Killing Magic
A Modern Day Tale About “Other Such Reasons To Riot” *
Magic is a puff of smoke masquerading as a song
Magic exists between unconscious ignorance and a conscious willingness to believe in magic — all that came before and all that which might come after magic happens matters not. Magic is a “here and now” experience. A puff of smoke masquerading as a song. The memory of which is as powerful as the occurrence.
Knowing is not only found in what is seen, touched, or smelled. Knowing can also result from an experience or intuition, sight born from seeing through another lens. Interestingly, perhaps magic’s most profound outcome is the trust bestowed upon the magic maker. A trust that is not made manifest until magic is born and its impact nurtured by our reliving the experience of magic. The basis of that trust is our faith rewarded by believing in that which was previously unbelievable.
When Peter Pan’s paramour-like companion Tinker Bell’s light began to fade Peter told us the only way Tinkerbell would live was if we believed in fairies, and clapped our hands. I was ten. Eyes fixed upon the TV screen, I clapped and clapped. Tears trickled down my face. Tinker Bell did live. And I helped. That was my first magical experience.
Persistent analysis kills the magic
Sometimes when I go to a place, I take no gadgets. No camera! No cell! Not even my iPad, which is my go-to gadget. I want not to be a tourist. I want to experience what I am seeing, feeling, or intuiting without intercessors. A rock formation, an ocean wave, a musician’s song, a clasp of hands, a streetscape, moments shared between friends, all, and much more, I might come to regard as magic created by my connection to the universe.
Some native tribes believe cameras capture one’s spirit, I’ve been told. I’d have little trouble arguing otherwise. Gadgets, for me, lend themselves to deconstructive energies. Why isn’t so and so smiling? His pants are too short. What happened to her hair? You know what I mean. They steal, if you will, the intimacy of our connectedness by feeding our egos’ scrutiny. Our appreciation for what is happening, our connection to the experience, begins to escape us. Like smoke, the magic disappears.
NASA tells us the James Webb Space Telescope is intended to help us “…understand the Universe and our origins.” Through 2021, according to NASA, the project has cost about $10 billion. Save satisfying someone’s curiosity, what benefits will knowing the origins of humanity bring? Yes, the telescope enables us to see beautiful galactic images more vividly. And even if those image collecting boxes guided by data analyzing instruments explain what’s before them, do we really think we’ll have found out how the magic works, or worked? Not likely, as no amount of analysis will be able to tell the origin story. Absent experiencing our universe’s origin itself, the magic, all we’ll have are very expensive theories.
The human spirit is magical
Magic is born from permitting ourselves to accept what we cannot prove, or control. Enslaved people’s belief in and participation in the country’s democracy is proof that magic is often brought to life by the human spirit. What was magical was when freedom from brutal murderous rape-filled eternal enslavement was given, many put their faith in those who’d enslaved them. I’m often bewildered by what was required to submit, by one’s own free will, to the ideals of democracy, when it had held so many in bondage.
And why, when Reconstruction turned into treachery and deceit, many chose to still believe that the magician’s evil did not lessen the magic’s possibilities. Their belief in democracy’s transformative power became perhaps the most profound gift those who were enslaved gave to the “New World.” A gift that believes in the words etched upon the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Though sadly it’s also a gift many have tried many times to erase. Magic that should have ultimately proven; believing in diversity, equity, and inclusion is more powerful than knowing how to manipulate the magic such beliefs spawn.
“During Reconstruction, seven hundred African American men served in elected public office, among them two United States Senators, and fourteen members of the United States House of Representatives. Another thirteen hundred African American men and women held appointed government jobs.” (Khan Academy)
Magic needs room for the heart to breathe free
As a child, focusing on what made my homemade kite fly was the last thing on my mind. Taking my time in crafting the frame, drawing pictures that made the kite mine, being careful to use the right paints (my cousin’s father said oil paints might give it too much weight), and forming a distinctive tail, that made it truly mine. I was careful to fashion it just like the ones I saw in the store that momma said we could not afford. Daddy being disabled in the mines and all. I never analyzed that either. I only wanted the magic of him helping me make it fly.
Adulthood taught me anxiety is a necessary part of magic. You have to give your emotions space. And wait for the magic to reveal itself in its essence! For magic lies in the exchange of energies. Anticipation fuels that energy. It’s the not knowing; and then seeing in mind, body, and consciousness that makes magic reveal itself as magical. Our senses, manifest from our perceptions, born not of lust! No, it’s more! Magic is an experience born from, and steeped, in the passionate embrace of possibilities.
Houdini proved escape can be magic’s greatest feat
Many students arrive at college not knowing who they are or where they are going. I was no exception. Truth is, I‘d been lost for a while. Abuse, at age eleven, had brought a darkness that stole both innocence and magic. I got lucky though. Before spiraling into the chasm that occupied some around me, a chasm a few never left, some upperclassmen took me into their fold. Collectively they were the college’s “social committee.” A free spirited group, they were responsible for the entertainment, nationally known talent, that came to our small historically Black College. Two were gay, one woman jaw dropping fine and others, they were free spirits who seemingly cared not what others thought. Their comfort with themselves and each other inspired my own self-acceptance. Their gift bore fruit one night, years later, when my soul gave up my burden. Crying without control became my escape.
By the time I was 27, I’d begun to travel outside of the U.S. as often as I had time and money. It was easier to get past the shyness that often inhibited me when no one knew me. While in Montreal, one sunny summer day with nothing to do, a young woman I sat with for a while, on McGill University’s campus gifted me the keys to escape the box that housed my low self-esteem. “People treat you the way you treat yourself,” she’s said. Her words are still more than a memory. They were a light showing me a way out. I’d allowed my past experiences to become shackles keeping me in the very place I wanted so desperately to escape. It took a few years for me to fully realize the impact of that bit of magic in my life.
Al Fin: My three pillars of belief
Connecting to the magic that exists in the universe has meant being intentional about growing and strengthening what I call the three pillars of magic: trust, passion, and faith! Trust, demands vulnerability not allowing itself to be engulfed by negativity, Passion, demands managing fears and limiting points of view. And faith binds us to confidence in that which is greater than us. These have strengthened my ability to experience the magic all around me.
I’ve found the U.S. to be a society that deconstructs - takes things apart to see how they can be capitalized upon. The barrage of messages doled out from various platforms intended to capture our attention, and money has increased our reliance on what we know coming from a “trusted source” outside of ourselves. Yet knowing without seeing, believing without analytical reasoning, and being without ego needs are what make humans magical beings.
Throughout my adulthood, I’ve actively sought to re-center my energy on my connection to that which affirms my being. And though I’ve been fooled at times by trickery, in my travels I’ve found there are other cultures connected to the universe, the earth, and each other in ways that I value. Building relationships outside of the U.S. has led to my trusting in my intuition more, learning to live in balance, and having faith that magic is revealed when my being is open to “seeing” more magic being revealed.
With that I will close, praying you magic in your journeys also!
Footnote
*This phrase originally appeared in Pearl Cleage’s 1993 classic, Deals With The Devil And Other Reasons To Riot, Ballentine Books publisher
