Ex Penna

Preventative Magic

Here we have the protections and shields, the harmony and peace spells for home and work.  Keeping things running smoothly is key to effective magic in other parts of our lives. After all, if your job stress is keeping your mind occupied, how will you ever have the focus for a love spell?  Cast spells to keep your life tidy and take care of problems before they erupt.


Immediate Magic

These are the charms, formulas, and tiny works that you can do right away when something goes wrong.  Keep a bag of powder, a vial of potion, a bit of string to tie knots into, and you will have magic at hand all the time.

Immediate magic is all about being small and fast.  For straight-forward problems without any nuance, you can either work with the off-hand forms mentioned above or use the kind of itty-bitty spells that have proliferated the internet.  The standard example of this is the placement of items (putting crystals in the corners of the room, carrying herbs in your pocket, or tucking a slip of paper with a magic symbol in your shoe), but it also includes the little combinations like chanting over a lit candle or dissolving ink from a magic seal in water and drinking it.


Modifying Magic

• Planning ahead
• Keeping up with changes
• Knowing your goals

My Preventative Magic Moment

Years ago, my husband worked at a very dangerous, and not at all safety-conscious, outdoor job.  In a disastrous accident, one coworker was injured and believed the reason for the injury lay with my husband.  This was not entirely surprising based on the instigating attitudes of the other members of the crew, plus the aggressive bosses whose only interest was blame and termination, not prevention and training.

So there we were, a young couple with two small children and for the sake of an accident in an unsafe workplace suddenly on the edge of homelessness.  Nothing had yet happened at this point.  All the workers went home and the injured man went to the hospital.  He said he would decide the next day what he would recommend happen to the person(s) involved and we were terrified.  So I set to work.

My spells revolved around cooling whatever anger he actually had about the accident, ending the influence of those who just want to stir the pot (of which there were many), and finding resolution that injured no one.

That night, several hours after the spells were complete, the phone rang.  It was the coworker.  He'd been released from the hospital and called as soon as he got home to say that he was sorry for how things turned out at work.  We were both shocked at the idea that anyone would apologise for getting hurt!  My husband waved away the apology and they spent the next 30 minutes patching things up and apologising to one another (a symptom of two painfully polite upbringings).  The whole thing blew over and nothing more came of it.  We couldn't have been more relieved!

In this instance, the time to begin working on what might happen was the very first moment I heard about the problem, before opinions could gel into actions.  Preventative magic paid off.


My Immediate Magic Moment

My husband and I were at a big sunny barbecue, a rare outing during the summer of my pregnancy with our second child.  It was in celebration of a job well done for the crew who was responsible for an entire remodel of a local department store.  Everyone was having a great time playing games and enjoying the terrific spread of food when the storm clouds started to roll in.  Whispers and jokes soon turned to sad comments about such a nice party needing to come to an end at its very beginning.  My husband looked at me and we knew what to do.

I used one of the many charms for deflecting a storm.  My husband engaged others in conversation while I stared at the sky.  Breathing out my words, I let them disperse the dark clouds above us, repeating them in an unending string until it felt complete.  In a few minutes time, I noticed a change in the lighting: the sky was already brightening.  The thick roll of storm clouds had broken up and in their place were white tufts and streaming sunshine.  The party was back on!  We celebrated in high style the rest of the day and into the evening.

This is the kind of thing I wish more witches were adept in.  With immediate magic, the problem has already begun and you need to work while everything is in motion.  Being able to shut out the world around you and cast a spell right this moment is both challenging and rewarding beyond what I've felt from carefully timed and prepared works.  It's always great fun to see if you can do it and to what accuracy.  If for no other reason, you should always stay in good practice so that when the situation arises for immediate magic, you will be ready.


My Modifying Magic Moment

This was a big one.  I was seeking a job but had a lot of requirements.  No, I'm not the fussy type who demands a high paying job with zero stress and long vacations.  I am a willing worker and have been all my adult life.  But now I needed work that would be able to fit into my already full schedule.  It wouldn't be easy.

So when that job presented itself, I was overjoyed.  But a single stone in that road was so significant that it may as well have been a concrete blockade--my job was already taken. The person in question was on the way out but not before finding safe landing in new work somewhere else.  Not being a risk-taker meant that it was unlikely for this person to find anything quickly.  Time began to slip away, and with no progress, I grew impatient.  So I went to my workroom and brought out my best spellbooks.

