Memory, Magic, and the effect of Having-Done.

"We are the authors of Memory... 

We are the 

ENGINEERS 

of TRADITION"

- EoP 

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Some memories cause us to grieve and suffer.

Some memories bring us comfort and healing.

Memories and their effects upon our personalities cause us to become the persons we are. Memories continually “add-to" us, they rarely find a way subtract. In a manner of speaking, memories are all we have. And, as I've said elsewhere, as liturgists,

we are in the business of making memories.

The mechanisms of magical/religious ritual and in particular, Neopagan public seasonal celebratory ritual, have much to do with the intentional effects of memory. Much of my writing has been concerned with the mechanisms of these works and at length I have come to feel that the role of the memory principle is greatly underrated, or even going unnoticed altogether.  I feel that when we are honest* with ourselves we may find that it comprises one of the largest factors in our attraction to these areas of religious activity. It is my deeply held conviction that taking part in the planning and execution of, and even simply attendance-at, well planned and meaningful rituals can have a powerful effect on the consciousness and life-streams of the persons involved and that this is one of the main reasons humans have been doing such things for the last several thousand years.

The carrying out of an intentional ritual-act (a.k.a "magic") is not about "gonna' do"... it's all about "having-done". This is one of the first and most fundamental principles of magic. If you are going to change the course of events, even in the smallest way, externalization is the key for moving from good intentions to a truly magical act. The commitment involved in rising up out of our easy-chair dreamworld of rumination carries us into the world of ritualized action: that vocalization, gesticulation and symbolic activity sets up a cascading series of changes "in the world" having engaged a set of factors we could never elicit without breaking through the monumental divide from "thought-about" to actually "having done". Thereby, yet in no way "unimportantly", the seeds of memory have been sown and irrevocably begin to do their work.

- (c) 2010 Earrach of Pittsburgh

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* see my standing challenges to 
what we say -vs.- what we do in  "WHY DO WE DRUID?"