Collage art 2017 copyright Taylor Ellwood
I recently finished reading The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie (affiliate link) and one of the things that intrigued me about the book was the author’s focus on the power of words. In the book, the gods have to be careful what words they speak, because if they speak something and it’s not true, it drains away their power, because their power is trying to make it true. Whereas if they speak the truth, then the words channel their power and makes what they say real.
It’s an interesting rule for that world, but it made me think about the power of what we say and write. My next non-fiction project is The Magic of Writing, which explores how writing can be used as a magical tool, but also explores the power of the word in general. One of the ways I have explored the power of the word is through how what is written or said does have an effect on one’s life.
In my early experiments with writing magic I discovered that the words chosen to frame a theme could play a significant role in the experiences you had around that theme. For example, the words I chose for the title to describe a month inevitably showed up in the experiences I had in that month. I recognized that in one sense I had trained myself to look for the impact of the words, and yet in another sense I also realized that the act of writing and speaking those words was an invocation of the power within those words, and the influence that those words could have on my life.
My subsequent experiences with collage magic has born this out, because I would pick a theme for a collage, and find pictures and words that seemed appropriate and put it altogether to create not just a creative expression of the theme, but also an experience that would ripple out from that expression, touching my life in various ways. I invoked my ex-wife int my life through a collage. I had cut out a picture of a person in a magazine that I had never met and I’d used the words of the collage to describe what I was looking for a partner. I met her half a year later, in person and the picture of the magazine was the person I meant and the words described a lot of her personality.
I’ve used word magic as part of my space/time work as well, in a fashion that is similar to what’s describe in the Raven Tower. I’ve spoken or written a specific phrase, to make a specific result come true, with the idea that the words chosen will imprint on reality, creating a path for the possibility to manifest into reality. This particular approach works on the principle that if you write or say something you are providing a form for the possibility to manifest and express itself through. After all, an idea is only a potential until is provided form, and words are forms, words are potential made manifest into reality.
I choose my words carefully because I can see how the way something is worded, as well as the layered meanings that go into the wording can have their own effect on what you’re seeking to manifest. It creates an interesting paradox of sorts where the words we speak also speak us, and so what we speak and write must be carefully considered. What are we really speaking into existence and how will it speak our experience of it into our existence?
