Greetings My Witchy Readers,
It often happens this time of year, that I find a strong need to explain to lay people and some magickal people also about who we are and what we do. More for the sake of helping people understand that an ethical witch does NOT do spells for people to remove curses, nor tell people they have evil entities in their homes then charge money to remove them, or to have people feel scared, or in danger or harm if they should cross us.
Now, having said that. They absolutely need to watch out for their own actions sending out energy that will indeed return back to them. This is especially true if another is trying to cause harm or to bring danger to a witch, her property or family.
You see, somewhere along the line with us "Coming out of the Broom Closet" and with the protection of the laws in this country, and our being a bit safer with the practice of our ways and being able to openly discuss our ways, those who are not witches and not all magickal people are witches, have developed a pretty big misconception of who and what we are.
They have seen our love of nature, our gentle ways with animals, even insects, seen us honor and respect plants as simple and perfect as blades of grass and spend hours gazing into a star filled night sky. We quietly and simply light some incense and candles and dance and sing and hug and speak of love and light, blessings and God/Goddess and then they leave and they feel they know us.
They leave with a melded concept that witches today are these people who are a bit Glinda The Good Witch of the North from the Wizard of Oz and some spaced out peace and love Hippie child still stuck at Woodstock back in 1969! "Wow man the colors" imagine said in my best Tommy Chong voice!! Well sadly this misconception is so wrong, simply because while the above may all be true as to loving nature and how we interact with the world, it does not automatically make us doormats when it comes to others interacting with us. That's where the trouble comes in.
People want to think that because you have a sweet, peace loving, gentle nature that you cannot be fierce, ferocious and fight like a demon from Hades should what you love be threatened. While we never send out harm, do not think all of our spells are pink love candles rolled in powdered sugar and glitter!! No, no! We can and do use protection spells, we use spells to banish harm from our sphere, to put up protective walls and to keep harm away from our doorstep.
I will do spells to stop someone from doing physical harm to me, to stop words which will bring danger or harm to me or my business or home. I do truth spells primarily to see and hear what has happened and to know the truth about a situation before I jump to conclusions. It is at times amusing at people's reactions when I seem to know exactly how a situation occurred when there was no possible way I could have any knowledge of what happened, but I do.
I am a witch and I do not allow any walls or boundaries to keep me hemmed in. I will use brick dust popular in HooDoo culture, or black salt in VoDou. I have used jar spells found in Santeria and holy water used as a protection magick found in Catholicism, yes, it is all magick. None of it is evil or unholy,
I have had people say they were afraid to come into my store, simply because of the 'programming' from their church. Truthfully, if another church or religion warns you from going into a store or a place of worship, as Enchantments is also a spiritual place of worship, realize they are not warning you away from 'demons' or evil spirits from that other religion! No, no. Sadly it comes down to economics and has always, even centuries ago come down to economics. They are warning you in an effort to stop you from discovering something that might take you and your money away from the house of worship you may attend now.
Rather than encourage everyone to explore, experience and try all religions and sects and find the one which fits them the best as not any one is the right one for all, regardless of the "one path" concept some want us to believe in, they, today, still engage in a centuries old practice of lies, story telling, legends and lore which hold no truth but are in the realm of fantasy with which to scare small children and threatening you and your loved ones with eternal damnation and hellfire if you do not do as you are told. (Sigh) The sad thing is intelligent, educated adults still have that fear based knee jerk reaction, that just perhaps the nightmares from their childhood may indeed be true should they stray and not make it back to the "one path" before they die. Frankly, I think it is an awful psychological thing to do to a person, a type of Post Traumatic stress which follows them the rest of their lives if they are not strong enough to shed the nonsense and start to think and them reason for themselves.
As a true witch, and I say "true" to mean I have none of that baggage to contend with. I never did and so was lucky enough to be able to start off my magickal life quite young, around the age of 10-12 yrs of age with no church infused nonsense cluttering up my head.
But enough of the background, back to the current day. I can't tell you how many people think they know me, and I do not mean those who are customers, clients or students. Of course they only get a glimpse of who I really am. The Ms. Faith version of me. But I speak of those who have been close friends, those I allowed to become close, loved ones, the best of friends and I ended up being the shocked and surprised one when at the end of the relationship it became so sadly clear they had no idea who I was. They thought I was, apparently running through the fields blowing bubbles like a Breck Shampoo commercial! Then they were shocked when I brought out the dark Goddess when they tried to lie, betray and treat me like crap because "Oh, she's so sweet, she will simply lay there and take it!" Hee hee, I think some may still be looking for the flesh that was seared off of their bones when I was done with them! Figuratively . . . of course . . . yes, of course. . .
