Energy as magic....

"My body is all sentient. As I go here or there, I am tickled by this or that I come in contact with, as if I touched the wires of a battery."
                                   Henry David Thoreau 

I picked up a stash of pagan books and mags at a garage sale about a month ago, which Ive been working my way through since. In one volume I read a definition of magic that stuck with me in its difference. An exercise was given of placing your flat palms close to, but not touching, another persons and moving them apart, then back real close. To simply feel what you feel. Be that heat, a buzzing sensation, pins and needles or something else. That feelings the energy I call magic, the force or current used in magic, said the author, Ms Galenorn, and I rather liked that. Of course you can do it solo and still feel something, depends on ones tendencies and situation. I just liked that she included bodily felt sensation in a definition of magic.

Sensitivity to these types of feelings has occurred in other practices for me. In Tai chi, or Qi gong the presence of such energetic sensations gives feedback as my body moves through the physical excercises. At the end of a session I place my hands on my dan tien, or energy centre (either at the heart chakra or just a little above the navel) to let raised energy flow into the area, for health, calm and centring. When I place my hands close to plants I feel heat, tingling, like a circuit has been activated. Holding this stance a while seems to both aid green folk’s growth and my own earthing out in an exchange of energy that has long been valued as therapeutic. 

The different aspects of earth as a source of such energies is epitomised in the ancient art of dowsing. For water sources, mineral deposits and questions of daily life the dowser consults a pendulum or forked stick which moves in reply. Even in this age of technological gadgetry, dowsing survives, because it works. It can be used for everything from sexing a plant, finding underground water sources, checking seed viability to querying food quality. The tracking of energetic ‘ley’ or ‘song’ lines in the earth, (a bit like the acupuncturist tracing meridians in the human body) resulting in some of the ancient standing stones, monoliths and sacred sites being where they occur. Small lesser known sites that may draw us in included.  
  
"A basic principle of magic is that changes in the energy body can create changes in the physical body and vice versa." 
                                          Starhawk and Hilary Valentine in ‘The Twelve Wild Swans’

" The techniques of healing are simple enough; most of the training is about getting the healer out of the way. Healing is done with spiritual energies that come through the healer but do not emanate from her; she is the messenger not the message. Sadly, many people working with healing energies, and not only healers, forget this. Working with energy does not make you special in any way, any more (or less) than plumbers or mechanics are special. Its a skill which a healer develops, practices and applies, just like any other; moreover, it is a skill which everyone has."
        Elisabeth Brooke in ‘A Wisewomans Guide: to Spells, Rituals and Goddess Lore’ 

Some people may try to convince that large amounts of money need to be forked out to access such energy. Simply beginning with the hand excercise mentioned above sensitises one to feelings which can be built on, by shrinking or enlarging the 'ball' of energy between your hands and moving with it. 

I paid a relatively small amount for my Reiki attunemens and certification. Not because it wasnt the real deal. My teacher was a devoted meditator who saw it as a part of her dharma to spread this tool to women on low incomes. The price doesnt necessarily qualify the lessons...

Poetry as invocation....

I have begun reading Robert Graves 'The White Goddess' several times and not finished. Yet it is a thread book, that one can trace later texts to and that indeed traces threads back through time to the more ancient texts which he refers to. So Im trying again and I thought Id share a few tangents and tastes from chapter one....

Graves suggests that the traditions of the Welsh Bards were, like the Irish, memorised learnings of tales passed down to them by elders in their tradition, in a series of inititaion like revealments. A deepening of soul, echoed in the poetic words spoken, that could strip a man to the bone or flesh up his wounds.

He describes the evolution of different styles flowing on historically from such ways in Wales. The wandering minstrels, and the court bards. The courtly poets being subject to pressures of content and form by king, then church (recorded in its written texts). Whilst the other was free to perform in any manner they preferred,  indeed suggesting that they held some of the previous magical use of the word that traditional Welsh poetry is honoured for. Poetry as invocation, but of what?

This is where Graves introduces his theme of she who 'will suddenly transform herself into sow, mare, bitch, vixen, she-ass, weasel, serpent, owl, she wolf, tigress, mermaid or loathsome hag. Her names and titles are innumerable. In ghost stories she often figures as 'The White Lady', and in ancient religions from the British Isles to Caucasus, as 'The White Goddess.' Indeed, Graves puts forward that the best of poetry is dedicated to a vision of her, that makes the hairs on ones arm stand on end. She is the muse of the master poet. In parallel dancing her relationship to the God, echoed in seasonal cycles of death and rebirth, as also proposed in Fraziers 'The Golden Bough'. 

