 Do you need a magical name? Hey there saplings, welcome back to esoteric moment. I am going to dive into the topic of magical names today. A few weeks ago, Pagan Perspective did the topic and I've seen it on a bunch of other channels. So it seemed timely to just chime in on my two cents about magical names. From the conversation, it seems like people weren't always talking about the same thing. There are certainly folks in the Pagan community that have magical personas. This public name, image and profile that goes with writing books, teaching classes, being on social media, owning a witchy shop, something like that. And that magical name might have more to do with branding, honestly, and has less to do with craft and magical work. This isn't always the case. Sometimes it's the same for people. This personal branding name and persona can be really important when folks have communities that aren't supportive or family members that wouldn't be keen on it. It is in many ways a protection talisman, a name that allows them to be public and to share what they know and to be a part of the community in a really rich and vibrant way without jeopardizing their own individual personal lives. And I think that's great. Some of those folks have that same name as a part of their magical or craft name. And I would say that's a probably a smaller minority of folks. The magical name for most people is fairly private, I think, and is something that is used within a specific trustworthy coven or grove or group of practitioners. Maybe it's something that's only used within that individual circle, specific magical workings where a name is necessary. A magical name could be useful in order to kind of help you designate what is sacred and magical space and what is mundane and normal space. Calling yourself that name, using it in conversation with others in that space is really good like vocal sound cue that this is magical space. Magic is, of course, a great way of empowering ourselves and enhancing our identity. So choosing a new magical name might also be kind of a foundational empowering act in and of itself and using that just reinforces that new foundation of confidence and empowerment and saying, yes, you are a magical pig and witchy druid person and you can do what you need to do here. I think magical names can also help us tap into a new creativity or realm of experience. It's a good way of changing the way your mind thinks about a situation by changing the way you look at yourself and your interaction with the environment. When you have that shift between mundane and magical, just with a keyword like a magical name, it allows you to think in new ways that you wouldn't give yourself permission to do otherwise. Now between this persona magical name that's very public and this private magical name, I do think more and more people are starting to kind of merge the two and bring it together. And I actually have mixed feelings about this. I can see where both would be very useful if it was something that helped you in your magical practice or your public life. I can see we're having three different names. You're like legal name, your persona name and you're like private magical name would be probably too many, but I am a bit concerned that people are kind of confusing the two and and not in a very deliberate or conscious way. Just in a well, this is what I thought magical names were. And so I'm really curious how many people actually have a magical name. Let me know in the comments and whether that has ever been a part of the way you publicly present your craft or practice and you know how that dynamic worked for you. Personally, I don't have a magical name. I use esoteric moment to describe my blog and my community that we have here, the sacred grove that's kind of set apart this moment we have together to explore druidry and spirituality and connection to the earth. I also don't have a magical name because I haven't had a need for it. Honestly, any of the magic or practices that I do are very comfortable with me using my own name. I am privileged to enjoy the name that I have have really good associations with it. It doesn't need to be any more empowering or set apart for me. I have other tools that let me tap into creativity or to create a new space that's just for magical working. Now that I'm starting to work with a group, it has crossed my mind that maybe a magical name would be useful to kind of keep my very public like blog and YouTube and my very private personal life in real world, you know, a little bit more separate, but I don't think I'm going to do that. For instance, this comes out sometimes when people friend me on Facebook. I don't accept many friend requests on Facebook because Facebook is the social media platform that is very much just for people who like know me in real life or I have constant regular interaction with because of a project or something like that together. I am very choosy about even the people I know in real life who are on my friend list on Facebook and I'm trying to carve out a little bit more private space to keep my private life more, you know, safe and secure. But as I'm meeting local Druids and some of them have found me through Instagram or YouTube, which is great and we're trying to start this new grove and community. There is this weird blending between like my very public and open and sharing part of my practice and blog and life and the parts that I keep private because I now know those people in real life. So it's an interesting dilemma and that dilemma is kind of what made me think about this magical name process. Obviously a magical name is what it is for you and what you make it. But I do hope that as a community, we can kind of keep in mind that there is a difference between a magical persona and like a craft private working and maybe that isn't necessary for all or most people, but I do think it would be good if we had different verbiage to describe those situations and help people better understand these tools and how they might make their life and their practice more beautiful and connected and secure for what they want to do. This week's sapling shout out goes out to stellar rain dancer, great name. They left a comment on my to a new Druid video. It's saying very nice things that they were going to binge watch me. So thank you. I love it when you guys just want to watch all the videos in a row and if you want to do that, definitely check out my playlist that allows the the fun to continue. You want to be next week's sapling shout out. Leave me a comment below on what you think about magical names. How does it work in your practice? I am curious. Thanks for watching and as always may you find peace in the Sacred Grove.