The Art of Changing
Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Tiffany Lazic, author of the new The Great Work: Self-Knowledge and Healing Through the Wheel of the Year.
Ever since I heard the definition for magic as, “the art of changing consciousness at will,” I have loved it, cleaving to the words as a reliable compass by which to steer through stormy waters. Many years ago, when I first embarked upon a Pagan path, I pondered how to position myself in relation to magic. Did I really believe in it? Do spells work? Does the unseen world exist? Can I access it?
In my line of work, I see change every day. I see individuals who have formed certain beliefs out of experiences from many years past, who have lived in distress or self-destruction, but who are able to change the experience of their lives through changing their consciousness. The act of pulling the inner unseen into the light of discourse and inquiry in order to consciously step into a new way of being is a wondrous thing. It makes the process of self-discovery encountered in therapy a sacred journey.
Though this may seem counter-intuitive, I have found that the more I worked therapeutically, the more I believed in magic. I began to see magic as being the presence of the ineffable Divine placing a hand in the process of change. There is a moment when you know the change has occurred—an insight breaks through to the surface, or a lost-lost memory floods inner vision, or a connection is made between inner and outer worlds. These are goosebump moments when the energy of a person has completely shifted and you just know nothing moving forward will be the same as it was in the past.
I know that spells work, particularly when we approach them as “tangible text-messaging with the Divine.” They are the way we have of communicating our intention to change and bring something different into our lives. Ritual works similarly with the added benefit of being able to invite complementary energies such as guides and totems, elementals and angels, the Gods and Goddesses into the safe and sacred space to support us in our quest for change.
I was once asked if I really believed in fairies. At the time, I responded as truthfully and authentically as I could, that I did not know if I really believed in fairies but I truly wanted to believe in a world in which they did exist. I have long since shifted my beliefs on that front and many others. I truly do believe in fairies, as well as innumerable miracles that I cannot claim to even begin to fathom. The world of Spirit goes far beyond the scope of human comprehension and just because we may not be able to wrap our brains around some things does not mean they do not exist.
What I do know for certain is that we can know ourselves. We can plumb our inner depths and find those parts inside that have resided in the dark. We can draw out the aspects of ourselves that we want to change and use all the tools, both esoteric and mundane, to shift our perceptions. In doing so, we alter the experience of our lives. We do posses the will to change ourselves and that is magic.
Our thanks to Tiffany for her guest post! For more from Tiffany Lazic, read her article “5 Ways to Heal with the Wheel of the Year.”
