I’ve got some secret plans for blogging over the next few months. I hope you all enjoy them. On a more important note, it’s been a few weeks. As always, this summer has been slow for me on the writing front. I seem to find myself busy doing things, trying to accomplish all this work, and so it never seems as though there’s time to sit down and write. And as much as I like updating regularly, when I do have time and inclination to write, this is rarely my top priority. Personal journaling will always take precedence.

On a side note, I believe everyone should keep a journal of some sort. Whether it’s written, or recorded on a voice recorder, or a video diary, or a sketchbook. I think some safe, private, and unrestricted place is essential for all of us. I think perhaps that in some ways a therapist/counselor takes the place of a journal for some people. It seems there are those who absolutely need someone else present to talk to, to hear what’s going on. That’s another topic though.

I’ve been thinking about magic, and how we use it and how we live our lives inside of it. I see a lot of difference prespectives on magic in the pagan and occult communities. One of my favorites is “magic is just prayer.” It’s my favorite because it’s both the most accurate and least accurate viewpoint at the same time. It’s incredibly inaccurate for a number of reasons.

First, because the concept of prayer is often tied to irresponsibility. Prayer in our culture is what we do when we have no control over our circumstances. We pray, and ask Diety to intervene on our behalf. We relieve ourselves of responsibility for the outcome. Magic is not about relinquishing responsibility, it is about taking responsibility for change. An act of magic is performed by our will, it is set into motion and seen through by the magician. It is the opposite of abdication, in fact it is a claiming of responsibility.

Secondly, the idea that magic is prayer is inaccurate becuase prayer is inevitably tied up with Divine force, and many magicians don’t believe in divine force, or believe that they are divine force incarnate. Even if we ignore methodologies of practice that disregard the influence of the Divine, we are left with a wide range of magical practice that has nothing to do with God or Goddess or the Divine in any way.

On the other hand, magic most certainly is prayer. Good prayer, like good magic, comes from a place of need. We act because we have knowledge of our circumstances and a desired outcome. We perform magic just as we pray, to change the circumstances and achieve the outcome. As with prayer, our magic is most likely to be successful when we make serious efforts towards real change in our lives as well as praying or casting a spell. Magic and Prayer must both be done on all levels of being to be effective.

The real reason that magic is prayer however, is also the reason why I think most people who claim ‘Magic is prayer’ are full of shit. (On a side note, most people who say this don’t believe it, they say it in an attempt to make their magical practice acceptable to the culture-at-large, and this is the biggest reason I hate the magic is prayer discussion.) The simple truth is that magic is prayer, if you believe deeply that we are all part of a system, that we are all interconnected and related. If you live as though we are one and Diety is immanent and transcendent, then prayer is like magic. Prayer, the fervent communion with the divine that brings answers from the Godhead. Just like magic is always effective, prayers are always answered. It is just that we often do not get the answer we want. It is the same with magic. We often do not recieve the desired results, largely because we aren’t looking at the bigger picture.

I often write that the universe conspires to aid us. I believe this is true, whether or not the universe is conscious. When we are in alignment, when we are focused and aware, we move through the universe in grace. This is the precise same sensation and experience one who is blessed by god experiences. We become holy, and our prayer/magic is effective. It becomes a knowing, an awareness of need and the motion required to fill that need. We are all connected to this knowing, but we block it out with ego and fear and mindless clutching at the material.

Magic is not control, it never has been. It is not force, nor form. It is not a way of changing the universe, no matter how much we like to view it that way. Magic is a way of being the universe, of listening to it and moving through it with grace. So is prayer. It is communion with the truth of our illusion, and it is knowing the answers.