 It's spring election season. Did you vote? Hey there saplings, welcome back to esoteric moment. This is a video all about combining magic and political action before I get started just a premise. I have pretty clear views about where I stand politically and it's totally okay if we don't agree politically, but I hope that this video we can talk a little bit about how we can use magic productively to impact our political system for the better, meaning more communication, more compromise, more solutions and just getting things done. Magic is all about identifying problems in our life or in our world and finding creative solutions and making active change. Now we do this in magic through a lot of symbols and proactive manifestation. We do this through ritual and regular items in our lives that help us focus our will and intention into making the change we deem necessary. Politics isn't that different. We live in a system, whether you like it or not, we live in a system that have rules that govern us. This helps us work as a collective much easier, not perfectly, but easier. Understanding the rules that the system we live under work by is what allows you to be more active and productive when it comes to politics. I am all for more pagans running for office. I love it when the wild hunt, which is a new source for pagans, link in the description, announces that someone who's pagan is openly running for office, even if it's just a small town. I think that's wonderful. But if you want to get involved in politics and use magic to do so, you don't have to go to the extreme of running for office. There are a lot of other ways you can make change. Before you dive into combining magic and politics, let's cover some basics. Go back and research and read some basic information about how our government works. Know who your local officials are, then take the time to decide what two or three issues are really important to you. Many people don't take the time to sit down and write out or think about intensely what issues actually matter to them and why. Once you understand the basics of the system and what ideas and beliefs are really inspiring and motivating to you, then you can decide where your time is best used for action. For instance, one of the things that I have spent a lot of time doing through college and onwards is registering people to vote. I think that the more people we have involved in the process, the better the outcome will be. I don't want to give the impression that I think your vote matters. One vote is not going to make a difference in 99% of the election. What does make a difference is people not voting. So there's this balance between understanding the system, recognizing those myths and fairy tales we have about that system, and finding the compromise between that allows you to feel motivated to make action within the system and still recognize the limits of that action. As I register people to vote, something that I do magically to help in that endeavor is I create an anointing oil. I use a little perfume bottle and almond oil along with Hawthorne berries to give my words power, bee balm to kind of sweeten my words, and Kalinjala to keep me inspired, motivated, and joyful as I'm doing this. And I take this anointing oil and I rub it on my wrists for my hands, whatever actions, paper I'm handing out, and along my throat chakra. That way the words I'm using are magically imbued with power and sweetness and joy. Another really powerful way to use politics and magic together is during protests. And there's no better resource for this combination than a Starhawk in my opinion. If you haven't read some of her books, definitely check her out. She gives a lot of practical ideas and stories and examples about how she and other witches and pagans have used magic during protests. Combining the symbols and powerful words and will and motivation behind all of those collective people in one place is a really powerful way to get the word out and to build momentum for a project. A lot of druids focus on the issue of fracking and there are tons of anti-fracking protests going on regularly. I'll put a link in the description to some pagans who are working against fracking. And if you're interested in getting involved in protest work or even mass ritual behind this cause, that is definitely a great resource as well. When we engage in our political system, we engage in making change. When we work with magic, we are using our will and symbols and energy to make change. This is a really comfortable combination of ideas and practices. I'm not naive to think that political change is easy or comes fast or like democracy is this beautiful wonderful thing. I am very aware of the limitations of our system, but I belong to this system. So I'm going to work my butt off to make it a system I want to belong in. And I do that by combining magic and politics. In the comments below, tell me how you feel about our current political system. Are you really frustrated? Are you really excited? Did you participate in the binding spell against Trump? What current motivations are going on in your life between magic and politics? I'm super curious to know how pagans are feeling right now about the political changes going on. Today's sapling shout out goes out to Sarah Impey. She is the owner of the blog and YouTube channel itty bitty Celtic Witch. She has some great videos, does some interesting tarot work, but also is heavily influenced by the Celtic path. So if you haven't checked out her stuff, definitely go do that. I will leave a link in the description below. Thanks Sarah for being a awesome sapling on my channel. Thanks for watching. And as always, may you find peace in the sacred grove and please go vote.