Many people believe that magic only exists in fairy tales and books. Many people also used to believe that witches worshipped Satan and did his bidding in exchange for supernatural powers. Both of these beliefs are not actually entirely true. Believe it or not magic, on some level, exists in our world. Obviously, I\u2019m not talking about unicorns and Harry Potter spells. Modern witchcraft is a lot more spiritual and the redirection of energy is actually spelled \u201cmagick\u201d here. Magick is a modern practice of spirituality and witchcraft and believe it or not, most of us practice magick without even knowing it. For example: making a wish and blowing out the candles on your birthday is actually a pagan practice, you decide on your wish and by blowing out the candle you put your wish out into the universe and congratulations! You just cast an actual spell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve always felt drawn to this side of the world, the magickal side. Growing up with Muslim parents, I always felt the need to hide that side. Always buying crystals and magick books must have given me away, my mom asked her friend to recommend me a book about the subject area, just \u201csafer\u201d. Because of Halloween, I was watching a series about witchcraft and it wasn\u2019t exactly love spells and fairies so I understand why she must have got the wrong idea. When we visited Victoria, my mom\u2019s friend recommended me \u201cBrida\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brida is a book about a young Irish woman named Brida. Brida\nis very interested in spirituality and magick. On her journey of magick, she\nlearns from two teachers: a wise man who teaches her \u201cthe Tradition of the\nSun\u201d, and a wise woman who teaches her \u201cthe Tradition of the Moon\u201d. With her\ntrue intention being finding her Soulmate, she trains with them and learns the\nlessons of the universe. She learns to astral project her spirit to the past to\nsee her previous lives, to mentally survive spending a night in a forest all\nalone without any camping gear to protect her, to dance to the song of the\nuniverse, to see visions by looking at tart cards\u2026 Brida and her teachers\u2019\nmagick in this book are mostly associated with Christianity and communicating\nwith God; although it was not my experience or the main subject of the book, I\nlearned respect for Christianity in a different way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This new point of view reminded me of a reading we did in our English class., \u201cCaliban Never Belonged to Shakespeare\u201d. The essay is written by Marcos Gonsalez and it mentions his struggle with fitting in due to his weight, sexuality, and race. He uses English literature as a tool to gain some amount of respect and power within society. Although he seems to have some interest in literature, he mainly uses his knowledge to achieve another purpose, learning literature is not precisely his priority. For Brida, magick is an amazing gift that was given to her by God, but she constantly speaks of finding her soulmate and worry about seeing that spark of light hovering over her boyfriend\u2019s shoulder, the mark of a soulmate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The biggest appeal for me in this book was the amazing\nlessons of wisdom, so I would like to end this review with a few of my favorite\nquotes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Nothing in the world is ever\ncompletely wrong, my dear<\/em>,\u2019 said her father, looking at the clock. \u2018Even\na stopped clock is right twice a day<\/em>.\u2019 (Brida 99) <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe knew that no one else would\nlisten to her with the same respect, because people were afraid of discovering\nthat life was magical. They were used to their house, their jobs, their\nexpectations, and if someone turned up saying that it was possible to travel in\ntime, that it was possible to see castles adrift in the Universe, tarot cards\nthat told stories, men who walked through the dark night, people who had never\nexperienced such things would feel that life had cheated on them. Life, as far\nas they were concerned, was the same every day, every night, every weekend<\/em>.\u201d\n(Brida 85)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Why are we here? Many think they\u2019ve found the answer in religion or in materialism. Others despair and spend their lives and their money trying to grasp the meaning of it all. A few let the question go unanswered and live for the moment, regardless of the results or the consequences. Only the brave and those who understand the Traditions of the Sun and the Moon are aware that the only possible answer to that question is I DON\u2019T KNOW\u2026 We don\u2019t look for an answer, we accept, and then life becomes much more intense, much more brilliant because we understand that each minute, each step that we take, has a meaning that goes far beyond us as individuals. We realize that somewhere in time and space this question <\/em>does have an answer. We realize that there <\/em>is a reason for us being here, and for us, that is enough<\/em>.\u2019 (Brida 171)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coelho, Paulo. \u201cBrida\u201d. Harper Collins Publishers. 2008<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gonsalez, Marcos. \u201cWhat Shakespeare’s ‘Thing of Darkness’ Tells Us About Gatekeeping and Language\u201d. Literary Hub. 2019. https:\/\/lithub.com\/caliban-never-belonged-to-shakespeare\/<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many people believe that magic only exists in fairy tales and books. Many people also used to believe that witches worshipped Satan and did his bidding in exchange for supernatural powers. Both of these beliefs are not actually entirely true. Believe it or not magic, on some level, exists in our world. Obviously, I\u2019m not … <\/p>\nWorks Cited<\/h1>\n\n\n\n