Practical Witchery!, John Stormm [ap literature book list txt] 📗

I rarely do spells, and only as a last resort in most cases. I don't like creating all that "cause and effect", and having all of those extra external forces working about, when they are not really needed.  There is such a thing as "overkill".  I may read someone else's notes on various spells but never actually use them. When I do use them, I will rely on my own knowledge and meditative intuition, as exactly what needs to be done to move certain forces into my corner. I will construct a spell 'from scratch' to meet the needs of the moment, and I always expect them to work well (or I wouldn't waste my time with them). They come out of deep and dire need, and I approach them very seriously. In this treatise, I will discuss:

A) What constituted a dire need for a spell?

B) The choosing of various spell components.

C) The time frame involved for my choice.

D) The measure of the spell's success.

E) The results at the time of this writing.

It was approaching the time of the Summer Solstice and since family is scattered about and not all on synchronous schedules, I had taken the entire week off from work to make preparations and gather the wild foods that we enjoy in our traditional ways. I spent most of my days and nights in my beloved section of woods near my home gathering foods and carrying out my duties as protector to this peculiar parcel of wilderness.

Early in the week, I had noticed something was very wrong. My large friend, a red tailed hawk that we called 'Big Red' made no appearance at his favorite hunting grounds or anywhere's near. The foxes who have been raising their kits before my eyes for generations in a long used hillside den, made no appearance when I came by to check on them and favor them with a treat. A vile and viciously toxic plant called 'hogs weed' (not a native species) had joined with yet another invader, and was overrunning a meadow that I have long gathered wild grapes and bramble berries from. This land was never hostile to me or mine. As I checked out a spring at the far end of my personal haunt, I found it fouled. It was a shallow pool, barely 18 inches deep with a fawn lying dead in it. The fawn appeared to be unhurt in any way that could be seen. Its open eyes were clear and no sign of malnourishment, disease or predators. The degree of rigor present in its limbs, had shown that it had not been dead for more than a couple hours, but I could not determine why it was dead at all... as though it had been drowned.  But if it had but raised its head, or stood up and moved a couple feet, it would not have drowned at all.  How had this happened in my sylvan protectorate?

I sprinkled a bit of salt and spoke a prayer of my commitment to Mother, and removed the carcass from the spring, and placed it at the base of a nearby tree. I tossed a bit more salt into the source of the spring to purify it, and I left the area. Around about the way, I had found more dead animals laying near their dens, or along the trailside, with no visible injuries or signs of disease.  I also noticed that my silver rings had turned pitch black. For me, this is a significant sign of deep dark changes within me. Instead of turning the tide of evil and corruption, it was was apparent that it was turning me.

I had also gotten word from Kodak, that they would be closing our plant by August 31st, and shipping my desk and equipment to their plant in Mexico, where the labor would be much cheaper, and the E.P.A. concerning toxic waste was not an issue. My paychecks were numbered and few to come, and added to the fact that I am over 50 years old, and that each lay-off had landed me into jobs that paid less and less, until I could no longer even afford to keep my car. Getting up in years and no transportation other than buses and a mountain bike are not great prospects to face. My freelance writing was in a summer slump, as very few publications are buying any new works during the summer months. It’s a glutted market in the best of times.

Only a day or so before our family gathering, Melanie and I were faced with what to do for the Solstice, as all the other family members were entirely unresponsive about helping in any way at all. Since she's raising twins, and I needed to make some kind of financial cushion in only a few weeks, we could not afford to carry the expense alone for this gathering, so I canceled it due to lack of interest. Those who had hitherto not spoken a word of help, had called me names for canceling the event, and had accused me all kinds of foulness and self pity. I couldn't carry them, and now I was less than a dog for letting them down. I couldn't win no matter how hard I had tried. It was as if my struggles pulled me deeper and deeper into the quicksand. On my calendar the Blessing Moon was a month away. If anyone needed blessing, it was me. I began my prayers and meditations and gathered my spell components

As it was the Blessing Moon I wanted to take advantage of, my choices in spell components were 'lunar' in nature. Many old spells require the writing of one's requests on various parchments, vellums, lead and other materials and then these offered in some form to the desired powers-that-be. Many kinds of spells are simply a graphic form of prayer to higher powers held at specified times of year. In my apartment are many, many items of magick and enchantments of all sorts. An occult junk yard (almost).

