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Political Magic

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

As I do twice a month, I got together today with some magical women from Columbia's District and did some political magic.  What's political magic?  Well, I think that we all know what magic is, but a good working definition is <a href=http://hecatedemetersdatter.blogspot.com/2006/02/ability-to-change-consciousness-at.html>the ability to change consciousness at will</a>.  And politics?  Well, Oxford Dictionaries on line defines politics as: 

  • 1 the activities associated with the governance of a country or area, especially the debate between parties having power
  • 2activities aimed at improving someone’s status or increasing power within an organization.
     
    So political magic, for me, is magic that changes consciousness related to governance, that shifts the debate about power, and that influences activities aimed at improving status or increasing power.  As a woman, a Witch, and a Crone (as someone with little power) I'm interested in increasing my power, my ability to influence the conversation about governing.  And as a white, educated person who earns a good income and  moves within the corridors of power, (as someone with a lot of privilege) I'm interested in using my influence in ways that assist Mamma Gaia.
     
    I'm an old feminist, and I do believe that the personal is the political (and, vice versa).  So a working to find a home that my Sister can afford to buy is political magic.  A ritual to send healing to a woman going through breast cancer is political.  And, a ritual to influence the election is political.  A ritual to protect the Code Pink house is political magic.  
     
    What's political magic to you?
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HecateDemeter is a woman, a Witch, a mother, a grandmother, an ecofeminist, a lawyer, a gardener, a reader, a writer, and a priestess of the Great Mother Earth.

Comments

  • Anne Newkirk Niven
    Anne Newkirk Niven Monday, 08 October 2012
  • june-marie
    june-marie Saturday, 13 October 2012

    Why do you say of yourself that, as a 'woman, a witch and a crone', you are of 'little power' ? If you believe that, you will, indeed, have less power that if you knew yourself to be (as a woman, a witch and a crone) a person of HUGE power !!!!! Why do you think men are so afraid of women's magic, and have in the past done (and still do) so much to hinder and defeat it ? Do you think Hecate herself a woman of 'little power' ?
    The magical world is what we see reflected in the sacred lake; this world turned upside down; the world of conventional values stood on its head. As the day is the night reversed, so is the power of old women the reverse of conventional force - but all the more potent for exactly that reason. (Which is why post-menopausal women are respected and revered in so many traditional societies.) Perhaps the problem is sometimes that the real, elemental power of old women is so extraordinary (and in some ways quite immoral -there isn't much that will stop a grandmother with intent) that its scary for even us to admit to, let alone anyone else.

  • june-marie
    june-marie Saturday, 13 October 2012

    OK, I just tried to post, but it didn't seem to work, so maybe I'll try again with a little magic this time. (Which may or may not result in 2 replies. let's see.)
    Thanks for the post, Hekate, but why as a 'woman a Witch and a crone' do you think of yourself as a person 'of little power' ? And how on earth do you expect your magic to work at all if that is what you believe of yourself ? Such an attitude is part and parcel of the ancient, ongoing battle against women's magic : that it is bad, destructive, and, besides, it doesn't actually work. Of course it works !!! That's why men have been trying to destroy it for millenia !
    The magical world is the one we see reflected in the sacred lake - everyday reality stood on its head: the world literally turned upside down.
    As night is to day, so is the force of an old woman's magic operating in the ordinary world
    Which is why so many traditional cultures respect and fear the grandmothers: they know that an old woman can curse as well as bless, and that the ancestors, to whom she is close, listen to her.
    Perhaps the problem is that this power, being often indifferent to conventional morality, is just too scary: after all, would you choose to cross the path of a grandmother with intent? And what else is a crone if not a grandmother with intent ?

  • june-marie
    june-marie Saturday, 13 October 2012

    Clearly, I overdid the magic !!!

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