why magic?
systems of oppression today operate beyond the material and rational worlds; they manipulate and control our irrational and more-than-human realities. magic is just an ancient term for irrational, more-than-human experiences; so in our journeys of liberation, engaging with magic is indispensable.
but isn’t magic superstition, illusion, trick, unreal?
indeed, that’s what we have been told by modern systems! this is based in ancient imperial ideas where magic was associated with the foreigner, stranger, someone not to be trusted. Western colonialism in Europe and around the globe also directed its violence towards magic and the irrational (think, witch hunts). modernity taught us to fear or try to control irrationality or magical thinking (think, the violence of legal, medical, educational systems, psych wards, mental health discourses, being crazy). but sensitivity to magic is a big part of us and to deny its reality is to deny a big part of ourselves.
what does magic look like today?
it depends! encountering magic is inevitable because we inhabit irrational, more-than-human realities. this has always been the case as we inhabit Earth with other creatures with embodiments and language we do not share. but today we also live with posthuman technologies that operate in ways we cannot explain. after centuries of denial of magic through the subjugation of Nature, the collective awareness of magic is increasing due to these technological developments.
but magic can also be oppressive. many postmodern political, economic, legal, medical, and tech systems today manipulate our irrational and more-than-human sensibilities for control and exploitation; creating discourses of hateful violence and cultures of consumption and deprivation in the process.
how to find magic for liberation?
effective magical education is key to recognising and combating the oppressive magic unleashed upon us. denial of the reality of magic is like presenting abstention as sex education; it promotes ignorance in the face of the inevitable and enables misguided notions of magic to flourish.
magic for liberation will stem from magical education that engages not just the intellectual, but integrates the mind with the body, land, and spirit. such magical education collapses genre and disciplinary boundaries as well as the separation of the individual from the whole; enabling connections between the personal, political, and the planetary.