Tag Archives: Spellwork

Healing Spells for an Animal

Posted by Sephira in Reader Question, Spellwork, Witchcraft and tagged with , , , ,

Hi. I have a pet bird who has grown ill, and I was wondering if you know of any good healing spells for animals?

I know a spell is not a replacement for care from a vet, but our vet has told us there isn’t much we can do to help him, so I decided to try a spell to see if it can do something medicine can’t.

I have done healing spells on people in my family and friends and gotten results, but never a bird, are there major differences between the two? I’ve only found one spell but the moon is not in the right phase, and my bird might not make it until it is. Do you have anything that is not centered around the moon phase?

Any advice you can offer on the subject is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

The short answer is that any spell that you have used successfully on a human should be fine for an animal, unless it’s crafted around a particular illness, or body part/function that is not found on the animal you are looking to help. If you need a better idea of the anatomy and physiology of the bird, in order to better direct the spell, you should be able to find information or diagrams online via a web search.

The longer answer involves thinking carefully about your pet, and the nature of its illness, as well as critically examining whether prolonging its life is in the pet’s best interest. Magic is not a cure-all, and it is unlikely anything you do will completely fix whatever underlying condition the bird has, if even a veterinarian can’t help. You may give your pet enough energy to sustain it for a while longer (months, maybe even years), but at what cost? If the illness is debilitating, or something that gets progressively worse as time goes on, will the bird’s quality of life suffer the longer it lives? No one (animal or human) wants to suffer needlessly, so it’s something to consider when making such a decision. No one wants to lose a treasured pet, but at the same time, it’s necessary to understand when magic might be helpful and when it’s time to let go.

In terms of actual spellwork, we are just past the full moon* and as the waning moon is good for banishing spells, I would suggest seeing if you can modify the one you have to fit. Otherwise, use it as a guide for crafting one with a focus on banishing the illness, or removing the source of the illness. It’s hard to be more specific without knowing the actual nature of the illness, as some healing spells are not appropriate for certain types of illnesses. I’d hate to direct you to something that isn’t right for your situation. For example, many healing spells focus on increasing healing, or other positive properties – the unfortunate downside is that if one has cancer, or another illness where growing/spreading would be severely detrimental, increasing is bad. Which is why knowing the nature of the illness is important when determining which spell would be effective or a better choice.

* (This was written based on that particular moon phase, however the current moon phase may be different depending on when one is reading this page. So if the moon phases are something that factor into one’s magical workings, be sure to verify the correct timing/phase before doing any sort of spell work.)

On the Nature of Magic & Change: Fixing a Broken Spell

Posted by Sephira in Reader Question, Spellwork, Witchcraft and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

I’m trying to figure out how to fix a broken pendant spell. But so far I haven’t found much luck on finding anything that could help me. I desperately want it fixed because it means a lot to someone I care about dearly,but don’t know how to fix it. PLEASE HELP!!!

How is it broken exactly, or what exactly needs fixing?

Magic isn’t like Harry Potter… we don’t wave a wand while saying “reparo” and suddenly make it all better. So if it’s a chain, or other physical part of the pendant that is broken, the only way to fix it would be to take it to a reputable jeweler and see if they have someone on staff that does metal working and/or jewelry repair. Other options would be if you know anyone who does jewelry making that is proficient in wire wrapping or, at the very least, has the tools/supplies to fix the chain (if that is indeed what it is).

Outside of physical aspects, without knowing how it’s broken (in a magical sense), it’s nearly impossible to direct you to the right spell (assuming that such exists). Of course in most cases it’s better to write your own anyways, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to see what others have written to use a guideline if it’s something that is unfamiliar to you.

Some sort of general things that you can try are cleansing and recharging if it’s a matter of the pendant not seeming to hold the same properties that it once had, but again without knowing specifics it’s really hard to give any sort of really concrete, advice.

The charm’s spell was based off of the first time my significant other and I gave ourselves to each other physically. But once we briefly broke up,the spell was broken when I gave myself to another. I’m sorry if this is tmi but I desperately want to fix it now that I’m back with my ex. Nobody else has been willing to help or I couldn’t find anything to help. Please keep in mind that I only would like to use white magic for this.

Unfortunately, there’s really not any way to fix it. The energy the original magic was fueled by has changed, as the nature of your relationship has changed. Typically the way to fix something like that is to recharge it, but there’s not a way to get a “first time” back. So there is not a way to recharge that specific energy.

Having said that though – if you broke up, but are now back together, you can still recharge it in a similar ritual. The key being, to base it on the renewed relationship and the stronger bonds that you have formed by going through some rough waters, and overcoming those challenges to renew your love, despite it all. There is powerful magic in that as well, and it signifies the changes you both have been through (apart and then together again).

