What is Magic?

Filed under Reflections on February 28, 2017

As a little boy I was fascinated by stories of unlikely heroes, mythical animals, potions, and spells. From Cinderella to Harry Potter, I secretly believed that my fairy godmother or Hogwarts acceptance letter would spontaneously manifest in my bedroom to announce what I always knew — that I was destined to have a magical life.

The veil of mystery came crashing down when I saw my aunt hiding Easter eggs at age ten. I’m still trying to understand why a single instance of disbelief is so debilitating to the soul. The irony is that the Easter Bunny had nothing to do with my inner conversations  with the spiritual world. I should have continued to believe in my inner ethereal experiences, but I didn’t. J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, understood this when he wrote “the moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”

Magic becomes a sore subject for many of us for this reason. As children we understood how special and exciting the world truly was. At a certain point, our connection to the spiritual realm was dismissed for naivety and we ceased to be able to fly.

The trick in rediscovering magic is releasing expectations and preconceived notions about it. Consider how young children play with one another creating entire universes in their shared imaginative spaces. There is no concern of what is versus what it not. It’s all magic.

Magic is more ordinary than most people understand. It’s the reason that positive expectations lead to an uplifted day. It’s the same reason following your intuitive feelings will always take you in the right direction. The word ‘imagine’ means to create an image of. Once an image is formulated, most of the creative work is complete. To manifest the image, all that’s necessary is to hold that vision in mind and the rest of the inspiration follows.

What is something you’d like to manifest and how will you hold to your vision?