CASTING MY SPELL: CONFESSIONS OF A WHITE WITCH

“I see writing as a spell, decorating my home as a spell, singing as a spell. Whenever I express myself I am casting MY spell.” Shaheen Miro shares what it means to grow up and embrace being a white witch…

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I have always had an intimate connection to the unseen – as a child I could feel the pulse of magic in the world around me. I spent my time wandering through the shadows of trees, marveling at the menagerie of creatures forming, looming, and dancing on the ground around me. I gathered stones, flowers, and found objects to create charms for change and good fortune. I spent my time talking to invisible forces…the spirit of the river, the rocks, and my little calico cat.

A little fairy on the edge of dreamland, roaming between worlds, and unraveling mysteries, sometimes I found myself lost, and confused by things I could not put into words. The loneliness of abandoned buildings made my spine tingle, and spirits of the dead danced in and out of my awareness – difficult things for a child to articulate.

My mother and grandmother were my advocates. Strong, beautiful women with big hearts, strong hands, they were brave witches who honored this path, and these gifts.

And so we explored the tangles of nature together. Singing with the plants, and soaking up the light of the moon. My grandmother always spoke of angels as divine helpers who could be called upon at any time, and my mother gave me the gift of the Tarot as a small child – her way of helping me cultivate and hone my blooming psychic abilities.

To some, my story may sound fantastical, the musings of a child captivated by fairytale visions. But all myths are rooted in reality, and I’ve simply always been aware that magic is alive and well in the “real” world.

As such, I never “grew out” of my exploration of the mystical world. I learned to read between the lines, to see the space beyond the eyes. In every moment, in every situation, and in every person, I can see a bead of magic. How we are all made of the same light and shadows – divine beings on an arduous and essentially liberating earth-walk journey.

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I have found magic in books, in stories, and in art, and my life has become a pilgrimage to reclaim the folds of the mystical world, while remaining grounded here in the physical. Because this is where magic has the most power.

To quote Stevie Nicks (a weaver of spells through songs): “The stars are apart of us.” Witches know the ebb and flow of the Moon, and we hone and honor this powerful tide of energy in the understanding that we are equal parts spirit and flesh. Our bodies know the grace of the seasons, and the tides of the Moon, and when we channel this energy we become super-powered.

As such, the Moon has always been my muse and my teacher. I spend time soaking in her milky light. I talk to her, expressing my deepest wishes, and my heaviest regrets. My mother and I wander out into the landscapes of the moon and light candles in honor of her light and glory. The moon has become a portal to our inner world, and even when we are apart we know that the Moon connects our souls.

How else do I live it?

There is nothing like wrapping myself in an aura of black chiffon, and letting my wings catch the wind as I spin and spin in the moonlight. A little white witch taking flight into the mystical; transcending my body, and moving through time. I feel alive in the cool hush of the night. Night sounds are prayers that awaken the soul. Witches know the night holds mysteries, and so they seek refuge in her subtle energy.

And the white witch knows the power of magic lies in the ability to evoke what is cradled within. Spells become nothing more than a rhythm of expressing and exploring intention. We mingle with, and call upon the latent potential of objects. Calling on the spirit of botanicals, igniting the influence of candles, and mingling with the essence of crystals.

The Shadow self has also become a teacher for me – for there are gifts to be found here, in the parts that are suppressed, feared, and therefore unacknowledged. When you reach into the dark, you can pull out treasures and heal what’s stuck. So when I encounter the dark, I try to communicate with it. To see what my Shadow Self has to say.

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I call myself a White Witch, because I know I am the night and the day. I seek to understand the dark, rather than fear it. To do this, I must know and honor my intuition, seeking out the patterns of the Universe unfolding around me. In omens, cards, and tea leaves. And it’s when I ignore the messages that I find myself falling off kilter.

This is why owning the word “witch” is an act of power. Sometimes it can feel easier to grow numb to the whispers of the magical world. To put your head down, and do what you are told. To act “normal.” But you are not living if you are not expressing, and you are not expressing if you are not telling the whole story. So now I find my power in being “different” – and stepping into the flow of my eccentricities.

For me, witchcraft is a way of life, an inborn desire to truly live. This also means following my creative impulses as an act of scared communion. I see writing as a spell, decorating my home as a spell, singing as a spell. Whenever I express myself I am casting MY spell.

This applies to all the powerful ones, the thought leaders, the rebels, the eccentrics, the artists. The ones who operate in the Earthly realms from a deep seated desire to bring their inner world to life. Magic asked them to channel their vision into being. All they needed was to be their unique expression. And the world changed because of it.

Witches know they do not have to explain their doings. They just do what feels right. Whatever feeds their spirit. And since this takes real bravery, witches don’t do well with fear.

REDEMPTION SONG: READING FOR THE PISCES NEW MOON SOLAR ECLIPSE

Use your imagination and go with the flow of the Universe – it is a Pisces New Moon, after all, says Hannah Ariel.

