Discomfort, Euphoria, & Witchcraft

I hit the trails for a slow two and a half mile run this afternoon. The air was crisp and cold but my jaunt through the woods was restorative. I finished my workout with a stark revelation: witchcraft and working out aren’t all that different from one another. Witchcraft and working out require preparation, a certain mindset, a goal, and action. Most of all, both require practice for improvement. You can’t exercise once and expect fitness and peak health, just like you can’t practice witchcraft once and expect radical results.

For me, some of my greatest epiphanies have been realized after a particularly hard workout or ecstatic ritual. My epiphanies are likely the result of euphoria, though. Kind of like that “post-nut clarity” we hear so much about, heh. Euphoria effects our feelings of well-being and happiness, of which we could all use a little extra in these uncertain times. Euphoria can be achieved through aerobic exercise, creating or listening to music, dancing, and laughter. Most of us who have experienced a group ritual can attest that all of those things are usually present at a ritual.

I’m In the Zone, Bro

Have you ever heard someone refer to themselves as being “in the zone”, “in the groove”, or “in the flow”? We’ve all experienced it and there’s a field of psychology, called positive psychology, that actually studies “flow.” According to this Wikipedia article on Flow, it’s “the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. Essentially, flow is characterized by the complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting transformation in one’s sense of time.”

Witches, aren’t we being called to do just that in ritual? Be focused. Be fully immersed in the experience. Have a good time. BOOM, baby. Witchcraft! But it’s not that simple, right? In order to get “in the flow”, we need to lower our inhibitions so that we’re mentally and physically open to euphoria. Lowering inhibitions for ritual use requires practice, however. Inhibitions are genetically designed to keep us comfortable and our bodies safe. In order to get around them, though, you may have to expose yourself to potentially uncomfortable experiences.

Discomfort As Transformation

In my opinion, witchcraft isn’t supposed to be comfortable. If witchcraft was comfortable then it would not be a deeply transformative practice. Transformation – growth – happens as a result of change. Change cannot occur without some discomfort in the mix. To be clear, we’re not seeking change for the sake of change but for the betterment of ourselves and the world around us. Additionally, discomfort does not automatically have to translate to “pain.” Though pain can be used to induce euphoria, it’s not what I’m focusing on here.

Let’s talk about why witchcraft can be uncomfortable. Witchcraft engages our senses in ways we aren’t initially taught. You know the saying, “seeing is believing?” Witchcraft invites us to go beyond our sense of sight to experience Spirit(s) with our other senses. Experienced witches know that seeing isn’t always believing and that we can’t always trust our sight to give us accurate information.

For example, though we may think we’re physically feeling one thing, our sight reveals to us something else entirely. Think of those haunted houses where they blindfold guests and have them stick their hands into bowls of random shit. The key here is that, while blindfolded, another person is present to tell us what we’re touching. Spaghetti can feel like “worms” and peeled grapes might feel like “eyeballs.” The blindfold is removed and we’re relieved to see that what our brain made of our sense of touch was inaccurate. However, our brains were convinced otherwise just moments ago! That feeling of plunging our bare hands into bowls of sticky, gooey substances made us hyperfocus on the moment. Why? Because we were uncomfortable. We couldn’t tear our senses away from trying to decipher what we were experiencing. For some, that might be irritating AF.

Engage Your Senses

Experiences like the haunted house scenario above change our expectations of reality. We experience a minor shift in our understanding of our senses and how they can be used to inform us about our environment. Witchcraft can be used in the same way! Using different incenses, altar tools, and methods of raising power are but a few ways we can engage our senses. If you’re curious about exploring various methods, check out Jason Mankey’s book called Transformative Witchcraft: the Greater Mysteries (2019). There are many, many other books on similar subjects but Transformative Witchcraft is a well-researched, newer one to check out.

I encourage you to consider ways to practice your Craft in ways you aren’t initially drawn. Take dancing, for example. Many of us struggle with the idea of dancing, either because we don’t think we’re good at it or we’re not sure what types of dance to use. Incorporating dance into ritual doesn’t need to involve choreography. My advice? Start with swaying from side to side or rocking front to back. Perhaps you might upgrade to using your arms and undulate them like a snake or ocean wave. Maybe you could begin with a slow grapevine step around your altar, like this. Whatever it is, try it out even if it makes you feel weird because you aren’t doing yourself any harm. In fact, you’re teaching your body and mind that it’s okay to feel uncomfortable, as long as there is no harm involved.

Experiencing Euphoria

Engaging in new practices will excite your brain. It’ll be like, “Oh! What’s this we’re doing? This is new! I’m going to focus on all this newness! Wee!” That extra focus will aid you in your magic, I promise. You can’t help but be fully immersed in the moment, lending increased energy to your ritual or spell. In time, practicing immersive techniques, like dancing, can lead to experiencing euphoria. Once you’ve incorporated a new technique for awhile, your brain might begin to check out and drift to other things while your body keeps going. This is okay! This is good. It’s what we want. Your body is busy creating the energy, so now it’s time to focus on training the brain to direct that energy. This is where you use your will to direct the energy your body is creating for a specified goal or intention.

Post-what Clarity?

How will you know when you’ve hit that point? When you’ve “gotten in the zone?” Let’s say you’re dancing to some sick pagan drumming music. Despite it being a little weird at first, you keep pushing through and keep dancing through the discomfort. Your brain begins to wander but your body keeps moving, keeps dancing. Round and round, side to side, back and forth. You start thinking of other shit and then BAM – it hits you. You’ve been dancing for awhile and no longer feel weird about it. That’s the moment. You’ve moved through the discomfort and into another state of being.

Use that moment’s clarity of “Oh, wait, I’m still dancing?” to immediately refocus your mind. Now begin directing your energy to your intention. Your body will continue to move because it’s on autopilot. Let it go – let it move – let it continue raising energy until you feel that it’s peaked in what it can contribute. Stop dancing and use your mind to direct that euphoric hum of bodily energy to your goal. After you’ve given an appropriate amount of time to your goal, check in with what your body is feeling. Does it feel light? Buzzy? Tingly? Like it’s still moving? How do you feel? Blissful? Contemplative? Any of those things are symptoms of euphoria. Just let it roll and reap the benefits.

Practice For Longevity

The biggest point I want to drive home is that it takes practice to achieve euphoria on purpose. Just like exercise, practicing will feel uncomfortable until it no longer does and that timeframe will vary from person to person. For anyone that runs, we know that no matter how much you run, the first few minutes of a run don’t feel great. Your body is like, “WTF?! What are we running from?! My lungs are on fire! My legs are burning! Am I having a heart attack?!” A few minutes pass and those crap feelings go away, but getting to that point takes practice. And not like a handful of times of practice but dedicated, weeks-long practice.

The more that you practice, the longer you can extend the good feelings, like euphoria, instead of the uncomfortable ones. Give yourself time to move through the discomfort of trying something new in your Craft. You might just learn that you are more mentally and physically capable of achieving things than you ever thought possible. My charge to you is to get weird in ritual.