Technology & Magick

Hello lovelies, thank you for being here. I want to jump right into the thick of things today.

 

So today’s topic was actually inspired by my daughter, Tree. She had a really cool experience fairly recently and I wanted to talk about it. And while I was thinking about how I could relate her experience here on the podcast, it occurred to me that I am probably just overdue for an episode on how we can integrate technology into our practices.

It all began with a video game she likes to play called The Sims. If you’re not familiar, The Sims is a series of life simulation video games which essentially means that they lack any defined goals. This isn’t a typical video game where you’re dropped into a story with a fully developed character and a specific goal in mind. In The Sims, the player creates virtual people called “Sims”, designs their look, the kind of clothes they wear, and even directs their attitudes, moods, and basic personality traits. You can give them a job, create their family members, and so forth. And you can either place your Sims in pre-designed homes or build them yourself. 

 

Tree has spent so many hours in this game off and on over the past like, eight years, she’ll go several months without ever playing it, and then suddenly play it several times a week for a month. But for her, this game has always been like playing Barbies. She wasn’t creating herself and her personal circumstances in this game, she had been using it to like, make mansions and be famous or whatever, and that’s really the whole point of the game anyway. 

 

But some time ago, she had begun to look for a job and she had applied so many places. And she’s skilled and she’s responsible and is well-spoken and she looks really professional, but she just wasn’t getting any bites on her resume. It was really disheartening. She was having a lot of trouble aligning herself with the outcome that she wanted, which was a job that was going to be flexible for her schedule but pay enough for her to make her student loan payments.

 

So one day she sits down and starts a new game on The Sims and this time she creates a character that looks exactly like herself. She lives in a house just like ours. She wears clothes that look exactly like clothes that she would wear. In fact, her character had this cute top that Tree really liked. The day after she creates this new Tree character in The Sims, she and I are out shopping and she finds this exact top. Like, the EXACT top. So she bought it, of course, but then she came home and gave this character a specific job at a hospital that she had just applied for that very day. The next day, she got a call to come in for an interview. And she got the job.

 

Long story short, Tree basically used The Sims for manifestation and visualization of her very specific goals, and it worked. Rather than using it as an escape from reality (which is a perfectly valid way to use a game and I’m not suggesting that’s wrong to do), but rather than just using it as an escape from reality, she used it to simulate her desired reality. And the universe matched her intentions, first with the shirt, which Tree was wise to go ahead and recognize. She took the hint, got that top and actively aligned herself with the Tree in the game, and then she immediately took the next step to give that version of herself the job that she wanted. And the universe listened.

 

I am not suggesting that everyone should go install The Sims, but what I am suggesting is that we can get creative and unconventional when it comes to how we release our intentions and how we practice our craft. And in Tree’s situation, where she was having a lot of difficulty visualizing and crystallizing the outcome that she wanted, this video game created her vision for her. She set the parameters and she set the goals within the game, and it was able to mirror what it was she was trying to enact in her own life. And then it came to pass.

 

And I know we like to disconnect ourselves as much as we can from technology, especially as witches, but the fact of the matter is that there are ways we can use all of this technology to our advantage. And there are tarot apps, and moon phase apps, I’ve spoken about this plant identification app that I really like, there are apps for crystal identification and I’ll go ahead and put some links to my favorites in the episode description. Um this is not sponsored at all, by the way, all these apps are free, so if you download an app and you think it sucks, then. I don’t know. Just delete it I guess?

 

But the question must be asked: does all of this embracing of technology and even leaning into it rather than shunning it in a deliberate manner undermine our spirituality? Can it diminish our connection to nature, to mother earth, to Spirit? Well, sure. But only if we let it. It doesn’t have to be some kind of a zero sum competition. We can have it both ways. That’s the beauty of being the architects of our own spiritual practices.  I mean, I have cottage witch fantasies like crazy but the truth is I also really love UberEats. I would love to live off the land with no one but the birds and mountain lions for company, but how am I gonna charge my Kindle?

 

As a witch, I embrace duality. As a modern witch, I celebrate all of the tools that I have at my disposal, including the internet, and social media, and Iphone apps. I can choose to shun it, I can choose to let it consume my time and energy, or I can choose to allow it to work for me and with me to help me manifest my desires. Through technology, I have been able to create a podcast from scratch, and I’ve come to know beautiful, powerful people literally all over the world, I’ve met my dearest friend. And these were all intentions that I could not have manifested without using these beautiful technological tools.

 

We already use technology in our daily lives every day. And I have to point out that if you’re listening right now, you’re using technology to spend time listening to a witchcraft podcast. I mean, that’s some techwitch shit, right there. So, aside from your excellent taste in podcasts and manifesting outcomes in The Sims, let’s talk about a couple different ways we can integrate technology into our practices. 

 

One of the best things we can do for ourselves is to really go through our social media and ask ourselves what exactly we hope to gain from it. If our feeds are full of distant relatives that are only following us so that they can gossip about us to family, then it’s time to clean house. If our feed is full of influencers who are trying to sell us products we don’t need or an unattainable ideal, or who just make us feel inferior, then it’s time to clean house. We don’t need these people making us feel bad on our own devices.

 

These algorithms are going to give us what we continue to interact with and engage with, so it’s probably a good idea to be more mindful of what we decide to like and follow. And that’s actually a really good way to think about the way the universe gives us what we want. It’s just an algorithm, it sees what we put our emotions and our energy into and it gives us more of that. Not to say that if bad things happen to you, it’s because you invited it to happen. That isn’t my message here at all.

 

But, if we are constantly expecting the worst outcomes, if we catastrophize everything, then we are going to continue to receive catastrophes. We have to move with the expectation that we are going to get what we want. We have to do our part to make space in our lives for everything to go right. I can’t manifest a happy relationship while also refusing to ever leave the house and go on a date. I can’t manifest a better job if I refuse to brush up my resume and apply for better jobs. I can’t get that promotion if I refuse to straight up ask for it. We have to believe in the outcome first. 

 

We live in a really unique time in history where it’s possible to develop an audience for your podcast, or your gardening expertise, or your music, or your writing, or your art, or your beauty products completely online with very little overhead. If your voice is authentic, and you’re flexible about how those manifestations come to pass, you can find your people. 

 

We have to open ourselves to receiving our desires from unexpected sources, and if we’re so determined to become a successful musician by waiting for our demo tapes to be discovered by a big record label, then we are kneecapping our potential. Going around the gatekeepers of traditional definitions of success is such a middle finger to the establishment. And a witch loves to give the middle finger to the establishment. And embracing technology is an excellent place to start.

 

So let’s get unpredictable. Let’s see how we can use all of this technology to advance our lives instead of just passing the time. Please join me next week to talk about Samhain! My name is Eli Ro, and this has been the Middle-Aged Witch podcast.

 

Additional Resources:

 

Transcripts: https://www.middleagedwitch.com

 

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCokbNKoYrmbLUjNTKBIjaFw

 

Private Tarot Readings/ Custom Spell Work: https://middleagedwitch.com/liveservices/

 

Etsy Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MiddleAgedWitchShop 15% discount code: PODCAST

 

Moon App: https://href.li/?https://apps.apple.com/us/app/moon-current-moon-phase/id660036257