Why We All Need to Return to Magic
A case can certainly be made that every era is a call to return to magic, but it feels especially important in this moment in history. And maybe every practitioner, wise woman, witch, conjurer, and root worker has felt that call, that stirring across time in memoriam—a whisper that says, "Now. It's time to remember."
I still stand on this being a pivotal moment for us historically to return to our sense of magic. Not because magic has ever left the world, but because we have wandered so far from our awareness of it. The distance between our busy lives and our enchanted souls has perhaps never been greater.
Illustration by Jay Van Everen from the book Might Mikko: A Book of Finnish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales (1922)
The Modern Forgetting
We live in a world that has remarkable ways of keeping us disconnected from our intuition—that deep inner knowing that is the foundation of all magical practice. The gentle ping of notifications, the endless scroll, the constant expectation of productivity—even our rest has become something to optimize, schedule, and measure. We've become strangers to silence, to genuine stillness, to the kind of empty space where our intuitive wisdom has always flourished.
This disconnection from our intuition strips us of our inherent power. Think about it: when was the last time you truly trusted that quiet inner voice? The one that speaks through bodily sensations, through vivid dreams, through those seemingly random attractions and repulsions to people and places? Many of us have learned to override these signals, dismissing them as "just feelings" while privileging intellectual over-analysis instead. We seek constant external validation rather than trusting our natural guidance system.
As this awareness fades, the world around us seems to flatten. The enchantment doesn't leave—we simply lose our ability to perceive it. Trees still hold wisdom, but we no longer hear their whispers. A hawk might circle precisely when we need guidance, yet we chalk it up to coincidence. Our dreams offer the exact insights we've been seeking, but we dismiss them upon waking.
In my own experience, turning away from my intuitive and magical gifts wasn't about disbelief—it was about overwhelm. The sensitivity that allowed me to perceive spirits and energies came without the discernment to navigate those relationships healthily. Rather than learning boundaries, I shut down my perception entirely, creating a decade-long detour back to the very gifts that were my birthright.
This pattern extends far beyond individual experience. Look at how our society treats intuitive knowing compared to rational thought. From childhood, we're taught that external authorities hold more truth than our inner guidance. "Be practical," they tell us. "Focus on what's real." As if our intuitive perceptions weren't every bit as real as what we can measure and quantify. The result? A culture where we feel profoundly disconnected—from ourselves, each other, and the living world around us.
Eventually, the toll of navigating life without our intuitive wisdom catches up with us. You might notice it in quiet moments—when you catch yourself longing for something more meaningful but can't name what's missing, when you feel oddly moved by moonlight but quickly dismiss the feeling, when you sense guidance trying to reach you but have forgotten how to listen. These are subtle wake-up calls, gentle taps on the shoulder reminding you of a different way of being.
This moment we're living through—full of uncertainty and tremendous change—actually makes returning to our magic more crucial than ever (maybe or maybe as always would be a more accurate turn of phrase). Connecting with our magical perception doesn't pull us away from reality; it plunges us more deeply into it. That's why returning to magic feels so essential right now. It's not about escaping our challenges but remembering the resources we carry to meet them. It's about expanding what we understand reality to be, bringing together parts of ourselves that were never meant to be separated.
What We Already Carry
Each of you reading this holds magic within you. You've carried it with you across lifetimes, and it's always there waiting for you to remember it. To reconnect with your source. Your seat of power.
This is the great secret that isn't really a secret at all: magic isn't something we acquire through study or purchase or achievement. It's something we remember, something we return to, like the familiar pages of a favorite book you’ve read ten times before.
I've walked away from magic many times in my life, but not for the reasons you might expect. My first significant departure wasn't because I stopped believing or needed to "grow up." It was because I was overwhelmed by its power. Spirits communicated with me actively—at times a bit intrusively. (Hello, old classmate hanging out in the back of the shower.) I hadn't learned about establishing boundaries. I didn't know how to wield it, I didn't know how to turn it on and off, so I decided to shut it down completely.
