Keepin’ it Basic

Tldr: Being well-rounded and having interests outside of magic and paganism is crucial to going deep & making the progress in magic that you want to make.

I quote this old Celtic adage I heard years ago rather often— the idea that any mortal that goes to the Otherworld “emerges either mad or a poet.” You could say that “or a poet” refers to the art of learning how to transfer what we learn in the realm of spirit back into our day to day, practical lives where we have cars, rents, romance problems and rude neighbors— and you’d be right. That is the incumbent challenge on any witch, present-day druid, or practitioner that’s looking to do actual work beyond devotional offerings (basically, the difference between being a witch and being a pagan/polytheist). 

But I think a more largely obvious, important point of that phrase (especially for the purposes of this post) is that humans aren’t meant to dwell in the realm of magic 100% of the time or even most of the time. No matter how magically inclined you are, how magical, how naturally you take to witchcraft— we’re mortal. We’re supposed to be living life. If you have nothing else to go back to, it becomes easy to circle the drain and bounce off the walls of your own mind rather quickly, in a way that isn’t even helpful for magic— at least, not any kind of magic that I would consider worth a good person’s time. For me personally, I see what I do as affirming of the life force current itself; as wild as I may get within the context of specific workings, the point is not to simply drive myself crazy all the time.

It used to bewilder me how some of the heaviest-hitting witches I knew were so fucking normal outside of ritual. I mean horse-tending, data-analyzing, sweatpants-wearing… normal. Especially since I jumped into the public witch/pagan community in LA when I was literally 17, I wanted to go hard constantly. I wasn’t happy unless I was exhausted— and part of that is just my personality. I have a metric fuckton of energy and live to dive into the deep end of anything I do, and as counterintuitive as it sounds to recommend being “normal” outside of ritual and suchlike— that’s why I’ve structured my life the way that I have. It’s much of why I work out, why I like to lead ritual workings so often, why I coordinate events— to productively channel the energy I naturally have. At 27, I know how to navigate that— but it’s taken much of these past ten years of public practice to work with it, instead of against it— and work with it productively. 

Because being able to live life outside of magic, is key to doing it.

I often use strength training as an analogy for the experience of magic, and this post is no exception— the most sustainably jacked bodybuilders (of which I am nowhere even near on my strength journey) will tell you that quality sleep and rest days are crucial for actually allowing your muscles to grow. Not a nice bonus, but necessary— all it achieves to go hard all the time is injury. In the magical world, you can see this as the folks that may be very innately gifted, but simply get burnt out— and with good reason.

I really see magic again as not much different from strength training. Our rest days, our healthy sleep, our comfort TV shows and singing along to familiar music— it’s what allows us to go heavy and hard when it’s time to do that. When you’re in the Iron Temple, too, give it your all- don’t waste your own time and really make the most of your time there if you’re going to do it. But when you’re home, be home. When you’re with friends, be with friends. It sounds so simple and cliche, I know— to be where you actually are. But things become cliche for a reason, because they’re easier said than done and humans (especially me) often need to hear and do things a hundred times to understand them.

One of the understandable struggles of taking part of a highly involved religious path, especially a minority religious path, is resisting the impulse to make it your entire identity, to become what you’re fixating on— and I get it. I did that when I started. So by all means, do what you need to do; when you’re inspired, let it run its course and see where you land, if that’s how you learn. Just know that you don’t actually need to embody that level of fixation all the time, and it isn’t actually doing you too many favors in terms of your practice and ability. 

Some of us will naturally still want to be more intensely involved than others, just because of who we are as people— so one person’s “too much” will still often be someone else’s “not enough,” and vice versa. Only you can figure out for yourself what that Craft-life balance looks like… I only write this to encourage folks to value your “normal” life aspects. So yes, I do monthly workshops and rituals. I host pagan gatherings as often as I can. I write, podcast occasionally, and live and breathe as much on druidry and magic as I can. I also love standup comedy, the Minions, Taylor Swift, and home-making ice cream. My friends will see me go from full chant-leading, screaming and writhing ritual leader mode one night— to basic loungewear-clad Swiftie the next. That’s balance for me. And as happy as I’ve been with everything I’ve been doing and have coming up… I’m looking forward to a December of making crafts and tea with my friends, visiting farms, and literally singing carols around a tree before starting off the new year with a massive fucking bang— teaching at Vamachara in New York, starting my min-series at the Green Man store, and hosting a pagan field trip at the Getty Villa— plus working on some online offerings for interested folks that aren’t local. In any case, you get the idea!

So, really… don’t be afraid to take it easy and keep it basic when it’s time.
You just might find that it helps you live the wild witchy life of your dreams.

Xx, Awen