Notes from my journal: Spell(not)work

Why is my spell not working?

I get asked this a lot by witches who are either just starting out in their craft or this is their first really big spell that they care a lot about the outcome.

I used to respond with – Don’t worry about it so much. Just let it go.

Or – Did you set a specific timeline on the spell? Is it supposed to happen between one full moon and another or one season or (put some time here)?

Or – perhaps it’s simply your karma that it’s not meant to be right now.

The responses are little varied. Most of the time I’m blown off and said witch goes on to find someone else who can give them, what I like to call the Staples Button, quick fix (you know, like the commercial, where they hit the big red Staples button and the solution automatically happens). This magic bullet, or big red button, simply doesn’t exist yet, we all look for it at some point in our lives.

So, what do I saw now when a witch comes to me and asks why, why, why won’t my spell work?

I explain that a spell is like a prayer of intent. We gather our tools to bring the desired vibration then, with a chant or prayer or meditation, we send it out into our reality in order to make change happen. This is the definition of magic spell.

The reason a spell doesn’t work is 2 fold:

1. A spell or prayer of intent must be left alone. This is something I learned when I was in Sunday school at my grandmother’s Baptist church. Worry is a sin. Worry over a matter you’ve prayed for (or have cast a spell for) shows lack of faith in God (or the Universe or the Deities or the higher Self, etc). By worrying over a spell, you’re not allowing it to happen. – The Fix? Let it go! Let your spell work. Let it take its time and work as your path allows it to. By worrying over it you’re sending doubt into the Universe and blocking the very thing you want.
2. The other reason why a witch’s spell doesn’t work is because it does. Confusing? Well, so many witches visualize a spell or intent and expect it to happen with trumpets sounding and a big banner saying THIS IS IT! They don’t realize that the man they bump on the street in a hurry to get to their appointment was the Mr. Right they cast a love spell for or that the Boss’s dog dying was the perfect time to show remorse and letter get that big promotion they cast a money or job spell for. The Universe is subtle and we have to boost our intuition and understanding that every little curve in our path can lead us in the right direction. 

I know that neither of these things offers a quick fix. The life of the modern witch is, sadly, not like that portrayed on television shows like Bewitched, Sabrina or Charmed. There is no all knowing Book of Shadows that offers a spell for every situation, no matter how unlikely, and poof – your demons, inner or outer, are gone and all is well with your world. Magic isn’t all smoke and glitter and big bangs. Sometimes its soft and gently like a summer breeze on skin.

A large portion of spell casting is faith. Faith is simply believing in yourself or in the Universe or Deity that you’ve invoked for the spell and that the spell will come to its fruition somehow. There are ways to build faith.

One way is to build your intuition. This may seem unconnected but if your intuition is strong, you will be able to see the omens as what they really are – signals and messages from the Divine or the Divine Self.

By building intuition and seeing and understand omens, you can better see your ability to walk the path laid out for you AND to see the subtle ways spells work out (without big bangs and trumpets sounding). By seeing these messages, you can better understand how your spell can work instead of running around blindly trying a dozen ways to force your spell to work and having doubts about the outcome.

I want to leave with a note of understanding. I know that life can be hard sometimes but the Witch’s Way or Path or whatever you would like to call it offers the hope of enlightenment and understanding of the world around us. We simply have to open ourselves up to this possibility. Don’t be distressed when a spell or ritual doesn’t work out how you thought it should. Open up your heart and eyes for the smaller, simpler, and, sometimes more magickal things in life.

Notes from my journal: Compatibility & Astrology

Compatibility and Astrology

A topic I find abundant in magical writing is relationships and compatibility. There are tons of books on the shelf in the New Age section of the book store that all deal with Astrology and relationships. Most of them give descriptions of the personalities attributed to each sign and then explain what two or three signs your sign is compatible with then go on to say what kind of dates, gifts or sex lives you’ll have together.

I find these books a little silly and beyond fallible.

Let me give you an example:

I am a Sagittarius and my Chinese Zodiac is an Earth Dragon.

My husband is a Pisces who’s Chinese Zodiac is a Water Ox.

According to almost every sing book I’ve read we are as incompatible as night and day and should, in all likelihood, be on the verge of such dislike as to hate each other.

Sagittarians are tactless and firey with little patience for dreamy and inconsistent Pisces who often will leave a meeting with Sag with their feelings hurt and self-esteem trampled.

