My Magic Spell Didn't Work -- Now What?

You did all the right things. You did divination before you launched your magic spell to see if it would produce the right results. You gathered the right symbols for the spell. You cleansed your space prior to the launch. Then you launched it ... and nothing's happening.

Now what?

Good question. There are quite a few reasons that magic spells don't work for people, and I've listed the three biggest reasons I see below. Check them out and see if they are true for your spell. If so, you might want to take down the existing one and start over.

1. You Are Trying to Accomplish Too Many Things
A lot of people believe that if they must go to the trouble to design, write, test, and launch a spell, they might as well put all their life's desire into the spell. Spellwork does take a lot of time and energy, so people don't want to waste it. Consequently, they pack it with everything they have ever wanted, from a dream trip to Europe to winning the lottery.

While I can certainly understand the motivation of not wanting to waste effort, I know that this is also the reason that a lot of spells don't work. A spell isn't like a menu, where you can pack in a bunch of different choices. The principle of a spell is more like the main principle followed by military snipers: "One shot. One kill." For a spell, the principle is "One spell. One aim."

If your spell didn't produce the intended results, look it over, especially your list of Directors and Limiters, and see if you packed your spell with too many demands. That might be the reason it isn't performing.

2. You Used Someone Else's Spell
There are a lot of books out there on spell work, and a lot of good spells that you can use to achieve some aim. If you just want to achieve something small, like a better mindset for studying or attracting a small chunk of money owed to you, using someone else's pre-written spell often works very well.

Where I see this approach fail is when people use a pre-written spell to try to create a major change in their lives. For instance, to transform yourself from a poor country mouse to an instant millionaire isn't going to happen if you use someone else's pre-written spell. It also probably won't work if you have someone else launch their pre-written spell for you. If you want to create this kind of change, plan on writing and designing your own spell.

3. You Haven't Waited Long Enough
This one is a biggie. We teach people to specify date ranges in their spells. This gives your spells some freedom in which to work. For instance, you might specify in your Directors and Limiters that you want to your magic spell to produce results between 3 and 6 months from the date of launch. This allows your spell to find that time of least resistance in which to create the desired change.

Having said that, I've seen big spells that don't work in the specified time period, but do eventually work. I launched a big one once to stop a bill from passing in Congress. The bill passed (which meant my spell didn't have the desired effect at that time) but was later over-ridden by another bill. Another example is a big spell my wife wrote to get a farm. She specified that the spell should produce a certain type of farm plus the needed income to buy the farm within one year. We didn't get the farm in one year. Instead, we ended up with a better farm three years later, with more income than was needed to buy the farm.

If you've launched a big spell, by which I mean a multiple-candle or Tarot-style spell, sometimes the results do not happen in the time period you specify, especially if the spell has to overcome a lot of resistance. Be patient. If you want to check whether you magic spell is still working, once your specified date range has passed, do Tarot readings to find out.

The Art and Craft of Spellwork
Spellwork is one of the high arts of magic, and it takes time, practice, and dedication to master, especially if you want to create change on a large scale. It does work. I've seen spells work over and over with good consistency.

Spellwork is also one of my favorite magical arts to teach because the people who are interested in this art are generally talented, interesting, and fabulous to work with. If this sounds like you, and if you are interested in learning the craft of spellwork, you may want to consider our online Basic Magic Course. Spellwork is covered in Level 3, but taking the first two levels gives you a solid magical foundation. If you are looking for a more simple solution to spellwork take a look at our Witchcraft Spell Book series on Kindle.



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Which Tarot Deck Should I Use?

I get asked this question all the time, which is not surprising since there are hundreds of versions of the Tarot in existence. My key criteria for choosing a Tarot deck is that it should form a complete working system of symbology.

Magically, when we use the Tarot, it represents a microcosm, a smaller version of the Universe. Therefore, everything in the Universe has to be able to be represented by the cards in the deck.

