Before the internet, finding spells and
information on practicing actual Witchcraft was a challenge. If you were lucky,
you could find a book with a listing of books and publishers in the back,
contact them for their mail order catalogs, and build a reference library from
there. In this, you were relegating yourself to countless hours of pouring
through books, referencing several books at once, and sifting through all the
contradictory information to hopefully come up with something, through trial
and error, that would work for you. There were no guarantees in any of these
books. Being printed in a book, even by a known author, did not guarantee that
a spell or ritual would work, or even that it was safe. For many who started
practicing in the pre-Google era, this was how we entered the craft, not with a
click, but with the turn of the page, and the determination to find what we
were looking for to build our path.
I was lucky enough to have a
mentor prior to having to dive into the book pile with everyone else. She was feisty
old woman who would not accept anything but perfection. She was not one who
would not just hand you something like a spell or a ritual. You had to earn it
from her, and earning it meant that you had to prove you were ready for it,
that you understood the mechanics of the ritual or spell. You had to be able to
pick it apart and explain every aspect of it, why each piece was chosen and
whether or not it would work, and be able to back that up with an explanation.
It was that foundation, the foundation of questioning everything, which I still
bring to the table when looking at anything to do with any aspect of
Witchcraft.
We live in a click and paste,
Google existence. It now takes no time at all to find any spell with a simple
Google search, whether we should be using them or not. And there are countless
pages and people that just share spells and random information on Facebook and
the rest of the web without any thought of responsibility for what they are putting
out, or even the safety of those who find it and want to try it out. With the
creation E-books and self-publishing, it is now possible for anyone to print
anything, anywhere, whether it is true, right or functional. Because of this, I
decided to put together this helpful primer on how to wade through all the
Witchcraft that is now readily available at just the click of a mouse on Amazon
or Google.
Rule #1: Nobody is golden.
I do not care if it came from
Scott Cunningham on high or your Great-Great-Grandmother’s underwear drawer. I
do not care if someone hands it to you who claims to have 7 generations of
blah, blah, blah and initiated on their Grandmother’s kitchen table. If you
didn’t write it, or directly witness the spell or ritual being successfully
done, it is not to be taken as an automatic functional spell or ritual.
Everyone makes mistakes. Your Grandmother may have jotted that spell down to be
looked over later, and never got back to it. The person who typed up or edited
an author’s work could have misread something. Aleister Crowley would
intentionally write his rituals wrong or with very little explanation so that
only those truly experienced would be able to perform them. Absolutely Nobody
is Golden.
Rule#2: There is no such creature as
a 100% reliable webpage or Facebook group/page.
We often fall into traps of
being added to this group or have that page recommended to us because so and so
runs it who is friends with whomever who is supposed to be some sort of 8th
degree Jedi what have you. There is nothing wrong with belonging to a group or
liking a page. And there are some people and groups who are experienced,
intelligent and responsible enough to think about what they post before they
post it. But, not many pages are like that. And, it is when you take everything
on that page as 100% whole cloth gospel that you fall into a problem. There are
people who claim to have experience who do nothing but copy and paste what they
find on Google as their own work, without really having any understanding what
they are actually posting. Worse, you have people who post things that are
dangerous without any warnings or cares as to the safety of others. I don’t
care who runs the page. There is simply no such creature as a 100% reliable
webpage or Facebook group/page.
Rule#3: This may be a repeat of everything
I just said, but, QUESTION EVERYTHING.
It doesn’t matter where you
found it, whether in the book of a well-known, well-respected author, a web
page/group, your Grandmother’s sock drawer or on the bathroom wall at your
favorite book shop, question it. Never take any piece of magic, no matter how
old or awesome it may seem, at face value. It never hurts to give anything a
good solid look, yet it may hurt a whole lot more if you don’t. Question
Everything.
So, now that I have you
questioning everything, I should probably give you some pointers as to how to
question everything. This is not something that I found on the internet or in
my grandmother’s broom closet. This is what I was taught, and what I do
whenever a piece of magic I have not written comes in front of me:
1. What is the actual intent of the spell/ritual? The title is not the intent.
It is just there to catch your attention. Look at how it is written, the
wording, key elements. What is the main focus of the spell/ritual? If you
cannot clearly define the intent of the spell/ritual from the body of the work,
more than likely the universe won’t either, and the spell/ritual is probably
trash.
2. Why did the author of the spell/ritual choose those ritual
components/correspondences/etc? I am talking about everything from candles, herbs and
incense to the components of their quarter calls. Why did they pick that color?
Why did they choose that Deity? Pick the entire thing apart without mercy. A
good solid spell/ritual will not have any waste. Every aspect of that
spell/ritual will have a purpose that is directly tied to the intent. AND none of the components will counter
act with the other components. Items that represent fertility probably should
not be in a mojo bag that you are creating to not get pregnant. Any component
that works at cross purposes with the intent of the spell/ritual will cancel
everything else out.
3. What would you do different to make the spell/ritual fit your path? Spell/rituals work by
channeling our energy, our intent. There is nothing that makes a spell/ritual
stronger than making it our own, putting our own spin on things. Incorporate
Deities, herbs, stones and whatnot you are comfortable working with. Change the
language of the body to your own words, something you would be comfortable
saying. Rework the spell/ritual to where it actually speaks for you as your own
voice, not as someone else’s creation in someone else’s voice.
4. Write it all down. All the changes you made and why, along with the
original spell/ritual. Write the new version down, date it, and note what
happens when you cast it. If it doesn’t work (after a reasonable period of
time), revisit your changes. Question your own work and start the process again
until you get your desired outcome.
5. Do your homework. If you come across an herb you have never used, or an
aspect of a spell or ritual that you are not familiar with, research the heck
out of it, and make sure you write it down, including your sources. You should know
and understand every aspect of anything you work with. This holds especially
true for herbs, as some of them carry some serious hazards with them.
Understanding everything that you are working with will keep you from putting
yourself or others in danger. It pays to take your time and do your homework,
as understanding what you are working with will give you an extra boost of
confidence that will come through in your work.
Blessings,
Urban Crone
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