Category: Spells & Potions


No Sale

Filed under: Pagan Life, Spells & Potions — Leave a comment
February 14, 2014

Being BW, I like having a decent comment section. Then occasionally I get this gem:

Post

The derp is real in this poor attempt of someone trying to hustle their wares. Wow. I explained in the comment but let me break it down in detail because I must say, I do not – I repeat, not – like posts like these. I thoroughly got rid of the emails but the email was the first dead giveaway this was fake. You know, I’m going to hit on all the issues bit by bit in list form! Yaaaaaay.

– Email was self-promotional: No site representing Black Witch has anon. If you have something jacked up to say, you have to identify yourself. This means, to post a comment on BW, you have to post an email and the person so “refused to leave a name” the exact same email in the text that they did in the email section to post a comment. Usually, people put down their own emails in opposed to someone else’s, even if they thought the business was great because, well, they’re not that business’ PR person. This person covered their tracks poorly.

– Jacked up story that makes not a hair of sense: So, apparently this Cynthia – I thought you weren’t going to leave a name?! – person is trying to get back a guy who cheated on her…but he’s upset she (rightfully) freaked out and won’t speak to her. Yeaaaaah, this almost totally confirms the story was not only made up but by a guy. The sexism in the passage is too great to be realistic. Usually anyone who has been cheated on generally don’t want anything to do with the person who got caught. If anything, it’s usually the cheater that’s begging to get a word in edge-wise, not the one who has been betrayed. This story makes no sense. Must go in deeper.

“My name is Cynthia and my ex-boyfriend dumped me 8 months ago after I caught him of having an affair with someone else and insulting him.”

Wait, your cheating boyfriend dumped you because you insulted him after catching him with someone else? Yeah, that makes no sense, I tell you. This is how I could tell a guy wrote this because it minimizes the usual reaction a woman has to a dumping (hint: it’s a lot more than mere insulting going on because women happen to be people and people don’t like betrayal in their personal relationships in general). It somehow frames the guy as if he did nothing wrong and his chick – Cynthia, here – totally freaked out and it was an inappropriate response. To be honest, I thought the message first said, “He caught me having an affair with someone else” because of how the sentence was fraimed.

“I want him back in my life but he refuse to have any contact with me”

So you want your cheating boyfriend back in your life – remember, this dude wronged Cynthia, not the other way around – and he won’t talk to you because somehow you bruised his ego while he trashed your trust. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. This story is so fake. Usually it’s the cheater that has the hardest time ever talking to the person whose heart and trust they broke, not the person who was betrayed. If anything, they want nothing ever, ever to do with the person. Even if they do come back, it’s not without some genuine time away to think about things.

“I was so confuse and don’t know what to do, so I visited the INTERNET for help and I saw a testimony on how a spell caster help them to get their ex back so I contact the spell caster and explain my problems to him….. he cast a spell for me and assure me of 3 days that my ex will return to me and to my greatest surprise the third day my peter came knocking on my door and beg for forgiveness. I am so happy that my love is back again and not only that, we are about to get married.”

The person writing this is probably older than they would like to portray themselves. Seriously, who capitalizes the word “internet” like a Christian does with the word “Lord” or “God”. If anything it sounds a bit churchy with going “I saw a testimony….” Just doesn’t sound right, like the dude is trying to seem bigger than big, like a life saver somehow. Oh wait, I forgot, the spell caster did say he was a guy while parading as Cynthia, so I was dead on. So pretty much Cynthia asked spell caster to cast a will-bending love spell (which is a major no-no in many spell-caster eyes, regardless how they feel about karmic repercussions or otherwise because nothing says “I love you” quite like “I will zombify you into loving me.”) to drag this totally-not-interested-in-her-anymore guy – Peter, his name is – back to her and warp him into marrying her, despite not showing any change to his personality. Begging for forgiveness and being brainwashed into marriage doesn’t count as “Will try to be a better guy.” Happy Valentine’s Day! Clearly the love is so strong in this mythical relationship.

“Once again thank you oral spell caster, you are truly talented and gifted contact his email:[derp@thisisbullsht.never – BW]”

“Oral spell caster”? That makes not a whole lot of sense in the context of your message. If it was over the internet, how could you know what the person did to cast a spell? For all you know they did this with bunch of chickens:

chickns1

chickns2

And called it a day. That and the rear-loading of how wonderful this no-name caster is a bit much. I understand singing praises but this sentence strikes me as a fourth wall starting to show cracks.

Look, I don’t mind people wanting to attract new business, especially other Pagans. Thing is, there’s a way to go about it and this most certainly ain’t it. I don’t advertise any spell casters on here usually for a variety of reasons but it still would be better to ask than to try being slick like this person. I don’t appreciate that. Start your own side business using your own means and resources if you want to do pay-for-pray but don’t spam my site.

Next week is The Arts! Let’s see who’s getting featured!

– Music Inc.
– Le1f
– Orisinal Games

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I Know You Love Me, But I’m Still Gone

Filed under: Relationships and Dating, Spells & Potions — Leave a comment
November 16, 2013

Let’s talk relationships. Well, first, let’s briefly mention how I won’t be at Pantheacon after all and the details are at the bottom of the post. Now, let’s talk relationships. Mainly ones that have flat lined and there’s no chance of revival. At all. Ever. Not even if the survival of humanity depended on it.

See, being a Witch, this means I get all sorts of people in my inbox. This also includes the “I Want Cha Back” crowd. These folks, you might as well play the iconic Jackson 5 song, they nearly recite the lyrics word for word without knowing it. These folks tend to contact me in hopes that somehow, despite the fact I have said several times on my site I disagree with manipulative love spells and don’t do Pay for Pray, that I’ll do it for them to bring back that just-recently-reconsidered-special someone in their life. And usually it’s supposed to be done without the recently departed significant other’s knowledge. And usually it involves the fact that the ex is the one who broke things off (and with good reason).

Yeah, no.

When it comes to magick, I always tell people to imagine the mundane version of the magick to get an idea of what they’re doing. For this, it’s no different than stalking and harassing your ex and yelling “I’M STILL IN LOVE WITH YOU!” at them as they walk down the street. Very rapidly. Away from you. Far. Away.

Here’s the deal, people: you can’t make people fall in love with you. (Well, you can but they’re not really going to be in love with you. I’ll get to that in a sec.) Love is a natural – and sometimes, a pretty frustrating – process, you can’t really force it. If it were that easy, Ok Cupid and other craptacular sites would never exist … or, at least, not to the extent it does today. If you screw up in a relationship and the other person breaks it off because of that reason or if that other person thinks it would be better to be single for a while, that’s up to them. Not you. It hurts to go through a break up but you can’t force someone’s hand. That’s not natural. And it’s controlling, which is not love. That’s abuse.

Now, note I said that you can make someone fall in love with you but they’re not going to be in love with you. It’s kinda like the mundane world version of blackmailing, harassing and guilt tripping a guy or girl to love you. They may be showing the displays of what is outwardly considered affection but it’s not coming from a place of affection but more of a place of “Will this person stop bothering me?/I don’t feel like I have a choice.” They don’t really love you, they’re just faking it until they see the first opening to dash out into the wilderness like a spooked rabbit.  It’s not right to just control someone’s heart and go, “Newp. You love me now. I may be a screw up and will mess up to the point you’re fully justified to break things off or maybe you need some time to yourself but newp, not letting you go because it hurts me too much.” That’s pretty selfish. Which also isn’t love. Affectionate love isn’t that self-serving and never should be.

Break ups happen for a multitude of reasons. It seems as of recent I’ve been getting the “I messed up/the former bf/gf thinks I messed up but I totally don’t get it” letters. They’re not what I like to see because, welp, I’m gonna probably side with the person who left you because you didn’t get it together as appropriate for the relationship. And I mean when there’s an actual problem in the relationship, such as you being a poor communicator, relying on tired gender tropes and trying to shove your now-ex into said trope boxes, and/or just having too many issues and not dedicating enough time to unpack them in a healthy way. It’s important for people to know that when they’re in a relationship, they’re taking on the role of the significant other, not the replacement-parent/authority figure.

