Re-Wild Your Magic

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Danu Forest, author of Celtic Tree Magic the new Wild Magic.

Celtic magic and spirituality has, for me, always been essentially an animist path, seeing the divine in nature, and all of existence infused with spirit. It’s about our relationship with our gods and the spirits in all their forms, especially the faery folk, and our relationship with the rhythms of life in the natural world. The land where we are, the life that surrounds us, the spirits of trees and rivers, fire and storm, animals and ancestors—these are the sources of our magic and our wisdom. Celtic magic is a path that has its bones in the wild hills and deep forests, but like the Celts themselves it can travel anywhere, and everywhere, and just relies on our building and maintaining these relationships with the seen and unseen, the known and unknown aspects of our world and our human journey.

Originally, in the early Iron Age times, the Celts believed that the gods and the spirits had no human forms, we didn’t need them to be like us, and they only began to take human forms after the Romans came. Instead they were embodied entirely in the wild powers of the earth: the wind and rain, the river and sea, the wild fire and the hearth fire, the moon and sun, the blossom on the bough and the bitter frost. These powers can be felt as clearly in a city as they as they are in the wild—but when we spend time in nature, away from the world of human concerns, they can be felt and heard all the clearer.

To keep our connections strong with the wild spirits of the land, we must seek to remember the seasons, and honour the wild traces that still are found wherever we are. Get out into nature and get muddy boots and the wind in your hair; learn what grows and lives around you, as an act of devotion to your spirit allies. Take time to heed the birdsong, learn the reeling of the stars and feel the awe that is the sunrise upon your skin. Walk in the rain, and greet the trees as kindred, each as worthy of love as any other soul. We re-wild our magic by aligning ourselves back with the natural world any way we can- by swearing our friendship with it in word and in deed. As we do so we give our souls as well as our bodies the fresh air they need to be brought back to life and be renewed. Take practical steps to improve and protect our environment- locally and globally, and make offerings of love and care to the spirits that guide us, spirits of the landscape as well as the wild things—the sidhe, the faeries— are our native spirit beings, our animal cousins and our ancestors and everything in between. In this way we can re-position ourselves at one with all creation.

In Ireland this path is sometimes called the Creideamh Sí, or the faery faith. In many ways it is the source and strength of Celtic magic, at the heart of our spiritual journey, which aligns us with the power of nature itself. Just the cure we need in these troubled times.

Our thanks to Danu for her guest post! For more from Danu Forest, read her article “Wild Magic: Simple Ways to Step into Celtic Folk Magick.”