Belief in Magick

We all have it to a certain degree.  If you were raised in a house that had 2nd or 3rd generation family members, you always had someone saying "you spilled the salt, throw some over your left shoulder for good luck" or "oops...broke a mirror, seven years of back luck for you!" (how come they never told you how to counteract that??)

Many of these "superstitions" have their start in your family's native folks magic.  If you come from a multi-cultural family like I do, (1/2 German, the other 1/2 is Irish, Native American, French-Canadian) you can get a whole lot of different superstitions thrown at you  from a very young age.

As children we are told these things and we believe them.  Sure, most of that is because we are children and haven't yet developed those critical thinking skills that allow us to talk ourselves out of those beliefs.  But in many cases, we know these are true since they speak to that deep part of us.  We know in our heart of hearts that it is true.

So what happens when we become adults? We lose all that and our ability to believe in magick goes right out the window.  We have such a hard time believing that we can make magick but we have NOOOOO problems believing that we can be the recipients of (usually nefarious) magickal actions.  Here is a great example...I've got about 40 Facebook friends (I bet you didn't think I had that many right?) and about half of them are involved in the Pagan community on some level.  I hate chain emails, you know the kind that says you must re-post this or you will have X amount of years of bad luck or that your wish for money will not come true.  But invariably people will post them on their timelines and of course, they show up in my news feed.  I always check to see who it is that is posting these things and invariably they are the same Pagan folks who don't believe that they too, are capable of creating their own magickal destiny!! They are more than happy to let others have control over them, but don't believe enough in their own power enough to take control of it and use it for themselves.

I promise you that if you get an email and decide not to forward it, nothing will happen...unless you believe that it will.  If you believe that a simple email can change your destiny, why is it such a great leap for you to believe that you too, can change your destiny using magick? why do you choose to believe its possible for a totally unknown external force to affect your life but deny the fact that you too have that same power and can choose to effect yours in a similar manner?

Belief in magick is critical to our lives.  If we don't believe in magick, how can we exist? Even more dangerous is the concept that there are people out there who, without our knowledge and consent, can change our destiny using magick but we are powerless to have the same impact on our own lives.

Believe or don't believe...but don't call yourself a Witch.  Witches believe in the magick...we work magick and we know that ultimately, we are in control of our own destiny.