For the former, the “I messed up”, these folks are aware they screwed up – too bad they figured it out faaaaaaar too late. These folks have got to know that there is such thing as the Point of No Return and said point has such a name for a reason. If the now-ex person was a good or even average communicator, chances are they already said their piece and made it known that there was some problematic behavior they weren’t gelling with. Life isn’t like tv, it’s not always that the now-former significant other just up and leave without letting you know beforehand. It’s nice that the person coming to me finally came to their senses about their behavior but guess what? If you have to come to a witch to repair things, it means you still blew it big time, and I mean nuclear. It implies that the ex doesn’t want anything to do with you, doesn’t care whether or not you learned your lesson, and doesn’t want to come back to you. And who am I to force them? I wouldn’t want it done to me, why would I want to do it to others so they can be dragged back into a relationship that made them so unhappy? And this is running on the assumption that the person coming to me not only knows about how bad their flaws were but actually changed them and plan to keep it that way. Usually folks slide far too easily back into their old ways when they feel like there’s nothing to lose from doing it if that desire to change isn’t intrinsic (meaning: coming from the inside). If you messed up, learn how to remedy that and move on.

For the latter “I have no idea how I screwed up but the bf/gf still left me because they think I’m [insert what could actually be the problem], I want them back”, that person is just myopic. Sometimes erratic breakups happen but these folks tend to have a very evident problematic trait that they have no plan on working on any time soon nor want to work on because they themselves don’t see it as problematic. Those folks are unbelievable because wow, talk about dragging someone back to hell. This means they’re not going to work on their problems (because remember, it’s not a problem in their eyes) and they don’t understand that people don’t have to put up with their nonsense if it’s not reaping any super justifiable benefit. People are allowed to be flawed because everyone is but no one should be expecting anyone to deal with their issues as if that’s all that should matter in the relationship. Relationships can’t survive in a one-sided fashion.

It’s important to note that both folks are pretty self-preserving. Instead of letting the ex go (which is a painful and extensive process, let’s not negate that), they’re trying to force someone who’s already made up their mind to leave back into a place they, the ex, already expressed they didn’t want to remain. There’s no thinking about why the ex did it and what good did it do for that ex to leave a problematic person behind or what traits need to be worked on as a whole to prevent this all from happening again. Instead it’s about what unhappiness comes from a break-up and how to somehow turn back the hands of time to revive a dead relationship. Which then becomes a zombie relationship because there’s no love, there’s no feeling. It’s just an undead lingering feeling that will just wrack up more problems and less love because again, you can’t force anyone to love you just like you can’t force a dead person to be alive like they were previously. This is controlling behavior, which is not based in love. At all.

Controlling anyone, removing anyone of their freedom to choose, that isn’t love. Not at all. It hurts having someone leave you but forcing them to come back won’t make anything better. The love is gone, dude. Casting a spell on a person (which is a long and grueling work because chances are it’s going to have to be refreshed again and again and again depending on how long the client wants the spell going) is a terrible way of showing someone that you “care”. It’s no different than sticking a gun in their face and saying “So, we’re gonna be exactly like we were before. You never left me. We never had problems. I’m the guy/girl for you and we’re going to be happy, happy, happy. You just don’t understand it yet but you’ll see. We’re meant for each other.” That’s crazy talk. You need a visit from a therapist, not your ex if you truly feel that way.

Oh. And then there’s the obvious, “No one really likes it when you cast a spell on them to like you” part. I think it needed its own paragraph. Seriously, think about it: “I had a spell casted on you so we could be together, I just really didn’t want you to leave me,” is not going to get you greeted with admiration.

So, if you’re dealing with break-up pangs, don’t contact me about Pay for Pray. I don’t do it and I definitely don’t do it for something as unethical as that. Just let that person go. If they wanna get back with you, you better have your ears open and get ready to do some longstanding work. If they never want to get back with you again, respect that decision. I didn’t say “don’t cry about it”, “don’t get emo about it”, “don’t post ranty blog posts about it”, “don’t express unhappiness about it”. I never said, “Just accept it with a smile and move on as if nothing happened”, I said “if they never want to get back with you again, respect that decision.” You’re free to be as upset as you like. You just aren’t free to take someone else’s freedom of choice just because it doesn’t work with yours.

Now, about Pantheacon. I won’t be able to go due to travel issues (*cough*TSAandPTSDdon’tmix*cough*) and I am going to instead try to do a livestream of my feature instead on the day and time I was supposed to be doing it in Cali, which is Feb 16, 11 AM PST. More updates on that later.

Next week on The Arts!….DOCUMENTARIES (fun/interesting ones, I swear)

– Jimi Hendrix
– Paris is Burning
– Century of the Self

Woo!

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Ask Black Witch: Want My Dream Home, How Can a Song Be Used as a Spell

Filed under: Ask Black Witch, Spells & Potions — 2 Comments
September 27, 2013

It’s this month’s Ask Black Witch, where you ask me questions and I answer them. You can send in questions in a myriad of ways, on site, via Tumblr, tweet, email, comment or send a message on the BW Facebook Fan Page. Remember, good questions appreciated, bad questions are eviscerated!

Hello My question is about spell-casting and being specific about minute details. I have a clear idea of what I want my spell to manifest, but I’m wondering how much detail is just too much. For example I want to manifest a house. I want to it have 3 bedrooms, a large yard, a garage and it has to be blue with Queen Elizabeth rose bushes in the front. Will being so specific help or hinder my spell?

– Mint

Being specific in spells is a really good thing. However, there is such thing as being too specific because the spell may not work out exactly how you want or take waaaaaaaaaaaay longer than you would want to. It seems you have your dream house in mind, which is good that you know what you want now but it may be too specific for your spell because you may change your mind about, say, the flowers or you want to nix a bedroom It’s good to instead find a middle ground with your specifications by having the goal house in mind but casting a spell for just getting a comfortable and happy home because you could get the house you want but it’s wrapped up in red tape, predatory lending or a relationship gone bad. It’s more than just a house that makes a home. So find a middle ground because your idea of a dream home may change over the years and if it does, your spell (which won’t manifest overnight if that’s what you’re hoping for) can still keep chugging along, unabated. Which is what you want.

Okay, I’m confused. How does repeating song lyrics constitute a spell?

Black Witch, could you please educate me?

– Vicki V.

The reader is referring to a spell I reblogged on Tumblr (this is probably the closest y’all will get me to actually posting full length spells on here*, ha!) which uses a spell inspired by Yoko Kanno’s song “Call Me, Call Me”.

Music is a pretty useful way to raise energy, which is necessary for every spell you do. If a song resonates strongly with your intentions, then it can be used in a spell. Since the spell was about getting back in touch with people you haven’t heard from in a while and the song was about the same, the song would work well in the spell as a tool to send out intent. Already in music there is rhythm, rhyming (not all spells need to rhyme, in case someone was thinking that), movement and more which can aid in spellworking. Music is magic and can definitely be magickal.

And that concludes Ask Black Witch for this week! Try to spot me at the Baltimore Book Festival this weekend! I’ll be running around pretending I’m social. If you’re into Jfashion (Lolita, Gyaru, Vis Kei, Shinori, Yanki, etc etc etc), there’s going to be an Afr-Am Jfashion walk in DC on Oct 6. Get in touch for details if interested! I’ll be there. And next month is October, which means that the Samhain Pickers Giveaway is around the corner!

*I barely reblog spells on the Tumblr so don’t think you’ll get a stockpile there, either.

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How Not to Hex Your Coworkers

Filed under: Pagan Life, Spells & Potions — 2 Comments
August 2, 2013

I was reading Ask a Manager and there’s a post I never thought I would see in the longest time: someone actually asked about a co-worker threatening curses on others, the post was titled “An Employee is Putting Magic Curses on Her Coworkers”:

I’ve recently been contacted by a supervisor in our company who has heard that one of his subordinates has been regularly “cursing” both him and his daughter (who also works for our company). By “cursing,” I don’t mean using foul language. I mean she considers herself something of a witch and has been literally putting curses on these people.

It was quite surreal, I tell you. Alison of Ask a Manager gave fairly good advice about the situation, I figured I may as well put my 2p in it since, well, I’m an actual Witch and I have had an office-setting job before. (Metaphysics training or not, everyone has to have a job. Bills don’t magically pay themselves.)

