Magic and Ecology 31/10/23

Thoughts on the possible relationships between magic and ecology.

I am writing about my experience of what I think of as magic. The encounters and

experiences that have a sense of magic. As I write this I am wondering about how

thoughts are magic and how intentions may conjure up magic. If I ask a question, have a

desire or make a statement of intentions, is the unconscious mind bringing answers into

my reality or is this magic? Are my thoughts some kind of magical manipulation that can

bring about a manifestation, an answer, a realisation, an experience that can be called

magical? I believe it is possible.

Where is the magic today?

Walking in the green tones of the fields climbing over barbed wire fences. Clanging closed

steel gates, climbing over stiles, jumping streams. Negotiating boggy ground by stepping

on the clumps of wet loving Tussock, trying to keep my feet dry. Sheep look up from

grazing and pee, then scamper away. Cows come closer to inquisitively investigate my

presence. A horse follows me across a field and gets very close as it nudges me, its

breath horse like, it’s dusty coat rubbing against me. I wonder if it is a friendly horse. I am

‘tuning in’ to the environment as I continue on my walk.

Is the magic the beauty of the blue sky with its wisps of cirrus clouds flicked across it?

Is the magic in the encounter with another county walker exploring their surroundings?

Sometimes while walking I may have a question on my mind or a purpose to my

adventure, or nothing at all. It is always interesting and sometimes magical to find out

what there is to learn.

I often walk with no absolute direction in mind. In a city I could be called a ‘Flaneur’ in the

countryside I might be a rambler going nowhere. In a city or in the fields and forests I

often feel led. I often follow what feels like a physical flow, an ease of walking. If I go out

of the flow it can feel like a trudge, but both have a sense of something unseeable. Many

times I feel as if I have been guided to a place that I need to be. Guided to a meaningful

encounter, guided to be shown something. Is it chance? I think it’s magic.

Some years ago I remember, I decided to visit a village church, in Symondsbury. I had just

before leaving been thinking about how I would like to play a musical instrument. When I

arrived at the church there was a group of ‘Hand Bell Ringers’. They asked me to join

them. So I did. I played with them at events through Christmas and the summer fete

season. It was all a very MAGICAL experience.

Walking a regular walk, noticing a tree through the seasons, watching for the new

sprouting of wild garlic or beautiful snow drops and blues bells, walking on fallen leaves,

cob nuts, chestnuts and looking at the red berries on the holly. This is magic to me. The

seasons bring new growth and abundance of natures gifts. The colours of the leaves now

in the autumn are a magical delight, a wild strawberry in summer, oh my goodness what a

magical treat.

I have sat at the top of Colmers Hill, above the village of Symondsbury and felt as if I was

breathing with the wind, in tune with the gusts, my breath as loud as the wind. It was a

magical experience. I felt in a ‘super state’.

We can encounter magic through all our senses. Perhaps to sense the presence of magic

is an additional sense that can be acquired through practice and an inquisitive nature.

Magical experiences are emotionally moving and reassuring. During encounters I feel a

connection with the universe. It is another way to communicate with something unseen.

Often I stop and listen to leaves and reeds rustling and swishing with a breeze. Listening

and observing breathing and being still.

Nature is not always interested in making a connection, the animals and plants are mostly

busy in their own world to notice me. I can watch quietly and be part of it, observing,

sensing and listening being patient, waiting perhaps magic will happen.

Seeing into a realm, another world that we cannot inhabit that is magic. Looking into the

clear water beyond the surface of a stream, is to get a glimpse of another world.

I am a believer in the magic of signs. Often I read these as indications that my thoughts

and actions are following a right or wrong direction. It might be a white feather floating

down from above as I walk, the crowing of crows around a tree as I decide where to

scatter my father’s ashes, a coincidence, time may speed up or slow down, all can give a

sense of greater meaning. Believing in magic, communing with another sense of the world

is a counterpoint and antidote to how we live amongst technology and a media driven

society.