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Overview
Fiona Horne bypasses the old-school rules and traditions and shows you how to learn and grow with the times. This is the guide for the structure-less, and rule book for the revolutionaries. New ways are embraced with the old; what it really means to be a modern Witch is revealed; how to practice authentic Witchcraft now to live a deeply fulfilled life is explained.
The Art of Witch is a manifesto – a code of ethics and principles – partnered with revealing real-life anecdotes explaining how to anchor the magickal theory in everyday life.
- Live your most magickal life
- Master the art of true transformation
- Perfect the craft of Witches’ resilience
- Know the Witch you are
Trust the magick inside you.
"So on the pulse point of modern witchcraft that it is frightening" —Tonya Brown,Editor, Witch Way Magazine
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781925682830 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Rockpool Publishing |
| Publication date: | 07/01/2019 |
| Pages: | 200 |
| Sales rank: | 612,890 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.30(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.70(d) |
About the Author
Fiona Horne launched a career in the entertainment industry as the lead singer of Aussie electro-rock band Def FX before authoring several best-selling books, internationally, about modern Witchcraft. She is a popular radio and television personality having appeared on many programs around the world. She is also a commercial pilot, world record-holding skydiver, professional fire dancer, yogini, freediver and SCUBA Diver. Fiona now lives in the Caribbean and is an outreach program co-ordinator and humanitarian aid worker, flying school supplies, building tools and clothing to impoverished communities. www.fionahorne.comAuthor Location: U.S. Virgin Islands, Caribbean.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
A LETTER TO THE READER
Musings of a Modern Witch
Dear Reader,
The Art of Witch is simple refined truisms about practising modern Witchcraft based on how I live, now, as a practising Witch – a journey of over three decades – and its use may encourage you to trust your own path, just as I have come to.
I forged my Art of Witch through the act of rebirthing my life many times, getting sober, staying sober and by identifying ways to be of service. It is a mindful art, which gives you the best chance to feel purposeful and whole and experience a life in which you can do things you could once only have dreamed of doing.
The public life I led for a couple of decades had me feeling increasingly forlorn, unfulfilled and reliant on alcohol and other mind-altering substances to numb my hatred of my people-pleasing existence. My steps towards sobriety and service led to me being able to fly airplanes, and birth a more authentic life. I finally was at peace with myself. And now the challenges still come, but I'm better equipped to deal with them. The depression doesn't last as long – I can get back on my feet faster and get back to living this one life I have more joyfully, and truly earn the space I take up on the planet.
This book is not a collection of a hundred spells, magickal correspondences and other recipe approaches to the Craft. This book goes deeper: what hasn't been said or shared? What is useful to the world's rapidly growing, and yet somewhat saturated, magickal community?
This book is a guide to living a happy life as a Witch, and a manifesto for practising Witchcraft (no matter what path you follow or which tradition you identify with). It is a code of ethics and practices to live a truly authentic and fully expressed magickal life.
'Fiona Horne embodies "The Magick of Do" – she gets shit done.'
Christian Day, Witch, author, owner of Hex, Salem/New Orleans, founder of HexFest.
This is what makes the Art of Witch a mindful way to live, which is different to what a lot of people, Witches or not, are practising out there.
Personally, I have been doing everything in this book for many years now. I don't just read books about it or think about it – I do it, I live it, I am it. Sometimes I make mistakes and sometimes I get it right. My life, in all its joy, sorrow and service, is my grand work of magick. I see it that way, and so it is that way. In any case, anything is possible if you let it be. Because, 'like magic' – you can suspend disbelief, cynicism and fear, and just for long enough, give it a go and your magickal goal will manifest.
Don't give up, give in or give out. Practise the powerful skill of acceptance, and transform exhaustion into euphoria, sadness into gratitude, poverty into comfort.
Keep going, reinventing, rebirthing. Don't get older; get better at living. That is what I have discovered being a Witch is – it is a perpetual art of transformation.
The Art of Witch, as I have come to understand it and experience success, fulfilment and peace with it, is the mindful, simple, ecoconscious art of living a magickal life.
CHAPTER 2The Art Of Witch
The Art of Witch is about connecting with deeper roots – and walking the path of service and healing. After all, Witches' origins are as healers; our Pagan roots position us as individuals walking a path that bridges the worlds of death and life – close to the earth, close to the sea, close to the sky.
