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...