Dragons view Oxen as fuel for their fire. They have little time for the Ox’s stubborn, slow behavior and homey ways.

Earth and Fire ME has very little in common with Air and Water Hubby.

Even our Prakriti – our Ayurvedic personality and body types – conflict. I’m Kapha – soft with a healthy yet slow metabolism – while my hubs is a Pita – hot and acidic with a high metabolism and the need to consume.

Yet, out mixture of conflicting elements and star alignments allow us to balance each other out so well that not only do we get along but we love each other passionately. I find the Water in my husband’s personality cools my firey nature and the Earth in my nature as well as my Sagittarian need to plan help ground my husband’s Airy and dreamy nature.

The issue with these blanket statements in astrology books about what sign goes best with what other signs is just that – they are blanket statements. No person is a perfect Sagittarius. There are many varieties – a moon sign grounding them, they were born on the cusp of Scorpio or Capricorn, etc. This all effects the personality just as much as the sun sign.

Another thing many people don’t take into account is that there are multiple types of astrology. There’s Western, Chinese and Mayan. There are also different traditions of astrology. Western Astrology with the Zodiacs from Aries to Pisces also has a modern very with the Ophyn sign, which can change one person’s sign to a completely different one.

For example, my husband and I are completely incompatible according to Western and Chinese astrology but according to Mayan Astrology we’re perfect complements. I am a White World-Bringer and my hubs is a Red Skywalker and according to our Mayan astrology readings we not only complement each other but also bring balance to each other’s lives.

So, before you start comparing Zodiac signs of perspective dates, remember there’s more to the realm of compatibility than a paragraph in a book for $12.95 at the New Age book store. 

31 Days of Samhain Day 3 (belated)

Day 3: What do I want to Teach people about Samhain?

That its not a commercialized party but a true religious holiday...

Remember in the movie, Hocus Pocus, where the boy was talking about how Halloween was created by the candy companies? Well, it seems that this is the accepted belief by many and is encouraged, sadly, by the chuches around me as they discourage people from going to parties and taking their children Trick or Treating. I hear most churches are doing "Harvest" celebrations at the church, which involve candy and food and a little bit of preaching for your immortal soul. It just makes me a lil sad.

And then theres this little anecdote:

I'm sitting at work earlier this week and learn that I get Monday off for Columbus Day...a day celebrating a person who did not do anything. He did not found the Americas, they were already found by Europeans, he did not even set food on American soil!.
I playfully asked, what were we supposed to do on this day, apologize to Native Americans?
Another pagan I work with asked if we got Halloween off.
Answer: No...we work overtime that Monday...
So we get off for a holiday celebrating someone who didn't really do anything to warrant celebration...but we don't get off for a holiday that is thousands of years old...has a religious background...and is actually celebrated?

I would like to teach people that Halloween isn't just some excuse to get candy, dress up and party. Its an actual religious celebration, the most important holiday for many.

Sorry for my rant, I try not to do many of those.

Crafty Witch and Halloween Specials

So I grabbed up a friend of mine yesterday and went to Michael's, the Dollar Tree and WalMart to get supplies to make Witch's Bottles - Damon came along and between the three of us the adult ADD moments were rampant.

One item necessary for the bottles is the bottle itself and I looked and looked in the jewelry, glass and art department for small glass bottles with a cork - nothing. I figures I was just overlooking them so I went to ask a store associate and learned that they were in the Scrapbook department...O.o
I asked why, and its due to the brand of the bottles all being in the same area, which I assume makes sense.

Since I was in the scrapbook department, I looked around a little at scrapbook supplies for my Scrap BOS. In the Halloween collection I saw the perfect paper for BOS pages (all witchy and black and fun) but the book of it was a little out of my price range so I vowed to return the first of November for the lovely paper and went on.

This strange little vow made me think of frugality in witchcraft. We are a group of people who use what we can, what we need, what we can get our hands on for the purpose of changing and bending. I like this concept. The idea of the witch being a creature of necessity and creativity.
That, I think, is also where the Witch's Bottle comes from - a bottle filled with random objects such as bits of broken mirror, bent or broken needles, scraps of cloth, whatever else was lying around the house that could be used in protective magick.
I seriously doubt any person back in ye olden days purposely broke a needle when they weren't sure if they could afford the next one, nor did they waste such a valuable commodity as a mirror or a bit of glass unless it was broke beyond use.

