With a wealth of resources available to us, in this modern mechanised age it is easy to research and find virtually any answer we seek at the click of a button. Think back even 20 years and the story was a very different one, pre mobile devices and the World Wide Web, life was less connected and some would say much simpler in application.
Yet the need to know, the seeking assurance of how something will work out, the compulsion to ask questions that no living being can provide an answer to, is as old as humankind. As far back as our species has recorded it’s history, the markings and carvings, writings and objects left by our most ancient of Ancestors, prove our eternal search for spiritual guidance and that conversation with the great energies beyond the 3D has been ongoing.
As a child I can remember family members going to tarot readers and psychic mediums, my Nana Gwen’s family were Spiritualists, a Great Aunt read tea leaves and dabbled in divination using a pendulum, so there was no lack of talk about various means of channelling and receiving messages from beyond the Veil.
It has long interested me that the resurgence of the olde ways has gained such momentum in recent years. In truth it never went away, but the events of recent times seem to have brought it into a more mainstream focus again. It’s been picked up by popular culture in recent years and become fashionable in some circles, dare I say.
So, what does it mean to me, in the modern world? How do I view my practice?
The short answer is that I’m a practicing Witch, a fledgling one, but a practicing Witch nonetheless. My practice threads through all that I am and do. You don’t decide to ‘become’, you just embrace what’s lain beneath all along and you learn to channel it.
Tuning into the gifts I was born with, developing my abilities to channel through Scrying and the use of Tarot, Runes and Pendulum has been a game changer for me. In learning and practice those gifts do deepen and become stronger, and afford a widening understanding of where we’ve come from as spiritual beings and the potentiality, we have within us. Which I find incredibly inspiring and empowering.
The mawkish notion that anything relating to Witchcraft and the Occult, or messages from ‘the other side’ is all about the dead, or potentially daemons and negative supernatural energies, is far from the truth and one I find rather disappointing. It’s about honouring the Ancestors and that which lies beyond our physical existence yes, but through working with those ancient elemental energies in positive, empowering and holistic ways.
It is also highly personal, though there are ways of doing things, staples to learn and follow, to ensure your practice and rituals are grounded and respectfully conducted. Beyond that, the extent of what you include in your Witches tool kit, is very personal to each individual. Not everyone can work comfortably within all mediums, it’s really about finding what resonates with you most deeply and effectively.
My blend of how, when and what I practice is unique to me and my lifestyle, it adapts and changes to meet my daily and weekly needs and commitments. The one thing I maintain come what may, is a daily devotional ritual to the Great Mother and my Ancestors. It’s not fancy, it’s simple, honest and true to who I am, and in my experience, that always yields the very best results in all things.
In a world where so much, often seems at odds with any real spiritual cohesion, being a practicing Witch has helped me find a deeper spiritual resonance within myself and with my wider Spirit Tribe. To be amongst those who receive messages from beyond the Veil, however they appear to me, is something I hold most dear and sacred.
Karen Brace is an Actor, Writer and Spoken Word Artist based in London.
Her original Spoken Word poetry including Channelling is available
on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/FSxrs
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/6fHN5
Karen_acts on Twitter
Hermes Risen 
The root of your writing whilst sounding agreeable at first, did not really settle very well with me after some time. Someplace within the paragraphs you actually managed to make me a believer but just for a while. I however have a problem with your leaps in logic and you would do well to help fill in those breaks. When you can accomplish that, I would undoubtedly end up being amazed.
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