Ex Penna

Wow, I don't know if you've ever been in this position, but if you haven't yet, you will someday.  In a life lived half in the magical and half in the mundane, stuff gets forgotten about, plans get mixed up, and problems run unchecked until that mystical light bulb appears.  Sometimes it's comedic, sometimes tragic.  Of course, that is the nature of a busy (or stressed, aging, or forgetful) person; perfection is just not part of the deal.

In my own practice, the goal is to fit in as much per day as possible.  While this applies to my mundane life, too, in magic it's actually quite specific.  I'm a shop owner (of course), teacher, writer, tarot reader, professional spellcaster, and coven leader while also working for my own desires on the side.  That means a lot of plans with varying levels of urgency and a lot of lists to keep them straight.  As you can imagine, this rarely runs smoothly.  Custom work, rituals, paid readings, and writing magazine articles on a deadline are a must; everything else is on a sliding scale.

Maybe to spare you the same fate or maybe to help me reroute the disturbing regularity of my bad habit, I'd like to share with you the patterns of my forgotten magic.  Perhaps you'll recognize words that have come out of your mouth or that of someone you know.  Feel free to make fun of all three.


"I need to witch this!"

So many projects, so little time.  There truly is nothing under the sun that can't be enhanced, smoothed, or improved by the addition of a spell or two.  Sadly, we don't always remember to get to work at the first opportunity like we should (and sometimes not even at the last opportunity.  I always work spells for job interviews but rarely have I remembered to work for a similarly good impression when making new friends.  I cast for the good health of others but forget to do the same for myself.

The right time to start planning your magic is at the moment when new situations pop up--any new situation.  Don't save your work just for the bad things; make the good things even better, open up new opportunities, take your skills to the next level!  
Once you know what magic would be a good fit, pick a date to work on it.  It's so easy to let it slide if you have nothing solid in place yet know at the back of your mind that you'd like to "take care of that problem" or "do a spell for that one of these nights."  That couldn't be more vague!  If you--and I--hope to get anything done, it will have to be through the art of planning ahead.

This is something I wish I'd thought of when I was first presenting my classes on successful spellcasting in a strictly local setting.  I knew I'd have a difficult time of it because of the small town I live in and the general lack of progressive thought.  There are, of course, practitioners around here but presenting yourself in an arena they all would notice is a real challenge.

I put quite a bit of effort into arranging advertising and meetup sessions but, unfortunately, very little to no magic.  What a shame.  That first run could have been a whole lot bigger!  Of course, that weak turn out is what inspired me to put them online instead, saving me considerable amounts of time and effort than can now be put into other projects.


"Oh Yeah, that's considered magic.  Should have written that down..."

I do this with the little things like "pushes" or other mind magic, charms that I recite so often that I barely notice that I'm doing it, bits of folk magic and superstition, and petitions to the Gods.  If you count all those things, I do a ton of spellwork every day.  But don't ask me to recount it; I probably won't remember half of it without paper and pencil and a calender.

A lot of charms come out of me when I'm driving--to get there on time, not to get a ticket, to make the gas in my tank last, finding parking spaces, to avoid hitting animals, and to be safe while driving in snow and rain.   Other than that I change the minds and attitudes of others for various reasons, make delicious the food I'm cooking or make it cook faster, make projects go smoothly, be fearless in the face of phobias, become eloquent when talking to others, and on and on.  That kind of thing should be preserved and yet rarely is.

Right along with this is the sheer volume of work that I put on my familiar.  He has a lot of tasks to complete in any given day and yet my BoS doesn't reflect this.  Perhaps I should put more effort into giving him his just credits.

"I'm glad this problem worked out but I'm a little bummed I didn't get to get it by magic."

Is there anything more depressing than pages of now-pointless research?  I've got my share of them.  Especially when the situation resolved itself, I have felt very torn about the work I almost did--that I was ready to do--but didn't get done in time to make any difference.  It's no wonder that some casters say that the magic begins not at the point that the spell is cast but at the time we start planning and working towards its casting.  It's a big fat cheat but at least that way we can say the effort we put in did something.

"I'd better write this down"

Updating my BoS is an exercise in memory and wrist strength.  Entries are long and involved, often spanning months of work.  As I sort through my recollections the finer details seem to get lost in the dust: the source of the spells I just cast, the outcome of spellwork, important divination answers, what that little bottle contains....

