I wanted to bring up an interesting matter of discussion on why we do spells, what motivates us to want to do magic, and our ideas of what magic is. I finally logged in after a bout a month hiatus due to a move, and was reading up on some forum topics here and thought a discussion on the meaning of magic would be good.
If this has already been brought up, moderators, if this could just be a mended into the existing forum, I may have missed it since I decided to read well into the wee hours of the morning.
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Personally, I am a practicing witch, in that I choose to work spells, though not often in a ritual or traditional casting of circle, and am a seeker of metaphysical answers and spiritual enlightenment. I am not of the religion Wicca, honestly I'm not entirely sure what label would work with me or how to best define my religion. I acknowledge a Unified One True God, recognize the Pantheon, but see them as facets or incomplete representations of the Tao, the "all the things", but recognize that we as living Beings have a consciousness and that these beings are in some part figments of our imagination, products of our own creation and/or interpretation because we have a limiting factor called out mind that must make sense in some way-shape-and-form of the world around us. I believe that all things in the universe are connected, and that collectively the Divinity and all the Gods are part of us, but not in us. For example, The trees are part of me, in that we all are of the same creation, but I am not a tree, the trees are not in me ("The stones...are in ME!"....5th element joke).
Without delving too deep in my beliefs and ideology (which I will add later in the appropriate forum) I want to explain why I choose to work spells and rituals. Rituals for me are a way of collecting my energies into a cohesive intent/thought/unit/moment in time for me to make an action and step forward in life.
By energies I mean my emotional energies, mental energies, physical devotion and discipline to a task, and spiritual energies, which I lack no other description other than "that feeling you get". Physical energies and devotion and discipline include practice and reading and learning, taking the time to do and apply and learn how those actions tie in to the rest of the world, and how each action is connected and consequences.
Rituals and spells, for lack of a better description, get me "in the zone", the proper mindset to achieve ones goals. We have the capacity of creating our own destinies, influencing the world both physical, mental, and spiritual, all around us however subtle or not we may. I believe we are all part of some source and therefore all connected, and that my spell is directing whatever personally intended forces across existence to make something happen.
I am a science minded man, so in some sense, science and sorcery are similar. Regarding magical objects, I believe that physical objects can be charged with intent, whether emotional or mental of whatever kind of energy, and I personally would call that magical. The first backing I have to this philosophy is the science behind water memory (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_memory or https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ILSyt_Hhbjg). The video is a short 2 and a half minute explanation, but they both describe the concept behind how things have a sense of molecular memory.