One of the difficulties teaching philosophy within the Craft is that, due to the very nature of witchcraft and Wicca, our branch of paganism typically embraces any practitioner's beliefs. Because philosophy on a spiritual path tends to mesh with theology, a student's personal beliefs are not guaranteed to mirror their teacher's approach to spirituality. I personally work around this by tying expanding the concepts behind the various techniques that I teach, such as the approach to ritual that I take, and teach those concepts as philosophy.
I believe that what we do within our rituals and ceremonies is simply a conscious and intentional approach to the same energy we unconsciously wield in our daily lives. Just as we can affect change through ritual and spellwork, we can also affect change in our personal interactions. The key is for us to be aware of the process and take responsibility for our own energy and how it interacts with others.
Keepers of Knowledge
I first became aware of the energy that was wielded through my actions while under the guidance of a teacher that I studied with at a very early point on my path.
My teacher told me, "Imagine that you're on the threshold of taking the next step in your spiritual journey and have attracted the attention of a temple of enlightened beings. They believe that you have the potential to learn what they have to teach, but they want to make sure that you're ready to embrace their teachings. In order to do so, the keepers of knowledge have to test you. If they simply came to you and openly addressed the need and reasons behind your testing, it wouldn't be a fair assessment of your growth as you would prepare yourself for the tests and wouldn't be reacting as you would normally behave. Instead, they have infiltrated the world around you. They're the driver who cuts you off in traffic, the boss who is being a jerk, and the sales clerk with the nasty attitude. Your responses to these people are also the responses to your test. You don't have to be perfect, but you do have to show the keepers of knowledge that you are trying and capable of making progress."
This was the first step in understanding how my own energy manifested in the world around me. By looking at my own actions through another's eyes, in this case the keepers of knowledge of a hidden temple, I gained an awareness of how my energy was perceived. By understanding how it was perceived, I could also begin to explore how others would react to my energy by seeing myself through their eyes.
But this was only the first step in the process of learning to intentionally and responsibly manifest my own energy.
Every Day is Ritual
The next step in the process came while I was studying with Nukah, my teacher and guide in shamanism. I was deep in the midst of learning about ritual. Nukah's approach to teaching provided me with the concepts and philosophies behind the topic and sent me out into the world to find my own applications for the material. This generally meant that I would trek deep into the mountains and forests of my native Oregon, but like most Westerners, I also had a full-time job that I needed to honor. While I consciously applied the lessons out in the wild, it was at home and in the office where I often reflected on the material. And it was at work, not in the wilderness, where I found the next thread in this portion of my spiritual tapestry.
I was at my desk, slaving away at one project or another, when one of my co-workers began to approach my cubicle, walking absentmindedly down the aisle we shared. Their step was a little slower than normal, there eyes were on the carpet beneath their feet, and they had a downcast "feel" about them.
"Hey," I said, poking my head out of my cubicle and offering them a smile. "It's really nice to see you."
They stopped in their tracks, letting out a deep breath and replying with a grin of their own. "Thank you," they sighed. "I really needed to hear that today."
The same power that we wield in our magickal rites has an even more immediate manifestation in our everyday world. With a handful of well-chosen words or an overly harsh tone, I can respectively lift someone out of their emotional doldrums or tear them down from the heights of joy. We all can. In many ways, life is a ritual. Every time we come together with another human being, we create energy together in much the same way we would if we were raising energy for a magickal ceremony. Both parties typically come together with the energy we carry with us, much like each element brings certain qualities to the union that we forge in a magickal rite. In ritual, it's the role of the witch to wield those energies to a desired outcome. In our personal interactions, the same rules apply.
One of the things that I try to instill in my students is the awareness and perspective to understand the implications of the magick they wield. It's a pretty standard approach within the Craft not to work magick that would attempt to subvert another's will or change their path without their permission. Yet every time we lash out at someone, we do exactly that with the emotional energy we wield. We have every right to see to our own wants and needs, but if we are to truly understand magick and the deeper workings of a magickal path, we need to begin by understanding the implications of our everyday interactions. If someone comes up to me, a person that I have a connection with who is trying to right a wrong, and says, "I'm sorry," from a magickal perspective they are also saying, "My words are initiating a ritual to make things better between us." When we approach a co-worker who is having a rough day and say, "I really appreciate you," we're really saying, "I'm offering you energy to help raise you to happier place."
In my personal opinion, it is just as important for a witch to understand the implications of our interaction with others as it is to understand the implications of our magickal workings. You can think of it as a balance of energies. Magick is a feminine energy; subtle, mutable, it flows into the cracks of reality and does its work behind the scenes. Personal interaction is the masculine balance to that energy. It's aggressive, passionate, and has the ability to make significant changes on the spot.
Alpha Wolf and His Pack
The third tool that I employ is picturing the various states of emotional energy that I interact with, not as my own energy, but as individual entities. Personally, I find it easiest to visualize these states of energy as wolves.
Each time that a new emotion (joy, anger, love, frustration, etc.) appears in my world, I picture it as a wolf that wants to join my pack. I am the alpha wolf, the wolf in charge of my pack, and only those wolves that I choose to allow to become a part of my pack are allowed to stay. I visualize the wolves as the energy transforming and manifesting as actual animals spaced around me, each wolf's personality a mirror of the emotion that it represents. If a wolf (or emotion) comes my way that I choose not to allow to become a part of my pack, I simply push it away, sometime by visualizing the action, sometimes by mirroring the act with my hands.
For instance, let's say that I wake up in the morning and I'm in a good mood and I really have no explanation why I'm experiencing the joy that mood represents. Rather than questioning the reasons behind it, I'll visualize the emotion as a happy wolf - it's ears playfully perked up, it's tail wagging, and it's tongue hanging out of its grinning mouth - and I'll picture that wolf taking up a place near me where it is welcome to stay. A little later in my morning, I'm on my way to work when a driver not only cuts me off, forcing me to slam on my brakes, but shouts profanity in my direction. Rather than accepting that energy, I will visualize the anger that manifests as a menacing wolf and will push it from the car, leaving it behind me on the road as I continue my commute. Left behind, it has no power to remain in my world, and the emotion associated with the wolf quickly fades away.
The unintentional lesson behind this approach is that we perceive not only our own emotional energy as wolves, but we perceive the emotional energy that other people manifest and project at us in the same way. If someone wrongs us, we can rely on an earlier approach to this concept and initiate an interpersonal ritual to heal that wound, such as sitting down and openly and honestly communicating with that person. However, there are situations where people refuse to let go of their own wolves. Although we seek to move on, they refuse to let the energy go. Through this approach, we understand that the wolf that lurks between us is not a part of our pack and it is their choice to make it a part of their own energy. If we cannot change the situation and transmute it into something positive, this approach gives us the tools with which to let it go. At that point, it is their own choice to hold onto the emotional wolf and we can focus on our own energy and the pack that our energy represents . Of course, if the person is question is willing to imitate an interpersonal ritual to transmute the energy that lurks between us or release it into the universe, it's appropriate for us to assist in the matter.
The key is that I'm responsible for my own energy state and that it's important for me, as a witch, to be as conscious of the energy that I wield as emotion as it is for me to be aware of the energy that I wield in my rituals. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It simply exists. The same energy we use in our magickal rites is also the energy that we find in emotion and in the relationships we build with the people that share our world. Part of the philosophy that I teach is that we need to not only take responsibility for this energy, but to consciously interact with it, in much the same way we interact with the energy we raise for a magickal rite.