by Searles O'Dubhain

Searles O'Dubhain wrote this in August 2010, one week before Isaac Bonewits died. Isaac Bonewits was the founder of Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF), the largest Druidic organization in America, and the most prominent public Druid of the 20th century. Searles had visited him in his final weeks. This essay begins as a theoretical reflection on whether magical tools are necessary — sparked by a debate with a Shamanic practitioner — and becomes something more personal: a meditation on what tools are for when nothing mundane will do, and what it means to lend your energy to someone dying well.

I was recently at a party where I had a discussion with a Shamanic medical practitioner. We talked about the nature of Shamanism and Magic. She was of the opinion — and it was her practice — to "just do it" without using any props or tools. This came up in the context of me discussing using Ogham for divination. She said that tools were halfway measures. I countered that by saying that tools made the tasks easier to do and to communicate to others who were not magically inclined.

About 15 years ago I read a book by Alberto Villoldo about his quest for Shamanism in the Amazon. While he was there, he encountered a guide to the areas where such things were practiced as a part of everyday life. The guide took him to places where "tools" were used and had a similar discussion with Alberto about them — to the one I recently had with another. The tools are like crutches at times but still used by even the most adept of Mages and Shamans. In the book I recall, the "guide" was eventually revealed as being the actual Shaman being sought.

It's much better and certainly more comprehensive and undoubtedly true to "just do it" but in my experience the time, place and energy involved is too high a price for most acts of "real magic." Such acts and actions have to be performed according to one's own truth in being and hence to be in alignment with one's will. It is through truth and will that magic or any other act of conscious creation occurs. I just don't see how anyone could place these at the service of casual needs or otherwise satisfied requirements through actual and simple physical work. The Buddha was once said to have had a student who tried for 20 years to levitate or transport himself across a river. After an act of true will the student transported himself from one bank to the other and back again through using his personal magic. The student rushed to the Buddha in ecstasy to announce his long-sought achievement. Upon hearing the student's excited declaration about his teleportation across the river, the Buddha admonished him saying that it was a waste of time as he could have easily just paid for a ferry ride instead. The lesson here is twofold:

1. Don't place an undue importance on magical actions if seeking actual truth and realization.

2. Don't waste your magical and spiritual skills on things that can be easily accomplished through mundane actions.

One is the wisdom to know what is really important and that magic is just a by-product of that quest. The other says that a wise person marshals their resources appropriately and does not waste precious gifts on unimportant things. Wealth, bespelled love, appearances, mundane socio-political-temporary glamours — all these are a waste of true will.

When I visited Isaac Bonewits recently, I wanted to do a working to heal him. When I got there I could see that he had embraced the truth that his approaching death should not be delayed. Rather than attempting to override Isaac's true will, I chose to lend him my energies and spiritual assistance in making his final days less painful and to allow his passing to have a greater meaning. That's what I did then and that's what I'm doing now — though there are few magical tools available for that effort, other than the minds and spirits of those willing to join in and continue his work, and providing physical and monetary aid to his wife and family.

I do plan to do an Ogham reading relative to his birth, life, death and new life. I'll present this to Phaedra when she is here. I hope that this reading will serve as a focal point for what Isaac intended and his true will in being here at all. That's hopefully a good use of those magical tools, as the drums and other implements on the altar at Isaac's Memorial were to him and served him well in this life. Words have a power. Signs and sigils have a power. Talismans and yantras have power. Some of these create while others serve as doorways. Magical tools, like the Ogham, can create in words and images or they can serve as doorways to other realms and worlds. In either of these uses, they are Druidic "Keys to Wisdom."

Colophon

Written by Searles O'Dubhain and posted to alt.religion.druid on August 29, 2010 — nine days before Isaac Bonewits died on September 10, 2010.

Isaac Bonewits (1949–2010) was the founder of Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF) and the author of Real Magic (1971), among other works. He was the first person to earn a degree in Magic from the University of California, Berkeley. Phaedra Bonewits was his wife. Searles O'Dubhain was the founder of the Summerlands Druidic school and one of Bonewits's closest colleagues in the online Druid community.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: f2f8d3e4-13c8-485d-8f80-fb00ab7c66d7@v41g2000yqv.googlegroups.com

🌲