Personal Epiphany
But yes, this was a personal epiphany, in that to me, John committed magick. He is not a Wiccan. He is not a magician. Yet his path is so closely akin to our that it is quite amazing. The personal growth, albeit from another aligned direction, is amazing to see in a young man of 20. And yes, it is a privilege to be associated with these kinds of people. The ability to lead and teach by example is something SORELY lacking in the world in general. To see that spirit embraced so fully by someone so young is an inspiration.
Now, on to the mechanics. I was talking to a non wiccan/skeptical martial arts friend about what had happened, and I said that I felt John had done something magickal. His reply was that he felt that "all this was, was simple encouragement." But wait a minute. What IS encouragement? Encouragement is the transfer of energy between people. We even say "I gave him encouragement." What did you actually "give?" Is it tangible? Can you see it? No. But can you FEEL it? YES! Can you measure the result? No. Can you FEEL the result? YES! To me, that is magick, pure and simple.
When the crowd comes together for a performer, can you see the electricity in the air? No, but you can certainly FEEL the difference, and so can the performer. People even say, "it was a magical performance." But is this the same kind of magick we create in ritual? Is that the same kind created when Drawing Down the Moon? Does the energy itself feel different, or do we just use it to different ends? Is all of this equally magick? Don't you hate these type of questions? :-)
To me, this was a demonstration of how paths can be so similar, but different and further, how the destinations are ALSO similar but different. It further demonstrated the necessity to tailor each path for each individual destination.
Almost Reverend Mikki