Magical Object

The age of science assures us that the darkness of superstition has been driven back by logic and the lightbulb, that organization will quantify and defeat all things unknown.

And while it is undeniably true that so much has been gained in many areas, with all that pigeonholing progress, we have lost some of the “magic.”

Magic is as mercurial as love and art, defying definition and exciting us in a way that the science of reason cannot. To some the term is a threat, to others an excuse to indulge. For me, it represents the dawn and the dusk and the other subtleties that an unerring searchlight will bleach white.

No, I’m not offering spells and incantations, merely a homeopathic taste of what it might feel like to create something magical–not something that does magic but an object or artifact that conjures up the essence of unreasonable specialness.

Materials: anything you can get your hands on

Time: 1 to 2 hours

Size: Somewhere between 9” and 24” high

INSTRUCTIONS

Using materials culled from all corners of your house and garden, make one of the following: a shrine, a talisman, a wand, a totem, a charm, a mojo, or any other thingy imbued with whatever you consider magical. Take this seriously; try to invest it with all the contrary qualities you can muster. And when you’re done, be proud of it and keep it somewhere safe so that you can remind yourself what magic looks and feels like for you.

HINT

If it makes it easier, replace the word magical with spiritual.