A Bird is Just a Bird – Until It Isn’t

Some things just are: Fire, Earth, Air and Water are – what those mean to us, how we move with them and through them depends on who we are, it is personal to us. An obsidian stone just is – the energy we feel from it, how we interact with it, what it brings into our energy depends on who you are.

Our energy, its frequency, its vibration – our aura, or personal magnetic field generated by the beating of our heart (energetically and emotionally)– changes how we experience these elements, the world, our life. It changes depending on where we are, what we are feeding it, how we are moving with it or using it.

So when we interact with another energy field such as an element or stone, the interaction and experience can change. Sometimes the experience is similar because our core energy and their core energy are still present but the movement is different.

Representational magic allows us the focus to alter and enchant the mind. To move us out of the modern societal perspective and to see from the self – the soul – the energy – the contentedness. Knowledge is what is given to us by others – Knowing comes from within us.

The mala technique is a tool to retrain the brain to allow the soul to be experienced as the body is experienced. It gives tasks and distractions to that part of the brain which has become dominate in a modern society – the logical – so the Soul, the one that feels and is connected to everything through the strings of energy, can emerge and be heard. It is not in the chant you choose – that only sets a direction. It is not in the action – that is just a tool to help you get there. The real work is happening within, in the feeling, in the connection, and in the experience – the Soul and all its movements and senses being recognized and processed the same as the movement and senses of the body are.

A Divination tool created by another has their perceptions, understandings, and meanings. When we create our own, such as the method of a Rune Journey (stitchomancy with the Runes), we are being shown and given our own meanings – the way we move in them – the lessons specific to where we are and where we are going – the personal journey and tools needed.

The Deity before you is just one versions of Them. They have many names, many forms, many connections. The way you experience Them, the lessons They give you, the perspectives They show you, are for you. They are personal, for the past we need to heal, the path we want to forge ahead, and where we are in this moment.

The way a color feels, the thoughts and feelings it invokes within us, the way we are drawn or repelled, all come from us. Another can not tell you what that is, only you know what that is. If we are using from a place of knowledge (what others have told us) instead of our Knowing (what we feel and experience with it) we can not have true connection and bond with it. Can the two sides be the same? – Yes, but be careful it is your heart and not the heavily conditioned mind you are following.

A bird is just a bird, until it isn’t. We see it at a certain point in our journey and it is just another bird. Time shifts, we shift, and all of a sudden the bird is speaking to us, deep down, not in words but emotion. The bird has meaning now and we have connection in Knowing.

The Road of Magic

The road of magic, the learning and knowledge give us context, a place to start, an arrow to point us in a direction, the understanding of the existence and possibilities of these things. Most, if not all, people in a modern society I feel need these things because we have been conditioned by that way of thinking, moving, learning. Modern society has taught us their version of what learning is, what it looks like, the materials required, and the outcomes expected. We call this “learned” person intelligent, but are they? Are they not just skilled and knowledgeable? Is this the only way we measure intelligence?

An ancestor could not read or write – not “intelligent” by modern standards – but they knew the rhythms and flow of nature – to tell them how to plant seeds, grow crops, and cross breed them – they could feels weather changes before witnessing them – to see the interconnection of weather, plants, soil, temperature, and landscape – the ability to create a tool in order to fulfill a need. Not learned from another, but felt and Known. Is Knowing not a different kind of intelligence? Is it not equal to, or even surpasses, the “learned” intelligence of modern society. We had a phrase for this: book smart vs street smart.

Our modern society values the book smart above the street smart. We look at other cultures/ people who are removed from this way of thinking, such as aborigines, as being “uncivilized” because they are not “educated” – yet when it comes to survival, living, they are more skilled and free than we are. When it comes to understanding and being connected to the earth, land, animals, ecosystem they live within – they will win every time. Learning something is not the same as experiencing or Knowing.

What we learn in books is someone else’s observation or perspective. They say male and female deer do not herd together – yet it is a common occurrence here. They say they only eat plants – yet I have seen them eat roast. Their observations were made in a specific place, with a specific herd, and as all communities, they are not the same across the board. Ours may be a rare exception, but knowing the exception exits changes the knowledge.

Walking the path of magic, of witchcraft, we start in our boxes. We learn about the things existing and the things that just are. We learn about how others see them and experience them. It gives us a direction to get started. We start deconstructing the conditionings of our modern society, and open the door to possibilities beyond what we can see or prove in the modern social context.

Through experiencing these ideas, notions, and boxes – we start to have our own experiences – developing our own connections – feeling and developing our own Knowing… and it is also the part where many can get stuck. When the experience or Knowing does not align with what the learning taught you. Many will try to hold on, to reconcile the two sides together, to justify. “The “learned” must be more powerful than the Knowing, because more people feed and follow the “learned.” The “learned” is safe because it is written and thus must be right. The “learned” is tested and has provability in some way, even if that way is just a bunch of people agreeing…

We have a hard time trusting ourselves, our Knowing, because we have been conditioned by modern society to not trust it. Labeled a trick of the eyes – an active imagination – making things up – even sometimes a mental illness – all because it does not fit and is not control by their ideas or provable in a science way.

To walk in Knowing requires us to believe in ourselves, to trust ourselves – what we feel, what we experience. To have courage and stand strong in our own experiences and Knowing when they differ from others. To live our lives according to, and be, the Knowing.

The Knowing moves us from the boxes of others, to the life we are living, experiencing, and shaping for ourselves. If we are honest with ourselves, honest in our thoughts and actions – honest in our sharing, than it does not matter if anyone agrees or follows us – the point is for them not to, but instead discover and live in their own Knowing. They are not living your life, and you are not living theirs. They may be in a different landscape, culture, climate, social conditions – all giving different experiences and possibilities of the Knowing.

To move away from the comforts of “knowledge” and “learning” from a modern perspective, requires faith in ourselves and the courage to trust ourselves and the nature we are already a part of.