Okay, here we are at magic. Let’s debunk magic (again). I’ll give you a practical example. I’m not the type of person who has been able to actualize or even truly validate the idea that hard work equals success in my own life. In fact, sometimes the opposite occurs and you’ve seen it, too: you work hard and you’re still passed over for promotion and underpaid. While this specific example didn’t happen to moi exactly, you know the shtick and when it comes to creating the life you want, feelings of fatigue and futility will undermine the best of intentions. A perfectly good, benign, lovely wish for success, love, money, friends morphs into a source of bitterness, consternation. At worst, our wish turns dark and we become a nightmarish version of our former self.  Now that’s truly witchy or b***** as it may be.

I understand that with any life endeavor we’re attempting, be it love, a new job or honing our psychic abilities we’re working within a complex melange of belief systems, karma, mystery and divine timing among other strangenesses. These are givens. Does pounding the pavement with resume in hand, hitting match.com or meditating 24-7 work for everyone? It doesn’t for me. What does work is doing my homework, (deconstructing a belief system about money, or grieving a past relationship for example) aligning my spirit with an intention (“I am ready for a new ____), and whatever I can to open my INNER PSYCHIC SPACE to receive either (a) the desired wish or (b) information on the next step to receiving the desired wish. I just don’t have the energy to run around all over the place when I can ask for what I need directly. And when the spirit tells me to move, I move.

I did one of the love spells in the book Moon Spells by Diane Ahlquist to attract a soul mate. Sure, I never know whether the magic “will work” but that’s not the point. I had a blast doing it, and by adding in my own elements to personalize the type of partner I wanted to attract I got clearer. The point of the spell is not to force anything to come to you – that can be problematic. It’s to encourage the good that is already coming to you, to give a heads up to the Creator that, “hey, I’m ready!” and to give you a sense of participation in the mystery of love and life. There are things we can’t control or necessarily see, but we can always ask for help. I think of a spell like a little prayer. I light my candle, I build a ritual or altar, I name my intention just like every religion in the world does. ‘Cept my religion is my own heart.So the information and books recommended here are offered in the spirit of making your life a little easier, maybe even more enchanting. Human consciousness doesn’t have to be tied to the “scary” albatross of the salem witch trials, we’re big kids now. (One PBS special exposed the whole witchcraft thing as a case of bad fungus infiltrating the food supply. Whatever. See there were never mean green witches to begin with, only wise women using their Goddess given gifts to encourage healing, goodness, luck, love and discourage disease and suffering.) We can handle the idea that people will always have wishes and if we the people can’t find a path to express and ask for our wishes from God, Goddess, the Divine, the Source, Allah, or the Big Wow that’s when things get really hairy.