You wouldn't believe the difficulty I'm having with this post: this is about the fifth attempt I've made. I want to write a post about how I see being a witch in the city is not a problem: I want to contrast that with the naff green/country/garden/'Merrie England' approach you often find in the literature. I'm trying to write a sensible piece, but it keeps becoming a bitch fest about how these people live in a dream world, denying their own urban milieu, & how the whole pretence of village witch/wise woman/midwife is a load of twaddle. Oh look, there I go again. I could just rip my own tongue out.
I want to write a piece about the specific nature of witchcraft & magic in the city. I want to write about the freedom that civilisation gives us to pursue magic, by freedom from wondering where the next meal's coming from. I want to write about how cities draw all sorts of things to themselves, thus providing the witch with a richness of resource unparalleled in the country. I want to ride about the need for authenticit for the witch, when in reality the majority of modern witches live in urban areas. I want to write about how the sociological division between gemeinde and gesellschaft as modes of community is a narrative that predisposes toward country as community that negates the positive aspects of city living. I want to write about how the particular nature of city community can help towards magic, since it gives a certain anonymity, while also providing a 'tribe' for the witch. I want to write about the nature of city energy: there's a wealth of 'stuff', history, entities & experiences, to draw on. I want to write about the greater potential to recharge in the city: I personally often do it from the mass of humanity in the Bull Ring market, with no danger of vampirising one individual. I want to write about the opportunities for meeting all sorts of magical & 'spiritual' practitioners that the city affords. I want to talk about the ongoing development of magical modes & methods. I want to talk about the need to be honest about how we make things up, rather than try to make out a fiction is true & stick rigidly to it. I wanted to write about how the institution of the city is ancient enough that humans can hardly be said not to thrive there, indeed we have adapted to such an extent that it is the natural environment for many of us.
I wanted to write about all these things & couldn't find the way of expressing them. But it seems that writing about this problem has solved it!
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Do you see the cobbles on the streets? Everywhere you look, stone & rock. Can you imagine what it feels like to reach down with your bones & feel the living stones? The city is built on itself, all the cities that came before. Can you imagine how it feels to lie down on an ancient flagstone & feel the power of the rock buoying you up against the tug of the world? And that's where witchcraft begins. The stones have life, & I'm part of it. - adapted from Terry Pratchett
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