Faith in times of Hardship

The importance of faith in times of hardship.

By Mictlán MoonShadow.

Friends! This is some interesting times we are living in! This decade is not done yet. However we lived through pandemics, a world ravaged by war, genocide and human and civil rights issues and not to mention political upheaval. As such I was guided by my own Gods to write about this. A subject that to many Pagan, Wiccans and Witches is a dirty word. Something that has been stolen from many by years of religious trauma and hellfire and brimstone preachers. I am about to discuss faith.

I absolutely understand that this is a topic that is a huge trigger. People all over the world, throughout history have used faith as an excuse to commit atrocities. In my eyes it is time for people of all faiths who have love and kindness in our hearts to reclaim faith. Not as a tool for oppression, but as a fundamental human experience. An aspect of the human soul that is deeply needed when our lives and the world around us is falling apart.

The Abrahamic religions no longer need to have a monopoly on "faith". Conservatives do not have to any longer to use it as a tool for evangelizing and oppressing other faiths. It is time for the Faith of the Mother Goddess to return into the hearts and souls of her children to comfort them when they feel in need of support. We are all children of the divine. As such faith is our natural right and a part of our very soul and character.

I remember my own elders as a child. I grew up in a Mexican Family. My elders part of a magical tradition that blended Catholicism, Native Mexican and African influences as its foundational system of belief and magic: Brujería. The Catholic part of that path is not the same of the Church. It is an inclusive, accepting, kind and magical Catholicism. It is the faith of the working classes and the destitute of Mexican Communities. As such the official Catholic Church stands against it and calls it demonic in its nature.

However if you connect with any Brujo or Bruja they normally reaffirm with great pride their Catholic Faith, even if the Saints they pray to are not the ones of the Catholic Church. As such that was my first exposure to faith in times of hardship. It does not matter what your faith is! When the world is hard to live in, we all need something to hang on to. Something to believe in, so we can make it to the next day, the next hour, the next minute. My elders had faith in more than prayer and saints. Yes prayer is foundational to Brujería but not its only tool. Much like American and European Witches, Wiccans and Pagans Magic is a part of Brujería.

Why is faith important if we have spells then? It is simple: Magic begins in the mind! Our thoughts create reality. What we believe in and focus in is what we put out into the universe for manifestation. If our souls are hopeless and broken and no longer believe that Goddess will provide for us and save us, that is the spell we are casting each second we believe that with a lot of faith in it. The stronger the faith, the stronger the spell. If your faith is in the challenges being too much for anyone to overcome, that is what you will live through. If you have faith, however small. It will be light that guides you out of the abyss into something more beautiful.

When we have faith we connect to sources of power greater than us. I am not telling who or what to have faith in. I am reminding you that you do not have to do your magic alone! A spell cast with your own energy is very powerful I will never take that away from you. However the amount of energy a human body can produce and invest is limited. If we want to create a large change in a difficult life or world we need to plug into greater sources of power. The first step is faith in our own internal divinity. The fact that we breathe and live is a sign of something divine dwelling within us, we must never have that taken away from us. Furthermore when we look into the eyes of others we see the divine within them. Another form of faith is faith in your loved ones and community. Those that by repeated action have proved to you that they can be counted on.

Then we have Faith in our chosen external divinity: God/dess. When all of those align we have faith in our magic and prayers themselves. When all of those align our magic is more powerful than any hardship. That is when our faith begins to manifest through our actions and we begin to see possible ways out of our hardship. It is then that we can take physical action in order to move out of our crisis energy.

Yes some spells and prayers take a long time come to be, however if we tend to lose faith in them, those prayers and manifestations will never reach us. All magic that is for our highest good will come to be in due time. Our faith in it is the nourishing rain and waters our orchards, our minds the fertile soil it planted in, and our Faith in God/dess the Sun that shines upon it.

Yes there will be days where we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. There will be days where all of our actions seem to be for nothing. Where all hope begins to leave our body and soul bare. It is those days that practices that boost our faith are the most needed. It is in those days where faith is the only thing we have left to hang onto in order not to drown in the sea of our own misery. Faith in Paganism, Wiccan and Witchcraft is not blind! Our gods manifest themselves for us in nature, in our every day lives with signs that many others would dismiss as mere superstition or luck. Yet we magical people know that magic takes the path of least resistance. Having faith opens our minds and eyes to receive the results of our magic and take action to capitalize on the opportunities we create.

Our Gods don’t solve our problems for us, the solve them with us! They are our partners in each step we take in life. Our faith in them is our own part in that sacred contract. Faith produces energy, a kind of life giving energy that keeps our Gods strong and alive. The essence of our religion is the fact that there is a reciprocity between us and our Gods. In exchange for our Faith we have partners in life that we can always count on.

Be aware that when the world seems at its worst, we often become blind to the presence of the Gods. It is hard to be spiritual when we are falling apart! Just because you cannot sense your chosen God/dess at the moment, it doesn’t mean that they are not there! It is just that your tears have blinded your eyes to the divine being that is holding you in their arms. It is then that faith is at its most crucial. If we cannot remember that God/dess has our back, all of our efforts will simply sink us into greater despair.

This is the secret of all magical paths: To have an unwavering, unshakable faith in what you believe in and in your own will and magic both. If we can mange to do that, we can get through just about anything. Be aware our world is in the middle of a huge energetic change, the physical world reflects that, people are fighting for control of the world around them. This is not always out of malice. Some do it out of fear and struggle. Faith is the one thing all religions have in common. Some people will never wish to understand that and try to take away your right to believe as you choose. Yet there are others that will pray and manifest by your side while each of you pray and manifest with your own Gods. Do not throw away the power of a friend due to the fear of the enemy! It is time to reclaim our faith in times of hardship. This is the message from my own Gods to you.

May the Gods bless and keep you.