The Magic Key to Paradise
Here’s something that occurred to me this morning, as I sat on my deck enjoying the lingering warmth of summer’s end: we were never kicked out of Paradise, as many of us had been taught as children. (Just another misdirect from the Judeo-Christian tradition.) We walked out on our own—and we’ve been collectively wandering around lost ever since.
That was an ah-ha moment. Because I found myself in Paradise right then and there. I realized that no angel with a flaming sword ever barred the gates—not now, not then. What really happened was much simpler (and maybe a little sadder); we shifted our attention away from the Garden within.
Instead of living from the inside out, we started focusing on the chaos, the confusion, the endless “to-do lists” and “what ifs” of the physical world. We traded the peace and harmony of the Inner Garden for the noise of the marketplace. And in doing so, we exiled ourselves.
But here’s the secret no one tells you: Paradise is still alive and well inside you—lush, radiant, timeless. You don’t have to earn your way back. You don’t have to beg or pray or bargain. You only have to stop and relax long enough to notice it.
And this, my friends, is where magic comes in.
Your Inner Garden
Imagine for a moment that Paradise is less of a place and more of a frequency. A channel you can tune into, like flipping through TV stations.
Most of the time, we’re stuck on the reruns channel, or maybe the news—doomscrolling, worrying about the future, replaying old dramas in our heads. It’s noisy, exhausting, and very convincing.
But if you’ve ever sat in the quiet of dawn, or lost yourself in the smile of someone you love, or felt awe under a star-filled sky… you’ve tuned into Paradise. It’s that simple.
The problem is, we don’t stay there. The human mind is like a restless puppy—it gets distracted by every passing car, squirrel, or ping from our phones. Paradise requires a steadier kind of attention.
That’s where magic becomes essential.
What Magic Really Is
Let’s strip away the Hollywood sparkle and the wands and broomsticks for a moment. Real magic, in the old esoteric traditions, is defined as the art of changing consciousness at will.
That means, if your mind is spiraling in fear, you can choose to shift into peace. If your heart feels heavy, you can choose to open to joy. Magic is the toolkit that makes that shift possible.
Think of magic as a set of gardening tools for cultivating your Inner Garden or Tír na nÓg.
- Rituals are like watering cans for the soil—reminding you to nourish your spirit daily.
- Spells and affirmations are like seeds of intention, ready to plant in fertile soil.
- Shamanic journeys and meditations are like paths leading to and through your garden. The more you use them, the more defined the paths will become.
Without these tools, we tend to get swept away by the outer world’s chaos. With them, we can return—again and again—to Paradise within.
Why We Walked Out of Paradise in the First Place
It’s worth asking: why did we leave Paradise at all?
One answer is survival. For thousands of years, paying attention to the external world was essential. You needed to notice the storm on the horizon, the predator in the grass, the tribe next door with sharper spears.
That vigilance became hardwired. The human nervous system is primed to look for danger before beauty. But what kept our ancestors alive has now become the very habit that keeps us feeling lost, stressed, and disconnected.
We left the Garden to survive—but now we must return to truly live.
Let’s Take a Wider View
On a more esoteric level, the way I see it anyway, we were drifting around in the spirit realm looking for something new and exciting to try—something that would help us learn and grow and get to know ourselves better. With eternity to explore, we chose to try pretty much everything we could imagine, and this earthly life is just one of many, many experiences we can choose.
I think of it like going to a theater to watch a movie. We decide before birth whether we want a fun Rom-Com, a gritty war film, or a fantasy adventure where the hero saves the day. Maybe a challenging combo of all three, or something entirely different. And then we dive right into the hologram and forget that we chose it.
It doesn’t help to have well-meaning parents, and maybe not-so-well-meaning authority figures telling us things like: we were born in sin, we’ll be sent to Hell if we step outside of mainstream conventions, we have to follow rules and ignore our inner sparks of enthusiasm, passion, and creativity.
In short, forget about the lure of Paradise within and make your life all about pleasing others and serving as a proper cog in the political-financial machine.
Magic as the Flaming Sword
Remember hearing about that flaming sword at the gates of Eden? What if it wasn’t there to keep us out, but to act as a blade of light that cuts away all the bullshit of the outer world so we can enter without carrying external burdens?
In that sense, magic is the sword of the Tuatha de Danann—not there to wound us, but to cut through illusion, distraction, and fear. Every time you cast a circle, light a candle, or whisper a spell of intention, you’re holding that sword and directing it with your will.
You’re saying: I choose to see differently. I choose to live in the Garden, not the wasteland where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. I choose the New Earth!
A Simple Exercise: Returning to the Garden
Here’s a magical practice you can try right now:
- Pause. Close your eyes. Take three slow breaths.
- Shift. Imagine a beautiful garden inside of you—lush, green, filled with sunlight.
- Enter. Step into it in your mind’s eye. Walk among the trees, smell the flowers, sit by the river.
- Anchor. Say softly: Paradise lives in me. I am safe here. I am whole here. I am at peace.
You’ve just changed your consciousness at will. Congratulations my witchy friend—you just practiced real magic.
The New Earth and Staying in Paradise
We’re living in a time when the old world is crumbling—politics, economies, ecosystems. It’s easy to get swept into despair or outrage.
But here’s the paradox: the more people return to Paradise within themselves, the more the outer world begins to reflect it. This is what mystics and shamans mean when they speak of the New Earth.
It doesn’t begin “out there.” It begins in you. In me. In every person who chooses magic over despair, love over fear, the Inner Garden over the outer wasteland.
When enough of us hold Paradise steady within, the gates swing open for everyone.
Paradise Found… and Kept
So no—you were never cast out. You left on your own. And you can return at any time.
But staying there requires intention. It requires tools. It requires magic.
Every ritual, every meditation, every whispered blessing is a way of reminding yourself: I live in Paradise. I choose to stay here.
The flaming sword will never bar the gate. It’s in your hands now.
And with it, you can cut a path straight back to the Garden that was never out of your reach. Welcome home to Tír na nÓg!
Final Thought:
Paradise isn’t a lost world—it’s your natural state. Magic is how you remember it, return to it, and most importantly… stay there.
Faehallows School of Magic is all about returning to the Garden and learning how to stay there. Come and join us!