There are three major magical uses for the Tarot:

1. Straight divination
2. Spell work (these decks are especially designed for spell work)
3. Working the Tree of Life (for doing a great work)

Very few Tarot decks can fulfill all three of these requirements. There are only three modern Tarot decks that I know of: the Waite-Rider, Morgan-Greer and Thoth decks. The other decks are incomplete for these endeavors. For instance the Aquarian deck is a beautiful tool for divination if you are used to working with Zen or Hindu concepts, but it's virtually useless for spell work and has no relationship at all to the Tree of Life.

Who Created These Modern Tarot Decks?
All of above-mentioned Tarot decks were created by members of the Golden Dawn. Arthur Edward Waite created the Waite-Rider deck (Rider was the name of the publisher) and Pamela Smith, also of the Golden Dawn, did the artwork for the cards.

Lloyd Morgan and William Greer disagreed with Waite's approach, arguing that the Waite-Rider deck was too austere, too mental and too intellectual. They created the Morgan/Greer deck by adding fancy symbols, such as vines, to the top half of all the cards in the Waite-Rider deck.

Aleister Crowley created the third deck, the Thoth deck, which has some notable differences. For instance, there are no Kings in the Thoth deck because Crowley felt that men never reached maturity, but were always stuck at the level of the Prince, or adolescence.

Learn More About the Tarot
Although the teachings of the Tarot were originally given orally, in more modern times people have written down some guidelines as to the meaning of the cards. However, the true use of the Tarot is to allow the cards to represent something different and specific in each reading. There is a magical ritual to "key" your deck to your energies, so that the cards will do this. To learn how to key a Tarot deck and use it so it actually does act as a microcosm of the Universe, check out our Tarot Home Study Course.


Home Study Tarot Course
Tarot Resources and Supplies

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Don't Fix Your Life! Live a Magical Life Instead

We get a lot of emails each week from people asking for techniques, spells and advice to fix their lives. We always we respond, but for the most part we aren't able to send the "magical cure" over email.

Why is this? Because even if we were to fix the current "problem" in a person's life, another problem would soon appear. That person's consciousness created the first problem, and will create another and another and another.

So what does this tell us? It tells us that there's a big difference between trying to fix your life and learning to live a magical life. The first is a temporary solution at best, while the second produces a permanent, positive transformation in your life.

The bottom line is that you can't fix your life. You cannot successfully and permanently apply magical principles to temporary life situations. Those situations exist simply to tell you that something is awry in your life, and that you need to pay attention. What you can do is change your consciousness and your intention with magic.

How Magic Works to Improve Your Life
Magic is the study of fundamental Universal laws and principles. When you don't understand these laws, life appears chaotic, whimsical, without reason and often perverse. The same was true in earlier times, when people did not understand the basics of weather and thought that willful deities were punishing them with drought or famine.

When you begin to understand the basic laws of the Universe (and of this Earth school), you begin to see the rhyme and reason that moves through your life and everyone else's life. Magic gives you levers with which to leverage the forces in your life toward your goals and aims. With these levers you will have greater control over you attention, your behaviors, your compulsions and your desires. You'll understand the roots of all these facets of yourself, and know how to direct them in your favor.

Learning spells and exercises without understanding the basic principles behind them can get you only so far. Why? Because when you don't understand the reasons behind those exercises, you don't get much use out of them. The study of basic magical principles teaches you the skills to design your own spells, exercises and techniques that work in YOUR life - because you designed them! Using spells and exercises that work in someone else's life rarely creates permanent change in yours.

So roll your sleeves up, really get down and dirty - and personal - in your study of magic. Your life is not like your car - you cannot take your life to a shaman and have them fix it in 3 days. You can, however, learn the art of magic and your life will fix itself (magically). Got it? Good!

If you want to know more about the art and study of magic or learn basic Universal principles, check out these courses:

Home Study Courses

Magic Ebooks

Magic Email Course

Magic Kindle Books

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My Magic Spell Didn't Work -- Now What?

You did all the right things. You did divination before you launched your magic spell to see if it would produce the right results. You gathered the right symbols for the spell. You cleansed your space prior to the launch. Then you launched it ... and nothing's happening.

Now what?