It won’t be the same as it was (as with life, there are just some things that we simply can’t get back once they are gone), but it doesn’t mean that what we are left with can’t be as sacred or as meaningful. Life is a fluid thing, it moves and changes, twists and turns, even when we may not want it to (and in ways we may not want it to). When it does, sometimes we just have to make the best of what we are given.

Your relationship is not the same as it was, and never will be – nor will the magic of the pendant, but that doesn’t make what you have now any less than it was, only different. It’s time to make some new magic. 😉

TIP: Social Justice and Witchcraft

Posted by Sephira in Paganism, TIPs, Witchcraft and tagged with , , , , , , ,

There is a lot going on in the world these days that can quickly raise the public’s collective ire, affecting not only our hearts, but our minds as well. One only has to turn on the news, or check our tweets, tumblr pages, Facebook or other social media to see these stories and with such insta-access to information, it can sometimes be extremely easy to rush to judgement, and/or rush to action before all facts are known. Even at times when it might seem like we have all the right information, the situation can change just a short time later, and we find that erroneous news was posted, or of course there are always situations where trolls or other malicious individuals (or groups) choose to purposefully post misinformation for a variety of reasons.

In these cases, there is often a quick call for “justice”, or a call to “take action” to right the wrongs being done, or to curse those who are perpetuating such wrongs, etc… In other cases, general calls may be put out for people to “do something”… anything to help make the situation better. There is nothing inherently wrong with this – wrongs should be righted, people who are in need should be helped, and curses can be effective in situations where other options have failed. The key in all of these, however, is to stop first and think carefully before taking any action.

Emotions, particularly such as the sadness and anger that are often present in times of harsh injustice, make for powerfully energetic fuel for spellwork, and it is reasonable to want to use those emotions when they are raw, and their peak for better effectiveness. The issue with that though, is that when our emotions are running high, we are less likely to be thinking clearly, which can:

  • cause us to make decisions which may or may not be the best choices (or most helpful overall) to make
  • cause us to act erratically and/or less focused, which can affect our spellwork in a number of ways as well
  • cause us to do something that we may regret later when we’ve had time to cool down

Additionally, if we rush to action, without allowing sufficient time for all the correct facts on a situation to come to light, we run the risk of taking the wrong action, making the situation worse (even if we were trying to help), or particularly in the case of cursing – risk targeting the wrong person/group of people (in the case where an initial person names may or may not actually be the one(s) responsible). For example: with the on-going issues regarding the Michael Brown incident in Ferguson, MO, posts were circulating within a day or two purportedly stating the name of the officer involved. These later were determined to be erroneous, when the police finally released the officer’s actual name. So in those cases if someone took immediate action based on the initial posts, more harm than good could have come from that action.

Another issue is focus. When a large group of people take a variety of different actions, often spellwork may end up working at cross-purposes. Not only that, there may be cases where those working a spell aren’t being specific enough. Using the water situation in Detroit as an example: rather than doing a ritual focused on ensuring that the water of those in Detroit, whose water had been shut off, was restored to them (which is what should have been done – or something similar), potentially there were people just generally working with the intention that the people of Detroit have enough water, or just have water (or something equally vague). And I’m not saying this is what actually happened, but I found it really odd that with the situation that was going on – people not having water – suddenly Detroit was flooded with record breaking rainfall. Just something that really made me think about magic and focus, and the consequences of not properly phrasing one’s spells. The old adage seems appropriate… be careful what you wish for.

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t take action. Absolutely we should, and with every tool available to us – witchcraft being one of those tools. The point is that we have to think carefully before we do. Don’t join in with the “mob” mentality, grabbing our torches and pitchforks before critically examining the situation ourselves, and researching all available facts and evidence. Just because you see a post circulating on your dashboard, does not make it true – don’t let your emotions get the best of you, when it comes to making sound judgements and crafting your spells.

Are Weather Spells Considered Black Magic?

Posted by Sephira in Reader Question, Spellwork, Witchcraft and tagged with , , , , , ,

Are weather spells (like a storm spell) considered black magic?

The short answer is… no.

The longer answer is more of… depends on what you are looking to do with it. If you are purposefully trying to be destructive, or cause injury or harm to others via the weather, then yes it could be. In general (and I’m sure I’m like a broken record at this point) magic is colorless – in and of itself it is neither black nor white (or any other color for that matter). It’s what you do with it that really counts.

Keep in mind too though, that even if you aren’t meaning to do harm with weather magic, it can still cause it. Forces of nature are called such for a good reason, and are not something to take on lightly, or without a lot of careful consideration and forethought. The following was originally re-blogged to our Tumblr page via Morgandria, but cross posting here as well, due your question…

Helpful Hint for Witches #6

LEAVE THE WEATHER ALONE.