The path of the modern Witch is forged from ancient beliefs stemming from a completely different environment to what we exist in now. If you consider the original Witches as the healers and shamans of prehistoric indigenous tribes – living close to the earth and having an intimate relationship with the natural world, as well as a deep connection to the concepts of God and Goddess – through to medieval times when medicine, science and religion merged and the Patriarchal system thrust its claws deep into the common world view (the point at which the concept of Witch/Healer became vilified), these times posed different threats and problems to what we encounter today. People's perceptions of the Witch, in a historical context, have evolved over time too. The most tragically ignorant period was the Burning Times, when mostly women, and some men, children and even animals were murdered by the Church, for practising 'Witchcraft'. What they were accused of back then was horrifically fanciful rubbish, and the murders were crimes of political oppression, gender discrimination and grand ignorance. In modern times, we Witches have pretty much been liberated from that oppression and misinformation. The religion of Witchcraft, Wicca, is a recognised world religion affording all the rights and respect and freedom to practise, granted other major faiths. Witches are now challenged, more often than not, in our own community. 'Witch wars' are waged, as individuals seek to assert their individual power and influence – not too dissimilar to major faiths when certain individuals rise up with a warped message and manage to create confusion, disharmony and discontent in their power-seeking efforts.
What makes modern Witches wise and powerful is not letters after our name, or a lot of followers/believers in what we say/how we live/or how many followers and likes we accrue on social media; what earns our wisdom and power is how we come to live our art in time – both physical and between the worlds. True Witches' wisdom is only known when you can be with yourself – unconditionally, without your perceived peers' approval or validation; without needing to control anyone else. The powerful modern Witch knows that the grandest expression of their power is the ability to let others be as they would be – free to make mistakes, learn lessons and grow into the best version of their magickal selves.
Witchcraft in the Popular Paradigm
Witchcraft has become popularised in modern times. Many see it as a tool to 'Get what I want'. I want a better job, a new lover, a nicer husband, a more attentive partner, a bigger house, a more extravagant holiday; I want to be empowered, I want to have power over myself, power over others; I want to have more power, I want more ... more ... more.
This is not magickal art – this is desperation, weakness, fear. And working magick from this mindset only conjures more reasons to be desperate, weak and fearful.
Spells should not be used as 'get-out-of-jail-free cards' cast from a limiting, fearful mindset (albeit with rigid, high expectations!). Casting in this way will only trap you in a prison of disappointment. Things will only have the power over you, and for you, that you give them.
The Art of Witch is a comprehension that handing over your finite idea of power to something bigger and more profound than you can even comprehend, and then becoming a vessel, a channel of this power, allows magick to happen. This is when life becomes purposeful.
Service is what a Witch is born to do and to become – not a finite ego-driven human, but a vessel of transformation and transcendence.
I've learned that to move into the next expression of best version of Self, a spiritual sacrifice of some kind is required in order for sustainable growth. My spiritual sacrifice is alcohol. When I identified my willingness to sacrifice alcohol, it was extremely hard and took years before it felt sustainable, relatively effortless and the most authentic expression of the space I take up on the planet and between the worlds. In return, my life has become the most fulfilling and joyous expression ever.
I know should I go back on my sacrifice that I will lose everything (this promise is between me and my idea of God/dess), and I willingly accept these conditions.
I should emphasise that the most powerful sacrifice is something you are addicted to, and that makes you less useful in the world – less than the best version of yourself. This type of sacrifice is harder, but more spiritually valuable. Some people seem to be set with a 'self-destruct' switch. These people might be more sensitive, more intuitive, and, thus, more vulnerable to some of the propagated 'harsh realities' of the system we live in. It's extremely hypnotic. In my case, alcohol was my switch. Yours might be reality TV, living other people's lives whilst yours slips away. You might read glossy magazines, addictively thinking that the advertiser's aspirations for harnessing your spending dollars are your own personal choices. If you can identify what that 'switch' is and sacrifice it, you can create space for the Divine in your life's magickal cauldron. Whatever makes you think 'Oh my goddess! Not that!' is likely the thing that is the most valuable thing to cut off. And I promise you, when you do, it feels AMAZING – and you truly get to know your own power of transformation and you know you can do anything. You have just become an adept Witch.
CHAPTER 3An Authentic Witch
Being a Witch is not something you turn on and off like a tap.
