ABOUT THIS SPELL
America is a country conjured into being, using words on parchment, on top of a place that was already someplace else. This feat required potent magic, a founding myth: That America is steadily propelling itself – and the world – forward down some linear march of human progress. That we are, and can only be, entirely good.
But that path has always been a spiral. This has always been a place with blood in its soil and roots. Full of contradictions. Never just a story of freedom from or freedom to. But also of power over.
And the enchantments we had to weave to maintain the illusion, cloak the truth, were too powerful. They fractured our reality.
Sometimes, though, a great counterforce causes the enchantment to ripple. A hole forms that lets through the light. We see the full American story – or have to try even harder not too.
We saw the true story during the war fought over if, in the land of the free, certain people should be born and die enslaved. The period called Reconstruction followed. A time dedicated to facing our true history – and to building something new and better from the rubble. Some say it was ended by a contested election. A backroom deal.
But that was just part of the story. All of us, North and South, didn’t want to keep looking at that truth – or the shadows it illuminated in each of us. So new words, myths, emerged to patch the hole, bolster the false reality. A short-lived insurrection by treasonists became an eternal and noble “Lost Cause.” The phrase “Separate but Equal” enchanted brutal racial apartheid, transformed it into something just. The window closed.
All that had happened during Reconstruction, the 22 black men in the U.S. Congress, including 2 in the Senate, the thriving black business districts, 40 acres a mule, that leap down the spiral caused by atoning for our past, were burned then buried, all but forgotten.
Then, seven score years later, in 2020, the spiral came back around. A contested election. A new Lost Cause. Myth’s first-cousin: conspiracy theory. Mass casualties. Mob violence. Treason.
But also, the antidote: Uncloaking incantations able to strip away illusion by calling things what they are rippled into mainstreams. “White Supremacy” “Voter Suppression.” A black man from Georgia entered the Senate. A woman of color won the second highest office in the land. We all saw the ripple. We still see.
We have a second chance to reconstruct, build back better, before the hole closes. If we are to succeed, we cannot repeat the mistakes of the past. We cannot let the current momentum crest then plummet.
Blaming others is not sufficient. We each play a part. We each have blind spots. Our collective myths are fueled by our personal ones, things we tell ourselves and others, to cloak what we don’t want to be seen.
It’s time to face ourselves in the mirror.
LOGISTICS
This magick is an uncloaking spell to unenchant American myths, dissolve the illusions that bind us, and help us face our true selves in the mirror. It can be done with items in your home and should take no longer than 15 minutes.
YOU WILL NEED
A glass of water
A mirror (ideally one you can place on a flat surface in front of you; if that’s not possible, a wall mirror will do)
A candle (and means of lighting it)
Two towels (place one towel under your mirror if it’s flat, or beneath it if it’s standing, to catch any spillage; keep the other at the ready)
PREPARATION
Gather your materials and enter the space with your mirror.
Turn off the light and light the candle.
Invite in the elements one at a time:
North, earth, I invite you into this space to hold me.
South, fire, I invite you into this space to transform me.
East, air, I invite you into this space to carry me forward.
West, water, I invite you into this space to cleanse us all.
You are ready to begin.
STEP 1
FRACTURED GLASS
Go to your mirror. Flick water onto the mirror, enough to morph what it reflects. Look at what you see. Your face, but your face distorted. Really notice what the water does to your reflection. Focus on your reflection in the parts of the mirror with water. Now focus on the parts of the mirror that are dry.
You are seeing reality warped and fractured. You are not seeing things clearly. But you can.
STEP 2
THE SPIRAL
Take your finger and slowly draw a spiral in the water. You can draw it inward or outward, whatever calls you. As you do, say aloud:
The spiral is a road that can lead us back to the source. To a shared reality. I will follow the spiral. I will embrace the curving road.
STEP 3
THE CLOAK
Pick up your candle and lean over, or face, your mirror. Slowly move the candle around your face. Watch the shadow. Watch your face change and shift with the light. Watch how many people you can be.
As you do this, think of the things you hide beneath the water, the cloak. The things in yourself you refuse to see. The stories you tell yourself about who you are. How those stories cloak something different, something flickering in the periphery you never focus on. Bring the flicker into focus.
Now, think of the ways you have power.
Think of the ways you use your power poorly.
Do you use your power to manipulate the world? To manipulate yourself?
Wipe away the water with your towel. As you do so, say:
I pledge allegiance to uncloaking the myths I use to hide what I don’t want to be seen in me. For it’s only what is locked away in the dark that festers into demons.
STEP 4
THE COLLECTIVE
Those demons don’t just live in you. The microcosm creates the macrocosm, and vice versa. Facing yourself, uncloacked, is the first step towards a collective change.
Stare in the newly cleared mirror and think about the nation.
What do you see in your reflection that reflects an American myth?
What other myths distort and cloak reality in America?
Think of now. Think of history. Think of stories you’re told about people who are different than you.
When you are done, say aloud to yourself in the mirror:
I pledge allegiance to uncloaking the myths that hide the true history of the United States of America, from myself and all inhabitants.
Blow out the candle.
STEP 5
THE LIGHT
Turn on the light. Let all realities be illuminated and integrated. Nothing is cloaked. Look at yourself in the mirror again. Look a little closer. Mark anything that seems different than before. Look one more time. Then turn away and walk forward.
The spell has been cast.
SHARE YOUR MIRROR MOMENT
If you’d like, when you are finished, take a selfie in the mirror you used for the spell of your uncloaked self. It can serve as reminder of this moment – and you can send it to us at thethirdspacecollective@gmail.com!
Ritual by Lucile Scott and Jesse Alick