It’s impossible to explore any indigenous wisdom tradition without wandering into mystical realms that many refer to as magic. A provocative word, that. As we continue to look at spiritual relationships and alliances of the ancient and modern Irish people it might be helpful to examine the nature of magic – which has absolutely nothing to do with pulling rabbits out of hats. Some years ago my spiritual teacher provided insightful clarity on the subject from which I offer the following.

Magic is Spiritual fact made manifest in the physical plane. That is magic. So it doesn’t have anything to do with magic formulas, wearing the proper clothing, lighting the right number of candles. That is why once upon a time there was more magic in the world – because more people knew that Spirit was real. 

Magic will only happen when you know absolutely that Spirit is real, like you know your own name, like you know 2+2. When it’s truth, and not a tentative maybe, magic works. You can’t hope or dream or pretend that maybe it will happen. You can’t think that if you say it often enough, maybe it will happen. That’s like sitting in your chair and trying to materialize a sandwich out of the refrigerator. No matter how many times you look at an empty plate and say, “Sandwich,” you probably won’t produce one. Because you don’t believe in it. So when you create magic you have to know the energy “This is fact.”

You are all born with the magic because you are all Spirit. It’s inside of you. Sometimes you have to convince yourself of that because the world does not always appreciate Spirit being real. The collective conscious around you will tell you, “These things don’t really happen. Once upon a time maybe, these things happened, but not today. And anyway, only special people can do this.” But the truth is that you are magic and you can make magic happen. All it takes is to remember, to know that Spirit is real.

Many people don’t live in a culture that embraces this spiritual knowing, this magic. Our Irish ancestors did. And that wisdom still lives in many of the Irish people.

…and within living memory there is the case of Fr Frawley, still spoken of with reverence in the Sixmilebridge area, who when he first came to the parish challenged the old parish priest to a trial of their respective powers. He, by his prayers, was able to light the altar-candles from a distance of thirty feet, while the older man could only make them smoulder.

When the first monks wandered over to Ireland they found easy resonance with the Irish people for demonstrations such as Fr Frawley’s. History holds many accounts of their mystical abilities. Belief in such priestly power was still present in the nineteenth century according to the above excerpt from Eddie Lenihan’s book In Search Of Biddy Early. In fact among the hundreds of stories collected about Biddy this is a common theme. Because the Church was adamant that parishioners stay away from Biddy, threatening to condemn them from the pulpit for visiting her, people seeking healing would often first approach the local parish priest and if he did not help them the popular conclusion was that he would not, rather than could not. Then they would go to Biddy. If prayer invokes an alliance with an unseen and other world power, how is that so very different from Biddy’s other realm relationships? For many Irish people it wasn’t so different at all.

One of the things I find fascinating about a general cultural unwillingness to embrace the truth or notion, depending on your perspective I suppose, of relationships and alliances with spirit realms is the presence of exactly that in the Christian tradition, especially the Catholic Church. Biblical texts are filled with stories of communion with angels and the Holy Spirit, both certainly neither measurable or, in most cases, seen. Add to that the numerous appearances of Mother Mary throughout history, so powerful people still make pilgrimage to those shrine locations.

This cosmology was a pivotal influence for the Irish people when the first Catholic monks arrived in Ireland. With a long and profound tradition of such spiritual alliances, the Irish were able to give warm welcome to these monks, their teachings and indeed their magic. And for several hundred years the Irish Catholic Church was a mystical body in harmonious coexistence with the indigenous spiritual traditions. Both believed the divine sacred was in all things and, more importantly, that everyone could have a personal relationship with the sacred.

In 664 Rome would change the doctrine on this, or attempt to. But by then what was already rooted was even more entrenched in the culture, customs and very soul of the Irish people.

A vistor to Neils Bohr’s country cottage, noticing a horseshoe hanging on the wall, teased the eminent scientist about this ancient superstition. “Can it be that you, of all people, believe it will bring you luck?” “Of course not,” replied Bohr, “but I understand it brings you luck whether you believe or not.”      Bartlett’s Book of Anecdotes

Among the many relationships with entities from other realms, channeling is one of the more controversial for many people. Perhaps because, although channeling takes many forms, it generally involves allowing a spirit entity to step into and speak through your physical body. There are many people who channel. J.Z. Knight, who channels Ramtha from her ranch in Yelm, is among the more widely known through her association with movie stars Shirley MacLaine and Linda Evans.

J.Z. and Ramtha have been controversial over the years for many reasons yet they still attract hundreds of students from around the world to their workshops and events. The work has also drawn much scientific skepticism. True to her nature J.Z. was determined to address these questions head on and invited a team of scientists to come to the ranch to observe and scientifically test the channeling process. I was fortunate to be invited to witness this small gathering.

For two days the scientists probed, prodded and measured J.Z.’s brain waves, heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, perspiration rate and more. At the end of the conference they presented their findings. While most were not willing to conclusively validate channeling as a real and factual phenomenon, they acknowledged they were not able, as they had hoped and anticipated, to prove that it wasn’t, admitting there was something going on for which science had no explanation. The scientists were chagrined. J.Z., as you might imagine, was pleased.

For most scientists the mystery remains a mystery. For others there is no mystery to these relationships with the spiritual realms. No mystery at all.