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Lesson 16: Spell Casting, Working Rituals and Drawing Down the Moon Putting practice into form This is when the proverbial rubber meets the road. So far we have learned an awful lot about Witchcraft. Now we begin to practice it. And believe me, these are two totally different things. We have gained a lot of wisdom over the past several chapters, but wisdom without application is useless.
There are going to be times when you are discouraged, when you fail, and when you are tempted to give up. Now I will never say that you must stay on this path, because you may find that you take some of the knowledge you have learned, and move on to some other path. But I will say that you should never quit anything, including the Craft, when things are tough. That is the worse time that you can possibly make a life altering decisions. Believe in yourself, in your faith, and in the Divine. When you fail, pick yourself up, brush yourself off and get back on the road again.
Energy in spells and rituals
"What does this energy feel like?" I remember asking this question over and over again. I wanted to make sure that I was doing it exactly right. The problem was I got so caught up in doing it right, that I wasn't doing it right. What I mean is that how you sense or feel the energy is going to vary from person to person. If you spend all your time, and put all your thoughts, into making sure you do it exactly right by someone else's standards, you are probably not going to be able to raise the energy you need.
"What the heck is this grounding and centering?" Another question I asked hundreds of times. Let me give you my view, and see if it helps any. To me, grounding is a matter of releasing all the mundane issues in my life. I can't be thinking about bills, or work, or home or anything else. I am clearing my mind. Centering is when I focus my mind on the task at hand, and on the Divine. Personally I find deep breathing exercises to be very effective in this process. I know I'm grounded and centered when I no longer think about anything other than what I'm here for.
Energy and alcohol and drugs
The use of alcohol, in or out of a circle, is a personal decision and one that we each have to make for ourselves. Personally I don't drink much anyway so it's not a big issue. I would certainly expect us all to have respect for our faith and our deities, and not be drunk when we are practicing our craft. But that doesn't mean that if I had a glass of wine with dinner and a problem came up that I would wait 24 hours to deal with it. But again, this is my personal approach.
As for drugs, I have a much harder stance on that, and it's from a health standpoint. Drugs do things to our bodies that are harmful. I don't care what some people say, they are not good!!! And that's all I'll say about that.
The Spell
Silver makes such an extremely important point here that I want to emphasize it. "Everything about a Witch's life is magickal". I got so hung up on the props and the spells that for a long while I was missing the whole point of Wicca. Yes we work spells, but that is not the whole point of Wicca. Our faith is one that should be lived at every point of the day, whether we are "working magick" or not.
Having said that, there are many times when we do need/want to work spells, so it's important that we have an idea of what we are doing. I do want to say that this chapter in no way covers everything there is to know about spell writing and casting. But it is an excellent starting point.
Spells do require a lot of thought and planning. Personally I don't like to use spells from some book. I like to write my own. This puts my thoughts and my energy into the spell, even before I start working it. Now I will borrow bits and pieces from another spell, and may even end up borrowing from several spells to write my own. But I can tell you that the few times I used someone else's work word for word, it didn't work :)!
Composing the Spell
Silver says that spells should be written. Personally, I do write my spells down, mostly because I'm very particular about them and can't remember my name half the time, let alone a long spell. But I know others who are more focused on the intent and prefer to go with the flow when spell casting. I advise writing them out to begin with, just to get used to how everything works together. Then, if you are more comfortable with a less formal spell, by all means, go for it.
Be specific in your spells, but not overly specific. If we cast a spell for something too specific, we limit that way in which that spell can work. And we might just end up getting something less than what we really could have. For example, when working a spell for a job, I don't advise saying "this particular job". Rather approach it as looking for the perfect job for you. This way you may find out that the job you thought was right, actually wasn't, and you end up with something even better.
How you begin the spell will depend on you. Personally, I use basically the same wording to start every spell. This is mainly to help myself focus and the words serve as a trigger to my subconscious mind that its time to goto work. But of course I had to experiment with several openings before I found the one I am comfortable with, so don't limit yourself early on.
Silver continues on to provide several ideas of wording and props that can be used in spell casting. I'm not going to go into that much more. The only thing I want to add is a line that I put on the end of every spell I work. "For the free will of all, and to the harm of none, as I will it, so must it be done." I do this as an insurance policy. I try very hard not to harm anyone in my spells, but I'm not omniscient and results unknown to me could happen. By adding this line I am saying that I want this to happen as long as it doesn't harm anyone, myself included. Sometimes we don't know what is best for us, but the Divine does.
Astrological Correspondences
I want to start this off by saying that I am by no means an expert in this area. I'm sure you have realized by now that my particular path is one of dealing with things as they happen, or preventing them from happening. Many times I do not have, or maybe I don't take, the time to figure out all the possible correspondences. But, there is little doubt in my mind that the astrological correspondences discussed here can only help our spell work. If you have time, I encourage you to work with these a little and see if they help you or not. Other than that, I believe I will leave this section to someone more qualified than I.
Performing Magick for others
There is nothing more fulfilling in my life than being empowered and able to help someone else. Recently our groups worked a spell for one of our members who was going through a very rough time. I saw this gal recently and she looked great. Now I don't believe that our spell work was the only reason for their improvement, but it sure helped. And it made me feel good to know I was a part of it.
