If Witchcraft can change ONE THING about the general world view, I would choose this: There is no such thing as the “Supernatural.” Nothing, no matter how weird it seems to you, is “Paranormal.” Witchcraft defies the very foundations of those words. Wait…check that…I’ll take it a step further and suggest that those words are an affront to witchery, well…pagan forms of witchery, anyway. I believe that responsible Witchcraft must defy the very idea of the Supernatural and Paranormal if we have a hope of salvation from the environmental destruction humans are causing. Let me explain what I mean by that…
As any witch will tell you, words have power. Not just what you think a word means, but what it actually means deep down in its roots, its etymology holds occult power. Words are keys to creative control in the cosmos because they unlock thoughts, and thoughts create reality. It isn’t just my magickal religion that thinks so, either. In Hinduism, the sound “Om” was the prime vibration that was the “cause of the Universe, essence of life, Brahman, Atman, and Self-knowledge” source. “In the beginning there was the word, and the word was God.” Genesis 1:1 The Hebrew alphabet is believed to literally create the cosmos. Allegedly, all YVHV had to do was speak “let there be light,” and BOOM there it was.
Witches know we have to speak our realities into manifestation with words of power: chants, incantations, and affirmations all day. We’ll throw down just the right rhyming couplet* to get the best parking spaces – speak it, and it shall appear. So mote that be! The witch takes it a step further and knows rambling randomly isn’t nearly specific enough; you have to spell it and pronounce it correctly, too. Even fictional witches know this.”Wingardium LeviOOHHsah. NOT LevioSAHH.”**
On the stupidity of “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” Evan Moffic, a scholar of the Torah wisely states: “Words can and do hurt us. Words can trivialize, words can insult, words can stereotype. Words can, even when we do not intend them to do so, convey dangerous messages.” source I think these words Paranormal and Supernatural do all those harms: to trivialize, to stereotype, and to convey a dangerous message about our world: that planet earth is separate from Divinity, and material things (including human bodies) are somehow profane. These dangerous words wrongly suggest that Spirit is outside of nature; Spirit is abnormal; protection and respect of nature and Her inhabitants is optional. Witches need to stop feeding this idea with our own power of language.
Defining Paranormal and Supernatural
Paranormal: adjective
- Denoting events or phenomena such as telekinesis or clairvoyance that are beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Etymology: para- (“above, beyond; abnormal”) + normal.
Supernatural: adjective
Panentheism: noun
A belief system which posits that divinity interpenetrates every part of the universe and extends, timelessly beyond it. That the divine is both immanent within nature, AND has a transcendent consciousness. Everything in the cosmos is interconnected at a fundamental level, and is part of universal consciousness.
Etymology: meaning “all-in-God”, from the Ancient Greek πᾶν pân (“all”), ἐν en (“in”) and Θεός Theós (“God”)
I realize that I harp on and on about my panentheist form of Witchcraft. I realize that this topic in witchcraft isn’t trending right now, but I keep poking this dragon in the hopes that it will wake up and set a few fires. I firmly believe that a shift in human thinking which understands that we are interconnected, divine and RESPONSIBLE for the preservation and reverence of our natural environment is the only hope of “salvation” from the oncoming DOOM of global climate change that we are ALL facing.
This is the apocalypse, folks. The veil of illusion pulls back and we can see the truth all around us. Spirit is up in our faces screaming that we wake up and smell the heaping garbage. What is passing as “natural” should terrify you way more than any spoopy “paranormal” activity.
- Climate change will eventually kill us off if we don’t make drastic global-level changes immediately.
- The Oceans are polluted with plastic waste and her inhabitants are dying off in droves already.
- One million animal species now face extinction, yet the current US Administration’s Endangered Species Act, threatens to further strip their protections.
- We poison our soil and water with agricultural chemicals and industrial waste, which we know for a fact is sickening and killing us.
So, I’ll say again once more for the kids in the back: Witchcraft can and must defy the very notion of the Supernatural and Paranormal. We need to introduce a different viewpoint about Spirit, with new words that speak to our interconnection. If humans have a hope of salvation from the environmental destruction WE are causing, we have to fundamentally shift how we think about ourselves and our relationship with a divine planet. Our non-witching neighbors must also rediscover that we are all of the earth, and that earth *is* Divine – or at least worthy of our protection. If ever there was a witching gospel that could save the world, that would be it.
Let’s all choose our words carefully, and then speak a new reality. Moreover, let’s use this power to create real changes through social and political activism, by voting with our dollars, and through substantial participation in policy-making through the US election process. We have got to excise these Evangelical Christian yahoos from office before their theocratic policies kill us all.
What is a policy if not carefully constructed words enacted to bring about change in accordance with Will? Sounds like magick to me. What is your will?
Spread the “Word,”
~Heron
* Hail Asphaltia Full of Grace, Help me find a Parking Place! (Goddess of parking lots clearly favors her devotees who know these magick words.)
**Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone by JK Rowling.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In