Hey Occulties,
Today, I'd like to discuss "wrong ideas" people get in their heads about spellwork, the occult, etc., which this is not really going to be a finite list or near to it, but definitely some of the things I currently see all too often. So in no numbered order, here are some myths that people need to stop believing:
Myth: I'm a "born witch!" By the virtue of being born and liking the moon and spooky things, I'm instantly magical!
Reality: This would be like saying you're a born brain surgeon because you think brains look cool, and then walking into an operating theater, and operating on someone's brain without ever having a single class in medicine or even a degree. You'd probably kill your patient. Or maybe you're a born engineer - never studied it for a single day, but you were born an engineer, so you start building a skyscraper, and it's hugely unstable and kills many people. But that's OK, because you were born naturally gifted with expertise without study or practice, right?
That's what you sound like when you say you're naturally a witch. While I'd say some people will have more success and they might be gifted with an innate talent for magic, without years of practice and study, you are not a witch, or a sorcerer, or magician. Liking spooky stuff, the moon, or dressing goth does not have any relevance to your ability to cast spells whatsoever. On that note, stop posting "signs you're a natural witch," as anyone with even the slightest iota of a background in the occult is making fun of you behind your back if you do, and certainly would not take you seriously for some time after posting such a thing. It may surprise you, but I actually know a great deal of magicians who look more like a soccer mom than something from a B-horror movie.
Myth: Love spells are "evil" and "unethical."
Reality: I suppose it is not my place to dictate what you or anyone else finds repugnant or inappropriate. And since I'm writing this out for my class (and I hear it from the members of the peanut gallery every time I run a class on love spells,) I might as well say it here... For starters, MOST people who say that love spells are unethical also believe that people can create "love zombies" and/or can successfully do a working in which beautiful people (generally women) will instantly get into position for a sexual encounter, regardless of where they are, and having never met the practitioner by the practitioner just using some sort of mystical chant or something (and yes, if you're curious, people who think this type of working exists generally are Incels.)
The reality is that even if you're quite good at love workings, that if the relationship is not compatible, it will eventually fall apart. I liken it to breaking a lamp. The first time you break it and glue it back together, you can't even tell you broke it. The 5th time you break it and glue it back together, it's hugely unstable and looks awful. The seventh time you break it, you can't even get it to hold together. I mean, I understand, sometimes you'd be great together, except this one thing that seems trivial to you. He doesn't like your job, or she doesn't think she can move to Pittsburgh and long distance isn't working. So you change your job, and you try to entice her to move to Pittsburgh with offers of everything she ever wanted and more, and it still keeps hitting a wall. And if it DOES keep hitting a wall, there does come a time to give up. If you love that person or ever did, you will want to. If you just want to "win" you will keep going until nothing you can do magically can convince them to ever come back. So if love zombies existed (people that are your slave because you put a spell on them,) drawing them to you would be all you ever had to do. There would be no return to me spellwork needed. But, nope, that's not how it works. You're working on a human being, and that human being never stops being capable of having their own motives, or making their own decisions. I'm not saying that you can't really do some impressive work on them and see very clear and visible proof of your own ability to influence them with your spellwork - definitely you can, - I'm saying that at the heart of it all, they are still themselves (so you won't change their core personality,) and are still capable of taking actions and making decisions that you may not like. Clearly, they could not be your "puppet" or "zombie" then. You can't "force" them to be with you and stay with you, you are using spells to create a situation where you can nurture love or restore your relationship, you are influencing them to be desiring you or staying with you or returning with you - but if you do nothing in the mundane to keep the relationship working, or if you are not compatible, they will eventually leave.
The idea that it is conniving and evil can also sprout from the idea that influencing another with the use of magic is inherently wrong (though surprisingly no one cares about influencing someone to hire you for a job, it's just in regards to love.) Well, I'm fine with people feeling this way, it's when they get up on a soapbox and criticize others...because the reality is that all of us are sneaky and use many non-magical things to persuade a desired mate to want to get naked with us and love us, and these people who criticize the use of magic are doing those sneaky things too. I mean, when I met Mr NInjaCat, he himself would admit that my gigantic knockers played a part in me catching his eye and coming to speak with me. I was wearing a low cut shirt, too, and I was not and am not unaware that wearing a low cut top can attract the eyes of men. Is this a magical power? While I'd love to tell you that I have magical titties (because that would be hilarious,) the reality is that I was using my figure to influence men to speak to me. In fact, the way men and women dress is them influencing others around them to perceive them in a certain manner, so if you feel badly about influencing people, I suppose, you pretty much should only show yourself from the chin up and through video probably at this point, so we have no idea of what you're wearing. And when I'd been dating Mr NinjaCat for about a week, he hid a rose in the kitchen the night before that I would find when I got up for work. This is also a form of influence. He's leaving me pointless gifts so that I know he is thinking about me and wants me to smile, which is going to make me start feeling love feelings (instead of just lust, because Mr NC was FINE AF and I would be lying to say my attraction to him did not start almost entirely based on lust.) So I guess we can say you cannot buy any gifts for your prospective partner, either, since that's influencing someone and influencing someone in regards to love is evil. If you think that wearing clothes to highlight your figure or giving your maybe-girlfriend a rose is not evil, then congratulations, you probably won't find love spells evil either. You are INFLUENCING someone, not BRAINWASHING them when you use love work. AND, with all due respect to my own readers, several of you are newbies to spellwork, and whereas I might be able to get an ex acting wild with passionate lust, if your magical "muscles" are not yet all that strong...the same working might get you some flirting and not the follow through. I think people often overstate the power of a spell, because they just assume the person working it has been spellcasting a long time. I have seen some incredibly impressive outcomes with people new to spellwork, but at the same time, this isn't just saying words and making hand motions, and I've seen even more newbies get some result but not the strong one they'd hoped for.
