Magic is rather a touchy subject for a lot of us. First of all, let’s get the spelling issues out of the way. Some years ago, a number of my co-religionists decided to start spelling magic as “magick” to distinguish it from sleight of hand tricks performed by stage magicians.

Personally, I flatly refuse to alter my language merely because a group of ignorant humans decide to willfully misunderstand what I say to them. The context of usage should be clear enough to distinguish between the different meanings of the word.

Secondly, the practice of magic should not be confused with the Wiccan religion itself. Not all Wiccans practice magic, and not all those who practice magic are Wiccan.

That being said, a lot of Wiccans do practice magic, so just what is magic?

Magic is the art of change in conformity with will. Most of us agree on that. Where we do not agree is on precisely how that change takes place.

We are often accused of believing we are in some way special, that we have special powers and abilities that the rest of the human race does not possess. This is quite untrue. Wiccans pretty much all agree that magic can be practiced effectively by literally anyone. 

The real question is why does magic work? I can’t claim to have an answer. I believe that a portion of the answer is that magic speaks to the subconscious mind, but that simply cannot be all of the answer. I have seen magic performed for the health of an outside person who was not a part of the healing ritual itself – and it worked. 

Most of the time, however, magic is very easily explained. When a student asks me about magic, I give them the following example:

Let us say that I want to own a yellow Volkswagen. I have researched the issue and determined that such a goal cannot possibly harm another person, so I decide to use magic in aid of my goal.

For 28 nights, from the full moon to the full moon, I light a yellow candle each night, burn a little incense, and meditate on the virtues of a yellow Volkswagen for fifteen minutes.

Will it work? Will I acquire a yellow Volkswagen?

Of course it will! 

For 28 days, I have trained my subconscious mind so that when I next pass a yellow Volkswagen with a “For Sale” sign in the window, I will make the time to pull over and write down the phone number.

Magic is an entirely natural process. And it most certainly works. 

Christians do it, too. But they call it “prayer.”

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