My take:

Oh. My. Gods. Anyone who regularly curses is totally batty. It’s one thing to curse once in a while (and note, as rarely as possible) but to be regularly cursing people because you never learned other, more useful coping mechanisms? Batty and rightfully insane. Seriously, just learn some better coping mechanisms when it comes to dealing with crappy people, the world is full of them so why waste the time and energy to choke up an effective jinx?

So Ms. Alison asked for more info and it turns out the person writing in works HR in a school division and the basic story is there are four janitors, named here as Jeff (head janitor), Mandy (assistant head janitor), Whitney (cleaner) and Roberta (cleaner).* Mandy doesn’t like Jeff and Whitney and expresses so. Roberta tells the OP that Mandy has said something along the lines of “When people make me angry, or cross me, I don’t worry because I have ways to get rid of them. And I’ve cursed them. I have a place in my house with candles and other items and I know how to do that.” Whitney is scared silly of being cursed and is looking up ways to ward them off online (bad idea because the internet is full of crazies), Jeff doesn’t care. The OP just wants to know if this can be taken as a bona fide threat between employees.

Before I continue: this, people, is why I am so glad I don’t post spells here on BW. Alright, moving on.

Ms. Alison said yes and I agree. If I were fielding the question, I would also inform the OP to treat it as a threat and respond to it accordingly, which should include possible termination from position for Mandy.

Look, I know I’ve dealt with not-cool people at work – everyone has, and will – but threatening to jinx? No way. There are much more mundane ways to handle annoying or bad co-workers and that includes going to HR. No one at your job (hopefully) is worth the energies that casting a spell, especially a revenge spell, will cost. Instead, just know your rights as an employee and speak up when things go awry. Like a normal worker. And if it is that bad, feel free to use this handy guide of employment I wrote and find a new job. Otherwise, you look completely mental if you go the “I’ma hex you!” route. Either deal with it like a normal person or start looking about on Indeed.com.

I really feel bad for everyone involved – except for Mandy – because they have to put up with such foolishness. Mandy is an assistant head janitor so it is clear that she has some power of authority and should have used that to solve whatever problem she was having with her co-workers instead of going the vindictive route. Instead, she hexes when someone makes her angry or crosses her? Oh, come on. Welcome to real life, where not everyone is going to be sugary sweet to you and crap happens. Occasionally, people are going to make you mad because the human experience is complex. Does it make it right? Not always, but you have to learn how to deal with the fact that people can be jerks in a better way than looking for your jinx kit. That’s just a sign of a really vitriolic, hot headed person who won’t deal with the problem directly for whatever reason. And that is not someone that the OP should want to continue working for them because it’s going to be a slippery slope.

Yep, I said “slippery slope”, here’s the thing: if Mandy is already easy to get hot under the collar for some non-descript reason, she probably will also get pissy at the OP/HR Person and use her usual “I’ma curse you!” because she will feel angered by the fact s/he is siding with Whitney and Jeff, and try it on Roberta because she spoke up (and good on her for doing so). Mandy doesn’t seem to have the wherewithal to handle the fact that not everyone likes her and how to respond to that in a professional manner, which she really needs to learn if she wants to be an effective member of the American workforce.

So, moral of the story for my more witchy readers: Don’t jinx your coworkers if you have a problem with them. Instead, handle the problem like a rational person and use the methods that should already be provided for you within the company/school/business/whatever is provided to you. If those methods are not provided or ragged with corruption, then look for a new job. I know the economy is hard but it is possible with the correct tools. And if you’re hot-headed like Mandy was, learn some cooperation and mediation (not “meditation”) skills.

*Of course they’re not real names.

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Snake Oil Magick

Filed under: Spells & Potions — Leave a comment
May 3, 2013

So, I was checking the Black Witch email’s junk pile because, hey, I like keeping the inbox orderly and you never know when a random Ask Black Witch question or important email winds up there.

This time, I got a lol’ler coaster.

So this email was titled “Gain the Ability to Create Your Own Destiny!‏” so I knew it was gonna be good. Could always use a chuckle. And chuckled, I did.

The email begins:

“That’s Right!

Get the Ability to Create Your Own Destiny and Get
What You Want Instantly!

All will be explained here”

And links to a site called “Magick Power” that would be better off selling Cirque du Soleil tickets or D&D games, judging from the layout. People, this is how you can tell someone is selling snake oil, wolf tickets. It’s a con and not the fun kind where you dress up, eat too much pocky and risk running into Stan Lee. We’re gonna get into how it so apparent later, now we stick with the email.

“The BEST thing is that You will be able to Bring
Anything You Desire into Your Life without Needing
to Do ANY Ritual, Nor Worship Any Strange Entity Nor
Study ANY Occult System for Years…!”

Can you smeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell the nonsense here? Dude, you can’t apply a fast food concept to metaphysics, it just makes for high failure rates, your magick would be a complete dud not to mention you’ll look crazy and stupid, even among occultists and magick practitioners. Not to mention, nice try in attempt to othering alternative deities, that’s smart. You don’t exactly need to worship other deities, magick doesn’t really need that so it wasn’t necessary to bring up. Really bad start.

“I’m talking about the Power to Create or Destroy What
Ever You Want to…As You See Fit!

Simply Visit Here”

Someone is channeling their inner Vishnu. Sounds like some kid that used to get beat up a lot in school, played too much Infamous or God of War and now thinks they could be a powerful force themselves. Look, I am a firm believer that nothing is impossible (improbable but not impossible) but you have to put some work into it. Metaphysics does not work like an instant dinner, there is a lot of work, a lot of reading, a lot of brain strain to see any success. There are no elevators or escalators, only stairs. Lots and lots o’ stairs.

“There is no other course out there like it. In fact,
there has never been a similar course available to the public.

I have to warn you though, mystics have tried to have
this course banned…

I’m talking about some of the most powerful men and
women of the world, that can literally take the site
down any minute without warning.

All I can guess is if you can still get to the
website you may have a chance…”

Actually, there are lots of courses out there like this. It’s the internet, there’s tons of skeevy sites filled with false promises and especially with magick because people don’t know enough about magick besides what they see in media (which is heavily misrepresented) and go with that. So, this guy is relying on someone being really, really gullible.

Dude also should not pull an infomercial move and simply use a blanket statement such as “mystics have tried to have this course banned” and “the most powerful men and women of the world”. Back your accusations up with facts or don’t say it at all. Even with the occultists I know, no one cares that much over this kid so I doubt very much that other important people would either. And does anyone else imagines some modern day Gandalf/Once Upon a Time imagery when they read that too? Unless this kid is pissing off some hacker group, I doubt people care about these fakers nearly as much as they think they do. This site might get taken down by the BBB or some other business entity tho for being a scam but that’s pretty much it.

And the email ends. Lolz. This email wouldn’t have fooled me when I was younger and it doesn’t fool me now. Here’s a rule of thumb, if the person is not up front, they’re probably hiding something. Using blanket statements is not being up front, trying to create an air of mystery that isn’t there is not being up front, promising big things with little work is definitely not being up front and all those things are all red flags. The simple fact that this letter is unsolicited is already telling! I’m a practiced Witch, why would I want anything like what this email offers when I can see straight through the phoniness?

And now the site, which is filled with so much fluff, they should be selling pillows and comforters.

Again, the blanket accusations of mystics trying to get the course getting shut down and that they could get anyone any massive power…for some money.

KNEW IT, Y’ALL! The dude is selling something and it is expensive, worthless and waste of paper. You could tell from the email but this seals the deal.

The why about unnamed mystics trying to “shut down the site” is apparently this:

“Simply, because they don’t want you to have
the power to INSTANTLY Create Your Own Reality, they
have and have used over and over again for
centuries to control, manipulate and literally take
advantage of you like a puppet.”