I collected all the things we needed for the bottles and headed back to my friend's house where her hubs made warming rice and turkey soup (with dried habanero that we gave them a few weeks back, Yay for the barter system!) and taught her a little about witch's bottles. We also discussed crafting our own candle holders and had fun sorting out some craft supplies.

Damon, on the other hand, has his own craft project coming along - he bought some fabric at Wally world and is making me some comfy hippie pants. The fabric is black filigree with some purple cotton for the etching and the pockets (so I'll be a gothy-hippie, my favorite) ^_^ and he and the other hubs spent the evening having a beer and  discussing sewing and knitting and I noted the irony of this more than a few times.

Viewing the Dead

I’ve seen ghosts. It’s not really that big of a deal. Almost everyone I know has seen one at some point in their life. So when I saw the ghosts of my dead relatives at a young age and on up, usually just after their death or during a time of hardship, I wasn’t afraid.

My fear might have also been stopped by the caring presence of the ghosts I saw at a young age. My grandfather is a constant presence for my. He comes every time my grandmother has a hardship (i.e. a death in the family, one of her 4 heart attacks, etc). His appearance is younger than when he died and always the aura is full of love. I am never afraid of him.

My second encounter was my uncle, just after his death. His presence was reassuring because of some bad feelings during the time he was dying over the four months in the hospital. Again, I wasn’t afraid.

However, I have recently seen a ghost who has shown me that not all appearances are loving and reassuring. The other day I joined my husband up to help out at a relatives house, taking care of her animals while she was gone. It is common knowledge in the family that her house is haunted by another relative who killed herself in the house. While waiting outside the car, I happened a glance up at the house and saw a woman in the window staring down at me and my husband. It scared me. I felt a tightening in my chest and throat and a strange sense that she did not want us there at all.

This was my first encounter with a malicious spirit. I brought the encounter up with my mother-in-law who told me various stories about how this woman has haunted most of the family in stages but is now kept up at the house. She has attempted to kill people in their sleep, poured nail polish over kitchen floors, cussed up a storm loud enough for all to hear, and so on. Most people have seen her at one point or another.


Strangely, the one person I would have liked to have seen after their death was a close aunt of mine. She and I are very similar according to my family. We both are creative, making jewelry and other crafts and we both were herbalists. After she died a little over a year ago, I hoped to just have a simple, reassuring glimpse of her. But never did. Strange how that works out.


I feel like seeing ghosts helps me out with my fear of dying. Its proof to me that there is life after death and that you’re not gone. I’m not claiming I know what happened after we die, or how ghosts contact us. I just feel reassured by their presence, even if they’re malicious.

Magick in the Mundane: Canning

So I've been picking, pitting and canning cherries today and as I worked on stirring the juice I had a thought about how to make this seemingly mundane practice magical.

Use specific fruit and herbs to create a magical concoction.
Example: cherry or apple and rose for love, golden peaches or apples and cinnamon and nutmeg for prosperity, mint for prosperity, etc.

Stir clockwise to bring desired outcome, counterclockwise to banish the undesired.

Decorate, set on altar, make during certain days or planetary phases, surround with crystal grids, add elixir drops to brew, etc.

There is just so much you can do to make simple tasks into a spell or potion! This is why I love being a witch!

Spiritual Housecleaning

I was reading the 2011 Llewellyn Almanac and enjoyed the article on Spairitual Housecleaning by Deborah Blake. Since my last couple of posts have been on spring cleaning and protection, I thought I would add a few suggestions from the article.

Blake, like many writers who broach the topic of adding spirituality to mundane acts, like house cleaning, explains that by doing so you add a bit of magick to your everyday life. I would also like to add, that by doing so, a witch can keep herself in the practice of raising and grounding energy and of keeping the area around her free of harmful and non-beneficial energies.

I liked how Blake wrote this article with all witches of all walks of life in mind, not just the ones who own their own home and live in an area that has easy access of nature and the land but also those who live in urban areas and apartments. By adding this and the alternatives to the cleansing such as walking around the inner rooms of an apartment or around the owned property, a witch doesn't feel hindered by his or her living arrangement.
Blake also gives the reader free reign on when she will be performing her magickal housecleaning, rather than encouraging the witch to perform the cleaning on a specific date such as Spring Equinox.

