Kildare woman launches magic book

MAGIC is associated with mystery and spells and strange potions, but the reality is that magic is an everyday thing, practised by most of us. That’s the view of Newbridge woman Hazel Cahill, who recently launched her book Practical Magick — and no, that’s not a mis-spell, but an old-time word way of differentiating from the popular imagery of the subject.

“I think a lot of us are doing magic without realising it as such,” she told a full-house audience at the event in Woodbine Books in Kilcullen, suggesting that daily personal rituals are all part of it. 

“It can be like taking a bath to relax, or lighting a candle at home and chilling out on a Friday evening. These are our own little magic things — it’s not reserved for those with elaborate altars or decades of study. It’s the magic of everyday life.”

 It includes setting an intention each morning for how you want your day to work out. 

"You can make a decision in your head that this is going to be a great day — you have the power to do that with your attitude."

Hazel is the owner of the Pure & Simple New Age Store in Newbridge, which she set up after being made redundant from a high-pressure career in retail. 

“I thought I’d give it a go for a year, but that was almost ten years ago and I’m still there. It has only been positive for my life.”

The book came partly out of conversations that she has had with customers, notes jotted down, questions asked and answered. 

But it is also a manifestation of a long-held ambition. 

“I always had the idea for a book. I still have the original A4 journal where I used to write ideas, for pages and chapters.” 

However, as much as Practical Magick is a culmination of her own dream, she also hopes it resonates with her readers. 

“It’s meant as an everyday book applicable to every woman, or man, or person who has curiosity inside them. Whether they are new to it or have been practising magic for years.”

The content does include a section on ‘spellcasting’, but in the various chapters there’s more about what today might be known as wellness. Meditation, grounding, breath work and manifesting balance. Removing negative energies. 

“It’s not so much changing difficult things around you as changing your own perception of them so that they will not affect your life any more,” she told the audience at her book launch. 

That audience was almost all women. Indeed, only one man which reflects her customer base in the shop. 

“Women are more comfortable expressing their interest in such things, men are more reserved. Sometimes when I’m in the shop a woman will come in with a question, and another might come in the following day with the same question. Many say, ‘You might think I’m weird’, and I’m there sitting in the middle of crystals and things. I’d love to take all these women together and say, ‘Look, you’re not actually alone’. It’s just people being inquisitive and finding different ways to hold space for whatever energy they’re feeling.”

Hazel roots her practice in old traditions from ancient Irish and pagan ways. 

“It’s living by the seasons, the summer solstice, the spring equinox, the autumn Celtic season of Lughnasa and Samhain. I do believe in practising with them.” 

Around all this, she says a community is drawn together. 

She suggests that what’s called magic has much in common with the core of all major world religions. 

“It’s all the same script, just different human perspectives, the same written message, and love is central.”

Through the years in her shop, Hazel has become comfortable with describing herself as a witch, though she admits that she has probably lost friends through that. 

Did that hurt? 

“Yes, it has. But you have to make peace with it. Be grateful for what you have learned from friendship, and then let them on their way, because they are just on a different life path. 

"That allows you to bring in people who are meant to be on your path, and it actually makes your life easier."

Hazel's initial interest was sparked by books her father read on ancient Irish and other mythologies, and mysteries of the world. 

"When he finished a book, I'd take it down and read it. I think that's where the seed was sown."

In some respects, she sees her role as reflecting the traditional 'wise woman' of a tribe, the woman of knowledge, to whom others would go for counsel and advice. 

Historically, that has sometimes been a dangerous place. 

"Yes, witches were burnt, because they challenged the order of things. Women were suppressed, but I think we have been rising more in the last while and kind of taking back our little bit of power. We've always spoken of 'women's instinct', which is a woman knowing that something is not right, and then being proved correct. 

"That is a kind of magic we possess, though we don't always name it."