It took the better part of 10 years of rebuilding to get back to and eventually exceed that phase of my practice and spiritual experiences. What I learned in that journey back was that magic requires openness as well as discernment, healthy boundaries, and understanding rooted in wisdom.
This is a common experience that rarely gets discussed—the overwhelm that can come with awakening magical awareness, the fear that can arise when we touch something so much larger than our everyday understanding of reality. Walking away isn't failure; sometimes it's a necessary lull, a gathering of strength before we're ready to engage more fully.
The journey back is different for everyone. For some, it's a dramatic awakening—a health crisis, a profound loss, an unexpected encounter that cracks open the carefully constructed walls around our hearts. For others, it's gentler—a book that finds its way into your hands at just the right moment, a dream that won't let you go, a persistent feeling that there's something…else… waiting for you.
However it comes, this remembering requires courage. It means examining the layers of forgetting we've accumulated—cultural conditioning, societal pressures, family patterns, personal defenses—and being willing to see them honestly and work through them to the magic that has always been our birthright.
The Enchantment of Ordinary Days
Returning to magic doesn't require exotic tools, elaborate ceremonies, or expensive retreats (though these can certainly be beautiful supports for some). It begins with simply noticing the enchantment that already surrounds us.
It's in recognizing the wisdom shared in morning birdsong, the clarity that comes after a foggy morning, and the way the stars seem to speak directly to the soul. It's in the perfect spiral of a fern unfurling, the mysterious synchronicity of running into exactly the person you needed to see, those flashes when you “just know” exactly what needs to be done.
Last week, I stood at my kitchen window washing dishes—a task I've performed thousands of times. But something shifted in my perception. The late afternoon light caught the soap bubbles, transforming them into miniature universes of iridescent color. The sensation of warm water on my hands became a profound pleasure rather than a chore to endure. For a moment, this mundane task became a meditation on presence, on the miracle of having hands that can feel, on the privilege of having a home to care for.
This is everyday magic—not the flashy, pop-culture kind, but the subtle enchantment that arises when we bring our full attention to the present moment. It transforms not just our experience but our very perception of reality.
The practice of noticing itself becomes a magical act. It's a declaration that what's right in front of us matters, that ordinary life is worthy of our reverence. And as we develop this practice, the world gradually reveals itself as not less magical than we imagined as children, but infinitely more so.
Old French Fairytales, illustrated by Virginia Frances Sterrett (1920)
The Magic of Interconnection
In this reconnection with the self—with the magic—you find yourself on a path of reconnecting with the world, nature, and one another. You see, you can't fully connect with your magic until you realize that it's all interconnected. Reconnecting with nature is reconnecting with yourself, because we are part of nature. Reconnecting with your neighbors is reconnecting with yourself because we are all part of our communities whether or not we choose to engage.
Magic is unadulterated, radical connection. Right now we're a jigsaw puzzle jumbled up in a box. And it's one of those 5000 piece ones with too much of the same color, so we feel like we might never be put together again. But magic helps us recognize that we're already whole and connected even when we're all jumbled up and seemingly unconnected in the box. The illusion is our separation; the reality is our inherent wholeness.
This understanding transforms how we approach our practice. What begins as a journey of personal development inevitably expands into a recognition of our place within the web of life. The boundary between "self-care" and "world-care" dissolves. When we heal ourselves, we contribute to the healing of the collective. When we work to heal the world, we simultaneously heal ourselves.
This is perhaps why returning to magic feels so urgent in our current moment. We face collective challenges that can only be addressed through a profound shift in how we understand our relationship to each other and to the earth. Magic—real magic, not as escapism but as deepened engagement—offers us a way to reimagine these relationships from the ground up.
The Beautiful Mess of the Path
And how do we get back to the magic?
