I believe in magic. Almost everyone does, though most don’t acknowledge it, and some deny it vehemently. But as a matter of anthropological and psychological fact, we are hard-wired to draw emotional comfort from non-rational ritual, be those rituals religious or social or personal. Ritual works; for my current purposes, the metaphysics are not relevant. And the knowledge that non-rational ritual can have concrete results is something that you can use for practical purposes, and THAT is what I think of as magic.

This comes up because the other day, one of my adopted nieces asked the Internet to suggest a talisman, something she could use as a focus to invoke the power of ritual to help her deal with some of the daily horror. I thought about it, designed something, built it, gave it to her.

This morning I heard back from her. She went through a rough patch last night, picked up that talisman, used it to get back on her feet. I am gratified and a bit amused by this. Gratified because I was able help my friend, however remotely, and amused at the transcendental absurdity of it all.

The progression is wonderful and awesome. The talisman began as a foot long piece of coat hanger wire, essentially junk, shaped over the course of half an hour with REALLY simple tools. But then you take into account the technological wonder that steel wire represents, and the hours of craft that are behind that half hour of effort, and the thousands of years of mythology and the hundreds of thousands of years of human developement that made this little bit of ritual predictively effective…

Magic IS. Magic works. Life kicks us around, but we persevere…