Really should have written that down right away, dontcha think? It's one of those funny tricks that your mind plays on you from time to time that you think you'll remember up to some distant time when you can commit it to paper.  I know this about myself: it's impossible for me to have time for updating after every spell or even on a weekly basis.  My BoS leaps ahead randomly by long spans and short, usually based on a sudden quiet space in my schedule where I can commit to working on it.  In the meantime, though, should be a lot of smaller bits of writing, even if it's just a post-it note.

You know, I think I've got this one solved.  I can write down such information on note paper, date it, and stick it on a spindle or in a mail sorter.  There, problem fixed.  Until then, though, there are two post-it notes stuck to jars sitting on my desk with lists of what I think are the ingredients to the oils inside (based on either scent or careful examination of the tiny flecks of herbs at the bottom).  Where was this great idea back when I made these things?


"I'm going to have to make time to kick your ass"

Have you ever had this happen?  There's a person who is doing all the wrong things, irritating and infuriating everyone around them.  Maybe they're even ruining the situation so badly that you know without a doubt that they have to be stopped.  Unfortunately, damage control is keeping you quite busy already and by the time you're done with that, you don't even want to hear their name let alone focus on them for spellwork.

Or maybe you're just too busy in general.  You're swamped at work, the baby's teething, and the pipes just froze again (this has all happened to me).  You don't have time for anything other than your immediate surroundings.  That can of whoop-ass will just have to remain unopened.

This may be one of the real reasons that there aren't more curses being cast.

I still have a little bag in my desk that contains the signature and an old ring from a person who owes me a sizable amount of money from several years ago.  He's wily and stubborn so attempts to recover my cash were not easy.  I keep these items, however, because what I'd really like to do is to ruin him, to absolutely devastate his life and make sure he knows who made it happen.  It's not the money so much as the fact that he's a just terrible person.  He should probably count himself fortunate that I don't have the time.  Anyone out there need a guinea pig to try out some black magic?



From all of this it's easy to suppose that I never get any spellwork done, but that is far from the truth.  It is a simple fact that the longer you've been in the magical community, the broader your base of knowledge, the greater your aspirations, the more you will have to arrange your life to fit it all.  The fact that some good habits fall to the side, some plans go unfulfilled, some bits of information seem to blow away on the wind only means that your life is full to bursting.  I will happily accept what quirks and flaws must come of that because I can't think of a better way to live.

There's nothing that pleases me more than having a cupboard full of formulas.  I have a collection of about 90 kinds of powders, oils, tinctures, and incenses, and all of them--except about 3--are homemade by me.  Yes, I am bragging.

So it's no surprise that I have favorites that must be kept on hand at all times, no matter how simple or complicated their formulation.  Water of Notre Dame is one of them.

Oddly enough, it's also one that is both simple and complicated because there seems to be a greater than average number of opinions about how it should be made.  When the water was first introduced to the public as a "scrubbing essence" (many of the most wide-spread condition formulas had earlier fame for other purposes), it was made with a base of arnica tincture.  Somewhere along the line it changed into an infusion of whte rose petals.  Since then it has evolved again to call for hydrosol or essential oil.  The other ingredients seem fairly stable and only the element of white roses change.  Of course, I haven't seen a single modern recipe calling for arnica; that aspect seems gone for good.

Water of Notre Dame is the go-to wash for all happy home spells.  It promotes peace and serenity in the home, cleanses, banishes evil, uncrosses, and also summons helpful spirits to come to your aid.

The recipe of Ray Malbrough (and many others, I've discovered) is nothing more than white rose and water, but the recipe I follow is closer to the one given by Judika Illes in her "Element Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells."  I prefer tinctures to waters because of their longevity and potency.

100 Wise Words for Everyone


Lately I've been thinking a lot about the kind of rules we set for ourselves.  I know that in this disparate community of ours, setting limitations sounds like an awful idea to many people, but we do it even when we swear we won't.

In truth, finding the kind of rules that we can set our lives to (and for the magical person, our practice) is immensely helpful.  They become the kind of reassuring structure that gives peace of mind and direction.  As a natural note-taker and list-maker, I adore it.  In your own way--and to your own degree--you can too.

This week's Quick Link is a set of simple wisdoms that is meant to take the author's unborn son through a joyous life.  Reading his ideas on just what makes for not only proper behavior and social conduct but also happiness and fulfillment makes me think of what I'd call the wisdoms of magical practice.

So read this list and ponder.  Can we come up with 100 Wise Words for Magical People?