A Witch, as I have come to relate to the word, is a person walking a spiritual path. This is lifelong. Because mainstream religions are not able to answer the questions we are asking of our lives, we seek alternatives. Especially in these environmentally challenged times, we are drawn to a spiritual practice that honours nature as sacred. We want to experience the Divine in all things. Often, we manifest the Divine as a dualistic 'Goddess/God' of many faces with whom we can have a meaningful relationship, in a way of our own understanding. We might see the world as a magickal place full of infinite possibilities, many important lessons – both easy and hard – and it is in rituals and even spells we seek to interact with the world around us on an esoteric and transformative level. Everything of the natural world, whether it be a New Moon, a raw crystal, a feather fallen from a bird flying overhead, is imbued with energy and potential, and when these qualities are woven together, within our Witch consciousness, magick can happen.
There is also the science of Witchcraft that we may be drawn to – the arts of divination, Tarot and scrying, astrology; the healing arts of herbalism, natural medicine, body work. But a Witch is a Witch. For example, I am many things – commercial pilot, writer, yoga instructor ... and once I was a rock star and TV personality – but I am (and have been) All Witch, All the Time.
It is an art – living as a Witch. It's a creative act. Just by identifying as Witch you have set yourself outside the normal – outside the dominant paradigm. You are not a follower; you are a leader and you lead with your spiritual heart. You are a creatress/creator of your life. When people ask me what is my greatest and most successful spell, I say 'My life!' My life is a work of magick. Whether you are initiated into a tradition, whether you are a solitary Witch walking an eclectic path, or anything and all in between, consider this: When you identify as Witch, you have committed your life to creating your personal Art of Witch.
This Art of Witch is the path we forge, we tread, we trust.
Can anyone be a Witch?'
Yes. If they want to.
Witchcraft is a spiritual path – a spiritual art – and it welcomes all seekers.
How?
That's a huge question that thousands of books and YouTube videos, blogs, Instagram feeds and Tweets have addressed – and a million kernels of advice are added online every day! I will offer:
'Suspend disbelief, cynicism and fear; be open to considering the world a magickal place and indeed it will be.'
Unsolicited Advice
I feel like newbies are so shellshocked and so overwhelmed that they are afraid of where to start. I tell people, write down what you've seen other
Witches do that you like, what you have seen that you don't like, what media portrayals you identify with – there's a kernel of truth in them all – what you've practiced so far, how you felt about it, and what was happening when you first felt that spark. Those questions give so much insight into a path for lovely new Witches to explore – at first at least.
– Tonya Brown (Editor of WitchWay Magazine)
CHAPTER 4A Different Craft
Modern Witches are evolving beyond their Craft being a kneejerk reaction to the mainstream spiritual mindset. For example, once the image of the Witch was the opposite of the Christian church and a way to rebel against the dominant conservative 'masses like asses' living in religious fear mindset. For me, this has been a most significant evolution and one that has taken me full circle as I consider my own spiritual origins. .
Being a little girl growing up in Sydney's suburban bushland, I spent as much time as I could there, sensing that the natural world was magical, special ... it accepted me. I was bullied at school and lonely at home – but the animals, birds, the trees, the river accepted me. I would make little altars with coloured stones, leaves and flowers as offerings for my magickal world. I would look to the sky and say little incantations: 'Blow wind blow! Make my feet and fingers glow!' and then the giant eucalyptus trees would rustle their leaves and I would smell their heavenly scent and I was convinced they knew me and were answering me. I was a little Pagan before I even knew what that word meant.
As I grew through my teens and early adulthood I experienced Witchcraft as a means to an end – a way to get what I thought I needed, what I wanted in my life. I sought an identity in its mystical, exotic and rebellious connotations. Ultimately working in the public eye in the entertainment industry, being on TV, radio and writing books, meant that I became very strongly identified with Witchcraft and magick, and suddenly, I was the popular subversion to the dominant paradigm of the evil Witch and scary magic (sic) – I was blonde, friendly, approachable, and I had an Aussie accent (which went over very well in the USA, where I ultimately made my home). I was recently asked what do I consider the most successful moment in my magickal career? And I answered, 'The day it stopped being my career.'
It's always actually been about my soul, nature and the blessing it is to be a part of this living world for the flicker of time that I am. In essence, it is me as I was back in my childhood, as a little Pagan.
