Embracing Magic
The seeming void
We all want magic. This is evident from the time that we are little kids loving superheroes, “fiction”, and fantasy. As adults we continue this love affair with magic seeking it through healing, spirituality, books, movies, relationships and various other pursuits. Whatever form magic takes it entices us into it. The yearning is that the mysteries may be revealed to us, that we may feel powerful, knowing, and connected, that we may have abilities to do and be beyond the physical sensibilities and that there is an ease, effortlessness and playfulness to life. We are truly hungry for this underneath all of the things we think life is about and all of the things we think we have to do. Yet magic seems to be missing for most. Even those that are “tapped in” beyond their everyday ordinary mind are not always experiencing magic. Where does the magic go? Why is it not always 100% our experience?
As a little girl pretty much the only thing that truly excited me was sensing beyond what was here and expanding my abilities to perceive beyond the ordinary senses. I remember being as young as 8 or 9 years old diving into the paranormal section at the local library reading books on ESP and clairvoyance every chance I could get. All of the TV shows I watched had something to do with the main character being seemingly “normal” while having some special power that she kept secret from everyone. All of these things simply found me and I kept this intense curiosity and passion to myself as I did not perceive that other people in my life would either get it or share the interest.
As I got older in my teens and early 20s a deep interest in energy work arrived and with it this feeling of being extremely limited or cut off from something. It was as if I was navigating in the dark, walking around with a blindfold over my eyes and thick mittens on my hands not being able to see or feel what was there. The awareness of limitation of the senses became screamingly evident. By this point in my life any direct connection to the spirit realm that I had was long forgotten and otherwise non-reinforced by my experiences. The seeming void of disconnection felt real along with the illusion that this physical world was the only reality.
You all have your own versions of this story. It is the story that most all of us learn in one way or another. A world void of magic and spirit. We think that only what makes sense to our minds is true and only what we can experience with our physical senses is real, and we believe that story even when we don’t want to and even when something inside of us knows that there’s more.
Magic comes alive
From denial to embrace
This denial of spirit that we learn and adopt as our own belief allows us to fit into this world experience that we are currently having. Friends, family members and society accept our rational choices and ordinary lives. Anything beyond that makes them feel uncomfortable. Many people live their entire lives not knowing anything beyond the physical world that in and of itself is void of magic. Even if people do have some experiences of magic they can’t always perceive it because it doesn’t fit within their structures and stories of what is. I’ve seen this occur many times over the course of my life where spirit directly moves through a person so profoundly and palpably and yet the person denies having had any experience of it. This continues to baffle me to this day and yet I’ve come to realize that denial can be very strong and when something doesn’t fit into our mind’s boxes we simply don’t know how to process or place it, and therefore can’t perceive it even when we experience it.
Even with all of the denial and disconnection from the world of magic and spirit some people have a deep knowing of something beyond the physicality of this world. Its a knowing beyond just mind knowing. Call it intuition or heart knowing or even faith. Its like an inner compass that guides despite what our rational mind and beliefs tell us. This was the case for me. I always had a deep knowing of something beyond and a nearly complete devotion to expanding my perceptual abilities in order to be able to experience it. This is the case for many who have penetrated the veil of the illusion of pure physicality into the world of magic and spirit.
What makes magic come alive? Ultimately love. Love is magic, magic is love. But let’s back it up a little bit so we can track how we get to love. First is the letting go of the need to fit into this world. Not from a place of resistance, hatred or unhappiness, but from a place of realizing that you can’t serve this world and perceive the magic beyond it if you are attempting to fit into it. So its really a love for this world that inspires you to move beyond the need to fit into it. Second, is the questioning of everything you’ve been told about this world. You must dismantle your own beliefs about solidity and physicality being the only reality. Next you must dismantle your beliefs about what you think you are and through that develop an intense hunger to know yourself beyond, to know spirit, as that is what you are beyond this physical body-personality. This opens you into the heart and into the world of magic. Your heart is the gateway into perceiving beyond the senses, to accessing infinite energy, to capabilities beyond your current capabilities, to greater ease, effortlessness and playfulness in the world of magic. It becomes harder and harder to deny what you are, to deny spirit, to deny the aliveness that makes up the world. You embrace and accept more and more this aspect of creation, and as you do it reveals itself and you directly experience it more and more as your everyday reality. The key is love. Nothing more than that. Everything which you need is already here. May the revealing of spirit and magic become the ever present reality within with you experience all of life.
Dr. Amanda Hessel, Chiropractor, Network Spinal Analysis & Somato-Respiratory Integration, Boulder, Colorado