
In the beginning as I read the article I found myself empathizing with the author and understood their initial uncomfortablity and lack of fondness for spells and spell books written and published by other Witches as I, too, have always felt it was best to write and cast my own spells than use one written by any other Witch including Scott Cunningham and the like. I don’t

Witchcraft is a practice. It is an activity. It is making a change through manipulation and manipulation is a verb. Witchcraft isn’t about stillness; it isn’t about doing nothing at all. It’s about movement and action. In situations when it appears to an outside observer that the Witch is sitting in stillness, it is only momentary because at some point actions are required within the physical realm to facilitate the desired change within the physical. Like my friends, The Deviant Witches frequently explain, “You can’t expect to find a partner if all you’re doing is eating ice-cream and watching Netflix alone every night. You need to get out there and meet people.”
I think that perhaps there is a misunderstanding as to the definition of a spell for this particular blogger. A magickal spell is a conscious and deliberate specific attempt to harness and manipulate energy through will and emotions following a formula in order to achieve a personal outcome within the spell caster’s reality. Every successful spell has an intention, a target, power, some form of words, correspondences that align with the intention, and someone to cast the spell. There usually is some sort of order to how the spell is cast, which may be spontaneous or planned in a ritualistic structure, but there are physical actions to be done by the Witch. Spell casting is something that is physical done; it is the process of taking a thought from the non-physical realm and manifesting it into the physical realm, which can be done in a variety of ways as I already indicated in the previous paragraph.
Successful spell casting requires the Witch to have a strong will; a belief, faith and confidence in his or her own knowledge, ability, and skills, an awareness of one’s own self and purpose. If he or she feels like “a complete idiot” when casting then the spell most certainly won’t manifest due to the lack of will and focus on the desired outcome. Being preoccupied with the concern about feeling or looking awkward or stupid, foolish or idiotic will deter from the desired goal and will lead to an unsuccessful spell casting. The lack of focus of the Witch and lack of self are common causes when a cast spell doesn’t manifest.
So while I understand that many a modern Witch dislikes putting forth effort and work into creating a change within his or her reality, it is necessary. Any change worth its value requires honest effort.
“You can’t get something for nothing, Dearie,” as Mr. Gold is known to say.
It’s the concept of Equivalent Exchange and I do believe that the modern Witch often discounts it, but when I consider the blog's author and what they explained regarding their own feelings about spells, I do think that this discounting isn’t necessarily the case with this particular Witch. I believe there is just an overall misconception about what a spell is and perhaps this blogger just dislikes the connotions they have built around the word.