Hey there, Occulties,
Today on Cat's Rants, I'd like to discuss some of my least favorite questions that people ask and then get all pissy when I answer them honestly. ;) Why? Because they are not yes or no, or simple-answer responses, when someone wants things to be less complicated than that.
Q: What is the best/strongest spell for (money/reconciliation/love/communication/revenge, etc etc.)?
A: Quite possibly the most annoying question I get is the one that implies that there is one BEST SPELL for a specific basic need. I've been over this a million times on my blog, but there is no one single best spell ever in an entire category of spells. Like let's say "best love spell." This is a very non descriptive thing because what KIND of love spell is it? Is it to attract love, to keep love, to reconcile a lover, to entice sexual interest? I mean, I'm not even touching on all the sub categories under love spell there are, and then there are even sub categories to the sub categories, and in many cases sub categories to those categories. This is why if you see, say, "Love herbs" and someone lists about 20 herbs, this person is not being helpful to you or teaching you jack or shit. What one "love herb" does is quite important. So if balm of gilead is used in reconciliation for it's healing properties, then it's not going to do much for you if you try to use it to attract a new lover.
Spells is like saying "words." if you do not understand the meaning of a word just having seen a word won't mean you can use it properly. Similarly if you see "love spell" but you don't understand the specific trigger of how this spell works or what situation for which to apply it to, then it might not suit your situation.
So, with that in mind there is no specific best spell for all money needs, or for all revenge needs, or love needs, or blessing needs, etc., as without knowledge of a situation, and without knowledge of how specific spells work, then you can't just use a broad-purpose spell and think it's going to be the "best" for your situation, but then if I recommend x spell to you for getting a job, and you just think it's a "money spell," you may be disappointed when using it to get a raise, so which is the "best" or the "best one [I} know," is going to change with every problem you bring me.
This is why when you ask me what my best or strongest spell for x or y is, I just kind of sigh and ask what's going on. ;)
Q: If psychics are so psychic, why don't they always know everything that's about to happen? Are they really psychic?
A: While I can't answer as to whether or not a specific person claiming psychic ability is psychic without having some contact with that person, I can state that it is a hugely misunderstood thing. This seems to be a favorite of obsessives who probably believe they would spend every waking minute knowing what the next day would bring down to intricate detail when in my experience it's not that at all, and to try to do that would actually be incredibly exhausting and not worthy of the energy expended.
For example, when I am asked what someone is thinking RIGHT THIS SECOND, it's so rarely about my client, and often nothing of note that there is a great deal of disappointment. It might be thinking of needing a specific kind of grocery item. It might be thinking of a dog they saw on the way to work. It might be them rhyming two words. Sometimes it's difficult to discern as the person is zoned out. I expend a fair amount of energy to get that snippet of what someone is thinking "right now," and for no good reason much of the time. The information is of little or no value. So why would I do that constantly? Furthermore I have have the right mindset to do that, so if I'm in a heated argument with my own partner, trying to get what's going on in his mind at that moment is going to be quite difficult for me, so clearly, I'm not using it then. Ergo, I can read what someone is thinking, but to get a quick glance at that might not be useful for you, and the moments when it may be the most useful for myself, my own emotions may render me incapable.
BUT, other times it is quite useful to be psychic. I'll have a nagging feeling I need to do something or go somewhere or call someone, and it's right. I avoid danger, or I run into good fortune, or I help a friend when they need it most, etc. If it's incredibly clear - not just this sort of feeling or urge, then of course I follow through...but if it's mild and I ignore it, I tend to regret so doing. The misunderstanding is that I have some sort of clear image in my head all of the time of secret thoughts or like a video playing of what I'll see ten minutes from now, and that this somehow runs concurrently to my perception of things around me all of the time. Now, if that were the case, I'd be batshit insane. Because some of the problem is that time doesn't work that way. If I turn left instead of right when coming to an intersection, the outcome of the next five minutes will probably be different. I am not FORCED (see, free will) to choose one direction over the other, therefore the future is somewhat fluid. So, this means if I was constantly "feeling" what's about to happen as clearly as some of you think I do, I'd be feeling so many different outcomes happening at once, my brain would probably explode.
Also, it's very difficult feeling other people's feelings. When I was a younger woman, I had to learn to block a lot of it out, just because it's a very heavy load a lot of adolescents are carrying emotionally, and it could be overwhelming. I actually try to stay blocked off to some degree even today.
So, do things come through all of the time....yes, I think that's fair. Sometimes you pick up something that you weren't looking to find out - it is just "loud" and hits your frequencies. But for the most part, most psychics aren't looking at the future constantly or trying to read minds. We are trying to operate just like you. We also grapple with our own fears and hopes and dreams, and these can sometimes color our perception of what our psychic senses pick up. So if a psychic "didn't see something big coming" in their own life, a lot of factors can explain why, and it does not make them "not psychic."
Q: My spell still hasn't manifested. Did I do it incorrectly?
A: OK, well, that would come with a few questions to figure out if you did or didn't, so...
Assuming you did NOT do the spell correctly, I would need to know where you went wrong. Was it omitting a needed ingredient? Was it calling spirits you shouldn't be calling? Was it combining the calling of spirits from different traditions? Did you completely alter it in other ways? Were these alterations minor, were they major? The interesting thing is that even then, I know several stories of people making AWFUL mistakes (as in "what were you thinking?" type ones,) where they still got some result.
