Becoming

If there were one thing I would say that needs to be given the most attention in one’s magical practice is the Art of Becoming.

When we cast our Circle and invite the Elements, in truth, they are already there. It is within us that we must become those Elements to feel their presence in our Circle.

Because of this, we need to spend time studying them.

My students are required to study one Element at a time – for one season – Fire in the Summer, Water in the Fall, Earth in the Winter, and Air in the Spring.

They identify Elements by sight, by sound, by taste, in hearing them and in feeling them, and then they embody them.

They sit with plants. They sit under trees and ask the trees to share their stories. They hold stones. They burn herbs to learn how those herbs affect them.

They journey with them to learn what they are willing to share. And they record all of this in the journals.

Once this is done, they then learn to project these energies out to others.

It is the same when you are aspecting a Goddess or a God – you must become Them. In my practice with Hekate, I feel bound to learn everything I can learn about Her. In my work with Her, I make every effort to embody Her or if not Her, another spirit close to her. I have used Bendis as my priestess name for 35 years now. I am Bendis! When I approach Hekate, I am first Bendis and then, in meditation or trance, I merge the two Goddesses to become Her.

In my own healing method, which I call Annym Billagh (the spirit of trees), one learns the healing energies of trees by becoming those trees, by feeling their energy and projecting it for healing.

When a member of a Native American tribe dances an animal, he is not just imitating that animal, he is becoming the animal in the dance.

When a dancer wishes to portray an image in her dance, she must become that image.

When an artist paints, he first learns what it is he wishes to paint.

He learns so well that what he wants to paint becomes a part of him and then it is moved onto the paper.

When an actor portrays a character on the stage or on film, she must first become that character.

So it is in a magical practice.

When we have a desire, when we wish something to be in our lives, we must feel it, we must see it, we must be in that state to manifest it in the world of form.

We must become our desire.

Let us look briefly at the Moirai.

The Moirai, the three goddesses of fate, personified the inescapable destiny of man. They were Klotho, the "the Spinner," who spun the thread of life, Lakhesis, "the Apportioner", who measured it, and Atropos who cut it short.

Klotho does not reveal what is in the thread She spins, but if you have come to know Her, you can tell Her of your dreams and ask Her to spin them into the thread of our life if She will.

Klotho’s thread is the substance of becoming. You can ask for Her thread and once you have it, you can take it and shape it, and manifest what is to come in your life.

The same is true of Verdandi, one of the Norns, whose name means “being–in–becoming.”

If you are familiar with the stories of how the Gaels settled Ireland, you will have heard of Amergin, Amergin, son of Mile, the great Druid of the Milesians.

One of the ways that Druids worked their Magic was by "becoming", or by changing reality.

A classic example of this ability is found within "The Song of Amergin", by the Druid who led the Gaels in defeating the Tuatha de Danann.

Amergin was not just speaking of these experiences. He knew what they were for he had “become” each of them. He had embodied them. By having embodied them, he could harness the powers of the land of Ireland and claim it for the Gaels.

Another Celtic source ...

Let me quote……

"I am Manannan, son of Ler, King of the Land of Promise; and to see the Land of Promise was the reason I brought thee hither …

The fountain which thou sawest, with the five streams out of it, is the Fountain of Knowledge, and the streams are the five senses through which knowledge is obtained.

And no one will have knowledge who drinketh not a draught out of the fountain itself and out of the streams."

These are the Five Senses. Seeing, hearing, touching, feeling, and smelling.

Celtic traditions sometimes speak of humans as having seven senses:

Seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, speaking, and thinking.

While it is important to read, study and to learn all you can, it is also vitally important that you spend as much time as you can be learning how to “be” those things that are around you.

You can do magic, you can do ritual all day long and unless you “become” those things you wish to invite into your Circle, or those things you wish to manifest in your magic, or those gods and goddesses you wish to work with, you must first, become them.

Deanne Quarrie, D.Min.