The Pagan Experience – To Be Silent.

What does “silence” mean to you? How does it inform your spiritual practice? How is it expressed in your mundane life? And, what is it we are being silent about?

Silence is memories of fingers on lips, of the shhh in the library, the awkwardness on a first date when you don’t know what to say to each other. Silence is secret keeping. Silence is turning down the radio in the car because you need to concentrate. Silence is that stillness in the air where the only thing I can hear is my mind (in these occasions, silence is not silent).

Silence is allowing yourself to stop. To stop talking, to stop vocalising, and instead rely on gestures and just be. Silence is being comfortable in your own company.

Silence is the ability to allow yourself to focus.

Silence, in my own spiritual practice, is challenging. I often want to be able to willingly share things, to write about them here or express with friends or those I am in Circle with. Through therapy during “the dark days” I learnt not to keep everything as it’s beneficial for me to be expressive, and as a result I’m basically an open book.

In keeping silent, which I’m learning to gain better control of since becoming a blogger, it’s understanding that obviously not everything is meant to be shared, but to also appreciate the moments between yourself and yourself. Those moments shared between yourself and your Gods or Ancestors or whoever you choose to work with, allowing those moments to become increasingly special.

We live in a word where everything is shared on social media – from children’s tantrums to what we eat – so the act of keeping silent is becoming more and more important.

We as Pagans and as Witches understand that keeping silent came from the days of persecution where we would be burnt, hung, ostracised, and/or abused for who we are and what we believe in. And in some places our kin are still experiencing this. I’m lucky that I am in a very supportive environment and have never had to hide in the broom closet.

I’ve begun practising silent ritual; the act of ritual, of spellcraft, of offerings to the Gods without spoken word. I’m finding it helps strengthen my mental, psychological and psychic faculties as it relies on gesture, on visualisation, on energy, on intuition and allows you to be absolutely present without having to worry about lines.