Why should you study and practice Magick?

Because you can’t help doing it,

and you had better do it well than badly.

~Aleister Crowley

What Do I Do When My Spells Don’t Work?

This is the most common question I have EVER received in my years as a practicing witch. You might wonder why I've decided to start a lesson on spell work with this question. Its because most students interested in taking a class have already tried a spell or two before seeing out a professional guide or course. If those first spells worked for you, fabulous. If they didn't, didn't turn out as planned, or you would like to make them more powerful, please keep reading.

This is probably the most frustrating situation for a witch to be in. We adorn ourselves with the title of witch, practice the skill of magick, perform our spells with all the drama and flourish our psyche requires then...nothing. Or the outcome is far from what we imagined and desired. 

We look over our spell, our book of shadows, our altars and wonder what the hell did I do wrong? We might try again or try some divination. We wonder if it didn’t work because some divine force doesn’t want us to achieve that goal or desire. Maybe we’re cursed or, worse, just not very powerful witches?

You’ll be glad to know, that’s all usually bullshit.

What I say next might piss you off but the #1 reason your spells don’t work is that many of you don’t know what a spell is.

    When asked, so many witches explain that a spell is either words said over a ritual or magickal talisman or potion. They state that a spell is the magickal operation of effecting change in the world you are in. These responses are not exactly wrong but neither are they correct.

    In the simplest of terms, a spell is “spelling out” what you want. It is the act of stating consciously and willfully what you you desire so that you draw it to you. Everything else, the candles and chanting, all of it is just dramatics to access the subconscious part of yourself that has an easier time of making things happen.

    We are capable witches that have the power to call what we want into existence. The problem arises when we look at the obstacle of our conscious mind and the limiting programming we’ve taken into our subconscious mind. If we have been taught that magick isn’t real, that “you can’t always get what you want,” or that we are not powerful - these messages get embedded in our subconscious and resonate there like an annoying buzzing that distracts our power. When we choose to believe that we are powerful and go for what we want, we are blocked by these embedded messages. We have to figure out ways to access our subconscious minds, reprogram those messages (or vibrations if you want to take the new age terminology), and call in our power without limits. That is true spell casting.

But what about the correspondences and rituals? Is there any place for them in this definition of spell work? YES!

    We need to access, reprogram, and trigger our subconscious selves to effect the changes we want to create in our lives. The best way to do that is to take ourselves out of our mundane reality and use symbols (the language our subconscious speaks).

    Because each person’s subconscious is different, there is no “one true way” to cast a spell. It ALL works! This both makes things easier and harder for us witches. Easier in that we don’t have to go “by the book” to get what we want. Harder because we can’t rely on anyone spell book and recipe to make things happen, except for when we can. Confused yet?

There is no one-size-fits-all spell for what you want. Instead, you have to choose what works best for you and create a world like a potter at a wheel. Her mentor can show her a vase to create but the amount of clay and water will be different for her as will the amount of pressure to place on the clay when forming it into the desired shape. These are all things that the creatrix figures out for herself along the way by feeling into it.

    This section of Green Witch is all about accessing your ability to feel into a spell to effect the change you want. It will prompt you to get uncomfortable because if you could find what you wanted in your comfort zone (the zone of lies as Kickass Witch Joanna Devoe calls it) then you wouldn’t need to do spell work in the first place.  I’m not promising an easy life-hack way to make your magick work. However, I do promise that if you dig deep and actually do the work this book suggests, your spell work will dramatically shift you towards the life you want.