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

is NOT to say, that this person’s feelings for their “significant other” are fickle or shallow. They may even be truly “in love” with that other, but are emotionally distracted by the imposing presence of our infatuated adept witch. This can have devastating effects on all concerned, during these emotionally tumultuous years of our development. As a boy, I was a romantic soul. And when I became so infatuated with some beauty of my age range, I wanted to be loved as anyone else would. I was somewhat shy, and not so vain as to think that I was the handsomest stud around, so my feelings often went unspoken. But that, in no wise meant they were unfelt by myself, and the object of my affection.

I had my own scruples about not taking on with another guy’s gal. But in some cases, the guy they truly loved was unknown to me. When the girl would start noticing me and showing an interest, of course, my hopes and dreams soared skywards with my emotional pitch. Which only made things worse for me. Because, in the cases where she truly wasn’t personally attracted to me, and in love with another, it would not even become apparent to her, until I left the room, or the immediate area. Only then would it come to her as: “What the hell was I thinking?!” Understandably, she would search her own true feelings, and test herself out as to how she truly felt about her present boyfriend, and inevitably find out that: Yes. She really did love him best. Meanwhile, as I was at this emotional peak, thinking that the girl I loved, loved me for myself… and then finding out that she loved another… CRASH!

I went through this a lot as I was growing up. With a little help from Grandma, and my own reluctance to find myself burned again: I learned to back off periodically and give a prospective lover a little space to reconsider if their feelings were their own, or the imposition of MINE. I had never shared what I knew about this with them. I just took a little time and space, for my own safety to let them find themselves. I *always* “got the girl”, but I rarely ever got to keep her. But I had already learned that getting what you want, is rarely what you really NEED. And that did a great deal for my acquired wisdom and well being.

I had also learned that just because a person is NOT a practicing witch, raised as I was in an ancient witch clan, was no guarantee at all that they had not inherited such a trait from their own remote ancestry. When in a room with any salesman or inspirational speaker or politician and feeling strongly about what they were saying or selling; I also learned to excuse myself from the room for a bit, or simply hold off on making quick decisions in their presence. If, as I got a bit of distance between us, and felt less so inclined as I was in the room with them, I knew that I had been “dominated” by them. Like myself, this alone did not mean that they were “evil” and being purposely manipulative. It could well just be that they truly believed in what they were touting. OR, they could be warlock adepts, manipulating the masses for their own profiting. That happens too.

Now let’s examine the real perks of developing these talents. Besides becoming the best used car salesman in your county, there are far more beneficial applications to the worthy witch’s abilities to “make shit happen”. Remember, that anything you can feel strongly, you can transmit to others and have them feel it every bit as strongly. There’s going to be certain limitations on these, but let’s explore the possibilities first, and they will sort themselves out for you as we go.

Imagine, if you will, that you are walking down a neighborhood, or through a lonely parking lot after dark. A group of apparent miscreants are loitering about this area, looking for something or someone to do. The patterns that you see in their postures and behaviors, cues you to the fact that they are considering you as their next victim. Or perhaps, it’s your own “gut feeling”. Either way, it means trouble and your adrenalin is rising to support your imminent “fight or flight response”, and you don’t really want to try and run in those shoes you wore today. You feel “fear”, and as a wise witch, you already understand that the primary nature of bullies, is cowardice. Herein lies the reason for the chief influence that you will choose for the spell of this very moment!

Without spazzing out, you make a conscious effort to take slower and deeper breaths, giving your brain the much needed levels of oxygen to work at its best for you. You slow down your shakes, and transmit the whole of that fear, right back at the miscreants who are causing it. With your chin up, shoulders back, and an easy, confident stride, you make it clear in their minds, that you don’t feel any need to be afraid in such as an environment as you have found yourself in this night. But THEY have this nagging feeling of fear or even terror. This does not immediately make sense to them, as they feel that they have you out numbered. Or do they really? They now have doubts, that all is as it seems, because they cannot escape that feeling of panic, that YOU are failing to display. They try to rationalize this among themselves. Are you so confident because you are in possession of a deadly weapon? Are you an undercover cop, just waiting to bust the next sucker? Do you have dangerous friends lurking near by? They choose not to find any of this out the hard way, and let you pass unmolested and unharmed.

