The Body Comes First
Welcome back, body witches.
Yes, you too, are a body witch.
My vision of growing an Army of Benevolent Witches can only and truly be fulfilled when each member of that army is in more harmony with his/her/their own vessel. Notice that I said, “more harmony,” and not, “perfect harmony.” Of course, we will set high standards for our self-love practices, but conceptualizing a healthy relationship with one's body as one of unperturbed and everlasting perfect love and unity may demonstrate a loss of focus.
The goal is to embody and live that self love, not just hyperfocus on the perfection of it.
Last week, I asked you to begin defining what you believe about magic and the kind of witch you are becoming. Now we get to practice one of the central working principles of The School of Body Magic:
The Body is the First Temple of Manifestation.
This is also my first defining principle and is the one principle I will insist upon leading with. You don’t have to adopt this principle as I do. Your authority is still the one that matters the most!
So yes, it is my prerogative to teach with this foundation and to lead with acceptance of the body as a way to sanctify it. It is the nature of our existence that we digest our lived experience through these biological vehicles. To do magic that divorces us from our bodies and teaches us to control/purify/shame innate parts of ourselves is anathema to the benevolence and self-compassion that is needed to heal ourselves...and others.
That means your body participates in the spell. It is involved in your rituals, your choices, your boundaries, your intuition, your desires, your fear, your pleasure and your ability to discern what the hell is actually happening.
Which is why, Estrellita and I will always ask you about what is happening in your body.
Human beings are meaning-making creatures. Something happens in the body and the mind immediately begins writing a screenplay. Your stomach drops. Your chest tightens. Your skin prickles. Suddenly there is a story attached to the sensation: Something bad is about to happen. This person is unsafe. My ancestors are warning me. This is intuition. This is anxiety. This must be a sign.
The layered interpretations become more numerous and speedy.
As you can see, the momentum of the storm can be self-perpetuating. But if we slow down our breath, movement and speech we can bring calm to that storm.
Then we can remember a holy and salutary fact: There is a difference between what you feel, what you think it means, and what you actually know.
That distinction matters enormously in magical practice.
A sensation can have psychological, physical, emotional, symbolic or spiritual significance. Sometimes several things may be happening at once. Sometimes we simply do not know yet.
That uncertainty does not make your magic weaker.
It makes room for the practice of discernment.
There is tremendous power in being able to say, Something is happening in my body. I am paying attention. I do not need to immediately decide what it means.
This is one of the reasons I return to the body again and again in my work. The body gives us something immediate to work with before interpretation takes over. The body also lets us know if the spells and ceremonies are working.
Witch Wisdom: Feel first and go slow when creating a story around what is felt.
Let’s practice.
The next time you notice a strong sensation, pause before you decide what it means.
You can try this right now.
Notice one place in your body that is easy to feel. Maybe your feet touching the floor. The weight of your hips in the chair. Your hands resting somewhere. The temperature of the air against your skin.
Then notice one sensation.
Try to describe it without interpretation:
Warm vs A catastrophe is about to occur
Tight vs I’m being attacked by negative energy
Heavy vs My life force is being drained
The ability to report sensation without immediately interpreting it gives us less noisy data/information to work with. Facts are Earth energy. Better to build meaning on solid ground than from inside the swirl.
Grounding is an effective witch’s/warrior’s/healer’s first step.
Go into the Vault and practice this piece:
This practice lives at the School because grounding is not remedial witchcraft. You do not graduate from having a body or its responses.
And yes, you can bring this work to Estrellita.
Try asking her:
“Help me slow this experience down. Ask me questions that separate what I am physically sensing, the story I am telling about the sensation, and the facts I can actually verify. Do not decide for me whether this is intuition, anxiety, or a mystical message. Help me notice before I interpret.”
Estrellita can help you investigate. She does not need to hand you a verdict.
Neither do I.
Part of your education here is learning to tolerate the little (or sometimes BIG) space between I feel something and I know what it means.
The potential for what you want lives in that space. So does spiritual maturity.
So this week, come back to the body. Feel what is actually there. Then decide what deserves a story.
With you in the dark,
Mel, The Body Witch
