With the recent heart attack of a friend, Peter Paddon, I saw rise up amongst the fellows around me a great collaboration of magickal workings. I know of Covens in the Eternal Harvest, Briar Rose, Roebuck, and Alexandrian Traditions, and scores of individuals, which put will to action and set the flame of intention burning within the cauldron of renewal and healing. For those of you that don’t know, Peter is doing well considering. He is off sedation, responding well to medication, and talking. The magick that was employed was not planned out over a great length of time, and lacks the strategic quality usually used within spellwork whereby the Crafting of magick and the mundane are conjoined in advance towards some specific goal. Nope, this was emergency magick.
Emergency magick, in of itself is not a bad thing, but it is about fixing a problem that has occurred so as to restore balance. It is not about taking the steps of advancement unto the goal. Understandably it can and often is the catalyst for operational magick; which I’ll get to in a moment. When life gets crazy either by injury, unexpected bills, or what have you, then it is emergency magick that gets set on the burner. Most experienced Witches keep as stock of magickal supplies on hand. There are several reasons for this. Primarily, if one has a regular practice, say burning incense daily as an offering, then to prevent multiple trips to the store each week it is good to just have what is needed on hand. The second big reason is that any Witch worth their pointy hat is capable of turning those same items into effective components for use in emergency magick. When all else fails they improvise.
Emergency magick is simply that, magick done on the fly to address an immediate situation. Returning to our example of Peter (sorry Peter), emergency magick was deployed quickly to try and bring healing, calm, health, and positive outcomes to him. In this situation, if the magick is to have a continued and prolonged effect that assists the mundane efforts of doctors then it should not cease at the first word of good news, but now is when the workings shift from being emergency oriented unto operational. I have no doubt in my mind that Peter, his Coven, and others close to him will continue to work towards his recovery and health in less dire fashion, the magick will be operationally oriented. Whereas emergency magick can, and often is, very effective, it is operational magick that has the better track record for bringing about change in the mundane and deeper spiritual path. But Why?
Operational magick is planned and prolonged whereby there are multiple energetic, symbolic, and ritualized aspects in play or being conducted over a span of time. For example, a long time ago when I was job hunting, I began my magickal and mundane workings simultaneously. Just as I did not put all my eggs in one basket by sending only one resume out, I didn’t only do one working towards finding employment. Operational magick isn’t always concerned with the mundane plane but often the spiritual. Yup, magick can be used to help one along their spiritual path. For example, perhaps someone has been delving into ancestral memory as a means of awaking spiritual inspiration and bring a better understanding to an aspect of their praxis. Magick could be used in this situation to make the ancestral recall easier, more likely, more visceral, etc.
With all that said, magick has its time and place; and sometimes that is the now because the stew is burning to the bottom of the cauldron and needs immediate action to save dinner, however, like in magick if the pot is tended then dinner is more likely to be savory.
Boidh se!
-Spanish Moss
"Lost in a thicket bare-footed upon a thorned path."
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