Balance

This concept of balance is something that can be explained in scientific terms as a lever balanced, equidistant from each other, across a fulcrum. When one side of the lever is heavier, either by placing heavier objects on either end or sliding the fulcrum so that it is no longer in equal proportions to each other in relation to the fulcrum, we find that one side of the lever drops and the other is lifted. This is what being out of balance looks like from a scientific understanding.

 

We have all seen this while playing on the teeter totter/see saw as children. Sometimes, as children we went to great lengths to bring balance to this playground toy, by adding children to one end or the other or sliding forward or back on the arm, in order to steady the beam perfectly level.

Often you hear people from all walks of life talking about need to have balance in their lives. There are those seeking to balance their work life with their family/personal life. Many are trying to balance their budget or are demanding their government balance theirs. 

Balance is one of those words that seem to have application in just about everything we do. Buddhists tend to walk the middle path, which is a balanced approach to everything, one where nothing is experienced to an excess.  To understand this concept we as westerners have to wrap our minds around the idea that deprivation and sacrifice can also be experienced in an excessive amount. Not only can we live as gluttons, but we can also live as self-sacrificers. 

Many of us have seen the YinYang, where a balance of black and white is shown as two halves of a circle in bent teardrop form. The black half represents dark energy with a tiny dot of light from within and the white half representing light energy with a tiny dot of dark energy contained within it. This has been interpreted or understood as male and female energy, positive and negative, good and evil (bad). They are always in equal proportions, in balance.

 

We also see this concept in the Tarot cards; it is most obvious in the Justice card where we often see lady justice holding the scales of justice. We can also see a subtler representation of balance in the Temperance card, Lovers, and two of cups.

In the magickal world we often find ourselves out of balance in one respect or another. Either we are so focused on the experience of magick and other worldly energies that we forget to function effectively in the mundane world. Other times we will find ourselves so rooted in the mundane world and the processes of everyday living that we no longer are able to interact with the world of Magick. Our spells and prayers seem to fail and we no longer have a desire to participate in our rituals and celebrations, because it feels as if “the Magick is gone”.

As a practitioner of the magick arts, (modern shamanic practices and witchcraft) I find that, although I strive to function equally well in both the magickal and mundane worlds, I fail to do this on a grand scale. I tend to gravitate towards one end of the spectrum or the other in a mad search for balance. If I was to observe myself from an outsider’s point of view, I would appear to be a pendulum swinging wildly from one extreme to the next.   

There are times when for a brief moment I seem to find that place of balance. This is always when I’ve removed my focus from either side of the fulcrum back to the center… 

That place where we stood as kids with one foot on either side of the teeter totter.  We dared not move to quickly or too far in either direction, all the while breathing steadily so that we could keep the teeter totter balanced and somehow feel at peace with the playground and then the rest of the world.

Have a Wicked Good Day!

Molly