The Witch in me turns to the setting sun to see a sliver of the crescent moon and knows that for everything that is ending in the cycles of life – at this moment by this engagement of consciousness – something else is being born. My heart tangibly lifts, and a smile blesses my lips for a moment. A private moment.
A Witch's most magickal moment is always experienced alone out of time and space.
Moving Beyond Spells
Often there is debate about 'who was first' in the Witch and Pagan community – especially when a Witch may work in the public eye, or has a huge social media following 'platforming' her spiritual beliefs.
At the beginning and end of the day, the first Witches were of the indigenous communities of the world.
Witchcraft is a long spiritual path stretching far into the past and far into the future ... and most importantly, anchored in today. Witchcraft welcomes all seekers. I'm grateful for the heroines and teachers who paved the way long before me, and for me ... the many women and men of richly varied genetic backgrounds, who generously shone their lights on my path and guided me through the beautifully challenging shadows. I look forward to all the teachers to come.
I have found that rather than casting spells to get what I want, or writing books on how to do that, my personal practice has evolved to be one of service. The secret to making your spells and rituals 'work' 100 per cent of the time is to make them useful in the world, in service for a greater good than your ego. The Universe conspires in your favour and will 'grant your wish' every time, if your magickal goal is truly selfless.
Casting spells can trap you in a finite vision of what is possible. Usually you are focusing on what you don't have rather than what you do. The path to a fulfilled life and happy heart tracks 'inside out' to that. When you focus on what you have and are grateful for it (in fact you may even decide to perform a ritual of gratitude for what you have, rather than cast a spell to conjure what you don't), especially in times of perceived need, before you know it something 'unexpected' and 'extraordinary' happens and your life experience is transformed, usually better than you could have imagined.
Why Spells Don't Work
When spells don't work, what can you do to make the Universe conspire in your favour so that your life becomes a work of magick far more extraordinary than you could ever have conjured?
If you still want to do spells and have all these lovely spell books on your magickal shelf; if you love the creativity of crafting amulets and charms, carving candles and lighting them for specific times as you meditate on your magickal goals – then how can these spells work 100 per cent of the time? My answer is to ask for nothing for yourself – only to be of use for the betterment of others. I truly recommend to not cast spells at all. Instead, try random acts of ritual, in gratitude, honouring the Earth and others. This type of magick allows anything and everything the Universe deems appropriate to come through to you. And it's usually better than anything you could conjure up yourself. No micro-managing, no controlling, no 'art of creating change with Will', just trusting you will receive what is best for you. But ensure you are committed to showing up to life: anchored in the best version of yourself that you can possibly be in that moment, and ready to do the work presented to hold up your end of the deal.
Solitude
In honing your own Craft – whether you are redefining and enhancing, or taking your first exploratory steps, I recommend spending periods of time staying quiet, introspective and keeping your Craft potent. Focus on the changes within you as you purify and refine your practice. Keep it occult, keep it hidden ... for a time. It's like blowing up a balloon: you don't run around stretching open the neck and showing everyone how much air is in it! You just keep quietly blowing, and when the time is right you capture the air with a simple knot and let the balloon float in the sky, aloft on your breath ...
Release
I also recommend liberating yourself from trying to micro-manage and control the Universe (so no need to cast time-consuming, stressful, fear-based and manipulative spells, asking for more money, a new job, a new lover, a better relationship). Keep an open, unattached mind; and instead of casting a spell to manifest something, simply conduct a ritual of gratitude for what you have right now. Liberate yourself from a grasping fist and allow the Universe to help you. You'll be surprised by what it brings. Sometimes we limit our experiences by being too fixated on what we think the outcome needs to be. Perform more rituals of thanks and celebration of what you have, and magnify the gratitude. It will become a beacon to attract more reasons to be grateful and feel joyful.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Art of Witch"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Fiona Horne.
Excerpted by permission of Rockpool Publishing Pty Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Part I,
Musings of a Modern Witch,
The Art Of Witch,
An Authentic Witch,
A Different Craft,
Nothing is Secret Anymore,
The Angry Witch,
The Healthy Witch,
Pure Magick,
Eco-Witchcraft,
What Kind of Witch Are You?,
The Esoteric Services and Healing Arts,
The Magick of Do,
Part II,
Introduction,
The Art of Witch Manifesto,
Part III,
References,
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