This is a total joke. Again, unless you are really skilled in magick and the occult, the idea to create your own reality in an instant is laughable. And even then it is A) really rare and B) barely worth it because once you’re that skilled, you learn a few things about ethics that really kills the enticement of the idea. And no occultist is controlling people like a puppet, get your pseudo-secret societies ideas outta my occult. It’s stuff like this that makes people think the Illuminati control everything and somehow everything points to it. After this massively stupid reason is the shot of the book, which is about as bland as anything as far as any book in the occult is supposed to be. The title “Magick Power” is very general because magick has so many different subcategories and types and cultures and ideas, it’s not this one thing and couldn’t be because that’s not how the occult works.

And o hai! Something that totally doesn’t sound like it came out of the X-Men:

“From the desk of: Mystic X.
Dear Friend,

Are you absolutely sick of being left in the hands of someone else who couldn’t care less about YOU?”

That’s life

“Does it seem you’re just stuck in the mud-spinning wheels, going nowhere?”

We do currently have a crappy economy and people generally suck at running their lives

“Do you totally hate the fact that Your Life can go nowhere?”

“Can” implies choice, which, like I said, sounds like life. Life really isn’t fair.

“I bet you do!”

Life sucks, then you die.

“I often receive emails from people just like you who are struggling to make their spells & magick work. You’ve bought books and courses but you just can’t seem to make it work. You’ve dropped $100s-$1,000s into witches, spells, and metaphysical items but haven’t seen any real results, yet.”

Trolololo, that’s because they want to put no real work in it, just want answers with the flick of a wand.

“Maybe you’ve spent days trying to cast each spell to the finest detail, only to find out later that the results were not what you wished for, if any.”

Magick can be derpy like that because it goes the path of least resistance and noobs will always have a hard time with spells because they are new and thus have little practice.

“When I hear these stories I often write back…”

“I want to write back…”

“It’s NOT Your Fault!”

“I am so gonna fleece ya!”

“You see, most of the information you read online and offline now are either incomplete or just total garbage.”

“I’m just like them. Remember, it takes one to know one.”

“It gets me angry that people are wasting their hard earned money on useless stuff in the slight hope things will work out. The cold truth is that… It Won’t!”

It doesn’t anger this dude about that, he’s upset he ain’t making money off of these people. And again, a lot of people want a quick fix, which is not exactly how things work in magick.

“Most of the spells and magick systems the so-called experts push you, don’t work.”

Here’s an accusation that the dude won’t back up. One of many baseless accusations. It’s a tell tale sign because good art, good work speaks for itself. Bad work has to work hard to make others look bad.

“Why?”

“I don’t know either”

“Simply, because most psychics, so-called witches, warlocks
and metaphysical sellers are either lying to you, or just plain
don’t know what they’re talking about!”

So sayeth the person with no credentials, knowledge and has said nothing factual yet, just playing on emotions instead of logic.

“Want PROOF?”

This dude doesn’t have any

“That’s pretty easy! – Just look around you as more and more books, systems, magick rings, talismans, spiritual items, haunted items, witches, and spells are available supposedly to help you fulfill your desires and materialize your wishes, but people are nevertheless getting LESS SUCCESSFUL and LESS HAPPY with their Lives!!”

It’s so easy the dude conveniently forgets to tell you. And decides to pull on heartstrings further with inaccuracies and blatant disregard to social trends that are making people unhappy – not magick – such as use of social media, living sedentary lives and a terrible economy which hasn’t really recovered since 9/11.

“Have you ever wanted something so much you were willing to do almost anything…to obtain it?”

“Have you ever loved somebody so much it makes you cry? Have you ever -” I like Brandy, that was a good song. Very pretty, highly recommend it… unlike this site.

“Are you tired of being controlled by circumstances and events over which you have little to no control over?”

That’s prolly got more to do with politics, economic policy than anything. Unless you plan on hypnotizing the whole Congress to tax the rich at least 70%, it’s not much to it.

“Are you annoyed how the same few people seem to get all the great things in life when you keep on living in misery or a mediocre lifestyle?”

That’s called “comparing someone’s highlight reel with your behind-the-scenes”.

“You’re not alone…It seems the only people that get lucky these days are the ones who know something you don’t.”

Or are one of the 400 richest people in America. Or networks. Or combo. And again, highlight reel vs. behind-the-scenes.

“Those REAL Mystics and Occultists Possess the Power to Master the Forces of the Universe Itself…to Quickly Bring into their Lives WHATEVER THEY Most Want and Desire!”

That’s false. Even occultists and witches still gotta find a job and put work towards things that we want or need.

“The Biggest MYTH is that You Have to Be Gifted,
Chosen, or Practice an Occult System for Years to
Have the Power of the Magick, the Ability to
Define Your Own Destiny!”

Nah, you just gotta play FedEx and deliver a ring to Mordor.

“THIS IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE!”

“IT IZN’T!!11!11!11111!1eleven!1!!!1!111!1!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!1”

“It does NOT matter if You are just a Regular Person with No Special Gift!”

It doesn’t?!?!?!?!

“It does NOT matter if You have NEVER read a Single Page of a Magick Book!”

General literacy would be useful, though. Never reading a single page of any book could be a bit of a wall to success.

“It does NOT matter if You have ZERO Experience in the Occult!”

EMT is probably gonna die laughing over whatever they’ll have to save you from so good job, you’ll be cheering up people at random

“You find this hard to believe right?”

Yep.

“Most people do, but let me tell you this…”

“…I don’t know anything.”

“Whatever your abilities, knowledge and experience of Magick is, I can transform You into a Powerful Magickal Wizard with the Power to literally Create Your Own Reality Instantly at Will!”

Without a big ol’ giant storming through your front door saying, “You’re a wizard, Harry!”? How nice.

“I must first warn you, though…”

“This is some bullsh*t I’m about to sell you on”

“This is not a Method for Weak Minded or Easily Intimidated Individuals!!”

“Actually, I’m hoping that’s what you are because I don’t make a sale otherwise. A sucker is born every minute, I need you to be that sucker.”

“This is a Method of ABSOLUTE POWER…”

“POWWAAAAAAAAAAA”

“The Power to Create or
Destroy WHAT EVER YOU WANT TO…As YOU See Fit!!!”

BIG red flag that this is a scam, the baiting of universe crushing power but with no effort to get it at all? Faaaaaaaake.

“Think about How Much Would You Enjoy Possessing the Power to Master the Forces of the Universe Itself…to Quickly Bring Into Your Life WHATEVER YOU Most Want and Desire!!”

It ain’t gonna happen.

“Imagine Having Absolute Supreme Power and Total Mastery Over Life Itself with…”

Seriously, stop playing so much Heavenly Sword.

“THE REAL MAGICK FORCE!!”

If “real” means “fake”, then yes, this is very, very “real” indeed. And for someone who has disdain for witches and magick, they sure don’t mind using our spelling for it (with a “k” at the end).

“YES…You will be able to Bring Anything You Desire into Your Life without Needing to Do ANY Ritual, Nor Worship Any Strange Entity Nor Study ANY Occult System for Years…!!”

Nah you won’t. And to do real, authentic magick, you actually do have to be practiced. And again, knock off the othering of legit deities. Besides, like I said, Fast Food logic does not work nor bode well in metaphysics.        

“Forget about Witchcraft, Wicca, Natural Magick, Candle
Magick, Black Magick, White Magick…and the rest of them!”

How you really know that A) this guy is a scammer B) an idiot and C) knows absolutely nothing: this dude is supposed to teach you some worldly magick but says “We’re not doing witchcraft or any other form of magick”. It doesn’t make any sense. He just wants your money but don’t want to do any homework to get it.

“I’m talking about REAL Magick, that will Give You the Ability to Possess Amazing Power of Control and Influence in Every Area of Reality, and bring all the things You Desire into Your Life…Simply By Willing It to Be So!!”

This dude just disregarded actual real magick about a sentence ago, what does he know? This dude is a total jip. And he don’t understand the metaphysics at all, yet again, but wants to bait people’s money with promise of having the world in the palm of your hands.

“Discover How You Can SUMMON and INFLUENCE Universal
Energy Forces which Will Give You ALL THE POWER!!”

You’re just gonna discover how broke this dude is going to make you. Then the power you’ll need is power of an attorney.

“Through the Power of the Magick, You can Secretly Influence and Dominate EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY…Control Every Aspect of Your Life, with Ease…soon after You Begin Applying this Mystical Method in Your Own Life!!!”

