Is Storytelling the Untapped Magical Resource?

Stories as energy

If there is one thing I have always been certain of, it is the magick of the storyteller.

When we embrace stories and our ability to weave them, we embark on a different kind of magical practice.

The way words can weave new worlds from thin air, taking you on a journey to far off lands, emotionally connect you to people who may not even exist – in the conventional sense at least – is absolutely fascinating.
Stories have been a part of human history since the beginning, helping us to remember the essence of who we are, and who we wish to become.

As a Celtic Witch studying the Bardic path, stories evolve into the mysteries, touch stones of human psychology and spirituality, and whisper to us of something greater than ourselves. The purpose and the unfolding of magick, Witchcraft, the unseen, and the Gods.
Storytelling is alive and well, as much a part of us as bone and sinew.
Stories are miraculous and nourishing to the spirit, powerful and life-altering, and sometimes heart-breaking and disturbing.

They touch the live wire of our souls and make us think, and feel, consider and rationalise, dream and imagine.
Stories are an imprint of what a spell can be – altering the fabric of the Universe and our lives in the process.
That makes them truly magical!

It is not something I perceive to be celebrated often enough though, with spiritual or witchcraft circles – who seem to be desperate for recognition and respect, determined to present a thesis of Spirituality which is couched in scientific terms and traceable historical facts.
Which is well and good, you can believe in spirituality and science, as well we should. Strange and unfortunate consequences occur when we ignore the natural law.

But the longer I wander the old forgotten paths and seek out wisdom in nature, the more I am convinced that balance is the symphony of the supernatural (and natural) worlds – that magick was never meant to be the divorce of heart and mind, but the interweaving between both.
The consideration of both. The mistakes of both.
Remove your heart or your head and there is no magick.
Rationality without emotion becomes cruel and unforgiving, and emotion without rational becomes unruly and indiscriminate.
Both become unfair and singular.
For magick needs your humming soul, your emotional range, your sharp mind and your ability to create.

Image – Victor / Pexels

Stories as Magick

Magick is an ever unfolding story of humans interacting with unseen forces, and capturing it in a style that passes on the knowledge, the meaning, the ethics of such interactions, with a little creative flair of the individual allowing their soul to speak.
Stories can be spoken or written, small retellings of personal encounters or long sagas of fantasy told in old tomes.
We tell stories about ourselves (and others) every single day – whether in the internal landscape of our own minds, in conversation to one another, or typed up on a social media blast.

For as beautiful as stories can be, they can also be warped, distorted, misrepresented, or flat out fabrication for the sake of manipulation.
Stories, and the words that bind them, can be used as weapons: to wound, to disparage, to discredit, to destroy.
Just like any other kind of magical spell.

If you think about the last time you heard a false story about yourself, it probably left you emotionally hurting. It may sting even years later, especially if you did not get to have your version of events heard.
Your version is your story – the power of your words, your impressions, the interplay between what you thought and felt in that situation.
The impact of a story unspoken on our mental and emotional wellbeing can be immense.

It can even leave you feeling cursed – and in a way, you have been.

Stories as Curses

A curse in the Celtic tradition is often a blasting of words spoken from a particular position, usually centred around the left side of the body, on the left leg with a left hand pointing for good measure. Sometimes magical tools are thrown in to boost or direct the curse more effectively, but the driving force of the spell is words, fuelled by breath.

As a magical antidote to those who find themselves in this situation and do not know what to do – how to have their story heard – the following may be of use to you.
The Universe is always listening. The spirits all around us are always listening.

Balance is the natural state, so one side of any situation spoken out loud is a tilted scale.

Whilst we are unlikely to escape consequences for our actions, we can speak our truth to the Universe.

We can be heard, and in so doing, we can release that feeling of being trapped against an unfair spell of spoken words.

We can weave our stories into the fabric of the air, and be heard by the Spirits of the Unseen, and trust that the natural (and supernatural order) will seek to right the imbalance.

If nothing else, you deserve to be free of old wounds, so that you might heal and learn and grow from situations that left you feeling cursed, and then you can move on.

We are all villains and heroes in different peoples’ stories – and some of that has nothing to do with how you acted, what you said, how you rationalised or felt in those interactions.

In storytelling, we find the moments that teach us something – how to be happier, or truer to our sense of self, or begin the inner work of personal change, and that should be true in the stories of life.
Those moments come from identifying ourselves with what we found in the pages of a book, or in a retelling of an event by another. If we can accept personal responsibility when it is appropriate to do so, we align with something incredibly magical – the act of personal creation.

As a Witch or magical practitioner of any kind, to create and recreate ones self is the point of the exercise.
The shape in which your inner story takes is largely up to the author – you.
For although we cannot foresee all the twists and turns of the narrative of our lives, we can choose how to interact with them, what we say, and how we move through those scenes… and above all remember…

The world needs to hear your stories.