So are love spells evil? No, though I do concede that people sometimes overuse them when something is over (and frankly, most magicians have done so at least once,) and that they can be used with less-than-kind motives (like trying to draw someone back just so you can tell them to fuck off again.) If you personally find them distasteful, that's fine, but if you pontificate on how bad people are for using them, you may be more hypocritical than you realize in your own speeches.
As for the "Make all hot bitches bend over and give up that azz because I say a certain chant," people, all I can say is please get some mental help, and it's not gonna happen, bro, and part of the reason women won't have sex with you is that you're a dreadful misogynistic jerk who is way too desperate. Everyone despises incels except other incels, and those are all dudes, so unless you like dudes in a sexy way, maybe you should try finding a new group to hang with, too.
Myth: If I purchase this magical tool, I'm a magician/its inherent magical powers will work with absolutely no effort on my part!
Reality: The one I see most often is people who use condition oils (come to me, follow me boy, etc,) as a perfume, and yet never with intent (which would be laying a trick on yourself in some cases,) and it's no different than spraying yourself with Axe body spray and expecting it to make you irresistible to women. It won't. Condition oils are actually, for the most part, not perfumes. Some like Cleo May are meant to be used as so, but not most. If I want to curse the fuck out of people I don't put Black Arts oil on. If I want you to tell me the truth and have the truth blow up in your face, I don't put my Liar Liar Pants on Fire oil on myself (you can specifically request this recipe at Anubeion Creations, by the way, just go to custom oils, and ask for Cat's Liar Liar Pants on Fire.) If anything, I go out of my way to let neither black arts or liar liar touch my flesh. So why is it if you're trying to get someone to love you, you're wearing the condition oil? Should you not be putting that on something to represent the TARGET? Because yes, you should be putting it on something representing the target. You're already smitten, clearly, or else you would not be trying to attract that person.
I realize that some of you are also huge Harry Potter fans, but you should know that a magic wand is for focusing the power that is coming from the magician holding it. It's directing the energy OF THE MAGICIAN, see, so you waving a wand about and saying stupid Latin phrases will not do anything other than make you look like you're doing Harry Potter cosplay, because pretty much that is all you are doing.
It doesn't matter how many cool magician's tools you buy or own. If you don't know how to use them, it's no different than me owning a all the things I need to fix a car, but knowing nothing (including what a car looks like) about cars. It's pointless to have all these tools if you have no magical ability. In fact, it's 2000% more important to have the right knowledge and to have amazing skill than it is to have any magical tools at all.
If you get yourself a $4000 beautiful bejeweled magical seal, all you're going to have is a beautiful piece of art if you don't know how to use it, - so stop, stop, stop, stop, stop getting fussy and assuming something doesn't work when often the case is you don't know how to work it and won't take the time to study and practice and know how.
Myth: Doing magic draws bad-luck and ill-fortune to you.
Considering one of the better known magical rituals in the western world is performed by Catholic priests and is meant to purify and bless the congregation (the Holy Mass,) I beg to differ. I can understand where this comes from...basically, one source is people who think that any magic takes away from reverence to God or trust in God, when I have seen no proof of this. If anything, it seems to strengthen faith. The other source would be people who performed rituals very wrong (either because they worked from a source which was itself quite wrong, or because they improvised when they have little to no practical knowledge of magic.) So, yeah, if you decide to call a spirit since that is the current "it's so cool" type of ritual (it comes from all of the possession and demon movies we have out in the past decade or more,) and you don't know what the fuck you're doing, you might regret that decision. A lot of the time, the spirit won't even show up. Why? Who the fuck are you, and why should they? If you have little to no ability, you are of no interest to most of the ones that are found in lists of spirits. You could be pretty interesting to something of a much lower order that feeds on your fears and is pretty awful (but if you like exorcism movies, you're in for a treat as you get something like that in your home!) Or you could be unintentionally rude (or just intentionally rude) to a very very powerful spirit and it decides that it will fuck your life up - and you can't exorcise those ones to my knowledge, you just have to appease them.
If the above sounds really shitty, then maybe don't call spirits on a whim, and maybe work up to doing that sort of thing, so if something does go wrong, you can actually banish the spirit, oh and make sure you banish it. Even if you say it didn't show up, sometimes it did, and so you know, be sure to tell it to leave but nicely. :)
If you do something wrong with SPIRITS, then hell yeah, you can have some bad luck and ill fortune. If you do a spell on a surface you haven't cleaned, you can combine energies unintentionally and that can suck. If you do not ritually bathe, you will begin to take on some of the energies of the spells you cast - it's sort of like when I worked in a sandwich shop and came home smelling like lunch meat, despite never eating there.
But magic itself does not cause bad luck and ill fortune just for using it. It is the inept- and/or the lazy practitioner who draws those to themselves.
Myth: If I use reconciliation magic on a person, the love affair will be awful and it will be as if it is cursed.
Reality: Much like the above, this is either propaganda from people who dislike reconciliatory workings, OR this has happened because the petitioner did not work with the spell (or they are just incompatible.) I've seen countless reconciliation spells manifest and keep the happy couple together, often for many years (in more than one case they are still together to my knowledge after all these years.)
If you find reconciliation magic distasteful, you don't have to use it. That does not make it evil.
Hopefully, this has cleared some stuff up. Til next time, lovies,
~Cat