Many starting their spiritual or witchcraft journey believe there will be a nice crisp, clear method for putting that puzzle together. But spiritual work and walking this path tends to be messy, weedy, and requires resilience like you may have never known. You'll get frustrated. You'll ask a lot of questions and seemingly get no answers or weirdly missing pieces that seemed to have never been there. Then, down the road, you realize you've had that piece in your pocket the whole time but you don't have any recollection of putting it there.
This messiness isn't a sign that you're doing it wrong. It's the nature of the path itself. The spiritual journey doesn't progress in a neat linear fashion because it's not about arriving at a destination—it's about awakening to the fullness of who you already are, which includes all your beautiful complexity and contradiction. When you explore the mysteries of life, when you search for meaning, you will always be met with more questions than answers. The questions help us get to the meaning-making—the magic.
I remember feeling frustrated early in my practice when divination seemed more confusing than clarifying, when the path forward seemed to disappear rather than become clearer. What I eventually realized was that nestled in these moments of doubt and confusion were invitations to deeper understanding—opportunities to release my attachments to outcomes and surrender to the wisdom of the process itself.
The questions that arise as we walk this path—Who am I beyond my social conditioning? What is my purpose here? How do I honor my unique gifts while serving the whole?—don't have final answers. They're doorways to ever-deepening exploration. The magic lives in allowing these questions to transform us as we live more fully into them.
Building Relationship with Magic
As with most things in this precious life, magic comes down to relationship, too. It requires building trust like any other relationship. And that trust requires showing up and being willing to ask ourselves the unanswerable questions, ponder on them, dig deep, and show up consistently. The more we show up, the stronger our trust becomes in ourselves and our magic.
It is perhaps the most challenging aspect of returning to magic—the commitment to consistency, especially when the results aren't immediately apparent. It's easy to practice when we're feeling inspired, when synchronicities abound, when we can tangibly feel the presence of something greater moving through our lives. It's much harder to show up on the ordinary days, the difficult days, the days when magic seems like a distant memory rather than a living reality.
Yet it's precisely this consistent showing up that builds the relationship. Just as we wouldn't expect a friendship to deepen without regular contact and care, our relationship with magic requires ongoing attention and nourishment. The practices themselves can be simple: a few moments of meditation in the morning, a gratitude ritual before sleep, a weekly nature walk with no purpose beyond presence, a candle lit with intention during challenging times. What matters isn't the elaborateness of the practice but the quality of attention we bring to it and the consistency with which we return to it.
Over time, this relationship develops its own language, its own rhythm. You begin to recognize how magic communicates with you personally—through certain symbols, sensations, synchronicities. We develop discernment about when to act and when to wait, when to speak and when to listen. Just as in any deep relationship, we learn the dance of intimacy with the unseen aspects of ourselves and the world.
Reflecting on Your Magical Journey
As you consider your own relationship with magic and intuition, I invite you to sit with these questions. There are no right or wrong answers—only your truth and experience. You might explore these through journaling, pulling cards, meditation, or simply quiet contemplation.
Reconnection & History
When in your life have you felt most connected to your intuition or magical awareness? What were the circumstances or qualities of that time?
Can you recall moments when you received clear intuitive guidance? How did it feel in your body? How did you recognize it as truth?
What beliefs or stories—whether from family, culture, religion, or education—have influenced how you relate to your intuitive gifts?
Have you ever deliberately turned away from your magic or intuition? What prompted that choice? What has it taught you?
Present Awareness
Where in your life right now do you sense magic trying to reach you? Are there recurring symbols, dreams, or synchronicities asking for your attention?
Which elements of nature most strongly call to you in this season of your life—fire, water, earth, air, or perhaps a specific plant, animal, or landscape?
What intuitive senses feel most natural to you—knowing, feeling, seeing, hearing, or perhaps a sense that doesn't quite fit these categories?
In what aspects of your life do you already trust your intuition without question? What might those areas teach you about the areas where trust comes less easily?
Moving Forward
What would need to change in your daily rhythms to create more space for your intuitive awareness to flourish?
