One popular definition of magic, from the wiley Aleister Crowley, is that it’s the art of creating change in the world in accordance with one’s will.
By this standard, Donald Trump is one hell of a magician.
With some manipulation of symbols (the symbol of money / currency itself, and of course tabloids, then reality tv, then the coverage of the US election) and some highly emotionally charged rhetoric, he just nailed an improbable win of the U.S. presidency.
I imagine a lot of witchy folks are understandably upset right now (the day after the election), as the man is a virulent misogynist and a racist, among many other stomach-churning things, and his win means that tons of people in the US gave an “A-okay!” vote of consent to be ruled by a virulent misogynist, racist, and all-around stomach-churning demagogue…
… on the strength of promises that he made to restore economic power to the common folk – from his gold-plated jet.
Despairing and raging and cursing the man and his supporters are all possible courses of action.
And yet what I’m most curious about is the way his victory itself functions as a hex.
A hex, as I think about it in day-to-day life, isn’t necessarily a classical spell wrought with sigils and candles.
Instead, it’s something – a comment, an action – that so precisely touches our wounds, our insecurities – that it brings up intense fear and pain – so that we, as the target of the hex, become paralyzed, stuck in a mental and emotional storm, unable to act or enjoy life.
Under this definition, hexing is a fairly common thing. We often unconsciously hex ourselves and our loved ones (i.e. “push their buttons”) in addition to getting hexed by others out in the world.
For me, seeing the face of a man who everyone knows has boasted of sexual assault (a nice technical term for “rape”), being so exalted and given so much power, is extremely hexing.
I can feel my mind spinning, my oldest wounds getting bloody, my energy recoiling and shrinking.
The day-to-day hexes of having our insecurities touched, our buttons pushed, can often be lifted by a kind word, or just reminding ourselves of our accomplishments and loves.
A big old giant flaming hex like this, though – well, at least for me, lifting it, unhexing myself…. requires some shadow integration work – in other words, I have to acknowledge the unconscious dimension of my own being (my shadow) that desires to have this wound touched, that desires the sensations of violation and betrayal, that desires the feeling of resentment and being unheard and ignored.
Interestingly, the sensations of resentment, of being unheard and ignored, of being violated and betrayed by the mainstream Democrats and globalization….
… are what very many of Mr. Trump’s supporters say led them to vote for him.
In other words, at this essential emotional level, I’m much the same as Mr. Trump’s supporters. The self-righteous misery of feeling resentful and victimized lives within me also.
If I don’t want my emotions and thoughts and choices and magical manifestations being controlled and paralyzed by this thick hex of feeling wounded and victimized by Mr. Trump’s exaltation….
…. then the option in front of me is to open up to my larger willingness to take joy in this fate exactly as it is — amor fati.
image: by Conor Collins