Unless you have a meteorologist’s level of knowledge about the historical and prevailing conditions of your area, and how systems move in and out of your area, you have NO idea how your witching is going to affect OTHER areas, as well as your own. You are not just affecting yourself. You will be potentially effecting thousands or millions of other people.

You could be starting or encouraging a flood. Or a drought. And you are very likely not the only witch throwing pebbles into the weather pond. One pebble is a ripple – hundreds of pebbles cause a lot more disturbance. Ripples can become waves. Waves from different directions meet and crash – and you don’t want to live where waves meet.

We all love to complain about the weather. We’d all love to change it, sometimes. But it’s not a wise choice.

 

 

Wiccan Exorcism

Posted by Sephira in Paganism, Reader Question, Witchcraft and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I am pretty new to Wicca, and I believe there is a negative entity or demon in my house. I’ve looked up exorcisms and found one I’d like to use but I have a few questions I’m hoping you can answer for me. Here is a link to website I got it from.

I have used rituals on this website before and found they worked well, but I’d like to get someone more experienced opinion before I do anything.

  1. Is it safe? And if not exactly how dangerous could it be?
  2. My mother, whom I live with is not Wiccan and does not believe in the craft, or in ghosts or demons. Although she has heard and seen many of the things I have she always comes with something else it could be. Could her disbelief be a problem?
  3. The incantation is in Latin and although I do speak Latin I am not fluent, if I mispronounced something would it mess up the whole exorcism?

If you are an initiated Wiccan, I would suggest speaking to you HP/HPS about potential ways to deal with a malevolent entity. They would be best equipped to instruct someone who is new, and will also know what sort of things to suggest based on their assessment of your current skill level. Outside of Traditional Wicca however, for those that are on a Wicca inspired NeoPagan path, or solitary Witch – I’d be kind of wary of anything that calls itself a Wiccan “exorcism”.

Most Witchcraft traditions work with banishing rituals when they need to rid themselves (or others) of unwanted energies/entities. The term “exorcism” has heavily Christian overtones, and not that it can’t necessarily work – even for a non-Christian, odds are that the wording of the actual “spell”  is going to be geared more towards a Christian mindset than a Pagan one.

So using Google Translate (which obviously isn’t perfect, but will give us a general idea of the text in English)…

Kingdoms of the Earth, Sing unto God, sing ye praises with Cernunnos,
Kingdoms of the Earth, Goddess, sing praises sung of Arad.
God of heaven, earth,
I humbly beg your Majesty
In order that the power from all of the infernal spirits,
The trap, and deception, malice;
Of all deceit, deliver us, O Ruler.
Exorcise you, every unclean spirit
Let every satanic power, every incursion,
That infernal adversary, every legion,
And the gathering together of all sects.
From the snares of the devil, deliver us, O sovereign Lord,
As Lisle serve your safe to do
We beseech thee to hear us!
Thou wouldst vouchsafe to humble the enemies of holy of the circle,
We beseech thee to hear us!
The God in his sanctuary,
Cernunnos Himself will have thrust the power of His Own people,
Arad his strength to his people.
Blessed be God, the Father,
Blessed Goddess Mother of the glory!

In this case, the wording is not even remotely appropriate, and it’s pretty clear that someone simply took the original Latin wording of a Christian ritual and added in a few references to a Pagan God, and Goddess. Which if they’d left both of them completely generic, it might not have been so bad, but to name Cernunnos specifically, particularly with the attributes of YHWH still in place, is somewhat laughable at best, and utterly cringe-worthy and insulting (to both YHWH and Cernnunos) at worst. In terms of the Goddess, I’m guessing that Arad is supposed to be an abbreviation of Aradia, but still, unless you are on really good terms with that particular Goddess, I’d want to make sure to use her full name, otherwise it could be seen as a sign of disrespect. Worse, you could end up invoking a completely different Goddess.  I’d advise anyone that was even considering to use it, to leave out any specific God/Goddess names unless you were absolutely sure that the attributes/praises listed were actually apt descriptions of said God/Goddess.