I sought a job similar to the previous one--taking into account the security this person craved--and cast my spells with care.  This was pretty big; not only was I rerouting something in my life that I cared about, I was doing the same in someone else's.  The results were very important to me, so I plotted things slowly.  I made some petitions, too, and laid papers on my altar with descriptions of the soon-to-be empty position with my name across the top.  A short while later I heard the good news that the job was available and I was to start immediately!  The previous employee had found the perfect vacancy and now my own vacancy was secured.





 Related reading includes  Spells You Can Cast Today for Free,  The Secret of Powerful Magic

Images from:
blog.lib.umn.edu/jaku0040
windling.typepad.com/blog
whitemagicwitch.com/basic-preparation-for-casting-spells

As you know, I've been working on a manuscript about fame in the magical community.  I have profiled the lives of the legendary occultists whom we all know, but I also want to hear from people on their way up.  Do you consider yourself magically ambitious?  Do you have talents that many other practitioners would be interested in?  Have you done something large scale such as hosting a festival, leading workshops/classes, or running your own store?  Do you dream of doing any of these things?  Then I need to hear from you!

25 Most Influential People in the Birth of Modern Paganism (American Wing)

25 Most Influential People in the Birth of Modern Paganism (European Wing)


In researching magic users of note for a writing project I'm currently engrossed in, I discovered these excellent lists.  They are certainly food for thought.  Even if you do not practice any form of spirituality with your magic (and I am a big advocate of keeping the two quite separate on most occasions), you will certainly have felt the hand of these individuals, be it in the book market, the festival circuit, or on the streets.  These are the visionaries who saw through the haze of how things were to how they ought to be.

Read, ponder, and share, if you like.  What would be your list?  Do you have plans to ever see your name upon it?

Cloaks, bell-sleeves, ruffles, lace, ribbons, and crushed velvet.  Gem tone colors billow in the incense-heavy breeze at a Pagan festival...or fairie festival...or Renaissance Faire.  Who can tell?

Magical folk are largely well aware of the number of eye-rolls that these clothes now garner.  Traditionalists seem the most disapproving, mainly because fancy dress was not a part of what our ancestors would have done.  But, then again, there is a lot that we do differently from the older generations.  That's just part of working within a living tradition.

And, conversely, witches know of very few reasons for the modern practice to continue. Most of us are not practicing magic in a way that deeply resonates with that era and the fabric, cut, and colors of our current clothes have very little to do with what would have been available at the time.  But that is not to say that there is no sense in wearing garb to your next magical celebration.  Here are the real reasons that this trend has lasted so long and why it will go on:


It's fun

Though it may seem obvious, this aspect is easily overlooked.  Fun seems to be the number one reason for Ren-Faire clothes in every Circle.  The look is dressy and festive, showing that one has put effort into getting ready for the event as well as letting others know that they value the event and its participants enough to bring out the special clothes. And with the generous cut, flattering shape, and floaty layers, it's easy to be proud of your reflection no matter your figure.


It's a brand

Of course, this may be an unpopular attitude, but it's a valuable part of the equation.  As a subculture we have the need to build a "look" that is our own.  Clothing is a common identifier for any group and this has become a signature for our people.  When you see a group of folks in this dress, you can reasonably approach them as possible practitioners. Then with a few well-placed words you will know if these are witches or no.  That's more than can be said for a gathering of plain-clothes individuals.
Also of note is the point made at the opening of this post--we share festival circuits with other groups that have nothing to do with magic.  Though you would expect this to make things more difficult it is actually to our benefit.  Events intended strictly for practitioners are usually put on by individual groups or covens and are localized in cities that stand to bring in the largest crowd.  Because of the great expense, time, work, and coordination needed, they are generally held once a year or less.  On top of this is the cost of advertising which means that much of the information is passed by word of mouth and social media--both systems which can unintentionally miss huge numbers of otherwise interested people.  This means that your chances of living within driving distance of such a festival, hearing about it in time, and being available for that one specific period of time are not very good.

But Ren Faire and other historical, fantasy, and bohemian events have corporate sponsors, organized and paid groups of workers, and advertising teams.  So we piggy-back on this and work our own festival inside the larger one.  The newcomer to witchcraft (or those who are interested in becoming one) are especially heartened by this innocent way to dip ones toes into a larger magical ocean.

It's a history we miss

No, I don't think anyone misses the Inquisition, spectral evidence, or Bubonic Plague, but we certainly miss the days when everyone knew witchcraft existed.  With the overwhelming amount of people favoring either a materialistic philosophy or a religious--but no more mystical--view of the world's belts and gears, one is not likely to find the common man believing in, let alone working with, magic.  Some would say this is the work of the rational minds that have taken us from superstition to science, but at what cost?  Have we forsaken the beauty and the fables of antiquity when we said all spells were but wishes, prayers, vain fancy?  Some even call it now by scientific theories of a plastic universe, a receiving and reflecting force in nature that feeds us back our own thoughts.  And that is how a wish is granted, that is how a prayer is fulfilled, a spell works, and even idle dreams become our good or bad reality.  But isn't this all just a gentrified way to say "magic"?

