“Magic” has come to mean many things, from Rumpelstiltskin spinning straw into gold, to an illusionist pulling coins out of someone’s ear, to invoking the “parking space fairy” when we drive into the city.
But I’m talking here about real, consequential magic that we can practice right now. This magic has to do with cultivating ways to link up, courteously and creatively, with the entire spectrum of life on earth, from the physical to the spiritual.
Working optimistic, heart-full magic to connect harmoniously with the natural world, and with our own true nature, is a crucial skill. It’s an essential part of getting back into good relationship with the earth, ourselves, and one another. Drawing on the following basic principles, we can all begin to use magic to make us better people and the world a better place.
Magic is Completely Natural. Magic isn’t supernatural. It’s not anything that’s weird or strange, and it’s certainly not evil or threatening.
The irresistible cycles and patterns of the land, and the interactions of its multitudes of varied physical inhabitants, are natural. The spiritual beings of the Otherworlds—whether we call them faeries, kachinas, orishas, or nature spirits—are also natural. They may be more difficult for us to perceive than ordinary trees or birds, but they, too, are living out-picturings of the intrinsic, bountiful powers of the earth.
To perceive and ally with the land’s beings and forces, we develop our bodies, minds and hearts—our entire physical-spiritual vehicle—to join up with them. Our own ancestors did this as a way of life for thousands of generations, attuned with the earth’s buoyant natural laws of renewal and returns, reciprocity and mutual thriving. Doing magic consists of realigning with this way of being, holding the intention to bring balance and good will into the land and ourselves, in sensitive, respectful communion with the non-human realms.
The Earth is a Star. This kind of magic has everything to do with the nature of the planet where we live. If anything is generating magic, it’s this planet—which is a fragment of star. Our earth-star home is still producing transformative fire and heat, light and energy, right now. This is indicated through massive events like the recent big explosion in an active geyser basin at Yellowstone National Park; and ongoingly and more subtly through phenomena like ley lines, vortices, and power spots, which are inherent to our planet’s essential, glowing star-nature.
We’ve been led to believe that the only stars are those “up there,” in the heavens, when in fact, we’re living on one! The Earth Light that our very own star generates is just as beautiful and inspiring, and just as infinite, as the light from the moon, sun and stars above us. This Earth Light, like all light, manifests from the physical to the most profound spiritual levels. It’s always available to grant us wisdom, power, and illumination.
All life, and every movement and rhythm evinced by our planet, is and has always been unfolding from the earth’s star-ness. Even today, far down in oceanic trenches, red-hot lava from the earth’s core is rising up out of vents, meeting the near-freezing waters of the deep sea, and giving rise to new life forms still unknown to science. If anything is magical, this is! And it’s all natural! Natural, as in nature, as in our own nature. How could it be otherwise?
Becoming Who We Really Are. Doing magic—connecting imaginatively with the beings and forces of our radiant planet for the good of all—is synonymous with becoming more and more fully who we authentically are. It guides us into who we can be, and shows us who we should aspire to be. In contrast, when we follow the values and beliefs of the human-centered world, we are attempting to be someone else, someone opposed to who we truly are—that is, someone who is unnatural. When we look at it this way, we immediately understand why the majority of the earth’s human population is so unfulfilled, grasping, and destructive.
Doing magic is cultivating, honoring and creating out of our relationships with all levels of the natural world. Being part of the natural world is natural, because, in fact, that is who we are and have always been. When we’re being fully ourselves, we innately know the inclusive, abundant, light-filled future we want for our planet, and we find our own unique ways of taking us there.
Letting True Love Flow. As we attune with the forces and cycles of nature, we come to understand that this entire planet is powered by an irresistible flow of Love. This love is also reflexively emanated by our own hearts. It is well beyond just aesthetic appreciation, or the one-dimensional love glorified by romantic movies. It even transcends the expressions of genuine caring that can occur between human beings.
The Love generated by the earth is a beneficent, resonant field of creative, regenerative energy that all beings—human and non-human, material and spiritual—are birthed from, partake of, and constantly, unstintingly, exchange.
At the same time, Love can also be seen as a dynamic web of flowing relationships among animals and plants, forests and rivers and oceans, otherworldly beings, and humans too, all being continually woven into Nature’s sacred, beautiful, ever-evolving tapestry.
As we feel this love circulating through ourselves and the land, we come to know that doing magic is simply allowing this Love to flow. We receive this love, we bless it, and we learn to augment it. We mediate it to wherever and whoever is calling out for it. This process of blessing and mediating arises from the entire vehicle of ourselves—our physical body and senses; our emotions, values and beliefs; our faith, hope, and generosity; and our deepest soul that knows who we are as part of the luminous totality of the planet.
We can offer and shape this love by praying or meditating; or by leaving offerings on the land or planting a pollinator garden; or by working for environmental justice, locally or globally. We might move toward creating and offering small, intimate circles, or even large community gatherings, for nature-centered rituals and celebration. In any case, we come to discover that this Love that we serve is inherent in the living earth, and is shining and finding expression through us, and through our kinship with our human and non-human beloveds.
And when we discover this, we know that we are true, natural magicians.