Energy of City Magick

Energy of City Magick

    Hopefully city magick opens the doors to a new urban magickal world. Magick is hiding everywhere, wanting to be found. Cities do have their problems. They have lots of problems. Wouldn't it be great to create a 'shining bright city, perfect and clean' as mentioned in an obscure song called "Mysteries of the Unexplained by pop singer Tanya Donelly. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X76UWdo3qUs)  We all have a collective archetype of an Utopian city in our minds and are constantly reminded of it by our artists, our true visionaries of what was, is and will be.
   There is a mythological ideal of the city that have not really achieved in this world. Did it exist on forgotten continents? If so, we have no evidence of it. We will never know how to create it if we do not honor the energy and spirits in the cities we have already built. Even modern science is coming to the conclusion that there is more to us than the merely physical. We have energy component. Not only people, but the entire world, has an energy aspect. Perhaps by honoring it and working with it, we can transform our urban dwellings from potential engines of destruction to bright and shining centers of learning and prosperity. We need to honor the spirit in all things to find out. We need to try and work with what we have. The world may not be changed with a wave of the magick wand, but if we work collectively toward something, our power to transform is great. It works in our mystical lives and in our daily living.
    Honoring starts at home. Start with yourself, your family, your home and your tools. All are sacred. If you have only been an armchair practitioner till this point - interested in magick, but never taking the leap because you weren't close enough to the natural forces - then get up off the sofa and open your eyes. You are a natural force - one with all the other forces around you. Open the door, walk down the street, and let the adventure begin.
[Parts of this post come from Christopher Penczak's book City Magick ]

Chorus to the City Witch Song

"I'm a witch in the cave of the city's tomb,
I weave my web on a high steel loom,
And a new power grows in this cold stone womb;
To heal the wounds of the masses lost,
We're the generation that carries the cost
Of averting humanity's doom....."

   From the song "City Witch Song" by
Raven Kaldera, 1994 - in the book Urban Primitive....

   *** Most Pagan rituals, spells, and symbols stem from an older agricultural era. The holidays follow the Wheel of the Year as seen by farmers dependent on it for their food; the rituals revolve around fertility and growing things. This is a difficult path for many city dwellers to follow, surrounded as they are by the energy of a different place and time.

   Seasons pass differently in the city; although climatic changes are the same, there are less natural cues, short of weather, to notice. Even Moon cycles are harder to follow in the city. There is more obscuring light pollution, and tall buildings may block the moon when she is hanging lower in the sky.

     Granted, it is important to know your roots, to connect with your ancestral patterns, and above all to understand where your food comes from. One thing that is artificial about living in a city is that the majority of food production necessarily happens far away and urban dwellers are quite dependent on their rural neighbors for almost everything they put in their mouths. This connection is vital and should be appreciated, and to that end we should to periodically take time away from the urban centers in order to connect with the spirit of the growing Earth. Seek out all resources of food production that is happening in urban area now a days. 
    There are many cities that large garden plots where produce is grown and that is sold in street markets. Support these endeavors, volunteer to help out.  Start a urban garden plot of your own.

     If you are just becoming interested in the Craft but live in an urban environment I hope what I post here will you follow a Craft path and develop your own witchy lifestyle.  I must confess I don 't live in an urban setting but I like reading about what is happening in urban areas regarding pagan inroads in
cities.  The witches of today live a very different lifestyle than their ancestors but the spirit of witches is still with us and we can adapt our witchy selves to living an urban setting.