Someone’s selfish…and most likely has an inferiority complex that they have to work double time to mask up. Besides, the magickal life is not easier than the non-magickal life. Ease, there will be nearly none of that. And it isn’t possible to control every aspect of your life and think about it, you really wouldn’t want to.

“Are You Prepared to Have this Much
Control and Mastery Over Your Own
Destiny…And LIFE ITSELF?”

“Who’s ready to get scaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammed?”

“YOU Will be able to Wield Supreme Mystical Power…

Magically Drawing Everything You Want Directly to YOU!!”

Nah, you won’t.

“How?”

“’Cause I don’t know either.”

“Simply, because the very Nature of Reality is within the Mind Itself…This is where the POWER of the MAGICK can easily be transmitted into YOUR LIFE…Through Your Un-Conscious Mind!!!”

That’s over simplifying magick by a lot. There’s a lot more to magick than just willing things about. Even psionics has more to it than simply willing things with your mind.

“Would YOU Like To Gain Complete Control Over Your Social &
Professional Environment???”

You could gain that with some classes in interpersonal skills. Though, no one likes a control freak.

“Now You CAN with the Magick Power course!!”

This kid is a joke, I’m almost running out of snarky things to say, there’s so much fail in this phony open letter. Good thing it’s over.

Okay, here’s something stupid, the site badges:

snake oil pic - BW

Notice something missing from these badges? Like the companies that are establishing that this site is supposed to be safe and with 100% satisfaction? Generally when you see site badges like these, there is supposed to be an “awarded by [so and so]” bit on it somewhere so you know it’s vetted, even if you researched it. This doesn’t have any of that so how do you know that they didn’t simply find these badges on Google images and slapped them on their site? Which is most likely what happened.

But wait, for $50, you can buy these books that are supposed to be valued at $1000 (I strongly doubt that’s the actual MSRP) and you too can afford such bogus titles as:

Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage – Complete with inaccuracies, fakery and all things misinforming!

Transcendental Magic – Which, although described as rare books on a very secret type of magic (how you can tell it’s fake because it uses the word “secret” and “rare” to bait you in)
The Arbatel of Magic – A book that is neither classic or rare

The 4 Books of Occult Philosophy – Not at all sought after and wouldn’t have a single magical secret.

This site is just oozing with scamming and con work. It’s sad folks fall for these all the time but they kind of have no one else but themselves to blame for being such a sucker. And you think this dude is gonna stop at sucking up your $50? Nah way, holmes, chances are you’d get emails to buy more and more “secrets” and other things because guess what? What this guy is gonna sell you ain’t going to work and never will because it is complete snake oil in book form.

Now, if you’re bummed because you thought “Oh man, this was the break I was looking for!”, check out these books that are in the resources and information category or just look at the different Samhain Editions here on Black Witch. At least these books aren’t total crap. They won’t promise instant power in an hour but to be honest, nothing could provide that, ever. Metaphysics requires time, dedication and work.

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All Wands Everything

Filed under: Pagan Life, Spells & Potions — Leave a comment
January 4, 2013

Happy New Year! W00t!

So, I have been in the market for a wand for a while. I never really had an interest in them except for a couple years ago when I saw some fantastic crystal tipped, wire wrapped wands and thus I have an on and off desire to look for them. Since I don’t really know of any wand makers in Baltimore or Maryland and the ones I see in the metaphysical shops looks lame to me, onward to Etsy I go! It seems to have everything I want in one place, I would not trust Ebay at all and google searches are headache inducing.It’s best that the wand is handmade, anything manufactured would not really feel the same in usage since it wouldn’t really mean much. Besides, the average wand is made of wood, to have them mass produced just doesn’t seem right since wands are supposed to be as different as the people buying or picking them.

First thing I noticed when I searched for wands on Etsy is the “Harry Potter ZOMGZ” overload and by the 25th page, it was kinda getting a little freakin annoying. I like Harry Potter, the books were very well written and the wands in the movie were fantastic but, please, not everyone is buying a wand for a prop. Some of the wands in the book cannot be recreated so simply (like phoenix or unicorn cored wands) and for the love of the gods, we get it, it’s supposed to be all mystical and magical, calm down. The descriptions for wands should not be corny or misleading. I already noticed a couple that said they had powerful spells in the handle of the wand and were used in spell duels. Immediately, I closed the tab, they’re clearly shooting for the teenage Pottermore crowd, even though some of the price tags clearly don’t agree. Now this doesn’t mean that one should totally pass up the HP inspired wands or any other inspired wands. I have seen some with R2-D2 and Sailor Moon wands, they’re great for younger practitioners or the young at heart. Inspired is fine but it’s important that the seller doesn’t mistakenly insult their potential buyer with leaning too heavy on the books because it’ll make that wand look like a cosplay prop very fast.

When it comes to looking up wands, the person who made it should be able to tell you everything about the wand. What is it made of (wood, wire, stone), how long is it (8”, 23”) and any other important details (crystal tipped, cored, creation of handle) that is a must-know. I have seen a couple nice wands but the person didn’t include what kind of wood or stone and that put me off because I want to be sure I’m getting what I’m buying. The only downside to buying wands online is that you can’t hold them and get a feel for them. I’m mega picky with wands and various other Pagan products to the point that even if I like the look – and trust, there’s plenty that look stunning – but if I don’t like the energy it gives, I won’t want it. I’m not buying a wand simply because it’s pretty but also for witchy practice. You pretty much gotta stare at pictures and try to sense what would be best for you. There is one maker that does give out free wood samples though to see how it would resonate with you (it’s the last picture on the bottom) and I think that’s great.

As far as price is concerned, that’s up to the practitioners. All a wand is, is simply a stick with possibly some embellishments on them. I’ve seen wands that are in the range of $5-$10, I’ve seen wands that are straight in the hundreds. I want a wand that won’t break the bank and I’ll not regret once getting it. Last I want to do is go after opening the box and lamenting, “I just paid $80 for a branch. A branch off a tree. A dang stick. Which grows for free. I spent more on a stick that grows for free than I do my electric bill.” That wand has to be something interesting and worth the price. The wand I was hunting for was $25, not a bad price for what the wand is made of and the fact I’ve been searching it for nearly half a decade.

The average wand should be the size of your forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. Now, unless someone is going to go for a custom made or limits themselves to wands that are that size, that isn’t always applied here. I have seen wands being sold that are about 8” and I have seen wands in person that were about 5” tall. It really varies for the practitioner. I would like a wand that is preferably reaching a foot. Apparently, in my wand search, there are several that say they come with certificates of authenticity. I can see how they are supposed to reassure the purchaser but the thing is they’re not backed by some council of wand makers or anything. It is assumed that the wand you’re depicting is yours (I know there are some wayward folks on Etsy but follow me) so to me the certificates seem pointless a little bit.

What I think are really cool are the cored wands. Wands with actual cores such as this one which is an ironwood with horse hair in the core. There’s also another that can be cored with bone or a particular wood. Part of this is indeed because I am a Harry Potter fan, ha! Another is because a cored wand could lend more to ritual working and spell working. I just think it’s amazing but it’s no promise and definitely no must that the wand I get will be cored, the one I have been searching for wasn’t and that didn’t bother me.

Looking at the wands, it’s clear that they come in such different types and styles. Not all wands are made of wood, there are plenty that have a glass or bone base or totally made of wrapped wire. Some are really whimsical looking such as this cute copper wand, and some that have some polymer clay on them. I would not prefer a wand made of polymer clay or resin because they’re not entirely natural but it is great for those who may prefer them. There’s even lavender wands, which I think look great! For the wooden wands, not all are simple, slender sticks. Some are forked, clearly modified driftwood, things of that nature. That’s pretty good for those who want the roughness of nature that a straight wand could not provide. Some have defined handles and others don’t. It may be expressed through leather wrapping or carved out. It doesn’t matter to me either way if it has a super defined handle or not but I still thought this was pretty nifty. I just love how diverse the wands are. Here’s a wand that has little skulls carved in it! And another that has a claw holding an amethyst. Like I said, there’s wands for just about every practitioner, you just have to look for them.