If you could speak to the part of yourself that holds your magical gifts, what would you ask it? What might it want you to know?
What support—whether people, practices, or environments—would help you reconnect more deeply with your intuition?
What one small, consistent practice feels most inviting to you right now as a way to strengthen your relationship with magic?
Deeper Reflections
How might your personal reconnection with magic contribute to healing beyond yourself—in your relationships, community, or the more-than-human world?
What fears arise when you consider opening more fully to your intuitive gifts? What wisdom might those fears contain?
How has your understanding of what "magic" means evolved throughout your life? How might that definition continue to transform?
What would it feel like to fully trust the magic that lives within and around you? What might become possible that feels impossible now?
These questions aren't meant to be answered all at once. Let them be companions on your journey, returning to different ones as they call to you. The reflection itself is a magical act—a declaration that your inner knowing matters, that your unique experience of enchantment is valid, that your path back to magic is worthy of attention and care.
Remember that the journey of returning to magic isn't linear. It spirals, circles back, takes unexpected turns. Some days you'll feel deeply connected while others you'll wonder if you're making it all up. Both experiences are part of the path. The magic lies not in constant clarity but in the willingness to keep showing up, to keep listening, to keep remembering even when forgetting seems easier.
I invite you to notice where magic might already be trying to reach you. Perhaps it's in the quality of early morning light, the chorus of insects at dusk, the wild abundance of growing things, the spontaneous connections that form when we step outside our usual patterns.
Allow yourself to be drawn to what calls you—a particular tree that seems to want your attention, a body of water that invites contemplation, a direction that pulls your gaze at sunrise. Follow the thread of your curiosity. Trust the wisdom of your attraction. Let yourself be guided by delight.
And consider finding others who are on this journey of remembering. While magic is deeply personal, there's profound power in practicing in community—sharing our experiences, supporting each other through challenges, celebrating moments of breakthrough and recognition. The magic that flows between us can be just as transformative as the magic we cultivate within.
In this significant moment, as we collectively navigate tremendous uncertainty and change, returning to magic offers us not an escape from reality but a deeper engagement with it. It reminds us that we are not powerless observers but creative participants in the unfolding of our lives and our world.
Join us for a Magical Summer
If you've been feeling that gentle (or perhaps not-so-gentle) pull to return to your magic, I've created something special to support your journey.
This summer, I'm relaunching Return to Magic as a comprehensive self-guided course within Kindred Club. Instead of our usual monthly themes, from June through August we'll be focusing exclusively on rebuilding our magical foundations—together.
Return to Magic provides everything you need to rediscover and strengthen your natural intuitive gifts:
Video lessons exploring essential magical concepts
Guided audio to develop your intuition and perception
Beautiful, printable workbooks for deepening your practice
Bi-weekly live group sessions where we can practice, ask questions, and connect
A supportive community to share insights and experiences along the way
What makes this summer journey unique is that we'll all be experiencing it together. There's a special magic that happens when we remember collectively—when we witness each other's insights, support each other through challenges, and celebrate moments of breakthrough and recognition.
Return to Magic is included with all Kindred Club memberships, which are offered on a sliding scale ($13-66/month) to ensure financial circumstances don't stand between you and the support you're seeking.
When you join by June 1st, you'll be perfectly positioned to begin this journey with our entire community and participate in all six live summer sessions.
Meet the High Witch
Erin Harker
I'm Erin Harker, a practitioner of ancestral magic and student of Druidry whose path weaves together Irish, Scottish, and German heritage with modern spiritual practice. My journey began in childhood with candlelit spells and family traditions, growing into a devotion to sacred hospitality and community care. Today, I serve as a bridge between worlds—helping others reconnect with their own magic through Magick Makers community, workshops, and spiritual guidance. Whether you're just beginning your journey or returning to a practice long forgotten, you'll find a welcoming space here where ancient wisdom meets modern needs.
Let's brew some tea and explore the magic that's uniquely yours.
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