By: Windy Thorn

There is a good reason I was taught to call spells spellweaving. It’s because you are interlacing different aspects in to one magickal working. Almost all pagan tools you use in a ritual (altar, candles, bowls, music, bell and beesom) can be used in everyday household use. The kitchen table can become the altar or the bell can be used to let everyone know it’s dinner time or to call a family member when you have lost your voice. But, when you combine these elements for magickal workings they become interlaced in the magick you are about to perform. By properly preparing yourself for your magickal workings or spell weaving you are actively taking control of your innate magickalness. This means you are taking responsibility for your actions. Below are just a few things you need to be aware of before you decide to cast your spell.

1. Spells may take a long while to work. There is a reason for this, picture the world as a giant spider web, each strand on the web interacts with all the others and so on and so forth. To get the spell to a designated area is asking a lot because it has to travel through space and time to get there, similar from driving from New York to Texas. There are a ton of miles, towns and detours you make before reaching your destination and that is if you don’t get lost. It’s the same way with magick. When you release the energy out in to the universe to do it’s thing, you are telling the magick to go the fastest route possible with limited number of stops. But there is still a long way for the spell to travel, even under optimal conditions.
So rule number one is to be patient. If the spell has not worked in three months it’s safe to say you need to rearrange the spell.

2. What runs through your mind will set the pace of the magick. There is a reason for having you visualize and focus on anointing candles, blessing tools and making sure the spell is worded correctly. When you perform the spell or ritual, what thoughts are filling your head is what the universe will hear. So if you are asking the Goddess Athena to help you get a better nights sleep then you know your mind is not where it should be and the spell should be put off until you can regain your focus. Athena just might give you a really good nights sleep and you just might wake up in the morning with the world’s biggest headache.

3.Your mind, body and soul must be in agreement with the magickal workings. If you are terrified of Athena, then you would not want to call on her on your first ritual. If you feel the spell is a little too harsh or something is just not quite right about the spell then it’s probably not a good spell for you. Take the time to make your spells fit the need. This means you need to learn how to write a working spell.

4. Think in physical terms. If you are wanting to promote physical growth and change, then use a water fountain, potted plant or planting seeds to represent the new growing you. With a little practice it becomes easier to decide what items to use. If you want to quit smoking, use a pack of chewing gum or hard candy and use that as your new focal point. It’s not easy, but it works. Substitute, substitute and subsume some more!

5. When you cast your spell, see it like you would a tree, it has roots (you the sender) the tree trunk (traveling to it’s destination and branches (touches all these lives as it continues to travel to it’s destination) and branches - the person the spell was intended for. This is where you have a choice, you can keep the tree healthy and alive or you can see the leaves dying and falling off and then withering up and dying. This is called a crossroad and only you can decide which way to go and which direction you chose to take. Sometimes withering up and dying is a good thing (ex: quit smoking, loosing weight) and at other times it’s not good (ex: you want to do physical harm, revenge, hate). But you are the only person who knows why you are casting a spell and you are the one who has to live with the decision and the consequences of that decision.

6. There are times when the spell does exactly opposite of what you want the spell to do. Once again, go back and check your spell, see if you did everything right. Maybe you said a part out of turn or mixed an oil a little different. There is usually a good reason it went wonky on you. Remember, frame of mind has a lot to do with casting your spell.

7. Sometimes a spell does not affect a permanent change. This is not a good thing. For instance if you were doing a butterfly transformation spell and for a couple of weeks you looked fantastic, then all of a sudden the new make-up colors you wore are suddenly dreary and dark and the new clothes looked worn out shabby and made you look like a wet dog. That is when you know that something went awry in your spell. You have to envision the spell growing and manifesting in to the new and improved you, so visualize yourself at age one-hundred blowing out your birthday candles and looking like you were sixty years old. See the spell through to the very end.

5. If you feel nothing is happening think again. Look back over time when you cast that spell. Were there any signs along the way that you could have missed? Sometimes this can happen when you have set up false illusions or goals. Say you did a spell to win the lottery. Everything seems to go well. You have your numbers picked, the ticket is in your hand and you are eagerly awaiting your numbers called out to you on the television set�?. They call the numbers and you were way off the mark. How come? Spellweaving does not work like that. There is no instant millionaire success. The natural law of order must prevail. In a sense, destiny is ruling with it’s iron fist. So now you look back over the past few days and suddenly you see that there were signs, the newspaper made a big deal about the money that could be won or you got a cost of living raise at work. In a sense in this case, you got your money in the form of a raise. The laws of magick are governed by our daily living environment. An unreasonable request could be transformed in to something else. This does not mean you get what you deserve, but that you got what you asked for in a different way. It’s the way you look at the end result as to whether or not the spell has worked.

6. Your motives affect the end results of your spell. Remember the story of King Midas? Can you imagine turning your child in to gold? Sometimes what we ask for magickally is not good for us physically. Accept it and move onward.

7. If the spell fails and you re-do it, over and over again, and terrible results keep happening. Gee whiz, what did you expect? When the spell first fails, you have to re-evaluate it and everything you did during the magickal working. Did you expect too much or not enough? Did you drive yourself crazy thinking about when the spell would work? There are several possibilities, your thoughts and actions hampered the spell because you did not let it go during the magickal working. You could have blocked yourself from good changes because of the fear to change. Even though logically you know it’s for the greater good, it’s never easy to change. Look back at the results and see if you might have missed a few clues about the spell working. Instant success can also be dangerous, it can give you a nice comfy net to slip in to and then when the real change begins your life becomes a wreck. Everything has a price. What are you willing to sacrifice for achieving the end results?

8. Sometimes after you cast a spell you become an easy target for unwanted nasties. Whether it is just a strange feeling like you knew something wicked is about to happen or whether the wicked has happened, it all comes back to one thing�?you did something wrong and you know it. Either you went against your beliefs or you know you worded the spell wrong or you wanted to cast a really nasty spell on someone and screwed it up. If you desired to cast that nasty spell backfired then guess what, you got what you deserved. Never play at doing harm to other. If you really intend to do harm learn how first! Don’t be an amateur.

9. The spell was in a magick book I purchase at the store. The author is well known and loved. So why didn’t the spell worked like the author said it would? A simple solution, each person has to make the spell their own. It’s ok to use a little of another person’s energy (a previously written spell) in spell weaving, but the majority of the spell should be of your own creation. Use the author’s spell to guide you on how to write your own spell.

This is a simple list of things that can go wrong in magick. The bottom line is that you first take responsibility for your actions, good or bad, the responsibility is yours. Secondly, there is always a way out. You can release a spell that has backfired which should cease the turmoil in your life. If you did not like the results of a particular spell then don’t use it. Bottom line, if in doubt about a spell or magickal working, don’t do it. Remember, magick comes from with you and runs off of your energy.