You have used a “glamour” or created an “illusion” of supreme confidence, in the way you carried yourself through this spell, to make them doubt, and see something other than the vulnerability that you actually felt. THEY felt that vulnerability. This intangible feeling, is much like the invisible wind effects the reeds by bending them to itself. It influenced them to change their impending course of action.

Notice also, that to many people: This is “magic”. We often use the spelling of “magick” to differentiate it as a force beyond common stage magic tricks. It is not explainable merely by means of the five dogmatic senses that they will only recognize. These are forces beyond their comprehension, and thrown into the generalized catch all term of “magick”. But to the witch or wizard, who DOES understand it, and knows how to wield it as a power, it is a simple “tool“, and requires no chanting or wand waving, to effect as a spell for the time it is needed. Indeed, you are appearing stranger and more unexplainably formidable to the “muggles” about you everyday. Welcome to my world!

And these were only a couple examples of how the premise of “The Itch” can become a most formidable tool to the worthy witch or wizard. Let’s examine yet another application of this talent on the real world around you:

A fight, a horrible accident, an emotional meltdown, or some other traumatic event has taken place in your immediate vicinity. Someone who may need immediate medical help, may be too hysterical, terrified and frightened to allow themselves to settle down, and get out of the way of others, who are trying to render aid. Their hearts are pumping like the rapid rapping of a snare drum, and their breathing is too short and shallow, to allow much proper oxygen to their brains, to even allow them to think or to even see straight. They may even have lacerations, that will quickly bleed them down to dangerous levels, if you can’t get their heart rate to slow down and relax.

Just by saying ”relax” to them, won’t even make sense to them right now. You need a spell to slow them down and help them relax enough to save their lives and the lives of others around them. They are out of control, and deep inside, they understand that they need someone to be in control in order to get some semblance of sanity back into their world. Right now, that would be YOU.

Straighten your spine, putting your chin up and shoulders back. Slowing down, and deepening your breathing without making a great outward show, by using your diaphragm, much as described in the Square Horse Breathing Exercise, that I illustrated in the chapter on “Rifting” earlier. Except that you won’t be assuming this crazy stance in the middle of a crowd of panicking people. You already understand that panicking will only create even more damage and chaos. You need to display a posture, a body language of quiet, firm confidence, and the inner calmness that you feel, knowing that you can indeed, be of some help to these poor souls. Now you need to project that feeling outwards to the patient, that you will be focusing upon to help. Others around you will begin to feel it too, but it is important that you look this person in the eyes, making contact with the soul within, and continue giving them the full dose of your “medicine”, and calmly, and soothingly bid them to relax, allow you to look them over, and help them pull through this present crisis. They need to understand that it is only a present, or momentary crisis, and that given half a chance, that they will come through it as surely as they’ve come through other bad experiences in their past.

There is an old hypnotist’s trick you can utilize here, to an even fuller extent called, “pacing”. The patient is agitated and pacing or rocking back and forth to the pace of their agitated state. The hypnotist will drum his fingers on the desk or whatever surface, in time to the patient’s rocking or pacing, and talk soothingly and slowly and deliberately begin slowing down the rate of their drumming, until the patient sympathetically, begins to slow their rocking or pacing until a calmness is reached. However, with the aid of your domination, and the calm soothing tone of voice, and quiet confidence in your ability to help them, you will aid them in slowing down their pulse and respiration to a safer degree, and gently, but firmly help prepare whatever immobilizations, or first aid is needed to deliver them safely into the hands of proper medical help, if not simply your own. Once again, what you feel, you can use to dominate the feelings of anyone close by, and we are all here to help, not hinder.

Remembering that Threefold Law of Returns, that we as proper witches, most sincerely want to be a force for good in the circles that we influence. It is important to understand by this inevitable precept of karmic returns, that it is NOT a witch’s place to change people according to, simply their own effort of will, or domination. In so doing, we cause them to behave unnaturally, and that creates a karmic price to be paid by us. But recognize that ALL of us, are indeed naturally “social creatures“, and that we ALL, quite naturally *influence* those close to us in our own social circles. As a witch, a wise one, we are the appointed agents of that karma, to use it for every individual’s benefit, and benefit ourselves by the flow of blessings, that we are constantly endeavoring to put out by our efforts. The Creator of the multiverse does NOT always pay His bills on the first of the month. But nothing really ever goes unpunished or unrewarded.

Much as in the New Testament Christian precept of “casting your bread upon