Why *Love* is Essential to Magic…
The ultimate reason that we can’t access magic without love, though is highlighted beautifully by Damien Echols in his book, High Magick - about how magickal practice saved him from Death Row - he says:
“For me, magick is love. Whenever you bring in Divine light to manifest one thing or the other in the world, what you’re actually doing is pulling in love. This is why real magick is never a dark or scary thing; because the very act of practicing magic brings you into harmony with the Divine, no matter what name you call it. When you practice magick in this way, you help the world become a better place. What we normally think of as love is actually nothing more than attachment. In the core of our being we don’t know that love is unconditional. True love doesn't waver or disappear if our loved one screws up or goes off the rails. Going forward, you must distinguish attachment from love. The foundation of magick is all about living in harmony with love, manifesting love and applying that love in the world. In this way, we become co-partners with magick in the ongoing act of creation” ~ Damien Echols
I adore this because it points to the critical interweaving of spirit and soul that I share along the journey to liberating your Wild Witch - when we co-create magic, we are ultimately calling in Divine love through our human Soul. Ultimately, that’s what magic really is; a manifestation of *love* itself. Wow.
And - ahh - so, how perfect is it that in my latest devotion to *Magical* creation (as opposed to “forced” creation) I decided to write this article about Love and release it for New Moon in October? Because, of course, when I then looked in my Moon book, I discovered that the New Moon in Libra is ruled by Venus - the planet of Love. You couldn’t make it up, could you?
And, the reason for this calling to write about why Love is essential to magic goes even deeper than this as last month I was really seeing how my deepest (and most difficult) devotion so far along my journey has been to *Love* itself. This might not sound like a difficult devotion at all on the surface, but actually, to truly be open to love, we have to be willing to be vulnerable; something which, in my Secret Witch, I have found to be very difficult. When we fear showing our true, unique selves to the world, often we show up as love for others - in fact, striving to be as loving as we can, to the point where we can end up being just the “nice, good girl”, walking round offering love to everyone, wishing for love back in return. This is what I discovered as I illuminated and saw my perfection shadow this last month.
I offer love to others in order to receive it - and I show up perfectly to ensure I receive it too. I’ve chosen this, unconsciously, in the past - and now I’ve seen it, I’ve chosen to liberate it. And you can do the same.
I’ll get to my deeper exploration of why “love is essential for magic” in a moment, but for now let’s stick with why love can feel difficult to choose. True love is vulnerable because when we open ourselves to love, we open our true selves. That kind of love is not the Secret Witch’s version of yourself - it’s the Wild, raw, honest, vulnerable version of yourself, showing up. It’s also not the Secret Witch’s version of love, either; that’s likely been conditional, and this is no longer conditional.
You see, the Secret Witch I’m talking about here is not just someone playing with potions - the Secret Witch as an avatar is a really potent *mirror* for powerful women who actually hide themselves away, not showing their hearts because they fear they will not receive the love, security or approval they long for if they show up in their raw form. This often leaves the Secret Witch (a woman who doesn’t know her own power and unique beauty), feeling very much that they have to armour themselves up, putting on a perfect act - adhering to who the world longs for them to be, instead of being the glorious radiance of who they really are.
It’s partly societal - only in the way that we have been conditioned that showing up “differently” or “wildly” is not acceptable - and somewhere along the way, we accepted it and allowed ourselves to create ourselves as Victim to it. The thing the Secret Witch often doesn’t realise is that this has been her choosing - because quite understandably; she was longing to keep herself safe and lovable. The first and most important thing to invite ourselves to see, however, is that we have created our lives this way; in doing so, we can create them differently and begin to show up as our wild, unique, unconventional selves - and that will serve the world far more deeply, I can promise you.
Perhaps now, you can begin to understand, how actually, true love doesn't always feel that easy for the woman who desires to give her full heart, but fears that it’ll get thrown back in her face. My personal (untrue) “story” was that I’d be “walked over” if I offered love to the world; which, of course, created that I was armoured against receiving love. Instead of unconditionally loving and receiving love, my Secret Witch often puts on this perfect act, to be who everyone else wants her to be. And that’s not love. And, it’s also not magic.
And both love *and* magic require courage. Because, as I’ve seen, this last month, to step out of our perfectionism and into showing up as the authenticity of who we are *in our hearts* takes vulnerability. And yet, it is absolutely essential for magical life creation. In this, you can see why in walking this path it is critical to both see our shadowy ways of being *and* choose to liberate ourselves from them. We have to discover all the ways that our shadow has a hold over how we create our lives - as Jung says “until we make the unconscious conscious, it will forever direct our lives and we will call it fate.”
Now one of my other favourite quotes is by Terrance McKenna, who says this: “Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it's a feather bed.”
I’m seeing, more and more, that in order to “do magic” (as Terrance says), we have to be able to “hurl ourselves into the abyss”. This is the very reason why I *know* love is essential to magic- it is exactly this: because without providing ourselves love, and receiving it, unconditionally, we won’t be available for hurling ourselves into the abyss.
And, co-incidentally, this also means we won’t be able to find our featherbed, or receive the magic available for us - nor our own unique magic - either. And to not discover and offer our magic - the gift we came to the world to be - is a great tragedy.
So, that’s one reason why love is essential to magic. And deeper than that, the real reason that love is so important - actually, critical - to my Live your Wild Alchemy path, is that it is 100% the *only* antidote to fear. Because that’s what perfectionism is; the very real-feeling fear that we “won’t be enough as we are.” I’ve operated in this shadow for much of my life; it’s a huge part of the Secret Witch’s journey. And still we can choose out, from a place of Majesty. This Majesty becomes available for us as as we walk the path of Soul, reconnecting with our Wild Witch, reclaiming love for ourselves - and, as we begin to flex the muscles of stepping courageously into the fire. We begin to hurl ourselves more and more into the abyss. We begin to glimpse that the truth and vulnerability of our hearts is the only compass possible for magic.
We can’t create magic without being in our hearts. We can’t connect with our vision, our dreams, our truth, our own unique gifts without being radically in love with ourselves. Being radically in love with ourselves is the work of a lifetime, and yet, we can begin at any point. We can’t be who we came here to be, without opening; and that’s why opening to love is the first step along the path of living your wild alchemy.
Becoming who we really are begins with approving of all of your wild self. It begins with allowing yourself to be imperfect. I modelled this in how I showed up in the monthly Manifesting with the Moon circle <in text link> I run, where I ditched the script this month. And I can promise you the love I received from sharing my truth, rather than wearing a mask, was a magic all of its own. The deep connection and intimacy available to us when we actually bare our souls, is worth all the courage.
Ultimately, it involves you having the courage to allow your Soul to be penetrated by the Divine and receive all of the love that is here to flow through you as you manifest love into the world.
And so, to guide you into harnessing the power of this New Moon, I invite you to begin to make your choice a conscious one to be fully *you*, in your unique witchy gifts, by diving into the following enquiry:
What benefits are available for me if I show up as my fullest self?
What are the costs of not showing up as my fullest self?
Where can I offer more love to myself to be able to do this?
When we do, finally, provide ourselves with the love we need, it enables us to consciously choose to hurl ourselves into the abyss - and that’s where we find our featherbed. You may not know how to do that yet, as that’s part of the path - and that’s so welcome in my space. Please know, I’m here to hold you. If you want to come and be held in love as you discover your own magical capacity to create the life your heart desires (even if you can’t yet see what that is), join us in the next free Manifesting with the Moon Circle - tickets available here:
Happy New Moon - may it be filled with love and magic.
Nicole x
