The Significance of Naming as a Magickal Practice

But you said your last assignment was to memorize the names of all of them.’ 

I did. All the stars in all the galaxies. And that’s a great many.’

But how many?’

What difference does it make? I know their names. I don’t know how many there are. It’s their names that matter.” -Madeleine L’Engle, A Wind in the Door

Sometimes the simplest magick is the most effective, and the daily practices done with great intention yield the most astonishing results. ‘Affirmation” is a new age buzz word at this point, and for good reason.

We write and recite affirmations like a sterile liturgy, the words bouncing off the walls of our hearts like hail against steel. And maybe it’s because we don’t get to the meaning of things. Maybe it’s because we haven’t gotten to the meaning of ourselves. We often neglect to truly name ourselves and others.

Intentional Naming

Do you know how life could change if you started to get intentional about naming? What if, when you woke up in the morning, instead of bursting into activity you sat with yourself for a few moments and spoke the truth of your greatness to yourself. I don’t mean in some cheesy, self-convincing, contrived attempt at building self-esteem.

I mean what if you said your name and felt it. What if you sunk into your bone and marrow and greeted your being, affirming the substance that is you. I mean as an act of remembering, bringing yourself to to life with the dawn.

This is a simple, primal, powerful magick.

What if you turned your third eye inward and said to yourself: “you are exalted. You are gracious, you are patient, you are resilient. You grow truer with each passing day.” What if you found yourself within yourself, instead of looking for someone else to name you? I think the longer we go on refusing to name ourselves in truth, the more fragmented we become.

Naming is Blessing

To name is to bless. To name yourself and believe it, see it, feel its resonance, is to become full, to be strengthened. Bless yourself with presence and intention. Look into the mirror and see the world that lives within your eyes. Look into the eyes of those you love and see the world within them. The unbidden potential within is waiting to be named, to be called forth.

Even Jesus said, “you are gods.”

Remember. Name it. We are powerful forces. We contain the ocean, the universe, and we are greater than we realize. Often we don’t take the time to truly see, and we often can’t see because we also don’t take the time to feel.

Naming isn’t about repairing. It’s about remembering, awakening. Not a tin can affirmation. It’s a truth as deep as the roots of a thousand year old oak tree, stirring and vibrating and discernible only to those who take the time for communion. You get to the heart of it through intentional presence. Then possibility unveils itself, and action shapes, and you are true— witnessing the universe within, witnessed in turn by the universe outside of you.

Then you can witness others. And when you see them, you can never go back to the laziness and hatred of generalization. You understand why it’s important to say their names. You see the significance in a single star or a grain of sand, a single life lived or taken.

About the Author

Jessica Jascha is a Clinical Herbalist, Intuitive Consultant and writer in Minnesota. She also writes for Witch Way Magazine. She owns Jascha Botanicals and Owl in the Oak Tarot where she gives readings, teaches ritual, and provides holistic consultations. You can find her on Facebook.

Featured Image via Pixabay