I am always talking about the Magic. It’s the goddess-stuff that hums under the surface of everything. It’s the beauty and depth that can assist you in creating a life that is your own personal mythological journey. It is the Mystery that calls you to more, that whispers to you of a meaning and purpose that go far beyond the seemingly mundane acts of your everyday life.

There are those that say that it is easy to remember the Magic, and to engage in practices that nurture and enrich you when life is easy, that it is in the difficult times we have to struggle to remember the best way to be. And in some aspects this can be true. Left to our own anxious-filled minds we can often lose sight of the path.

But on a deeper level, I disagree.

It is the challenges. It’s in the difficult journeys into the underworld. It’s in the darkness that seems to never give way to light, that our own personal magic is incubated. It’s in the midst of struggle that we hear the call to practice, the call to self-love, the call to strengthen and shore up our will and resolve. It’s when the difficulties seem to shine light on every shadow within, and illuminate feelings of  abandonment, overwhelm, abuse, and self-loathing that we intuitively know we must return to the practices that will reinfuse us with the magic necessary to not only survive, but to thrive.

It’s in the chaos that dreams arise from the collective unconscious, that ephemeral place that holds the archetypes, symbols and stories of every human who has ever lived. It’s in the chaos that we return to prayer, to meditation, to visualizing what it is we want to be. And it’s in times of chaos that we crave belonging, connection with others who are our sisters, our family, our friends.

It’s up to us to make use of the magic that comes with chaos, to confront the psychological barriers to growth, and to learn when to take up arms, and when to surrender. But we don’t have to do it alone. We weren’t meant to navigate it alone. We navigate the dark as did Inanna, with her bestie Ninshubur waiting for her return. We navigate hell like Persephone, with Hecate to guide her out. We navigate the depths like the Selkie Wife, slipping into the sea where her seal-skinned sisters awaited her. There are tales and tales of women’s descent and return and in all of those there are women together navigating the dark. One holding the torch, the other excavating the ruins.