The Witch is In...
Does your life lack magic? Do you feel stuck, burnt out, fed up, or lost? Good news, you found a "magic coach."
Welcome to The Magic Circle Hut
What's "Magic"?
Magic, to me, is being able to wield the energy and information flow that connects all living things in an integrated and intentional way, for the sake of creating a sense of greater aliveness, inner alignment and overall well-being.
Yep, that's a mouthful. I'm also a storyteller, which means I'm wordy. You've been warned.
"Energy" is nothing supernatural. It's the myriad of bio-chemical and electrical signals that govern all processes within and in-between living organisms. "Information" is energy that carries symbolical meaning - the stuff we can understand and make sense of in some way, that "tells us" things. A "gut feeling" is based on energy flow in the body. It has information potential, if we pay attention to it and know how to make sense of it. Some people call this skill "intuition".
When we get really super duper good at tuning in to our energy and information flow and that of other living beings, get clear on what matters most to us, and learn how to direct our attention and energy towards that – consistently, over time, even under pressure – some pretty darn amazing things can happen that look at lot like magic.
Read on for the different ways in which we can practice magic together, get you unstuck, oriented and onto the path of more alignment, aliveness, purpose and joy in your life.
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Magic through Movement
To help you discover your own magic and wield it powerfully and with intent, I work with and through the body, specifically good old resistance / strength training, and functional movements (but really, any movement practice works - even cleaning the kitchen!)
How does movement relate to magic? Our Soma (from Greek, "the person in their wholeness - mind, body, spirit, soul) is an energy machine! A powerful way to start exploring this somatic energy and directly work with it and its blockades and constrictions, is through the body and how we inhabit it. Magic isn't just a "head" thing, a matter of "thinking" or "willing things into existence". It is a PRACTICE.
Movement gives us something very tangible, direct and immediate to practice in regards to unblocking, directing and wielding our energy.
I'm a LVL 2 CrossFit trainer and certified adaptive and inclusive trainer through Adaptive Training Academy (ATA). I'm also a certified Somatic coach through Strozzi Institute.
Magic through Story Staffs
Storytelling is a way of practicing magic - not by creating spells, as Martin Shaw states, but by breaking them.
By investigating and re-telling our stories, we can re-imagine and re-shape ourselves, opening up new possibilities and futures that are aligned with who we feel we truly want to be.
I hold space for you, so you can tell your story until your story is told. I carve a story staff for you. Staffs have been powerful magical instruments, associated with Shamans and Druids. Story staffs connect you to your magic, your past, present and future. You hold the weight of staff and feel the traces of its symbols - tangible reminders of the traces life left on you. They are tangible reminders of what you have lived through, survived, learnt. Your triumphs and your losses, your sacrifices and your victories. They act as reminders that your story matters and is in a constant process of shaping and being re-shaped.
As you wield your staff, you are the wielder of your story and with that the wielder of your magic and your power.
Magic through Storytelling
And sometimes, my story magic also comes, plain and simple, in the form of stories: "The Witch's Way" is a story that found me when we moved from downtown Chicago to Gotland. It has four parts: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. (yeah, we witchy types really like our seasons ;). You can read Spring here. A book is coming out soon, that contains Spring and Summer. Fall is in the works. That's going to be a dark one. But all of the parts are also life-affirming, sassy, funny and of course incredibly wise and deep ;)
I write personalized stories for people, if they need a little magical understanding of a situation, a new perspective.
Magic through Deep "Life Game" Design
Life may not be a game, but if we choose to look at it as one, it gives us some playful distance, allows for new insights, opens up unexpected possibilities and helps us design a path forward towards a more desirable experience outcome. Deep Life Game Design harnesses the magic that is inherent in the complex energy and information systems that constitute our experience and connects us to the living world we are entangled with.
I have taught Deep Game Design as a University course for almost 2 decades (and wrote a book about the process). Over and over, I have experienced the profound impact that using systems thinking, metaphors and the structural elements of games - goal, conflict, obstacles, resources, allies, abilities, rules - can have on hundreds of students.
You absolutely do NOT need to know anything about games or game design to co-create a game on your experience with me and gain valuable insights and strategies to move forward from that. You do not even need to like games! :) The point is to bring a system view to whatever needs to be explored, because nothing ever happens in isolation. It all happens in an entangled web of energy and information flow. Pull one thread of the web and the results ripple through everything. Metaphors bring our deeper wisdom and imagination to the process and reveal aspects of obstacles and conflicts and our own inner resources that we have not seen or been aware of before.
Just give it a shot, try something new, book a deep life game design session and see for yourself.
Speak "Hut Hut Hut" to start your Magic Journey
The door creaks, opens just a crack. "Greetings, dear one..." a voice says from inside. "Why have you knocked?" "I had a dream," the hooded figure outside replies. There's silence at the threshold, as Inside and Outside each wait for the other to make the next move.
"A dream you say..." Inside muses. "Yes a dream, that things could be different. That I could be different. That my life could be different. I don't know what to make of it. There was a magician in the dream. He wore a yellow suit. He played with cups and dazzled the crowd. Then suddenly, he turned to me, fixed me with his gaze and said: 'I want your change.' It's silly, really, to follow a dream. But here I am." Outside is finished. Waiting once more. Heart beating hard in the chest.
"You still here?" Outside asks after a while, anxious. "I'm always here," says Inside calmly, "ready when you are."Outside takes a breath. Here goes nothing: "I've been told I should say 'Hut Hut Hut' if I want to enter." Outside waits for confirmation but there's nothing but silence from Inside.
???
"You've got to actually say it," Inside prompts."Ah...ahem...OK..."
The Magic of Many Hats...
I have many hats. One of them is the red top hat my love, Mischa, gave me when I was promoted to full Professor in Game Design at Uppsala University. It’s heavy and mostly sits on a shelf in my office. As founder and custodian of the Magic Circle Hut, I wear a hat of thunder, lightning, sky and stardust. It is a big hat, encompassing somatic coaching / physical training, play research, storytelling and system design to create customized, transformative experiences for people and organizations.
And then, there’s the witch’s hat. The hat of hats. Invisible, but always there, lending magic to the other hats.
Contact Us
I'd love to see / talk to you!
The Hut appears to those who seek it, but only by appointment ;) Drop me a line, so I can get the tea ready for you. My physical coaching space is in Vibble, 62260 Visby.