One of the things that Blake encourages doing when doing spiritual housecleaning is smudging, which I failed to mention in my last post. Sage smudging is a very powerful action that can be done when cleansing the home, sacred space, etc. My husband is a big believer in sage smudging and uses the smudge bundles whenever he does a healing whether its a personal one or on another person.
Blake starts out the instructions for spiritual housecleaning by opening the windows (or one window if its cold out) and smudging each room, starting at the room's boundaries. She adds that this can be followed by sprinkling salt and water along the room's boundaries.

I definitely encourage any witch to buy one of these Almanacs and reading the nifty little articles that can help add a little magick to everything you do.

Vibrations, 2012, and Dragons

Sunday I attended the Coptic Conference with a group of friends and Night. While the Conference is from Friday through Sunday I had to miss the first two days due to the fact that I didn’t know about the conference until it was too late to plan for days off and save money for a weekend-long event.

The Coptic Conference: How to Recognize Your Personal Power in a Changing World is presented by Coptic Fellowship International and the Tri-Cities Metaphysical Study Group. It was held at the Holiday Inn in Johnson City.
The conference has psychic readers and intuitives like Ethel Crites, Kim Crowe, and Evelina Everidge, as well as speakers, and a wonderful bookstore.

I was not able to see any of the readers (though I am told that Kim Crowe and Ethel Crites were both quite excellent) since I was late on learning about the conference. I did get to sit on three lectures Sunday.

The first lecture I attended I was late because we were checking out the bookstore (I’ll get to that loveliness in a bit).
Paul Rademacher, author of A Spiritual Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe: Travel Tips for the Spiritually Perplexed, gave his lecture: Hitchhiking to Wonder – Spirituality, Consciousness, and the Kingdom of Heaven.

Paul is an ex-minister of the Presbyterian church. He decided to obtain his Masters of Divinity after having a near-death/out of body experience while working in construction. It was during his time as a minister that Paul found a book written by Robert Munroe and found that he was not alone in his experience. Slowly he studied Munroe and was later invited to work at the Munroe Institute.
Favorite parts of the lecture:
He was hilarious. Something I won’t forget is him calling Presbyterians the “Frozen Chosen.”
In his studies he actually invited a few of his church to participate in some of the Munroe tape studies. O.O

After a small break, and our group rejoining (one of my friends had a reading by Cheryl Berry) we attended a second lecture, one I was a lil’ skeptical of at first due to the words Intuitive Healer. I am a firm believer in medicine and would not, under other circumstances, put myself in a situation where my health might be in some unprofessional’s hands.

Patti Conklin is a Medical Intuitive and is able to pull disease out of the body. I have had a few people I know be healed by her and their accounts are…well, nothing short of miraculous. In order to cleanse herself of the diseases she pulls out during healings Patti will spend entire nights vomiting and having diarrhea. She assured us that she is not in pain and that her 6 out of 7 nights of doing this is perfectly natural. She does not want anyone to worry about her. She is also the author of Healing Within.

Her lecture: Don’t Wish Life, Live Life – What Kind of Existence is in our Future?
Patti shared with us that she normally does not have prophetic dreams but on Easter she will usually have dreams about what will come in the future.
She told us that by July the economic crisis would be over with, that there would be mass relationship upheaval, and that something would happen from 4/20 to 4/22 (but I think this might be personal for her).
Patti explains that Communication has changed. That words and judgment has made us dense to vibrational frequency. She explained that the Universe is made up of harmonic tones (sound and color). She also explains that the body is made up of right and left hemisphere and that illness is caused by emotional cores within our cells. When we feel anger (whether or not we act upon it) it will deposit and record in our body. In order to be healthy we have to change the way we think.

After sharing all this with us she asked a few questions about her healing then began to let us experience her raised frequency (her frequency I guess can be translated as energy, how powerful her aura, herself is). Normally we all, according to Patti, function on a 28-35 level. She can and is comfortable at an 80.
As she raised her level gradually she asked what we were experiencing. Many had heightened sight of aura, saw Patti looking younger, and generally felt good. I, on the other hand, had a headache, felt alternatively hot and freezing, was about to vomit, wanted to cry, and felt pressure on my chest that was almost unbearable.
When it was over I rested my head on the chair in front of me and tried to ground myself. It was…horrible. My friends assured me that I was ok and that it either meant that there was far too much energy in the room and my having only been there that one day while everyone else had been there all weekend may mean I was more sensitive or that I had had an illness that Patti pulled out of me.