There are however rules involved in this. But a lot of them are not really concrete rules. For example, one thing you should try and avoid is working magick for someone without their permission. 99 times out of 100 I follow this rule. But there are times when I feel it's necessary to step in and work magick for someone else, even without their permission. Sometimes non-action would cause more harm. For example, if someone I knew was in a life threatening situation, such as a car wreck, and were unable to communicate with me, I promise you I'm going to do everything I can to help that person, permission or not. Now I'd have to be very particular about how I word things, because it just may be that, despite my wishes, it is their time to cross over. But I'll be damned if I'm going to sit by and let something happen that isn't "meant" to be, knowing that I could intervene. Please don't misunderstand me here. This does not mean that I'm going to work magick for people without their permission very often. In the past 3 years I can think of 2 times I did, and both were situations like what I just described. And both times when the person found out what I did, they thanked me. You will have to decide for yourself how to handle this rule.
Two other good "rules" are pointed out here as well. When possible, check with your divination tool and see what it has to say about the spell you are planning. You may be surprised at what you learn. Also, remember to draw the essence of something to you, rather than a specific something.
Lastly, start of with some "small" spells. If you start trying to sprint before you can even walk you are going to fall on your face and cause yourself a bunch of problems. My first several spells were spiritual related. I wanted to grow spiritually and improve myself, so that is what I worked on. As I grew in knowledge and confidence I moved on to other types of spells. Just a suggestion from one who has made the mistakes himself.
Moon Magick and Spell Casting
The phases of the moon is the one absolute that I work with in every spell that I'm doing. In my mind the Moon is the main symbol of the Goddess and her three aspects. Each spell is tailored to suit the phase of the moon, and still accomplish the task. If you work with no other correspondence, I strongly urge you to become familiar with the moon's phases.
Silver discusses the Dark of the Moon, this being the three days before the New Moon cycle. Again, maybe I'm just not your normal wiccan, but I have not noticed any problem with spells I have cast during that time. I will say that I don't specifically plan spells for those days, but if I'm working a spell that I repeat for several days, I'm not about to lose the momentum. Again, this is a personal issue and one you will have to decide for yourself.
Drawing down the moon
Confession time here. I have never drawn the moon down in the way that Silver describes. I have my own variation that was taught to me, but in order to keep from confusing the issue I am not going to post that right now. I'm sure at some point I will share it with you all. For now, the only advice I can offer is (you guessed it) try it out and see what you think.
Little side note here, I know that I continue to say that you should try something and decide for yourself. I hope you don't find that annoying or think it's a cop-out. I just firmly believe that there is so much in our religion that is a personal choice, that neither way is right or wrong. I am not about to tell you that my way is right. My way works great for me in many areas, and not so great in others. You have to find your own path, and you can only find that with experimentation.
The Working Ritual
I almost always use a ritual when I'm doing spell work. I want the security of the circle, the help of the elements and the Divine, and the comfort level that I obtain when I'm working a ritual to aid my work.
When a spell or working ritual does not work
Oh, the number of reasons that a spell may not work. First off, don't automatically assume that it didn't. Let that sink in for a minute. What I mean is that sometimes spells work, but not in the way that you thought they would. For example, say you worked a spell for the right job for you, and yet you are still in the same job. Is that job any different than it was before, maybe better? Is there an opportunity for advancement on the horizon that you just don't see yet? Perhaps you are already in the right job for you.
Now, if the spell did fail, don't automatically assume you did anything wrong. Like Silver points out, it could be that another person involved is blocking the spell, even unconsciously.
But there are times when you may have not done things quiet right. This is where keeping track of your notes will help. Go back through the spell process and see if you can figure out where things went off course. If you can, guess what? Repeat the spell if need be, fixing the problems.
You may as well get used to the idea that spells will not always work, that the answers may not always be what you were expecting, and that other forces can influence them. Don't get down on yourself and give up at the first sign of problems. It's all part of life, and growth.
Successful Magick
Magical Alphabet
I have never used this system, so I can't really provide any insight here. But I can tell you that after reading this again, for probably the 30th time, I am going to experiment with it and see how it works for me.
Using props and reinforcers in magick
I am the props king!! I love having all my magickal goodies around me when I am working. It's more for their meaning than anything else. I often times have trouble focusing, and when I am taking the time to set up my area, props and all, it helps me to focus on what I'm doing.
Spells and days of the week
If I am planning a spell, I will consult my references for the best day to perform that type of work. This is something that makes sense to me and I can understand. And if I am working a spell over many days I sometimes alter it each day just a little to take full advantage of the correspondences for each day. This all depends on whether I think it might change the intent of the spell or not.
Breaking a spell
Silver does an excellent job of instructing us on how to break spells. The only additional point I'd like to make is the easiest way to do this, is to not cause the problem to begin with. Many times spells go "bad" because we didn't do our jobs properly preparing the spell. Don't rush through the preparation of the spell. It is just as important, and sometimes more so, than the actual time that you are "working" the spell.
Writing Assignment for Lesson 16
There are several areas of importance in this chapter, and it's hard to narrow them down. So, in keeping with my plan of not teaching my belief's, I'm going to leave this upto you. The assignment is to pick two key points out of this lesson and expound on them in your own words. If there are more than two points you want to expound on, by all means, please do.
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