Why maintaining a balance is important; the way magic works

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balans en de werking van magie

As I wrote before, many questions I get are about magic. A popular one: what is magic and how do you use it in your practice? Today, I’m going to attempt to explain the unexplainable. It isn’t really self-evident, though, so please bear with me if I seem to wander off.

My daughter always says that she thinks it’s weird that in Dutch we mostly talk about the ‘fatherland’. I agree with her. Land for me is soil or earth and definitely feels feminine. I think, however, that the word ‘fatherland’ is more derived from the idea of land as a nation. Nations, to my eyes at least, are a typical male thing, so that would make sense. But let’s not generalise. Even if soil, earth would be feminine, without the masculine not a lot would grow. There has to be balance.

Magic is about influencing balance

And that brings us back to magic, because that’s all about balance too. Balance in a human, balance in the world, balance between world and earth and balance between the different planes. Magic ultimately deals with maintaining or repairing the balance. Which balance? Well, THE balance. Name one thing that can be imbalanced and its imbalanced state will influence the state of all that hovers around that balance. Health, well-being, work versus private, possessions, the ability to let go, family, wanderlust, name it. I could go on for ages, summing up stuff that can be imbalanced. In the end, everyone is searching for balance, bringing an aspect of life to a workable level.

It isn’t always easy to know what is good for you

That level isn’t the same for everyone. Show me two people who need the exact same and I will be flabbergasted. The difficult thing about using magic is that not every person has a clear picture of what would really serve him or her. To get balance, one does need to know what’s out of whack. Imbalance most of the time comes into existence when we struggle against wyrd, often unwittingly. When we don’t allow ourselves to live the way our inner sage knows we should. As a result, people often ask for things or events that aren’t good for them or that they even really want. And in those cases, even using magic won’t get you what you want. After all, working magic is, in fact, playing with the web of wyrd to restore imbalances, by rearranging threads and changing the fabric to make it whole again.

The web of ‘to be’

Wyrd is the Old English word that denotes the concept of fate that our ancestors had. If you haven’t read my articles about wyrd, it’s a good idea to do this now. Thing is, the image we have of the word ‘fate’ has been remodelled by the Christian fate and doesn’t reflect what I mean. It has become too fatalistic, pardon the pun. It insinuates that what’s yet to come is fixed, immovable, stuck in time. Wyrd has no such connotation. It is related to the Dutch word ‘worden’, which means to become.

So, I’m actually talking about the web of ‘to become’ or ‘to come about’. That’s what magic is, influencing the web of ‘to become’.

Magic brings you what you need

To influence the web, you have to understand how it works, how it’s woven and how you influence that weave. That’s what I do: arrange or set up the threads of the web or tapestry in order to create a beautiful pattern again. There’s a limit to the possibilities, though. To stick to the weaving analogy: if you try to weave patterns that cause serious flaws in the fabric, a hole might fall into the tapestry.

Basically, it comes down to everything being wyrd. You encountering a challenge in your life is wyrd. You coming to me to work on that challenge is wyrd. Us solving it together, that’s wyrd, but if we don’t, it’s wyrd as well. If what you ask takes you too far from your path, you can conjure all you like, but it won’t happen. Like the Rolling Stones sang: you can’t always get what you want, you get what you need.

That’s exactly the reason I cannot guarantee that my work brings about the required result. It does sometimes – not often — happen that something isn’t meant to be. In that case, what happens is what’s supposed to happen. Magic is wonderful in that respect. Thus, trust in the magical reality of life will always take you further on your unique path.

Magic isn’t a motorised wheelchair, it’s a temporary crutch.

Also, too often people expect magic to bring about something they don’t want to do the work for themselves. When doing a healing session I can conjure my arse off. But if my client doesn’t change diet and lifestyle habits as advised and doesn’t use the necessary herbs or perform the necessary activities, it won’t happen. Another example: if you are looking for a new love, it’s common sense that – next to magically inviting love into your life – you also actually go out and meet people.

So, magic isn’t a motorised wheelchair to fast track you to wherever you want to be. It’s more of a crutch to support you, while you walk the path to where you need to be. Of rocket fuel to help the loom of life weave those patterns that fit the whole that is the tapestry faster.