For me, I did finally find the wand I was looking for and it turned out to be the wands I saw all those years ago. After looking at over 105 pages of Etsy finds under the word “Wands” and 32 possible wand choices, I finally found wand I was looking for. It’s pretty tapered, just how I like them, and no definitive handle but a lovely copper wire-wrapped point with crystals at the tip set on red oak or ironwood. A lil’ bit of sleuthin has brought me to this site, Magic Wands of Wizardry. Check them out! They made the wands I fell for all those years ago. These wands are fantastic in person and it took me years to find so don’t be surprised if it winds up on the “Links of Interests”. It’s definitely getting featured in this month’s The Arts! without a doubt!

I hope this helped you out, it was quite a task for me to simply sit down and search. And for once, it actually got me the wand I actually wanted and have been looking for for years, a lovely ironwood  with a copper wrapped tip that holds a moss agate and clear quartz.

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Medicine and Potions

Filed under: Race, Spells & Potions — 2 Comments
December 14, 2012

What I have noticed as a constant in the Black Pagan community is a strong favor towards homeopathy over modern medicine such as vaccines. Always they would talk about their illnesses and ask what herbs or stones to get, what deities to pray to and such. It’s really troubling when they want to use this for their children’s primary care as well. I find that to be intensely problematic.

To have absolute distrust of vaccines is like raising a fuss over the water having fluoride in it, it’s very alarmist. It does more harm than good to opt out of “childhood vaccines” (e.g. Mumps, measles, polio, etc). Now, I personally have my reservations with shots such as flu and tetanus for my own reasons but it is not a bad idea overall to get the childhood vaccines because they prevent extremely fatal and preventable illnesses such as the whooping cough. It is okay to use potions and other forms homeopathy  but to rely on them totally while having incredible distrust of its more modern form, medicine, can still cause major health problems. I make potions myself to help when I get sick but I still go to a doctor when things get bad.

While it is a little foolish to be super skeptic of all vaccines, it is perfectly fine to be concerned about institutionalized racism in medicine because there is a long, very steady streak in that reaches into modern times such as now. Given that the face of medicine and science in the West is White, that can definitely cause suspicions to any minority that is concerned about their health because any minority that is aware of their history knows, usually when it comes to something vital, racism can really cause quite a body count through stereotyping, misinformation and forcing destructive privilege. When racism clearly will stop otherwise intelligent doctors and scientists from accepting perfectly good doctors and scientists from even entering medical schools or to simply help people thanks to their extremely illogical, unbelievably shortsighted and incredibly irrational ideas of those who can’t pass the paper bag test, it makes perfect sense to distrust that same system when it asks you to give them your arm so they can inject something into it.

History is riiiiiiiiiiife with medicine not boding well if you’re not White. Tuskegee, anyone? How about Eugenics? Even Bayer tested on victims of the Holocaust (and before someone screeches, “They were White! Racism affects us too!” there were more than Whites being detained. There were Blacks and Asians too, please get your facts straight).  There are countless, countless documents about racism in medicine and immunization – sadly science won’t fit in the scope of this post but, man, is there a lot of bigotry there too – that warps how minorities look at medicine and the system that provides it. Granted, in some of the writings I link to, the bigotry is pretty well outlined: “At least three patient factors affect ethnic and racial disparities in immunization rates: patient preferences, distrust of ‘the system,’ and lack of knowledge. For example, certain racial or ethnic groups may be more likely to call on religious or lay healers or to seek informal help through social networks rather than seeking care from physicians. Further, members of racial/ethnic minority groups often express a preference for providers from their own background, and such providers may not be available. Only 9%of physicians and 12.3% of nurses are members of a racial or ethnic minority group.” (p. 657, Larson) It already reeks a little of “They’re so irrational to be trusting these non-sciencey people we never vetted because of some silly conspiracy theory of ‘the system’ like we’re planning this.” How rude. At least the lay healers and social networks are less racist than the folks wearing lab coats on average. Unless you’re White, not sharing the same opinions as George Zimmerman is kinda a big deal because that creates the difference between being a sick person and a dead person. And, remember, this is a document that is actually talking about racism in medicine, thus recognizing it, and they’re still applying prejudice on the sly. That’s how pervasive that problematic (and potentially deadly) thinking is.

‘Ey, before I get any deeper, maybe we should familiarize ourselves with how vaccines are made and how they work. So here’s How Are Vaccines Made and there’s even a fun, interactive game called History of Vaccine which will take you through the times about health, sickness and preventative care from the 1600s to now.

Vaccines, in and of themselves, are not bad. To be honest, it’s better to be vaccinated overall because it reduces the chances of infection and fatal illnesses that are very preventable. There’s a reason why Americans do not have severe outbreaks of measles or polio. Right now, there is work on the HIV/AIDS virus and last I checked there has been amazing strides towards the cure and vaccine. Yes, there is the argument of mandatory vaccines and autism but even that has been proven not to be connected. In their purest form, vaccines are to be just that, a serum to prevent illness.

When it comes to medicine, potions are the starting point of it all. Whether science likes it or not, it has a lot of starts in witchcraft and medicine is included. What used to be regarded as folk herbs and folk medicine has been studied, bottled up and distributed in the form of pills, shots and syrups. There are various types of potions such as teas, tinctures, poultices and wraps. Some that I use are to help my throat when it’s sore, when my muscles are achy/inflamed/swollen, cramps, etc etc. I use potion work with modern medicine so I reduce visits to the doctor and stay healthy. I’m a little lucky that I have so many doctors and health professionals in my family (pretty much all my aunts and both of my grandmothers) so medicine knowledge trickles down but it’s information anyone who pretty much stayed awake in biology or biochem should know since medicine is merely knowing how the body works and how different substances interact with the body.

Anyone who is thinking of getting into herbalism and potion work should pick up a few books on how the body works, botany and things of that nature because without proper knowledge, potion work can become very, very harmful. Do not relax on the idea that because it came from nature, it’s harmless. There are plenty of plants, creatures and occurrences that come from nature and the earth and are plenty dangerous. To assume Mother Nature is some kind and benevolent being clearly is not a very realistic person. Possibly a fluffy bunny that should stay very far away from potions so they don’t mistakenly kill someone.

Aside from the natural function of the body’s immune system and things that can be used to strengthen them, I don’t believe there is a potion version of the vaccine besides vaccines themselves since they use actual parts of germs and viruses and, welp, there was nothing like that back in the heyday of potion making. Potions were taking things from nature and using those to make remedies for illnesses. This doesn’t mean that making teas and tinctures are phony and useless, it means that everyone has a territory for their own. Potion work isn’t perfect and neither is modern medicine but combined, they can create a pretty healthy person.

So! Get at least your childhood vaccinations? Yes. Be aware that the instruction of medicine can be super prejudiced to the point it could kill you if you’re a minority? Yep. Are potions worthwhile to do? Sure are, just know what you’re doing. Is it smart to distrust vaccines and go with homeopathy instead? Nah, not really, get at least the basic shots and know how vaccines are made. Don’t slough off potions for modern medicine? Sure, modern medicine had to start somewhere. Don’t slough off modern medicine for potions? Please don’t, modern medicine isn’t a total cock up, just some of the people who study it and all of the institution that administers it. Is fluoride bad for you? Newp, it strengthens your teeth with the amount that is in drinking water.

Stay healthy!

Next week is The Arts! Who is being featured:

– Lupe Fiasco x KRS-One Christmas Battle
– Rolling Jubilee
– EddsWorld

After that is Ask Black Witch, the last of 2012! Send in your questions! Good questions are appreciated, bad questions are eviscerated!

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Stick a Fork In It

Filed under: Relationships and Dating, Spells & Potions — 1 Comment
December 7, 2012

There are those who have relationships that are on life support or total corpses and these folks wanna use stones, herbs and/or candles to bring the relationship back to life. Boy, are these folks the depressive sort.

The thing about relationships and magick is that, although magick is boundless and there is no such thing as impossible, it shouldn’t be used to provide a dying relationship CPR. If mundane actions such as communicating or interacting with each other in an equal manner couldn’t save the relationship, I highly doubt rocks and candles would.

