Practical Magick

Illustration by Felicia Lankford / VOX Staff

By Allison McWaters / VOX Staff
 
I am a witch. But I’m not the old hag covered in warts your imagination instantly conjures up. I don’t fly on a broomstick on moonlit nights, or stand over a bubbling cauldron adding human body parts to my witch’s brew. I’m simply a pretty typical 17-year-old girl who believes in Wicca and practices magick — not like in the world of Harry Potter (oh how I wish I could), but rather in small, practical ways. I’m no evil minion or demonspawn; in fact, I wouldn’t harm a spider.

All those corny, stereotypical ideas you get about witches come from stories and images of the women (and sometimes even men) who were persecuted and tortured during the Middle Ages for being heretics and devil-worshippers. Today witches blend right in with everyday life. We are ordinary people with a somewhat extraordinary passion and belief that we can harness energy and spirits to do real magick. There’s probably a witch who goes to school with you, or takes your order at your favorite restaurant. We don’t advertise to the rest of the world that we’re witches, but I’m not at all afraid to admit what I am.
 
How I Started Practicing Magick
When I was 7 years old I really was into fantasy — books, movies, you name it. At the same time, I didn’t feel a connection with my Episcopalian church and the messages it was trying to teach me. During services I counted numbers in the hymn books.

A few years later, I started looking for an alternative to Christianity. I realized that morals and spirituality were extremely important to me, but I wasn’t getting them from organized religion. Like when you stand close to a source of powerful electricity, I physically felt that there was some greater force working in my life. Like most kids playing pretend, I dreamed about trying to being able to harness this energy force to do some kind of act of magick.

I read more and more fantasy books that talked about wizards and witches who could wield such power, but, unguided, my experiments always failed. As my curiosity continued to grow, I turned to more practical books about magick. At first, I found guides that were meant only to scare readers away and they did exactly that to me. However, I kept returning to the subject and eventually I discovered Wicca, a nature-based religion that treats the earth as a harmonious, parallel plane to the spirit world. (Today, an estimated 1 million U.S. citizen consider themselves Wiccan, including most witches.)

At about the same time, I grew confused because I had started going to a Presbyterian church that I felt more at home at than at the Episcopal. For a short time, I stopped looking at magick as the answer to my spiritual needs. That reversed course when I became a teenager. I discovered that going to church had more to do about walking a close-minded path than about trying to establish a real spiritual relationship with Christ. I was lured back to Wicca, and I tried to mix the two religions. It didn’t work. In the end, I decided it was better for me to practice a religion on my own terms, and Wicca certainly gave me the freedom to do just that.
 
The Need for Guidance
To move forward into tapping the spiritual power I knew resided inside me, I looked for guidance. I found a book, silly as it may sound, called “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft,” that really was tailored to people just starting to explore magick on their own. Its straightforward approach to Wicca definitely suited me. I read it and several other books over and over again to get a handle on Wiccan doctrine and to study spells I could maybe cast someday.

I learned that a lot of what’s behind Wicca is will power — that is, focusing your mind, body and soul to will events to happen that seem out of immediate human control. I started doing little chants to get my MARTA train to arrive as quickly as it could. I performed spells to obtain the things I needed to help me achieve goals, such as getting my homework done on time. I channeled my energy to help me find ways to increase my cash flow, something I picked up from another helpful book, “The Solitary Witch.”

My magick didn’t usually work the first time I tried it, but with repetition and focus and patience I learned to succeed with such small spells over a period of time, say a month. Some skeptics say it’s because I’ve focused my mind on what I want to happen and that increases the chance it will. Perhaps that’s true. But I also know that I’m bending energy to my will in ways that pure meditation can’t.

Practicing magick is easier when you have the right tools. The first one I bought was a cauldron. Now don’t laugh; it’s not big enough to fit a human in. It’s the size of a small bowl, and instead of mixing potions in it, I use it to hold little pieces of paper on which I’ve written down my dreams and inspirations for the future. More important to me is my athame, a two-bladed knife that helps me focus my spells. It is not used to cut things, but rather to cast a circle — a sacred, safe place in which to perform magick.
 
You Better Believe It’s Real
You may still not believe that I can practice real magick (with a “k”), and it’s very difficult for me to prove. It is not some trick you see on a stage and it’s not for show. Saying “hocus pocus” or “alakazaam” and waving a wand around doesn’t do anything. In fact, though I’m still a relative beginner, I can do magic without having to say anything at all.

There are all sorts of magick — knot, weather, glamour, candle, faerie and dozens of others. I mainly focus on herb, candle, air and weather magick, and I’m more or less successful with these earth-based spells. There’s also white and black magick, and you don’t have to read Harry Potter to understand that those represent your good or bad intentions in performing spells. As a white witch, I follow a strict code that says you can do what ever you want to with your magick and your life so long as you don’t harm anyone or anything. So, no, I can’t turn people into toads but I can try to protect myself from people who wish me harm. If I do break this rule, the universe makes sure I get payback. The Wiccan three-fold law states that whatever you put out into the world you get back times three. So, if I punch you in the eye, I won’t necessarily get punched three times in the eye, but I might break my leg. I once was so angry with someone I tried to perform magick to harm him. Not only did it not work, but in return I had the worst luck for a week afterwards. I learned my lesson.
 
Getting More Powerful
I’m slowly growing in strength as a witch, and I’m strong enough to shape changes in my life over a several week span. It’s like a push in the direction I want to go in rather than an obvious, immediate change in reality. If I’m broke and need money for an upcoming trip, I can focus my powers and light a green candle and usually a job will come my way.

Other witches are much more powerful and can make magick unfold right in front of your eyes. Personally, I’ve heard of several stories of powerful magick being unleashed, and I’ve witnessed it once when someone conjured up a powerful storm that both surprised and scared me. I might surprise or scare people from time to time. But it’s certainly not because I’ve unleashed my witch’s powers on them. But on second thought you better not try to cross me or I might give you the evil eye.

Allison is a senior at Decatur High.