...and the Art of Magic

...and the Art of Magic

by GinaMarie Byars, WWRL Chair
(written for Love Letters)


What is Magic?

One definition of Magic is:  “the power of apparently influencing the course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces.”

What is your magic? What is your gift? What influence over the course of events are you wielding? Is it caring for small beings? Is it dancing? Or cooking? Or seeing what is needed at just the right time.

What is your talent? Maybe sitting with the dead? Or designing amazing websites? Or listening to others? Is it developing ceremony, full of beauty and complexity? Or teaching and helping others come to better understanding of what you’re teaching.

What is your connection to Magic? What is your passion? Is it crafting the most appropriate spell for this particular moment? Is it concocting the best potion and tincture to carry with you on any given journey? Is it storytelling? Or standing for those who are unable to, working to make the world a better place.

What is your magic?

Your talents, your interests, your passions…All these things are magical! All these things are imbued with the absolute essence of being.

For magic to truly be magical, it must be ours. We must connect to it on a subatomic and visceral level. We have to incorporate it into our very being.

Take any given ceremony. Each person comes to it in completely different ways. Every molecule we hold within our existence plays upon the elements of a ritual and affects it, shifts it, minutely changes it to be uniquely ours. Every person has a slightly different experience and walks away changed, adjusted, transformed—in their own way.

So what does that mean? It means we have the opportunity, and the obligation, to participate in beauty. And in a beauty-filled way. It is up to each individual to create and participate in magic—however we interpret it. It isn’t necessarily about doing something exactly how someone else says to. (Many of us have chosen to walk away from various dogmatic traditions for exactly that reason!)

It is up to each individual to give transformation meaning. It is up to each person to interpret what change means. When we do that, we become the architects of being, the creators of existence, the inventors of our descendants.

And that is Magic. That is Alchemy. That is Art.

The Magic of Art...

The Magic of Art...

by GinaMarie Byars, WWRL Chair (written for Love Letters) Art moves us. The application of color, just so. The placement of light, right there. The clashing coordination and fluctuation of tones evoke reactions. We attribute emotions to them. They move us from one state of being to another. And we come away from those experiences different beings. Our course of action is subtly affected. We flow in slightly altered pattern than before. That is Magic. And we hold that in our very being, at the core of who we are, the ability to make Art. We all carry within us, imagination and creative skill to create and express the heartbeat of what makes us who we are. Every. Single. One. Of us. We all move energy every time we take a breath. We connect to and learn from the energies that move through us. All those things that are inside of us can come out in some fashion. So, why not mold them into something that expresses a piece of innermost being? It does not matter if others think what we create is something to be appreciated. What matters is that we connect to the expression-a true expression-of ourselves. It can be scary to connect to the energy at that emotional level. It can also give voice to the soul of your soul. And it liberates us to be more fully us. Let the Art that is YOU be expressed in all its emotional, raw, complex, soft, multifaceted, rare, dark, light, colorful, loud, phase of being. And then, realize the Magic that YOU are. The Magic you hold, the Magic you bring, the Magic you walk with. Your Magic of Art. The saying goes, "Dance like no one is watching."A further reflection of that saying is to create something for YOU. Find the beauty and emotional power that is inside of you. Paint. Color with crayons. Dance. Sing. Sculpt. Write. Breathe. CREATE. Connect to the energy that is held in and around you. Create Art. Create Magic. Create YOU.