Think about it, magick is to provide help with life, not live it for you. If a person has to rely on stones that help fidelity, candles that increase passion or herbs that creates irresistibility to keep a relationship alive or going, it’s time to consider pulling the plug. A relationship should be of two people who actually care and enjoy each other’s friendship to the point they feel romantic emotions. The love should be from deep down inside, not based on anything superficial. To be looking towards magick does say that one person at least wants the relationship to go well but also telling that there are some deep cracks in the relationship that’s probably going to ultimately kill it if not actually identified. Instead of working on clearing up the symptoms, work on the illness. And this is to say nothing of the fact that these metaphysical works do have to be recharged to keep going, they’re not permanent.

In my experience, when asking the inquirers about their relationships and why they are looking for whatever it is that they are, it really does seems like there are deeper problems that no bell, book or candle could solve on its own. If there’s no solving the problem that is starting all the issues, there’s no point. Assuming there is an issue and not a bad case of paranoia.

There are folks who are simply not cut out for relationships because they have so many issues with themselves that bleed into their interactions. They don’t trust others, they believe every negative stereotype about the gender they date, haven’t truly healed from past hurts, there’s a variety of reasons why these folks should take a break from relationships but they don’t. Instead they rather buy all these things that won’t help the relationship because it can’t help the person having the messed up ideas. If a person is forever suspicious of their significant other cheating despite the significant other not doing anything suspicious nor has a background in being unfaithful, there’s no magick in the world that could help the relationship and keep it afloat because the problem is not the relationship but one of the people in the relationship. It may seem easier to buy a candle and ask it to provide emotional security in the relationship but, trust, it’s a lot better to talk to the significant other and make sure everyone is on the same page.

Then there’s the fact that some do not understand – or want to understand – that the problem could be with them or the type of people they prefer to date. If a person consistently dates the cheating type, the problem isn’t necessarily the person they date (although, anyone who is a cheating type is certainly problematic), it’s them themselves because it’s their choice to get involved with such a person. This person, instead of looking within themselves and going “Hm, why do I keep going for these types?” would rather be stalking around a metaphysical shop trying to find black salt, various stones, candles, whatever to thwart any possible sneaking about their lover could be doing. And it’s a real doozy if they finally found one who actually is faithful because this person will have it so deep in their head that all wo/men cheat and thus that significant other will be treated the same. This person (and note I never called them a “witch” or anything that signifies dedicated metaphysical practice because usually it’s not a Witch but a dabbler) will probably never get it through their head that magick will not solve the problem. If anything, it may even exacerbate the drama and ultimate death of it.

As I have mentioned earlier, I have had the experience of talking to these folks as they stood there sifting through whatever 7 day candle looks most ominous and as I tried to be the voice of reason. If it’s for suspicions of cheating, I would ask, “Are you sure?”, “If you’re sure that this is a constant problem, why stay?”, “Have you guys had a sit-down discussion, do you really think magick is needed?” If it’s for lack of communication, I would ask “Does s/he know how you feel about this?”, “Have you guys actually talked? As in, you both are being totally honest, being blunt and all?”, “You are aware that this is a bag of rocks and not an automatic truth serum you’re buying, right?” When it’s dealing with a person who has a money drain lover, it’s “Okay, have you thought about separate accounts so they can drain themselves and you don’t bail them out? They can’t play Wall St. forever”, “If this person is bad with money, have you told them?”, “These money spells you wanna cast won’t work if there’s a hole in the cup of fortune and it’s going to take more than magick to make someone decent with finances. Have you thought of dragging them to a finance seminar? The library has free programs.” No matter what, they are pretty much never deterred. They believe that magick is the silver bullet to their relationship when it really isn’t. Instead, these are problems where the person should think if it’s worth keeping their significant other around or not.

Now, all this is different from mutual rituals that are declarations and confirmations of love. Those can also involve herbs, stones and candles that symbolizes strengthened love, increased passion and things of that nature but they’re used as a supplement instead of as the defibrillator. There’s nothing wrong to have stones, herbs or candles that symbolize happiness and good fortune on the relationship, that’s what marriages are essentially, but the issue here is that these materials are not often used in this fashion.

The most outstanding problem of all this, once everything else is stripped away, is that it impinges on controlling others through magick, always a bad idea. These folks are not trying to really help the relationship through magick but fix it to their liking. It should be simple, if you don’t like the person you’re dating or they’re doing a deal-breaker, the relationship should come to a halt. No one is perfect, that’s fact, but no one should put up with dating people they don’t like either. Of course, it’s never that easy in every relationship but things shouldn’t get so bad that magick is sought out to help the problem. This is a spot where magick should not be needed because it’s a mundane issue. Everyone has relationship hiccups and no one has to practice the occult to remedy them, anyone who thinks that clearly should stay away from dating (and the occult) as a whole.

It’s important to use as little magick (to none at all) in the basic runnings of a relationship. A relationship should have intrinsic value, it should mean something sincere to the people in it. That can’t be faked through magick and if magick was used to make love happen where there isn’t, it could definitely produce a lot of problems from creating an obsessive love to a forever tumultuous relationship that’s hard to leave. It’s just too easy to complicate things with magick, especially a relationship.

Besides, if the significant other is this much of a problem, don’t use magick to change them, just dump the fool already.

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Dead!

Filed under: Spells & Potions — 1 Comment
November 2, 2012

Alright, all the Samhain Pickers have been read for and the Ustream chat went fairly well despite me derping on camera a lot (I need to learn better public speaking skills). The musical acts I did mention since someone asked for a list:

– Straight Line Stitch

– Femi/Dri Fish

– Blindside

– Polysics

– Janelle Monae

– Saul Williams

– Lupe Fiasco

– Big Bang

– 2ne1

– 4minute

– Psy

– Nikki Lynette

– Gackt

I mentioned a lot! Which is great because it gives me a new starter master list for The Arts! features. And businesses I’ve mentioned

-RA Sushi

-XS

-Boullibase Café

-Yolly Molly

-Rams Head Live (music)

-Soundstage (music)

Onward with the column for this week!

I’ve been reading this book as of recent, The Witches’ Book of the Dead by Christian Day. I’ve got to admit, it’s really good and I would highly recommend it. It’s great as an introductory book into death magick/necromantic magick. If anyone wants to learn about how to work with the dead, this is the book for you. No, it won’t have you killing animals or people – I would have put this book back on the shelf if so, I’m quite against that stuff and so is the author apparently – but some of the rituals, it will require blood work. Don’t freak, I’ll touch on that a little later.

This book is so well written! I normally am not interested in death magick of any sort and I was way too spooked to when I was younger but I’ve just thought this would be an interesting topic now that I’m older and boy, is this book great! Again, I recommend it to anyone who is interested! It covers everything such as rituals to commune with the dead, working with spirits, ghost hunting, Ouija boards (finally a good book on that), so on and so forth.

What I am so keen on is how Day reflects upon and interprets skulls. I usually would never use skulls in my works because I am a little superstitious about skulls inviting death, misfortune and illness into the one who wears it and dotes on it aplenty. Day goes in an enlightening way about skulls and the different types and purposes in magic of skulls. Of course I know that skulls are very powerful, death is natural, and bone is a pretty strong material, magickally. I just grew up with reservations about skulls and that stuck with me, especially growing up in a violent area and thus not wanting something that could attract more problems. Day’s entry though made me see skulls in a different way that is pretty positive and to the point that I don’t mind introducing at least skull candles into my own works when appropriate. I don’t think I’ll get up to human bone because it simply isn’t my thing but I think skull candles are fine enough since I usually use candles in my works anyways.

The author is very balanced ethics-wise, always a big thing to me. Even with hexing, Day takes a very fair approach about it such as mentioning that hexing in the past was not always bad, it’s was usually used as a form of justified retribution but if you’re doing nothing but hexing and jinxing, you might have problems that only a therapist could solve. I couldn’t agree more. There is no savage killing or maiming in this book, a point I feel needs to be mentioned a ton of times, trust on that. Besides the teeny weeny blood work from the practitioner done and skulls that (aren’t a must) can be bought from BoneRoom.com, there’s absolutely nothing human derived. Hey, even the skull can be made from crystal instead of a legit human skull.