Pisces new moon 2016 write up on The Numinous

“You must conceive of possibilities beyond your present state if you are to be able to find the capacity to reach toward them” – Idries Shah

The Pisces New Moon of March 8 is not simply opening a door for our intentions – it will be a New Moon Solar Eclipse; a powerful moment of accelerated evolution. This one lands us in the deep deep sea of 19 degrees Pisces, just a few degrees away from the South Node at 21 degrees, also in Pisces. In Astrology, Eclipses always take place near the nodes of the moon – the elliptical plane where past and future storylines collide.

During a South Node Solar Eclipse, the moon meets up with the south node and experiences its lunar energy in reception to solar energy. From planet Earth, we experience this exchange as a powerful portal that transcends linear time, and orbits us right into our future potential – the story we long to step into.

A Solar eclipse is a magnificent and mysterious phenomenon that opens our psyche to a whole new paradigm. A solar eclipse in Pisces? This is an act of redemption.

Pisces is represented by two fish ever moving between worlds in an infinite conception of possibility. Yes, they go with the flow; yes, they fluidly embrace wherever the tide may take them. But the energy of Pisces can bring forth huge waves of creative potential from the depths of our unconscious experience.

Pisces season is always a time to take notice of what wordlessly surfaces from within you. What waves of consciousness are crashing now? What reality have you been subconsciously merged with for so long that you are finally swimming out of it? How are you becoming more aware of your own intuitive understanding of your life story, as if for the first time in ages?

Pisces is a compassionate ocean of deep revelation, and it is only by diving deep into its mysteries that we can know our own instinctual capacity to fully get in touch with the parts of us we long to know better.

During this Pisces New Moon Eclipse, we are karmically being called forth to release and work with what has been building up inside our psyche for goodness knows how long. It’s a portal for stepping boldly into the immensity of our imaginations; to see through the stories of the past that no longer feel right; to reflect, and then recreate our vision for the next six months. There will be a peculiar mysticism to the way this unfolds though, as Pisces ruling planet is Neptune.

It is Neptune’s job to reveal the reality behind the reality; it is dissolution; it is our own subjective processing of our experiences that is veiled even to ourselves. It is the experience we don’t realize we are experiencing until the curtain drops. For the next six months, life will have funny ways of revealing the waves we’ve been subconsciously riding, and how they are actually bringing us to where we need to be.

Jupiter, still in Virgo, will be opposite this moon reminding us that everything is manageable. We expand by taking things one day, one step at a time. The shadow side of Jupiter though can be blowing things out of proportion, so take care to cultivate compassion as you are finding your way. This is not the time to fall victim to circumstance or judge yourself or others for what they believe.

This IS a time to trust that there is a positive and practical way for you to take your experiences, and roll with their teachings in a way that makes sense to you. It may also be a time where we are tempted to self-sabotage – as the South Node can sometimes find us falling into old patterns. In Pisces, this would be old patterns of escaping reality – opposed to working with the deep swells of energy that are being subjectively experienced

Also on the south side of things, is Chiron. Astrologically, Chiron points to where we may feel like we don’t know what we’re doing. It is how we misjudge ourselves, believing we are in some way wounded – that we don’t have what it takes, or we don’t have “enough” in some areas of our lives. We believe – and fall victim to this belief – that we are at a disadvantage somehow.

In Pisces, this may lead us to feel that we are disconnected from the path of our spirit, due to a mistaken belief we are in the wrong place at the wrong time. The greatest shadow of this energy is thinking that we have no true purpose, are forever lost in an abyss of puzzling storylines we just can’t make sense of. So if you feel like you are just slipping through a foggy unreality, hold on!

For Chiron also shows us how we can effectively work to heal ourselves and others – by directly engaging with the very thing that we’re afraid will fail us in some way. So the more we work with what’s coming up, the more we take that positive and practical Jupiter energy and apply it, we have an opportunity to heal our lives beyond recognition. The reality of this Pisces New Moon Solar Eclipse is that we have so much divine experience, having swum through these waters for lifetimes, that we have all the information we need to imagine a way through.

And this Pisces New Moon Eclipse is just the beginning of learning how to use it. So, allow yourself to step into what is coming up at this time in your life, no matter how foreign it feels, no matter how confused you think you are – and use your imagination. Let go of your fear, and like a fish kept safe in water, feel your way into a future storyline with a deep rolling wave of universal trust. Step into this beginning with the sense that everything is unfolding with perfect timing.

To book a personal reading with Hannah contact: [email protected]

NEED-TO-KNOW: PRACTICAL MAGIC

Move over David Blaine. Outta the way, Seigfried and Roy. Magic isn’t just for Las Vegas side-shows, it’s for LIFE, says Madeline Giles

In Western culture, we’re taught that magic is either smoke and mirrors entertainment (best seen in Las Vegas) or for occultists (and therefore may or may not open an evil portal to haunt you for the rest of your life). In my humble opinion, these versions of manipulated “magic” are completely limiting and totally watered down. Genuine magic is not creepy or something only a privileged few can do. Magic is your birthright.
Continue reading “NEED-TO-KNOW: PRACTICAL MAGIC”