Good question. There are quite a few reasons that magic spells don't work for people, and I've listed the three biggest reasons I see below. Check them out and see if they are true for your spell. If so, you might want to take down the existing one and start over.

1. You Are Trying to Accomplish Too Many Things
A lot of people believe that if they must go to the trouble to design, write, test, and launch a spell, they might as well put all their life's desire into the spell. Spellwork does take a lot of time and energy, so people don't want to waste it. Consequently, they pack it with everything they have ever wanted, from a dream trip to Europe to winning the lottery.

While I can certainly understand the motivation of not wanting to waste effort, I know that this is also the reason that a lot of spells don't work. A spell isn't like a menu, where you can pack in a bunch of different choices. The principle of a spell is more like the main principle followed by military snipers: "One shot. One kill." For a spell, the principle is "One spell. One aim."

If your spell didn't produce the intended results, look it over, especially your list of Directors and Limiters, and see if you packed your spell with too many demands. That might be the reason it isn't performing.

2. You Used Someone Else's Spell
There are a lot of books out there on spell work, and a lot of good spells that you can use to achieve some aim. If you just want to achieve something small, like a better mindset for studying or attracting a small chunk of money owed to you, using someone else's pre-written spell often works very well.

Where I see this approach fail is when people use a pre-written spell to try to create a major change in their lives. For instance, to transform yourself from a poor country mouse to an instant millionaire isn't going to happen if you use someone else's pre-written spell. It also probably won't work if you have someone else launch their pre-written spell for you. If you want to create this kind of change, plan on writing and designing your own spell.

3. You Haven't Waited Long Enough
This one is a biggie. We teach people to specify date ranges in their spells. This gives your spells some freedom in which to work. For instance, you might specify in your Directors and Limiters that you want to your magic spell to produce results between 3 and 6 months from the date of launch. This allows your spell to find that time of least resistance in which to create the desired change.

Having said that, I've seen big spells that don't work in the specified time period, but do eventually work. I launched a big one once to stop a bill from passing in Congress. The bill passed (which meant my spell didn't have the desired effect at that time) but was later over-ridden by another bill. Another example is a big spell my wife wrote to get a farm. She specified that the spell should produce a certain type of farm plus the needed income to buy the farm within one year. We didn't get the farm in one year. Instead, we ended up with a better farm three years later, with more income than was needed to buy the farm.

If you've launched a big spell, by which I mean a multiple-candle or Tarot-style spell, sometimes the results do not happen in the time period you specify, especially if the spell has to overcome a lot of resistance. Be patient. If you want to check whether you magic spell is still working, once your specified date range has passed, do Tarot readings to find out.

The Art and Craft of Spellwork
Spellwork is one of the high arts of magic, and it takes time, practice, and dedication to master, especially if you want to create change on a large scale. It does work. I've seen spells work over and over with good consistency.

Spellwork is also one of my favorite magical arts to teach because the people who are interested in this art are generally talented, interesting, and fabulous to work with. If this sounds like you, and if you are interested in learning the craft of spellwork, you may want to consider the online Basic Magic course. It will give you the deep knowledge to become a competent spell-caster in your own right.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Online Magic Tip #21: Want to do Magic? Don't be Negative!

One of the most common requests that we receive is from people who want to perform "revenge spells." Unfortunately (or fortunately) the term "revenge spell" is an oxymoron. Most people think of revenge when they feel they've been wronged ... and are feeling very negative! That's why a magic spell won't work ... because negativity and magic are mutually exclusive.

To understand why this is so, you need to understand why magic is so magical. Magic is really nothing more than the Operating Laws of the Universe working as they should. Unfortunately, most people operate under the Law of Accident, which is on a level lower than the Operating Laws of the Universe. Magic can't operate at the level of the Law of Accident-it's too low. When a person who normally lives at the Law of Accident becomes positive enough to raise their energy to the next level, what seems like magic happens! It's really just the Operating Laws of the Universe, but it appears to be magic.

