It seems that whenever I’m involved in deeply moving spiritual practice, I eventually reach a sort of plateau. I might spend several weeks sitting at the altar for up to an hour at a time, loving every minute of it. But then one morning I’ll wake up and find that nothing in this world or the next could bring me enough motivation to get over there. This resistance to practice creeps up like a disease. It can feel paralyzing, like you’d rather do anything else. After all, sitting on the couch to watch every LOTR in succession would be so much more grounding…right? At least that’s the story we tell ourselves.

In his excellent book Do the Work, Steven Pressfield says that resistance is triggered by “any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, or integrity”. That pretty much hits the nail right on the head, doesn’t it? This seems to really be the case for witches who so often have a great deal of things to do. Whether it be a focus on our craft or the general busy nature of the modern day urbanite, resistance draws us back to comfortable numbness that demands our our attention. Only, when we engage in distraction we’re not really paying attention, are we?

I write this post on Imbolc, often called the “quickening” sabbat. Here in the mid-Atlantic region where I live you can already see the greens of daffodils shooting up, reaching for the growing sun. These bulbs go through a yearly hibernation process where they spend many months in isolation and darkness, preparing for their emergence. When finally, once the time is right, they shoot up and out. They break through the hard soil of resistance to live their true purpose.

For many, our craft can bring us closer to our sense of purpose. Because of that, resistance will always rear it head and bring friction. But as magick-workers, we can swift the energy of resistance by transforming it into something that will seed our success and our evolution. If we are truly seeking to merge with the cycles of time and space, we should probably take advice from plants like the daffodil. Slow and steady she waits in the darkness until the time comes to wake up and take action. When she blooms, the miracle of spring presents itself again. She greets resistance and through her magick, moves through it to pursue the miracle. Through the magick of self-knowledge and the greeting of resistance, we too can push through. We too can live our life as miracle.