Other issues…

  • With the wording itself – the Devil is a Christian concept. Not that others can’t/don’t necessarily acknowledge his existence, but it’s usually not quite the same as how a Christian would view it. Particularly within a NeoPagan framework, there is the acknowledgement that not everything is love and light or healing and growing, and that in order to maintain that elusive “balance” everyone is so keen on, there is a certain amount of dark and chaos, and destruction that is necessary as well.
  • This whole paragraph here: “This method is a good one for two reasons. First, it uses a force so pure that when the demon leaves the body of the victim, it will already be so immersed in this energy that it will be annihilated. Secondly, you do not need to adapt the incantation according to the identity or strength of the evil spirit, since the power of the gods still exceed the power of the demon.” …  What force is it using? In a Christian context this would make more sense, given how YHWH is generally described, but in terms of other Pagan Gods not so much. There is an assumption there as well, that all Gods are more powerful than all “demons” (and that word in particular is problematic at best, since things that we often might call “demons” really aren’t, nor are they all inherently evil), which may or may not be true (it’s said to be true in the case of YHWH though, which is what the words are in reference to).
  • Speaking in Latin (or any foreign language one is not fluent in) – first and foremost, if you are going to do any sort of spellwork in another language, it is ALWAYS (can’t stress it enough) advisable to get the text translated first by someone that is reputable/knowledgeable in both languages (not only the text language, but one’s native language as well) so that there is absolutely no chance of any miscommunication, or mis-speaking. Having to go back later and be all… “but that’s not what I meant!!” doesn’t generally go over very well. It’s definitely not a good idea to just take text from a book, or the internet and assume that it means what the author/site publisher says it does.
  • Even once you are sure that the text says exactly what you want it to say, the other issue is actually speaking the words. Again, if you are not fluent, it’s better to just say no, rather than risk mispronouncing something, which could change the meaning of your ritual exponentially, and screw the whole thing up (or make it a lot worse). I generally do not suggest using foreign phrasing unless you are absolutely 100% sure that you are saying it correctly. It’s just too risky.

In terms of “safety”, it’s really hard to say. Really will depend on if it’s an actual entity, or just some lingering icky energy? If it’s just energy, then a decent cleansing ritual should suffice (or several of them if it’s really stubborn) and shouldn’t be any more dangerous than any other normal activity that you might do.

If it’s an actual entity of some kind – is it actually malevolent, or just there and you don’t want it to be? Often entities will work more on a you don’t bother us, we won’t bother you kind of a scale, so if you find yourself poking at it, or engaging it in any way, it may just be a matter of ignoring it and it will go on it’s way once you stop. A lot of times as well, there is a tendency for people to assume that all entities are evil or malicious, when in fact, most are apathetic at best towards humans, and even if they are hanging around a house, they aren’t really any sort of threat. In those cases, sometimes simply asking (firmly, but politely) “please leave” can do wonders. For those that are truly malicious, any sort of banishing spell/ritual could be pretty intense, but not like actual “The Exorcist” (the movie) intense. If you are not comfortable with such things though, then you might want to contact someone who is, just to have the extra support.

As to your mother’s belief/disbelief… as the ritual/spell isn’t directed at her, it shouldn’t be an issue. However, if she is going around actively countering your work, either by shooting it down verbally (saying things like… that will never work), or in some other way making you doubt yourself, or your ability to banish the entity – that could affect the outcome. It would be more beneficial to have her working with you, or at the very least not working against you. Other issues that come into play here as well, are if she doesn’t want you doing witchcraft in the house. If that is the case, you should look to other methods of banishing that aren’t overtly witchcraft, as one should always try to respect the rules their parents have set while still living at home.

So… other options. I’m a big fan of actual “cleansing” when doing banishing/cleansing type rituals. If there is a particular place in the house where this entity or energy seems to be concentrated, start there, giving the area a deep cleaning. Open windows, and doors, sweep, dust, vacuum, etc…Make it all sparkle, and sweep the negative energy right out the door/window.

Once you’ve done the manual labor, then you can look to the more spiritual side of it. Burning a protective/purifying/cleansing flavor of incense is a good way to encourage an unwanted entity to leave, or to help whisk away negative energy. Bells and chimes have been used for such as well.

Outside of that, if you want to do a full-on ritual, now would be the time, though I would really suggest writing one yourself, rather than using the Latin one above (there are just way too many things wrong with it). Personally, I would suggest visualizing the cleansing via the Elements (air to push out the entity/energy, fire to burn away any residual negativity, water to purify, and earth to build strong, protected foundation).

You can open by calling on whichever God(s) you personally work with, but I would avoid calling on random deities that you don’t have any particular association with. Working with unfamiliar deities is sometimes a bit hit or miss – they might help, but they might not, so it’s usually better to just raise your own energy, unless you have something really good to offer in return for their assistance. Then simply state your intention to banish the entity/energy, and do the visualizations (mentioned above) to emphasize that intention. When you’re done you can close out your ritual, be sure to give your offerings and/or show your appreciation for any deities that you called on (if you choose to do so).

As mentioned earlier, sometimes it may take more than one cleansing. So if you do it once, and there is still a bit of lingering ick, give it a bit of time and do it again.