However, the next question is when did you do the spell? A lot of the time I get an answer like "Oh, like two days ago." I can't even begin to tell you how much I want to hit people when they say that. Look, spells don't often manifest overnight. So, if on the other hand, you say "Oh, like a month ago," I might be more interested in looking into seeing what the hold up is, 48 hours ago is not a large enough window for me to wonder if spell failure may be afoot.
Next I'd need to know if ANYTHING has happened. So, let's say I wanted a new job, and so I did a spell to get a new job in my field, and I've gone to several interviews, but still haven't been hired, even though I've had 2-3 callbacks for another interview. My spell may be MANIFESTING (that is, in the process of coming to be,) so it's not done working. That's hard for some people to understand. Sometimes things can even feel "backwards" - for example some years ago, I reconciled a couple where when the guy came back, he did it by picking a fight with my client because he was insecure that she'd been with someone else in his absence. Once he was satisfied she hadn't, he immediately calmed down and became a loving teddy bear and wanted her back. While I did not and do not defend that sort of behavior he showed towards her, obviously for an hour or so, she was absolutely flummoxed - this guy was acting like a real turd to her! It did not feel like reconciliation...and then, yep, it was. :P
Now if nothing really has happened, now I need to know how the petitioner has been acting, thinking, and feeling. Some people do the equivalent of breaking their leg (wanting to change a situation,) getting a cast (getting a spell cast,) and deciding the leg is now perfectly repaired the moment that cast is on, (the second the spell is cast that what they want is theirs and the situation is 100% changed as desired.) This isn't now this works. It's more like if you go mountain climbing and dancing with that newly-broken leg plus cast (act against the spell, engage in problem behaviors,) you're just going to make it worse. Sometimes bad actions are obvious - for example, trying to reconcile an ex, and then fighting with them. Sometimes they are less obvious...like lust for results. Realize this is a very important part of the process, and you'll need to be honest with yourself. I've totally fcked up my own work for myself just being an asshat before. :P It's OK. It happens to a lot of us. ;)
I wish this was an easy answer - that I could tell you, say "Oh, sure, yeah, you just forgot to add x ingredient" or "Oh, yeah, see you need to do that when the moon is in a water sign," but rarely is it ever that simple. :P Basically, you're giving me the "symptom" of several possible problems, and hopefully the only problem is impatience, but often it is more than that.
Q: Is Hoodoo the strongest magic ever or is it another kind?
A: It is the practitioner of the magic generally who is "stronger" than another practitioner in magic, and, plus, in my personal experience, practitioners tend to be really good at certain kinds of magic (like love work or curse work or court spells,) as well. So...while I'm not a huge fan of certain paradigms and find them dubious at best, I can't tell you that there is the "strongest" paradigm of spellcraft.
Q: My target is very religious/devout, - will that protect them?
A: Not necessarily, no.... I would instead say it's a factor that will influence how they react to the spell itself. So, let's say a person is interested in a same sex partnership with a target who might be bisexual but who feels, for religious regions, it's wrong to engage in homosexual urges, and therefore does not, - they only engage in heterosexual relationships. This means, even if they feel a strong attraction to someone of the same sex from the spell's influence, they probably won't give in, and even if they do, it's going to be emotionally harmful if they truly believe that God/dess/Spirits/Universe etc, is going to turn away from them now.
On the other hand, let's say you try to curse a person, and they call upon St Michael Archangel to defeat your curse, which is then rendered moot under his mighty heel. That could definitely happen....so it's not a "hard no," but rather that it's not necessarily the kind of defining factor in spell success in the way people think. It's often not an instant deflection (and if no harm is meant, there is a good chance it would not be deflected unless the target specifically calls upon a spirit or deity to do so), but rather an influencing factor on their reaction to spell influence.
Q: I want (specific event or thing or person), but after so much work, things will start going my way, but then won't happen.... Does this mean spells don't work?
A: The fact that ANYTHING is starting to go your way means that the spells are working. You know for years, I was very in love with someone who just was so stuck on something I'd done (not even to him) back more than a decade before (basically when I was 21, I cheated on my then boyfriend, and he knew about it,) to us seeing each other romantically. It wasn't entirely that, - he'd also had some experiences over those years which made him relatively paranoid about being cheated on or hurt which were entirely valid to be hurt over, but that he was just processing poorly (because they had also happened many years before), and were giving him some commitmentphobia. I would do work and I would get a result, and then he'd get scared and run off again. :P It wasn't my spells "not working," it was that a combination of factors existed that were preventing him from settling down, and sadly, the only thing that eventually made him process his own issues was me getting sick of his commitimentphobia and all the back and forth, and seeing someone else seriously instead of going back to him when he was ready to try again. It hurt him quite a bit to lose me, but now he's a lot happier and in a serious relationship with someone he seems to love very much. I'm glad he did get over his commitmentphobia, and while it's a pity that he couldn't do so in time to have something with me forever and ever, I never felt like my spells didn't work because we didn't end up together. In fact, there are no hard feelings, and I love him and wish him the best, even if I am not in love anymore. He gave me all he could but when I wanted him, he wasn't ready to be a good partner.
And maybe that's the problem you have, too. You want this specific outcome or person or thing, but the obstacles to that being as you want are preventing you from fully having it. The spells are doing their work, which is why you see SOME movement, but whatever obstacle is in your way, either you need to remove it, or if you can't or won't do so, you will find the spell falling short of your expectations. It's just that you have to realize SOME MOVEMENT means the spell is working. If it's then not fully bringing about the desired change, that's a sign to you to identify what obstacles are preventing that, not that your spells (or someone else's) don't work.
Hopefully that was enlightening. :)
~Cat