Sometime ago, Melanie and I were exploring a section of woods, that we had not previously been through in response to a call of a vision of a white birch woman, with the sign of the moon. Through acres of pine woods we traveled, until we came to a stand of three white birch trees (which are nearly extinct in this area), and we paid our respects and left. I had found some fallen limbs and collected a straight branch for a wand, and the peeled white bark as "parchment" for spells, that I knew I would have use for later. Sure enough, shortly thereafter a witch friend needed a better spell, to counter a long running curse she was living under, and I had her write a very specific request for its removal on some of this parchment.  I had carved her a wand of the branch, and added two clear quartz crystals to either end, and offered the parchment up in flame and incense during the next full moon. The effect was remarkable to say the least. I still had some of this silvery parchment, a raven quill pen and ink, consecrated with dragon's blood resin, blackberry brandy and sea salt.

I had carefully chosen my words for my request, for specific blessings and what my expectations were, and I penned them carefully to this parchment. To be sure, I had some indicator that this spell would work and not wait anxiously and jumping at any imagined sign as an omen. I had set very specific signs to signify that my message had gotten through. Things will have to change. All this unwarranted “bad luck” had to be diffused.

In the photo above here, you’ll see a blue fountain with a crystal ball on top. I call this my wizard’s fountain. It’s usually bubbling away with glass bead runes in its pool, that cannot be read until they dry. But the pump had burned out many months ago, and I had not found a replacement for it yet. On the shelves below are scrying bowls, mortars, pestles, cauldrons, rune stones, tarot decks, wands, athemes, incenses, quill pen & ink, and all sorts of witchy components, but I digress. I refilled the fountain with water and a pinch of sea salt, and only replaced the runes specific to the kind of blessings that I expected, and plugged the pump back into the wall socket. Of course, it didn’t work or even make a sound, but my spell was very specific about such things happening at very specific times. It seems to require an impossible coincidence... but that’s exactly what a spell should accomplish. Otherwise a witch would trust “luck”, and we’re not known for such nonsense. We manufacture our own luck.

At midnight, on the first night of the Blessing Moon, while the full moon was at her zenith, I gathered my already prepared parchment, a cauldron, a white candle in a silver holder, some powdered raw frankincense, sea salt, some powdered gem stone faery dust that a friend had given me, a quartz crystal sphere from the fountain top, a pocket mirror, an atheme, and a torch, and I headed for a wooded clearing near my apartment. There under the high, full Blessing Moon I placed my mirror and took off one of my rings to hold the crystal ball steady in its center, to catch the silvery moonlight in it. I placed my cauldron in the middle of a circle I had scribed, lit my single white candle, and taking my salt and gemstone faery dust, I cast it to the four quarters, as I called forth my witnesses to my ceremony, and spoke my own blessings upon them for their consideration. I coated my parchment with the powdered frankincense and rolled it up and bound it with a silver wire, and lit my torch from the candle, as I prayed quietly, and then lit the parchment in the cauldron. While still praying my heart’s concerns about my fate, I used my atheme to position the parchment, until it was completely burned to only a fine white ash, occasionally throwing a pinch more of incense, to make a fragrant white smoke, and a pinch of powdered sea salt. As the embers died, I finished my prayer and released my witnesses (some would call it ‘banishing’, but I would not treat my friends so).  I gathered up my things and returned to my apartment.

Upon returning, I placed the crystal ball back on top of the wizard's fountain, and it immediately began bubbling and pumping water up under the sphere. This was my first indication, that I had not wasted my time outside that night. I slept well and awoke believing things would change. My silver ring was shiny and not a fleck of tarnish to be seen. This told me that *I* had changed, and that my darkness had passed. I fixed a cup of coffee and downloaded my email.  One of my very first messages was from an author friend whom has never emailed me before. She had read some of my ideas, and the first couple chapters of a novel that I’ve been wanting to write. Her exact words are pasted below:

...at the moment and call it what you may, but your mental message to contact you directly