C.A. Smith writes:
"This is, I hope, the only point at which I may have to disappoint and disillusion the reader. If you are expecting the kind of magic which features in popular fiction - hurling thunderbolts, levitation, psychokinesis etc. - then you need to rethink things. I am not saying that such things are not possible; after all, it is better to keep an open mind, and I have heard some creditable accounts of such occurrences from other magicians; but when they occur, they often happen spontaneously and tend to surprise the magician as much as anyone else. Various attempts have been made to define operative magic. Michael Kelly, in “The Book of Ogham”, defines it as: “A technique by which a human being is able, by the power of volition, to affect events in subjective and/or objective reality, which given ordinary means would be impossible.” In other words, it is the art of changing things, situations and perceptions by acts of focused will. Although such acts do not accomplish their ends by the ‘normal’ physical, chemical or biological means, they nevertheless work in harmony with the laws of Nature. In “Circles of Power”, John Michael Greer gives a hypothetical example of trying to move or levitate a stone by means of a magical ritual. Common sense tells you that the stone is not simply going to fly; stones just don’t do that unless propelled by some other agency. However, you may be able work things so that a passing small boy picks up the stone and flings it, by coincidence.Personally, I think of magic as the art and science of changing the Narrative[1]. Narrative is not just a matter of idly telling stories; it is a powerful force in its own right, exerting itself through mythic reality, in ancient folktales, and in the story you tell yourself, day in, day out. Some narrative themes have such power that we can find ourselves reliving a ‘fairy tale’, step by step, especially when another significant person in our life knows the same tale and, consciously or not, plays it out with us. In Nordic mythology, our fates are determined at birth by the Norns, whose names are Urð, Verðandi and Skuld, which respectively have the meanings of ‘what has become’, ‘what is becoming (now)’ and ‘what should become (in the future)’. What has become - also known by the Old English name of Wyrd - is the most solid of the three. She represents all the deeds and actions of the past which form and bind you. For example, if you are born into a lowly family with a poor reputation, it is likely that you will find it difficult at first to make headway, as you lack financial resources and are judged on the basis of your family’s reputation, however hard you try. Verðandi, what is becoming, is a single, ever-moving point in the timeline of your life. She relates to everything that you are doing right now, and everything that is going on around you at this moment, where ‘now’ is constantly turning into ‘what has become’ and being replaced by a new ‘now’. Verðandi may seem ephemeral, but she is crucially important. The decisions and actions taken today will become, and add to, your Wyrd. The third Norn, Skuld, says what should become in the future, based on what has happened in the past and what you are doing right now. Not shall become, mind, but what should become; it is conditional, and depends on decisions, actions and influences which still lie ahead. Skuld’s name is also related to ‘Schuld’, the Dutch and German word for ‘debt’. The future is in debt to the past. If you take out a loan, you will have to repay it in the future, or take the consequences. On the other hand, it may lie within your power now to gain the means for repayment so that it falls lightly.[1] “Changing the narrative” has become something of a buzz-phrase these days. All too frequently, it has been cheapened in practice to mean ‘spin’ and Orwellian Newspeak - in other words, lies. Here you get the real deal."
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"Remembering starts with recalling and reinstating our ancestral myths. The word ‘myth’ is frequently interpreted these days as a false or fanciful story but, in reality, the role of myths is to convey a profound truth in a symbolic and metaphorical way. They are the primal narrative, the narrative that sets the tone and pattern for all other narratives. All cultures throughout time have had their creation myths, and the peoples of Iceland and Scandinavia are no exception. We are fortunate that theirs was committed to writing in the Völuspá (Prophecy of the Seeress), Hávamál (Words of High One, or Odin) and Rígsþula (Lay of Rig) sections of the Poetic Edda, and elaborated on in the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson. Were it not for these sources, we would be much the poorer; if the Germanic peoples elsewhere in Europe had similar creation myths of their own, these were eradicated and forgotten after the Saxons and Angles of England converted, and after Charlemagne’s imposition of Christianity on the continental Germans."