When we gear up in our garb, we can forget for a time that there are swarms of people in every corner waiting to tell you what cannot be done.  It is as though there is something personally at stake for them; they must make you aware that you're living a lie, even if it is one that troubles no one but them.  When we tighten our corsets, we armor ourselves against the useless insistence of common thought.  We lace boots to walk where they fear to tread.  We shrug under wool cloaks to be braced against the storm of a thousand cries of "no," "never," and "impossible."  And sometimes, these storms come from within.  They are the most restless and the most damaging.

We stand in a Circle, we sit by a fire, we walk into the night or do our work at a candlelit table indoors.  We are clothed and prepared.  We have taken preparation seriously and have all our wits available to create something far beyond the physical items before us.  We are great beings and yet no different than thousands, millions of others; we will work our will and it will reorder the world like a doll's house at the hands of a child.  There is nothing silly here and nothing serious.



While not everyone indulges in the wearing of garb, those that choose to do so with good reason and deeply persuasive results. If this describes you, I say proudly don your velvet and lace.



Images from:
pinterest.com
leftlion.co.uk
eartisans.net

Spells for Halloween Hocus Pocus



While we have just a little time before the biggest night of the magical year, this link features a few Halloween specific spells you may wish to plan.  Naturally, there are many more to be found besides those here.  This is the night of the last harvest, the night we recognize the weight of mortality and the joyful knowledge that we are yet alive and should celebrate while we can.  Any piece of magic which furthers any of these concepts would be appropriate.

Also note that asking your beloved dead for some assistence would be perfect for Halloween.  This is especially true if you have magical ancestors but it can also happen for the rest of us.  Your loved ones want to see you happy, of course, so asking for their well-wishes in one aspect of your life is fair and thoughtful no matter what their beliefs towrd the occult.  Just remember not to call up in ritual those who would be opposed to magic.  Dead or alive, respect is important.

But this witch is much too busy to dawdle.  I wish you all a fair night with the dead on Hallows Eve and lively days leading up to it!

• I'm not afraid of it.  Of all the stuff that makes me nervous, doing what needs done in the security of my home and head is not one of them.  I know we are taught to have a healthy fear of "the dark side," but I've been there often enough to know that those folks there are just like everyone else, only more honest.
• I'm not ashamed of it.  This shocks some people.  And yet I've met so many mouthy, arrogant, self-important, loose-cannon spellcasters who would never curse because that would make them a bad person.  Listen here--the wickedness you do as a witch is not somehow different from the wickedness you do as a person.  You aren't better than me because you told lies to get a coworker fired while I cast a spell to make my neighbor move.  I have nothing to hide; I'm doing what witches have done for centuries.  But you?  You're just an asshole.
• It's probably not what you think.  Why does everyone think that curses are cast for no reason?  Like I've got nothing better to do with my time than wreck things?  I've rarely heard a story where someone was cursed who didn't pick the fight.  This is especially true of complicated situations, like family, work, or social settings that make direct confrontation impossible.  For myself, the black magic I've spread was totally justified.  
• A happy witch does it.  I don't curse because I hate the world, nor because I'm socially ill-adjusted, nor lonely, nor sad.  I do it because I don't like to see good people be treated badly.  I want to treat bad people badly!  And if you're near this situation at all, you may end up enjoying the fruits of my devious labors!  You're welcome.  All kidding aside, spellcasters are the last people in the world who should suffer from large-scale problems, troublemakers, or anxiety stemming from either.  If this describes you, now is the perfect time to get busy cleaning house!  Black magic isn't all hate--it can be a precious tool for love and compassion towards the innocent.  Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to rescue yourself and those around you from evil.

Now that we've cracked the topic and all the insides are running out, I'll tell you what I think about enforcing my will.