I ask that if anyone decided to raise their frequency around me, please give me warning to go into another room.
Other:
SHIT: Spiritual Human In Transition
FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real
FEAR: Forgetting Every Available Resource

The last lecture of the weekend/day was by acclaimed author and new age celebrity: Richard Sutphen. Dick has worked for some time on prohypnosis, past life regression, etc. He has written a few books, the most recent of which (and one that a friend of mine is letting me borrow when she’s done) is Soul Agreement.
His lecture: The Shift – December 21, 2012

Dick started out by telling us what to expect, as we get closer to Dec. 21, 2012. First, he does not think that everything will just happen on Dec. 21 (which is kinda cool since I might be recuperating from birthday celebrations on the 20th).
The time of 2012 is called the Big Shift, Great Purification, Final Days of Misfortune, a Spiritual Awakening. We’re told to expect a Pole Shift, Global Warming, a new Ice Age.
Dick informed us that we are all here, born in this time to live through 2012 when the Big Shift occurs. He explains that we chose this because through experiencing the Big Shift this will cause us to move forward a number of past lives (one author says 1000).
He informed us that the Earth’s vibrational rate is increasing. The rotation rate is also increasing, we are now living 16 hr days. Life and lives are going faster.
He went on to explain how native peoples around the world all are watching for 2012. IN Austrailia they expect Purification and a Back to the land thinking in the world. He also explained the Hopi prophecy and how they have changed from talking about the coming hour to “This is the Hour” and that it is a time of great purification.
The Big Shift will be made up of Purification, then Transformation, then Renewal.
Dick suggests a sort of enlightenment and reconnection psychically, a 4th dimension (where we now live in the 3rd and the 5th is made up of pure love).

There will be hard times though.
Scientists predict 50 million driven from their homes by weather every year.
The Earth’s alignments will shift.
People will die.

Dick led us all into a hypnosis/guided meditation where we projected forward in time to 2012.
We contacted out spirit guides and asked to be shown 6 things.
What should I be doing in the economic crisis?
Where should I be in 2012 (physical location)?
What should my career be?
Show me New York at 2012
Show me London at 2012
Show me my home at 2012

When it was over he asked people to share what they saw in New York. Many saw chaos, people rioting (lack of good term) in Central park, destruction of buildings, the subways being flooded, the sky a mix of red and yellow.
Then he asked about London. Again people saw destruction, but there was disagreement on whether it was equal or better or worse for the people there. A lot of people saw flooding or even ice (or were cold).
When asked to go back to their home many saw Appalachia as doing a lot better off.
I left shortly after because the lecture ran a lot longer than scheduled and a friend had to go to work.
Other:
He asks that we check out the book “The Vanishing Face of Gaia.”

Other than the lectures and all that deep stuff there was the AMAZING BOOKSTORE!
Some of the booths were run by people from Atlantis in Johnson City, The Glass Dove (Janet Vancil), Elain Watson, used and new book sellers, some of the lecturers, and many artists.
There was one artist whose email and name I have lost and would love to get back in contact with her. Her artwork: shadow boxes of beautiful sculptures, including one called Metamorphoses that I absolutely loved (it was a female sculpture with green, leaf-like wings and an eternity symbol above her head). I almost cried when I looked at it though I know that sounds silly.
There was one booth that was selling stones and fetishes. I asked if they had a dragon fetish and all three of them went to work looking for it. After a lil while it seemed they would not find it at all and I told them not to worry about it and made to leave. Just a few steps and all three women called after me to wait (which was a lil embarrassing since a lot of people turned to look at me). They had found the piece hiding under a larger stone. It’s a goldstone dragon about the size of my palm and absolutely beautiful. I currently have sitting here next to me.
The Glass Dove sold stained glass pendants that were beautiful (especially the green and gold leaves). The one I bought, though a lil too pricey, was a purple glass piece, etched in silver, and encased in copper. The etching is of a Indian style hand that almost looked Hennaed. I put it on a copper chain when I got home.
I also bought a dragon poison necklace from a booth set up by a shop from Greeneville (I really wish I could remember the names of these places).
If I had had more money I probably would have bought a lot more. There were medicine wants, pendulums, stones, books, fairies, pamphlets, cds, and on and on.

I’ll definitely save up for next year, maybe buy a session and do some past life regression or something.