Do not think you have failed, or are a poor witch, or are not a wise, powerful or effective witch when you need to be forceful, defensive and have to kick some magickal ass because when threatened, when pushed into a corner and when your very health or life is threatened you have many magickal tools at your disposal. The Goddess gave us all. "Lest In Thy Self Defense It Be, Ever Mind The Rule Of Three"
The world can be a harsh environment. It is not all sweetness and light. People can be stupid, blind to who you are, even if you tell them clearly. You need to use your voice more strongly still. This is most true around Halloween when people really think they know you, when in truth they don't know you at all. I do use the opportunity to try to educate those who are willing to be open and listen, ask questions and engage in an open intelligent conversation about different beliefs and customs. But, I do draw a distinct line at trying to impart any information to those who simply do not wish to know we do not turn people into toads, or fly on brooms and cannot cast a spell on their spouse. To those small minded people I simple smile and maybe wiggle my fingers at them. Why? I really don't know, but it seems to make them happy, as if I did something especially witchy, just for them.
At the end of the day, some days you will feel like Glinda, all sweetness and light, spreading glitter and cheer all over Munchkin Land and at the end of other days you will feel like the Wickedest Witch of them all and not be at all remorseful because some people really should know better! But the one thing I have never, ever promised my students, not a one, is when you learn to practice and be a full fledged witch of all the things you will be, perfect is not one of them.
We may be magickal, we may be spiritual, we may be fantastical, amazing and all around glitterific but we are still human and as much as we take others into account for their shortcomings and mistakes realize that is seldom granted to us. We, the magickal ones, are so often held to a standard much higher than any other, by those who couldn't possibly hold to the standards they expect us to maintain. But . . . then again, many of us, have reached a place where we simply do not care, the magick calls us and it is so much more important.
I am simply telling you this, so you will be aware and hopefully not too disappointed when you encounter it yourself. Or if you see it displayed amongst others.
Also use your common sense when listening to others. I have heard such rot from some magickal people simply jealous of another's success or perceived fame, or from disgruntled students who simply could not keep up with the expected curriculum and instead of being honest about their shortcomings chose instead to lash out and cast lies and dispersion on others to make themselves look or feel better.
I have heard lies about myself from ridiculous nonsense that I do blood rituals! No surprise that came from a thief and liar that stole student files as well as product from my store and school and toddled off down the road to open up her own school of magick that failed in a month or two before she left this area of the country with her warlock tail between her legs.
I have had lies told that the material I teach is not my own, I did not know the curriculum even though I literally and literately wrote the book of my school's curriculum, blah, blah, blah . . .
I tell you this to make you aware that if you know of a magickal person, a witch, they have some ame or have carved a place for themselves in the magickal community and are still there 10, 15, 30 years later yet those saying the hateful things, who are they? Ask yourself what motivates them to say these mean things? Why are they even telling you these things? Were you in direct danger from that person, probably not. Then listen to the story they tell, disparaging the other person and see how they themselves look in the story? Are they the poor put upon victim? The poorly treated innocent? Do they come off as the hero, the more intelligent one even though they themselves have never published a book, nor taught a class or done anything the other had done.
Look at those stories with great skepticism because they are told to you as one tells a fairy tale and to get you to believe nonsense about another, and sadly, it is so easy as so many want to believe us capable of nonsense and foolish magickal dross.
Realize the rumors fly!! And apparently so do I! In the night sky, if you look hard enough, and slightly squint, during a cloudy night during a crescent moon you may see me on my broom flying around the skies above Enchantments!! Cackle!!
So now I take a different tactic. I have some close trusted witches of Enchantments who know the truth, and the names and the stories and will one day tell the story of Ms. Faith, the real witches of Enchantments and hopefully continue to teach magick as it is meant to be taught and practiced. To make the witch manifest what she needs in a way that harms none, but make no mistake do not cross us, or you will always remember that you did. Not that you will be harmed but to lose a little magick in your life would be sad and bleak indeed.
Live, Laugh and Always Love, Ms. Faith
© 2010-2018 Faith M. McCann. Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website. Please note that the copying and/or further distribution of this work without express written permission is prohibited.
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