The Emphasis on Psychic Abilities

Contrary to common belief, we’re all psychic. Granted, this may not mean that we’re all beset by visions of disaster and doom, or are frequently visited by the spirit of our deceased Grandmother, but psychic abilities are talents that are open to us all, and always have been, we just closed ourselves off to them somewhere along the way.

Also contrary to popular belief, psychic abilities don’t always manifest themselves in blatant ways (i.e. being visited by ghosts and spirits, being able to “guess” the lucky lotto numbers, etc.) Rather, one’s psychic abilities may manifest themselves as a strong “gut feeling” about something or someone, this is intuition, also known as “clairsentience.” Another example may be a strong connection you have with someone, perhaps a friend or relative, that allows the two of you to know when the other one is having a rough time or is just thinking about calling on the phone. This connection, a psychic connection, allows for various psychic senses to manifest as needed in order to provide you both with the information you need (i.e. clairsentience, “psychic knowing,” lets you know when something’s wrong, clairaudience, “psychic hearing,” means you may “hear” the phone ring all afternoon, with that person’s specific ringtone, until they finally do call.)

Within the practice of magick and Witchcraft, as well as the religion of Wicca, there is a strong emphasis on cultivating psychic talents. The reasons for this, though not readily apparent, come down to one fundamental point: the ability to recognize and manipulate energy. This one thing is the entire basis of magick and Wiccan ritual: if you cannot recognize energy or work with it, then you have no chance at being successful at either. 

The ability to work magick comes down to recognizing that everything is made up of energy, including us, and as such, we have the ability to influence this energy, to redirect the flow, and thus create changes (i.e. “make magick.”) Wicca is a religion that is strongly grounded in the ability to work magick, the entire process of ritual, without any formal spell casting or such, demands the ability to work magick. How can one cast a Circle if they are unable to feel and project energy? How can one call the Elements to their Circle if they don’t know how the varying Elemental energies feel, what makes Them different from each other, and how to go about channeling that energy? And what of calling the Gods? Sure, They may come of Their own accord, but if one is working with more generic forms (such as “the Goddess” and “the God”) rather than specific Deities, how can one “call” anything/anyone if they don’t know what they’re calling (i.e. how that energy feels) and how to do so (i.e. how to channel and direct that energy)? This is why the need for honing one’s innate psychic abilities becomes so crucial.

The ways of increasing one’s abilities are many, and can be found in any basic books on magick/Witchcraft or Wicca. But two factors are a requirement, regardless of what exercises you choose to do: 1) you must be open to the idea of psychic abilities and that you are fully capable of possessing them, and 2) you must pay attention, so that when your abilities do begin to make themselves known (and they will!) you can recognize them as such, for doing so only makes them stronger.