All of this is a long-winded explanation of why revenge spells don't often work. Self-defense spells, when done with a cool head and positive energy, do work. But if you wait until you feel downright negative before you start looking at magic, forget it. You have to be positive and upright (virtuous) in your self-defense for magic to work.

You can practice self-defense magically according to this law (as penned by Reverend George Dew):

"In cases of direct and violent personal harm you are entitled to defend yourself by any means available provided you did nothing to encourage or provoke the attack."

To learn more, check out the Self Defense Course, a magical home study course.

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For Big Magical Changes, Start Small

Are you familiar with the spellwork principle that says 'A Small Change in the Present will Create a Larger Change in the Future'? It is part of the Universal Law of Divination.

That principle recently came to mind with an experience shared by my friend Anna. Anna had been over a year without a job. She had become very depressed at her lack of funds, lack of productivity and lack of direction. She was constantly complaining of all that she did not have in her life at present.

I suggested to her one day that by concentrating on her lack, she was attracting more of the same to herself and that maybe it was time to try making a change. She didn't need to make a huge, revolutionary change, just something small to realign her energies, raise her energetic tone, and attract a more positive flow into her life.

Anna decided to give it a try. She couldn't do much about her due bills or increase her bank balance, but she decided she could get out from in front of the TV and find something useful she could do. Anna ended up volunteering at a local homeless shelter. She started out serving meals and reading to children and soon advance to teaching adult skill classes. As she became more invested in her volunteer work, she became less invested in her own depression and on all that she lacked in her life.

The director of the center noticed Anna had a gift for the work and after several months offered her a paid staff position. She later was given the opportunity to receive grant monies to pursue a degree in Social Work while continuing to work at the center.

Anna graduated last Spring with her degree and this year was offered a position as the director of a new homeless shelter being built. When I received a letter from Anna sharing her story, I reflected on how that small change she made that day did indeed create larger changes for her in the future.

She increased her energy tone up just a notch which opened up all new fields of energy bands to her. Also by making a small change rather than a large one, she didn't run into the resistance that often accompanies larger changes.

You too can use this principle to create changes that can transform your life. Pick a goal and then pick one very small change you can make towards it. When you accomplish the first step, take another, then another, until you reach your goal. Taking those small steps, making small changes, allows for the magic to work in your life.

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Why Good Magic Spells Go Bad: The Role of Directors and Limiters

It happens all the time. You get a perfectly good spell and you cast it. The spell has been proven to work for other people. The spell has worked for your friends. It's a good magic spell and it seems to be working … and then it goes bad. Why do perfectly good magic spells sometimes go bad?

There is just one answer to that question: directors and limiters. Directors and limiters are specific instructions on what a spell should and should not do. Directors tell the spell what to do. Limiters tell the spell what not to do. Directors and limiters are often more important to a magic spell than any other ingredient.

If you want to launch of spell of any magnitude or power you had better write some directors and limiters to tell the spell exactly what to do. Most people think that the power in the spell is in the chant, the candles, or the herbs. Some power may be in those ingredients, but the guidance for the spell starts with directors and limiters. If you think of a magic spell as a rocket then the directors and limiters are the guidance system. When we teach students in Basic Magic to create and launch spells, always start them with practicing directors and limiters.

What could happen to your magic spell if you don't write directors and limiters for it? The spell might bring you exactly what you ask for but in a way that you might hate. One practitioner launched a generic job spell to get her a dream job. The spell worked like a charm. She got a great job with excellent benefits, amazing salary, and plenty of flex time to spend with her family. The only catch, which she discovered a few months into the job, was that she was working for a mob family. Not good.

This practitioner actually had half the equation right when she launched this spell. She had written a list of directors. She specified the exact parameters of the job she wanted. She told the spell what she wanted it to do. She forgot the limiters, the list that tells the spell not to bring jobs that fall outside the law, or cause death or loss of property. Limiters for magic spells sometimes contain the most significant details!

Luckily, the practitioner was able to write another spell, this time with full directors and limiters, to not only safely get her out of the job with the mob, but also get her another job, this time legal. Tip: no matter what kind of magic spell you use, if it has much power at all write directors and limiters for the spell as insurance!