Hurricanes, Fires, Witchcraft + The Craft Of Service

It seem as if the world is either underwater or burning depending on where you are in the world.

Flooding has stricken several countries, while fires blaze throughout parts of the Western United States.

If you’re not in those stricken areas, you might surely know people that are.

Back in my early days of actively being a Witch (I say actively, because I’ve been a Witch since the beginning, though it took me awhile to pick up the mantle and own it outright), I’d have spelled for the hurricane to dissipate, or the fires to be quenched by heavy rains.

I don’t do that now.  I know that there are a few weather Witches on this list, and I’d love to dialogue about how this works for you and how you dance in the energetics of working with the weather, because certainly, there is a lot to learn from that work.

For me, too many questions got in the way:

• What if this is what the Earth needs for where she is at in her health, her process, her natural being?
• Who am I, a human, to dictate what the Earth should do with her weather and expression?
• If I’m here to dance with the natural patterns and rhythms of both the natural world and my body… who am I to try to contrive it in some way?

These are big questions I don’t have all the answers to, but they did lead me to other questions and thoughts that were equally hard to answer:

• If I don’t spell, dance, pray for the weather to change… then perhaps that people don’t die, or at least that my family and friends and loved ones remain alive and unharmed.
• But why my loved ones and not yours?
• Is it realistic to wish for no one to die?

We all must die.  That’s part of the natural dance we are all part of.  Death is neither a punishment nor something to be avoided.  It’s what we do.

Needing To Do Something

My mother is in Miami right now.  She is in the late stages of Alzheimer’s, living in an adult assisted living home.  The house is shuttered, they have their full stock of water and food and gas for the generator.  It didn’t make sense to fly her out of there as she needs constant care I can’t give.  And, being that they weren’t in an evacuation zone, it made sense to leave her there, knowing that there are plans in place for homes like that.

Don’t think for one second that I didn’t grapple with these questions hard core for the last week or so.

I don’t want people to die.  I don’t want destruction.  I certainly don’t want us or the Earth to have to work through the affects of the abuse we have heaped on the planet for countless years.

But death and destruction are a natural part of life.

So barring a massive spell for no more hurricane and no more death, which imposes my will on a situation I have no business imposing on,  I found myself feeling helpless and stuck.

My craft is more about honoring the truth of what is and dancing with that, rather than the power that comes with being able to cast a spell.  This has meant that over the years, the spells I cast are less and less, but trust me… I do cast them.

And this is likely something we all have to come to terms with for ourselves.

How we cast and why we cast is a deeply personal process and choice.  So I’ve had to come up with what worked for me and  what would be easy for me to be in total energetic alignment with. (Because energetic alignment is one of the main keys to spell casting.)

My Personal Choice

What I’m left with right now is meditating on and practicing the craft of service and to bare witness to the truth of what is.  It’s about understanding that tragedy happens and it touches all of us at one point or another.

We all die and things are sometimes hard.  Times like these call for a powerful response and I can’t think of anything more healing while still honoring the natural cycles and rhythms of our world than to stand firm, bare witness and be available for whatever service is needed.

That can mean a donation, that can mean opening up your home to someone that lost theirs.  It can be sitting silently next to someone who is mourning the death of a loved one.  This can mean getting in there to sift through rubble to find either those trapped or lost items that are dear to victims of these events.

Service can mean prayer and for me the prayer I offer up at my altar is that I be vigilant to the opportunities to serve a fellow brother or sister in their time of need.

And always always always, being mindful of what I do to the ground beneath my feet.  How do I soothe and serve this Mother Earth we are all so very fortunate to be a part of?

Sometimes Witchcraft is more about the questions than the act.

For You

I send out to you the capacity to bare witness to the world around you in all it’s forms.

I send you the clarity and the ability to ask the questions that need to be asked and not only be at peace with no answer, but to have courage to hear the answers that do come.

I send you a revitalized sense of magick, knowing that sometimes it’s the simplest whisper on the wind that effects the biggest change.

And I send you my love and gratitude.  I do not take lightly the fact that this list is made up of Witches who have opted into being part of a community, spread out across the world as we are.

May you find what you need and may you be able to provide what is needed of you.

Elena