When I was once in the process of losing weight, a sister witch cautioned me against getting too thin. I would, she insisted, lose too much chi should I lose too much weight. While being a size two might be the fashion ideal, what would losing enough of myself to achieve that aesthetic goal do to the integrity of my magickal self? Much like many an opera singer believed that having a massive body provided a better home for the instrument of the voice, is there something to the idea that the kind of physical body we manifest has the power to affect our magickal selves?

As a Wiccan I subscribe to the philosophy that the divine is found in everything, including ourselves. From that perspective it is important to remember that our bodies are deserving of as much respect as we would give any other divine space. It’s certainly easier for me to be mindful of what I’m eating when I think of my body this way - I want to be healthy both to feel good and also to honor my own divinity. This has not so much to do with the size of my body as with the quality of what I put into it. It's easy to extend this approach to more than healthy eating. One could argue that maintaining good physical fitness, minimizing stress, and addressing other bodily concerns are essential parts of maintaining a healthy home for the divine that lives within us. This then leads to another question. Once we've made suitable temples of our bodies, do they serve as more effective vessels for magick? Are we better witches with better bodies? And what, then, is the definition of better?

Two of my favorite bloggers have written lately about the issues of body image and the connection between our spiritual selves and our physical bodies.

Slade Roberson at Shift Your Spirits invited a guest blogger, Kara-Leah Masina, to discuss Understanding How You Manifest Your Physical Body Kara-Leah writes:

Our bodies will always seek balance - when they are too hot, they crave a cold drink. Too cold and they want a warm fire. We can understand and appreciate this on this physical level.

But our bodies are always moving through the different elements:
- earth (physical body)
- air (mental body)
- fire (energetic body)
- water (emotional body)

By knowing where you are, you know how to balance yourself.

- If you are too much in the energetic body - as can happen if kundalini is active for example - taking a bath draws the excess energy off.

- If you’re too much in the mental body and need to ground, anything that connects with the physical body is useful - eating, walking, sitting on a big rock.

- If you’re overwhelmed with emotions, you often reach for the comfort food because you need to have something solid to ground yourself. But just as effective is to ground via a walk, or to fire up some energy and turn the water into steam by running, cycling, or dancing. Using the mind is also an effective way to get out of the emotions - so many of us pour ourselves into our work rather than face our emotions.

- If you’re feeling lethargic and dull, all earthed out, then you need to fire yourself up and get the energy flowing - you don’t feel like moving, but when you do, the energy moves within you.

The key is balance, each of the elements equally represented and supporting the fifth element - ether, our soul. In this way, a balanced person can be walking with a friend, talking, and sharing emotions. The physical body is engaged, the mind, the heart and the energy ... all is present.

Witches work with the elements all the time; these concepts should have been self-evident. But for me there were serious revelations in Kara-Leah's straight-forward ideas. Even though I'm acutely aware of achieving elemental balance in my surroundings through the use of feng shui and of building elemental balance into spell work, I had never considered the importance of manifesting elemental balance in the physical body. It makes perfect sense. Not only does balancing the elements in the body help us to be physically and spiritually healthier, it provides a solid foundation for functioning more effectively as a magickal being.

Dianne Sylvan, who devoted an entire book to the subject in The Body Sacred, recently shared this poem in a post on her blog Dancing Down the Moon. I love this part:

That fat girl you're looking down on

As the two of you walk by

Is a Goddess of Earth and Fire

Calmly eating her sundae

Licking the spoon

In a way you'll never be licked.

She is laughing at you, boy,

You can feel her crawl up your spine

To breathe a silken "Fuck off" in your ear

She has better things to think about

than your views on dessert

She is softer and stronger than Tinker Toys

far more likely to break you than be broken

She has a universe inside her

You would bow down and pray to

If you were man enough

To look her in the eye.

This certainly supports my friend's belief that a small body would make a poor container for the "universe."

I now understand that the key to manifesting a magickal body is not about size, but balance. It's about achieving physical health as a channel for spiritual health. It's about creating the shape that's most powerful and effective as a vessel for your magick, and that shape will be different for every witch.

Thinking about the body this way is liberating, letting us appreciate that the best body is one that can support us in the work we need and want to do. It also changes how we define "healthy body image" because it expands the evaluation criteria beyond self confidence and acceptance to include magickal appropriateness.

My point is that I believe, as witches, it's important to think about how the physical manifestation of our bodies affects how we function magickally. For some that may mean losing weight so that Earth isn't keeping the witch from accessing the full power of other elements. For others, like the woman Dianne Sylvan describes in her poem, divine power comes from reveling in the body she has, even if others don't appreciate it. We choose what is right for us, guided as we are in so many things by striving for that which best reflects our highest Will. As above, so below. As within, so without.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 11:13 PM