Coercion

• Society has been running on mind tricks since its inception.  Learn about the way advertising works, or salesmanship.  Talk to your mother-in-law (or other master of passive-agressive behavior).  Even innocuous things like art and literature employ tricks to make us feel what we otherwise wouldn't feel.  It's not special and it's not always mean, we just do it because it suits a purpose.  And whether my spell on you is in your favor or not, I'm not going to hate myself for using it if I feel it suits the right purpose.
• Rude people don't deserve to win against my manners.  Well-placed deviousness can be a powerful ally against a jerk who gets away with their bad behavior because no one wants to make a scene.  And, before you start, this isn't about being weak; we all have seen those powderkegs who are just begging for a spark.  Go ahead and be that spark that makes everything explode--when they're not around anything you love.  
• Manipulation isn't a bad thing but it is a witch thing.   To manipulate, strictly speaking, is to shape with one's hands.  And witches do this all the time; it's a good example of what it feels like to cast a spell.  But manipulation has become another boogey man for an otherwise powerful caster to fear.  You say you don't change people, only situations?  Well, situations are made of people.  It's their thoughts, goals, and actions that create problems.  If you want to stop a problem, you're stopping a person.  If you want to get a house or a new car, that's one less for another person. Should you feel bad?  Of course not!  There will be other chances for them, other houses, other cars, and other messes they can get themselves into.  You're not ruining their life, just redirecting a tiny part of it.

At last we come to collateral damage, that old terror.  "If you cast a spell to get money, you could find out the next day that someone in your family died and you now have an inheritance!"  What claptrap!

This farfetched tale is used (often!) to illustrate why magic should only be a pathetically small part of what you do to fix a problem.  This puts magic in the ranks of, at worst, a placebo and at best, self-help mind games.  Those are terrible reasons to cast spells, as
well as being lousy at inspiring newcomers to even bother with learning proper technique. What's the point?  It's all the same, right?  Whether you teach people that magic is only a boost to hard work or that it is far too powerful for you to contain, you're doing the same thing--crippling potential.

So what is the actual likelihood of hurting some poor innocent with your spell?  Not very likely at all, it turns out.  I've done many kinds of spells and rarely have they affected others in a negative way.  Even then, it was not life-threatening, only inconvienent or (once or twice) scary.  That's pretty good considering the amount of magic I've used over the years and how much of it has been lobbed at others.

So to get to the basis of this concern let's dig into it with pick and shovel.


Collateral Damage

• Nothing is guaranteed in magic.  Everything is in motion; there is no such thing as a static situation no matter how slow-moving it may seem.  There may be information you don't have, relationships of which you're not aware.  You must understand and prepare for surprising interactions.  You could be a positive influence or a negative one depending on minute details.
• Major change is always subjective.   When things shift, there are bound to be people who think it's the end of the world.  But just as many might say it's the reprieve they'd waited years to see.  Know that there will be opinions beyond your own.  You needn't feel like a monster just because one was bad.
• Keep the gravity of the problem at the forefront.   The worse a problem is, the less you should worry about what little slip-ups may come.  At some point it may come down to greater and lesser evil.

In the end, you should know that even small situations have the potential to create unintentional harm but, no matter what, it's not an exceptional danger.  If being struck by lightning is keeping you from walking in the rain, you're missing out on a fantastic life.

My final word on the matter is that cursing isn't the problem, incompetence is.  It can ruin any form of magic and turn good men into beasts.  Know our craft, how you feel about the risks, and what you'll do if your work goes awry.  Be smart, be safe, be responsible, and do what needs done!


Related reading includes Dreams and Curses,  Gigi's First Big Spell,  How to Tell if You're Cursed


Images from:
www.vanseodesign.com
www.bloodloveandlustspells.com

Witchcraft 101: Five Things Apologists Should Know


I don't know if you've ever come into contact with this sort of beast before, but this link will take to you a page of instructions for Catholics to use when trying to convert witches and Pagans.

At first it starts off considerate with the basic important information they will need so as not to offend us, which is largely respectful.  But then it turns into an all-out sales pitch.  Of course this is the plan--and I understand that in a faith that teaches that the best thing you can do for you fellow man is convert him, this is a natural goal--but it offers more trickery than actual value to the witch.

Take for example their big plan to trap you with a fallacy of presumption:

"One way to demonstrate this is to ask the witch if she believes in the pope. "No," she’s likely to answer. "The pope is a Christian figure." True, you concede. But there is a man in Rome who holds the office of the papacy, right? Your belief or disbelief in the papacy does not determine whether or not the papacy exists. Put that way, a person will have to acknowledge that something or someone can exist independently of belief in its reality."

This may trip up the occassional practitioner, but not the prepared.  One can easily say that belief in the physical form of a person and belief in their divine-given power are two different concepts.  This is not the same argument, however, as the existence of a non-corporeal being.  A Pagan could as quickly say that a Catholic's disbelief in the Gods is no more valid.  In short, to believe in one world-view to the exclusion of others does not make it the correct view, no matter the number of backers to the theory.

So, just for fun, check out this link and see what you think of one Catholic take on discussing religon and belief with witches.