothes have very little to do with what would have been available at the time.  But that is not to say that there is no sense in wearing garb to your next magical celebration.  Here are the real reasons that this trend has lasted so long and why it will go on:


It's fun

Though it may seem obvious, this aspect is easily overlooked.  Fun seems to be the number one reason for Ren-Faire clothes in every Circle.  The look is dressy and festive, showing that one has put effort into getting ready for the event as well as letting others know that they value the event and its participants enough to bring out the special clothes. And with the generous cut, flattering shape, and floaty layers, it's easy to be proud of your reflection no matter your figure.


It's a brand

Of course, this may be an unpopular attitude, but it's a valuable part of the equation.  As a subculture we have the need to build a "look" that is our own.  Clothing is a common identifier for any group and this has become a signature for our people.  When you see a group of folks in this dress, you can reasonably approach them as possible practitioners. Then with a few well-placed words you will know if these are witches or no.  That's more than can be said for a gathering of plain-clothes individuals.
Also of note is the point made at the opening of this post--we share festival circuits with other groups that have nothing to do with magic.  Though you would expect this to make things more difficult it is actually to our benefit.  Events intended strictly for practitioners are usually put on by individual groups or covens and are localized in cities that stand to bring in the largest crowd.  Because of the great expense, time, work, and coordination needed, they are generally held once a year or less.  On top of this is the cost of advertising which means that much of the information is passed by word of mouth and social media--both systems which can unintentionally miss huge numbers of otherwise interested people.  This means that your chances of living within driving distance of such a festival, hearing about it in time, and being available for that one specific period of time are not very good.

But Ren Faire and other historical, fantasy, and bohemian events have corporate sponsors, organized and paid groups of workers, and advertising teams.  So we piggy-back on this and work our own festival inside the larger one.  The newcomer to witchcraft (or those who are interested in becoming one) are especially heartened by this innocent way to dip ones toes into a larger magical ocean.

It's a history we miss

No, I don't think anyone misses the Inquisition, spectral evidence, or Bubonic Plague, but we certainly miss the days when everyone knew witchcraft existed.  With the overwhelming amount of people favoring either a materialistic philosophy or a religious--but no more mystical--view of the world's belts and gears, one is not likely to find the common man believing in, let alone working with, magic.  Some would say this is the work of the rational minds that have taken us from superstition to science, but at what cost?  Have we forsaken the beauty and the fables of antiquity when we said all spells were but wishes, prayers, vain fancy?  Some even call it now by scientific theories of a plastic universe, a receiving and reflecting force in nature that feeds us back our own thoughts.  And that is how a wish is granted, that is how a prayer is fulfilled, a spell works, and even idle dreams become our good or bad reality.  But isn't this all just a gentrified way to say "magic"?

When we gear up in our garb, we can forget for a time that there are swarms of people in every corner waiting to tell you what cannot be done.  It is as though there is something personally at stake for them; they must make you aware that you're living a lie, even if it is one that troubles no one but them.  When we tighten our corsets, we armor ourselves against the useless insistence of common thought.  We lace boots to walk where they fear to tread.  We shrug under wool cloaks to be braced against the storm of a thousand cries of "no," "never," and "impossible."  And sometimes, these storms come from within.  They are the most restless and the most damaging.

We stand in a Circle, we sit by a fire, we walk into the night or do our work at a candlelit table indoors.  We are clothed and prepared.  We have taken preparation seriously and have all our wits available to create something far beyond the physical items before us.  We are great beings and yet no different than thousands, millions of others; we will work our will and it will reorder the world like a doll's house at the hands of a child.  There is nothing silly here and nothing serious.



While not everyone indulges in the wearing of garb, those that choose to do so with good reason and deeply persuasive results. If this describes you, I say proudly don your velvet and lace.



Images from:
pinterest.com
leftlion.co.uk
eartisans.net