Both these texts were about unearthing prechristian traditions. They went on to influence later minds like Gerald Gardner, and in the case of the Golden Bough, also the patterns of annual festivals celebrated by many pagans today. They are of another time, the 50s and 60s, but i do believe they hold keys. 

 Caitlan Mathews quotes Wallace Black Elk in reference to the piecing together of whats been left to us by previous generations, 'There is ' he said, 'no such thing as a forgotten tradition. It is possible to neglect such traditions, but these can always be recovered. No tradition ever dies until the last person who honours it dies.

"Discover thou what is
The strong creature from before the flood,
Without flesh, without blood,
Without head, without feet,
It will neither be older nor younger
Than at the beginning;
For fear of a denial,
These are no rude wants
With creatures.
Great God! how the sea whitens
When first it comes!
Great are its gusts
When it comes from the south;
Great are its evaporations
When it strikes on coasts.
It is in the field, it is in the wood,
Without hand and without foot,
Without signs of old age,
Though it be co-eval
With the five ages or periods;
And older still,
Though they be numberless years.
It is also so wide;
As the surface of the earth;
And it was not born,
Nor was it seen.
It will cause consternation
Wherever God willith.
On sea, and on land,
It neither sees , nor is seen.
Its course is devious,
And will not come when desired
On land and on sea
It is indespensible.
It is without an equal,
It is four sided,
It is not confined,
It is uncomparable;
It comes from four quarters;
It will not be advised,
It will not be without advice.
It commenceth its journey
Above the marble rock.
It issonorous, it is dumb,
It is mild,
It is strong, it is bold,
When it glances over the land,
It is silent, it is vocal,
It is clamorous,
It is the most noisy
On the face of the earth.
It is good, it is bad,
It is extremely injurous,
It is concealed,
Because sight can not percieve it.
It is noxious, it is benificial;
It is yonder, it is here;
It will decompose,
But will not repair the injury;
It will not suffer for its doings,
Seeing it is blameless.
It is wet, it is dry,
It frequently comes,
Proceeding from the heat of the sea,
And the coldness of the moon.
The moon is less benificial,
In as much as her heat is less.
One being has prepared it,
Out of all creatures,
By a tremendous blast,
To wreak vengence
On Maelgwyn Gwynedd."

It is 'The Wind'. Riddled by Taliesan as a child....

Resources:
Lyra Celtica: An Anthology of the Poetry of the Celt, edited by EA Sharp and J Matthay, 1896
The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom: The Celtic Shamans Sourcebook by Caitlan and John Mathews, 1994
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion by Sir James Frazer, 1950
The White Goddess by Robert Graves, 1962

Soils and health...

On the weekend I went to a gardening workshop with a mate, organised by 'One Organic' it has reinspired me. That the future of food production is in smaller scale lots tended with intention and loving care, rather than large scale agronomy where the pressure of making a profit is applied. That the foods and medicines harvested reflect this input and approach. That there is a relationship between soil fertility and our health.

'Being a servant of the land instead of making the land a slave'.
 
An example of the interrelationship between the soil and our bodies, is the balance of microorganisms. The proportion of friendly to nasty in the soil is 85% to 15%, exactly the same as in the human digestive tract. However some folks nowadays come closer to the directly opposite figures of 15% friendly to 85% nasty. You can imagine why you might feel lack lustre in such circumstances and in the context of soil, why plants trying to grow in such conditions might be lacking in vitality. The answer is nourishing ingredients in both cases.

For soils, one answer is 'green manure', not unripe poo (although that too helps), but  a crop thats planted out, usually peas, legumes or beans, allowed to grow to a certain height, then cut down to fall back onto the soil and break down. Thus making available the nutrients gathered by the crop for what ever gets planted out next. Creating available nutrition and compost.

For humans one answer is to include living and fermented foods in the diet. Enzymes are living parts of our digestive processes (and the soils), we are born with them, but in finite amounts. Living fruit and veg, not overcooked, vine ripened, contain within the enzymes needed to digest them, hence reducing the use of a finite resource.

 The Findhorn community is an example of working with poor soils to cocreate abundant nature . They began as a small crew of people on low incomes living on the Scottish coast, who set about making a garden on sandy soils, with wild weather conditions. They became dedicated to working with both the spirits of the land and the plants, consulting them daily as to how to proceed. What to plant, where to plant it. How to nourish the land. The abundance and size of their harvests came to be recognised world wide.

So our vegie patch has been planted out with a mix of mung, black eyed and adzuki beans as an experiment in green manure and Ive pulled out my books on Findhorn to reread.  Inspired once more thanks to folk who believe in the magic of growing and preparing your own food as medicine.

Resources:
.
The Findhorn Garden: Pioneering a New Vision of Man and Nature in Cooperation
by The Findhorn Community, Turnstone Books and Wildwood House Ltd, 1975