This is how I discovered magic is real

(And I don’t mean magic in a ‘happiness, sunshine & rainbows’ kind of way… I do actually mean real magic as you’ll see as you read on, but if TLDR, Dr Daniel Ingram’s definition “Extraordinary Magick: includes the levels of causal effects that are beyond what most people consider the ordinary world of cause and effect, i.e. the realm that science, with the occasional exception of particle physics, considers mythical.” is a pretty good one for now.)

It’s day 3 of this month’s Mythical Quest in our academy, UNIO, and as ever, Jonathan and I are embarking on it along with our students.

We don’t do that only to model what it means to do this work but because we know that in doing so, we will discover precious gold along on our own soul paths - that’s the astounding power of The Great Work, done in the unique way we do via bringing together the magic of shamanism and alchemy in community.

(Last month’s UNIO quest which took us a spiral deeper into our Gene Keys Life’s Work was momentous for us both, in ways I can’t do justice to here, plus much of it is Jonathan’s own story to tell when he’s ready.)

This month‘s quest is focused on communing with a particular spirit or deity that’s calling us.

And as I said, this is only day 3, the spirit is one I’ve already worked with for years, and yet, the quest and its invitation to devote more deeply to communing with this spirit, has already brought a huge illumination.

Yesterday morning, I was shown a previously unseen facet of a deep pattern I’ve been journeying with in all kinds of ways for a very long time, a pattern related to my upbringing with my father.

In a conversation afterwards with Jonathan about what I had been shown by the spirit, he was so struck by the newness, enormity and truth of it, that it brought tears to his eyes. Two words stood out from our conversation… ‘see’ and ‘true’.

Those words brought to mind a poem my father wrote decades ago, the last lines of which were addressed to me though he never gave it to me. I only found the poem, around 8 years after his death, by following a series of breadcrumbs shown in symbols, visions and synchronicities. It was like a Da Vinci Code style treasure hunt without knowing the treasure I was looking for until I found it.

The question I had been asking over and over in my tireless obsessive research, one that I needed to know the answer to in order to move beyond my huge resistance around answering the call to shamanism, was… “Is magic real?”

The last lines of his poem were…

See it Li,

see it all,

it’s true.

When I saw those words, I recognised them as the perfect and exact nudge I needed to devote fully to the shamanic path.

The poem - and the magical journey that had brought them to me - told me what I needed to know, and in a way my brilliant mind and its endless research never could.

I had to live into the magic.

And yesterday, being called back to my father’s words again all these years later, just after I’d been shown something about my upbringing that I haven’t been ready to see until now, I realised that they were, yet again, the perfect and exact words I needed to see.

The details are still tender young shoots and so it’s too soon to share more about them now but this story still felt important to honour and share.

I know all too well that it can sound like complete fantasy and make-believe, this work done magically through myths, archetypes, teacher plants and other spirits, whilst sitting with others in ceremony and alone in nature, by firelight, candlelight and moonlight, and yet, the very real results - deep healing, true transformation, soul-aligned growth, and ultimately, individuation and union - speak for themselves.

Magic of this kind is indeed not only real but is the utterly mind-blowing, heart-opening, healing, empowering medicine that so many of us need, perhaps now more than ever.

Thank you, Papa… I see it all, it’s true.

All my love,

Lian

P.S. The doors to UNIO are open, the magic - real magic - awaits you too.

P.P.S. Daniel’s great article about magick from which I took the definition that I referenced at the start - geeky magicians, enjoy!

Art: Created by PsyBry whilst he was with the spirit of the Sacred Mushroom - see this article about his work, it’s fascinating!

Right now, in UNIO, we’re working with all kinds of spirits but most aren’t these kind of potent teacher plants.

We need to learn how to be in relationship by being in relationship… The spirits on the land around us, like the Oak, Fox and Owl, are such generous teachers of this kind of reciprocal relationship - one that’s our birthright. It’s time for us to reclaim this way of relating instead of jumping straight into a ceremony with powerful entheogens like the Mushroom and Aya, demanding that they blast our minds open in the transactional way our culture has been taught to expect.