Alright, as I mentioned at the start, there is some blood magick involved. Nothing that could paint the walls and put you into shock, you’ll be pricking your finger with a medical lancelet and it’ll just be you who gives up the blood, no one else.* If that squicks you out, don’t worry, there’s other rituals in this book to do without bloodletting of any sort. Me, personally, I’m not against blood work in magick as long as it is done smartly (e.g., not draining your body of blood, not killing/maiming other living things). Blood is a pretty strong force in magick – I mean, it is a life force in and of itself – and is perfectly natural to use. However! I am gonna put on the responsible columnist hat and say if you’re a teenager or younger, I would say hold off until you get older. This is to keep your parents from freaking out, me getting justified hate mail from freaked out parents and you guys from doing something that you may not fully understand the impact of until you get older. Understand it first, you’re not trying to recreate a scene from The Craft.

The mention of the Ouija board is great! I usually tell everyone to beware of them – not because they’re bad but because you could be inviting some serious astral nasties to come bother you – but Day’s section on them is fantastic! It goes into the history behind them, the mainstream mania that involves them, how to use them well and what do to if things go wrong. It’s simply well written and makes the Ouija board look like a normal tool in opposed to some thing of mystery and foolishness.

When it comes to working with death magick, it is important to remember that it’s not the insta-answer if you want to bring back someone from the dead. It is very sad and depressing to say but you can’t bring anyone back from the dead. Although I am a firm believer that anything can happen in magick, when it comes to the dead, I think it’s better to keep them there and to commemorate their spirit instead. I mean, think about it, even if you did bring back a loved one, you guys wouldn’t simply pick up where you left off. Oh no. First there would be the body; either it would need a serious ritual that is way advanced for practically anyone to get the body to a successful living state or something to replace that if the person was turned to ashes. Then there’s fact someone is about to experience being dragged back into the land of the living, where there’s suffering, poverty, corruption, injustice, the restriction of a physical shell, stuff like that. The person may not appreciate being alive again if the afterlife was better. And it’s not like there’s anyone really that they could talk to about the experience and the experience would most likely leave them changed any ol’ ways, definitely not just resuming life as they just left it. It simply would be better to honor and work with their spirit now that they moved on. I understand the desire to want to bring back a loved one but trust, it’s better to work with their spirit.

I think it’s fantastic to work with spirit because your ancestors and other spirits are usually willing to help you out in some way or another. They’ll always be there for you and the spirit world is quite boundless. This is not to replace god worship necessarily but amplify working with those who have passed on and, in turn, are part of the collective knowledge of the universe – the Death Current, as Day calls it.

So if you want to get into working with the dead, this book is an absolute must. There’s no chattering about like a goth that’s trying too hard to be scary, the writing is refreshing, and it has a sense of humor and realism that occasionally is absent from magick books. The Witches’ Book of the Dead is a fantastic introductory book to get someone comfortable with working with the dead and with full immersion at that.

Welp, that’s all the Black Witch for this week! I hope you liked the Ustream chat, it was very enjoyable. All the winners of Samhain Pickers should have their readings by now and if you don’t, contact me immediately.

*At all. Just you. No killing. No maiming. Simply doing the same act diabetics do just to check their blood sugar. Just want to make that crystal clear.

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Hooray for Samhain

Filed under: AfroPunk/The Establishment, Pagan Life, Spells & Potions — Leave a comment
October 16, 2012

So, Samhain is around the corner and Afro-Punk asked me to write some pieces on it. No problem. Already was on it.

Samhain is Halloween and one of the biggest holidays for witches, wiccans and Pagans and personally one of my favorite holidays. It’s so nice and spooky and fun! And you get free food from your neighbors, always spiffy. Halloween is a fun holiday but also a holiday filled with a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions. Let’s start with the biggest misconceptions: The spells

Firstly, please do not sacrifice animals on Halloween. It won’t work, regardless what you’re trying to accomplish and this is the 21st century, Witches such as myself have other, far simplier methods for magick working. I don’t sacrifice animals and neither does anyone else I know and I’ve been practicing Paganism and witchcraft for about ten years now. Again, no sacrificing animals, not necessary. It’s cruel to the animal (and illegal). And in case I have to throw this in there: no sacrificing people either. There are other ways to cast effective spells that doesn’t involve a bottle of chloroform and a burlap sack. It’s cruel to the person (and illegal). No killing, no maiming, no harming. Sign up for the military if that’s what you’re into.

Now, the spells. What I touched on above is a pretty big stereotype, misconception and a harmful one. People who usually know nothing of magick but watch a lot of movies get this thinking that killing or maiming living things for Halloween will have some spectacular effect that frankly won’t happen. From summoning the devil to trying to revive a long dead relationship, there is really no need to take the life of another to make these silly things happen. None. Whatsoever. At all. It doesn’t matter how ridiculous or earnest the intention of the spell, sacrifice is not necessary at all. While it is true that sacrifices has happened in Paganism’s history and still continues in some pockets of the world, they’re done by extremely skilled practitioners and with respect to the animal’s life, not some random loser out for serial killer-esque kicks and giggles so again, refrain from doing any harming. No blood.

Since Halloween is associated with magick and spells, that means I could bet dollars to donuts that many people from the everyday dimwit to the well-seasoned witch is attempting some spell of some sort, whether they got the spell from the internet or from a book on witchcraft that very night. Actually, I usually don’t since it’s like shopping on Black Friday, not my thing, everything is clogged and not interested. I rather terrorize my friends for free snacks or watch It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and The Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror, I can cast spells any other time of the year, it’s no big deal. Other witches celebrate differently or the same, we’re our own individuals.

Next to spells, there’s the belief of summoning the dead, usually via Ouija board. Though it is correct that Halloween is the day that the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest, talking to the dead is no simple task. It’s too simple for things to go wrong and I would strongly advise against it. I don’t mess with Ouija board and neither do any of the witches or occultists I know. This is not to say no one does, but those who do are usually pretty skilled enough to handle anything that could go wrong because despite the honest fact that you could be trying to summon Jimi Hendrix, it’s still very possible you could get a demon or some other malevolent spirit. Without proper skill, anything can come through if you don’t know what you’re doing and most folks don’t. Last anyone needs is a destroyed room or haunted house.

Halloween, having its starts in Ireland as Samhain (meaning “Summer’s End”), is about the passing of the year and a day of the dead. It was originally the New Year’s Eve by the Celtics of the British Isles and France, marking the “death” of the old year and the “birth” of the new year. It was also regarded that the invisible veil between the living and the dead grew to its thinnest point at sundown, thus communication between the worlds is easiest.  As written in A Witch’s Halloween by Gerina Dunwich, the folklore goes:

“Every Samhain, a deity known as the Lord of the Dead was said to gather together the souls of all men, women and children who had died during the previous year, and had since been confined in the bodies of animals while waiting to enter the underworld. With their sins expiated, they would be set free to begin their journey to the Celtic underworld of Ti-na-n’Og, whose open gates awaited them.

In addition, homesick spirits were free to roam the mortal world and return to their old earthly homes to seek the warmth of the hearth fire and the company of their living kin. Families prepared offerings of fruits and vegetables and hilltop bonfires, which illuminated the night sky with an eerie orange glow and served as a guiding light for the souls of the dead. These fires were kept burning throughout the night to frighten away any evil spirits intended to harm the living.”

This is roughly how Witches, Pagans and Wiccans celebrate. It is celebrated as a day of remembrance of those who have passed on or as “The Witches’ New Year”. This does not mean that we don’t have Halloween parties or anything of that nature, we just treat it a little differently than the average person. There are various rituals and divinations that can be done and the best way to go about them is through books. I highly recommend the book A Witch’s Halloween by Gerina Dunwich.

That’s all the Black Witch for today!

Also, this is the third annual Samhain Pickers where you submit your info and if you win, I do your divination (Tarot, cartomancy, basic natal chart or dream interpretation).

How to submit:

Name

Email

Type of divination

Send to thisblackwitch@hotmail.com with “Samhain Pickers” in the subject line. Winners are picked on Oct 26. Good luck!

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