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Chapter 1
that I had just revealed. I have come to know witchcraft as the art of connection and relationship, and working with that connection and relationship through cause and effect to create inner and outer changes. Witchcraft forges relationships through connection. Reality can be viewed as existing in layers. The most basic forms of this idea in occultism are referred to as the macrocosm and the microcosm, the larger Universe and the smaller Universe. Let’s look at the human body and mind to give an illustration of this. I, Mat Auryn, am an individual autonomous person. Within me is a microcosm of individual living cells. If we could talk to one of these cells within me, I’m pretty sure it would have no concept of who I am as a whole. It would also most likely refute the idea that it and another cell were the same cells or the same being, just as you and I would agree that we are different individuals and not the same human being. However, the cells are part of an intricate system that composes me on a grander level, whether they are aware of it themselves or not. Likewise, you and I are part of systems that make up larger forms of consciousness on higher levels. This is a truth for all things in the Universe, visible and invisible, physical and nonphysical, not just the cells in my body and not just humans as a whole. Everything is interconnected with everything else. As we zoom out to the macrocosm, everything unifies. As we zoom in to the microcosm, everything differentiates and separates. However, on the most fundamental level of reality, we are all One; Everything. This individuation and unification occur in a repeating pattern throughout the different levels of reality and consciousness. This idea is the heart of the Hermetic axiom of “As above, so below. As within, so without.” Witchcraft, then, is orienting ourselves to approach and connect with everything in the Universe as both smaller individual and larger cohesive forces—including within ourselves. We build and strengthen relationships to benefit ourselves and others mutually, and to influence change on both the microcosm and the macrocosm. Again, this concept is easy enough to grasp intellectually, but it takes on new levels of meaning once this spiritual orientation is enacted, leading to experience. For this reason, most witches are active animists. We interact with all things as individual spirits in their own right, whether that’s an herb, a stone, a non-physical intelligence, or even your pair of shoes. This approach of animism is acknowledging the animated
