“How do you feel more magic all the time?”
I’m writing Wednesday blog posts for a particular person, who has jumped in with a question this week. It’s a good question and one that raises a lot of other questions. Most of us don’t feel more magical, we struggle with banality, with things that grind us down and leave us feeling sad and tired. Humans make terrible setups for humans to live in and I genuinely have no idea why we do that.
We need trees. We’d all feel a lot better if we had more trees around us and there’s plenty of science to back that up. We need quieter spaces with more bird song, more running water, and clean air. It’s not difficult to feel wonder and magic when you’re in a forest and the birds are singing. It’s really hard to feel it when you’re surrounded by tarmac, concrete and indifference. If we had more beauty in our human spaces, more art and colour, joy and connection we’d all have an easier time of it feeling magical.
One of the simplest ways to feel more magical is to seek the places that give you more and avoid the places that make you feel small and sad. Of course that’s not always possible. The way in which work happens, the pressures of capitalism and the challenges of stepping outside of that makes it hard to avoid the things that crush us. But, we can try for better balances. It’s important to make time for the things that feel exciting and full of possibilities. Chase the things that make you feel a bit magical.
It’s the need for magic that inspires many pagans to make rituals and spells. Whatever other reasons there are for doing those things, having some time feeling magical is part of what doing magic is for. Taking some time every day to invite magic into your life helps with the feeling of it being there, and this is something we can do for ourselves, all the time. When times are hard, it can be difficult to remember that there can also be good things. Having more magic depends, in no small part, on being strong enough and courageous enough to keep making and seeking magic even on the bad days.
It’s not easy, hanging onto a sense of wonder if everything around you seems thin and hollow. It’s not easy to keep believing in joy and wonder, sometimes. It’s better when we do this together, when we take it in turns to make magic for each other, lifting and inspiring each other as best we can. If you aren’t feeling especially magical, there’s a lot to be said for asking what you can do to bring magic into someone else’s life.
How we go through life has a lot to do with the choices we make, day by day. Where we focus our attention, what we make, what we think, what we care about. We always get some kind of vote in how that works. Sometimes there aren’t many good choices open to us, but even so, staying open to the world makes a difference. The world around us is alive. If we choose to see the world as a vibrant, magical place then we’ll be open to those experiences. If we let ourselves feel wonder and amazement, if we are open to being surprised and excited, the world can offer a lot more magic. The trick isn’t so much about becoming more magical, it’s about not letting the strange priorities other humans have rob us of our own magic in the first place.
