Hey Occulties,
Just a note that all previous promotions/sales are ended, so if you didn't get in on that, you can't get the discount.
Today I'd like to take a stand for my fellow occult-authors, occultists-for-hire, and psychics…because a lot of you lack the insight into our job, and while some people are just too rude and should be banned from interacting with anyone (not just people in my business,) I think A FAIR AMOUNT of bad behaviors are due to people not really understanding what our duties to the public/client/customer really are. While I can't say I speak for everyone here, I do know a fair amount of my peers will agree with the following:
Asking a substitution for any ingredient or action to a spell without any context is beyond ignorant, and one "substitution" may require several more in the same spell (as it might require other ingredients to be altered, for example, to compensate for lacking the properties of a single ingredient you want to substitute,) and furthermore the answer will change depending on what you are asking about.
Despite being a relatively small field of study, we don't all know each other, nor are we all intimately aware of each other's doings.
A fair number of spellcasters are actually Christian, and do not see this as being in opposition to casting spells. Therefore, calling them "devil worshippers" is pretty rude. Of the Christian spellcasters I know (and they fall under several denominations of Christianity,) they are often better versed in the Bible than most average Christians.
Almost every depiction you see on television, movies, and even in novels is almost entirely devoid of a basis in real magic.
The reason some people spell magic with a "k" (magick) has literally absolutely nothing whatsoever in any way imaginable to do with differentiating it from illusionism (stage magic) as "magic" is an anthropological term. The "k" comes from Alestair Crowley's influence, and actually many people tacking on that "k" are not, by his definition, practicing magick. So, if you see someone tacking on a k to magic, and you ask them why, and they don't know the real reason, you probably should not believe they are an expert in any fashion whatsoever. It's actually RUDE to act like everyone you deal with who doesn't have an interest in magic is so absolutely ignorant that they believe you mean you're going to show them a really neat card trick if you say "magic" to them.
Demon/Daemon is an INCREDIBLY BROAD TERM. Basically any neverborn (so never born into a living body) spirit is a Demon, with the exception of the creator spirit. This means a "demonic spirit" is actually something that can possibly be very benign, but the term itself is so incredibly broad as to be almost absurd. For example, I am an animal, a jellyfish is also an animal, – now how much is it that I have in common with a jellyfish? Or a scorpion is an animal as is an eagle, and both eat other animals, so are you confused that they are the same thing or even similar? Well, now, but a rabbit is also an animal, so is it the same as a scorpion or a jellyfish or an eagle? If you answered no, not nearly, this is why people who understand the term demon groan when you instantly believe all spirits under said classification are something you saw in a bad movie.
Certain people keep passing around the idea that you must be a kind, just, loving, understanding, humble person to be psychic or cast spells, even going so far as to say if you use spells for "selfish ends" your ability to cast spells will be taken from you (by some divine judge of right and wrong who apparently shares human moral codes, weirdly enough, and it is silly to think something that far beyond a human's ability to reason shares our thought processes). This is like saying that if you cut and style hair for a living you must also be all those things plus incredibly good looking, otherwise you can't cut hair, and if you try to, your hands will fall off and scissors and trimmers will just fall apart when you try to use them. Talent DOES NOT spring from ethos, so while it's nice to believe only nice people have power of any kind, I strongly suggest watching the evening news regularly because you'll realize that isn't true. Using magic for "bad ends" does not necessarily carry around any risks other than eventually you might run into something or someone far stronger than yourself who will kick your motherfucking ass (magically/spiritually/physically,) and since you were such an asshole, there's nothing you can do. 😛 IGNORANCE is actually the biggest impediment to spellcasting ability along with OBSESSION, COWARDICE, and THE INABILITY TO KEEP KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR SPELL TO YOURSELF UNTIL IT HAS MANIFESTED (ie To Know, To Dare, To Will, and To Keep Silent [Keep Secret], are four traits of effective spellcasters.) Notice how nowhere is it stated "To Be Nice," is a necessary trait. :P
Paying someone to cast a spell for you is actually quite in accepted practice for very many paradigms of spellcraft, while being prohibited in a handful of paradigms. So just because many WICCANS feel it is wrong to accept money or profit to cast a spell for another (it is prohibited in many Wicca sects,) that does not in any way apply to people who practice several ATR practices wherein it is a VERY ACCEPTED practice to expect payment to do work for others (and in fact, a belief I was taught is that you always pay the spellcaster something or else you will owe a debt to them which gives them power over you.)
You pay a spellcaster to CAST THE SPELL in accordance with their expertise, NOT FOR THE OUTCOME. This is similar to paying a lawyer to defend you or help you navigate the law – you may still not get the desired outcome, but the lawyer is there to help you with his/her expertise to get the BEST OUTCOME….or paying a doctor does not guarantee you will be cured, but the expectation is the doctor is the expert and will do his/her best to solve your problem. This is why you should generally not trust a spellcaster who guarantees an outcome or will give you your money back, because anyone who is knowledgeable about magic will tell you it is impossible to guarantee and they will not be able to get back their time, energy, or ritual supplies, so they will do their best, but success can't be guaranteed (exceptions can exist, but it's a pretty common bit of advice). Instead, you hire someone who knows spellcasting and how to cast a spell and will work with you and try to keep your expectations REALISTIC, just like if you got caught at a murder scene holding a bloody knife over a dying person saying please don't stab me again with their last words, hiring the best lawyer ever probably isn't going to get you acquitted on all charges…but might get you less time and a better sentence…but not getting a full acquittal would not make said lawyer a "scammer."
Clients who call their reader/worker "scammer" when angry are like guys who call a girl a "slut" because she turns down their advances, and get really bad reputations for acting like that pretty fast. If you've done this before, please understand the person you're speaking to isn't offended, but disgusted, and you're only hurting yourself, – that person won't want to work with you again and the more you engage in behaviors like that, the more people will decline to allow you to hire them as you will gain a reputation. Everyone loses their temper here and there but many moons ago I had a client who went to another reader, and didn't like what the reader said, so he immediately told her off, and graphically, and went way overboard. She cursed the bejesus out of him. Imagine doing a reading with someone you never met, and he's like "No, that's not right," and then tears into you at length….I mean, it's fair to say "I'm not feeling like you're picking up on my energy, and I think I'll avoid the rest of this reading," but he really went to town. It took me almost a month to get that curse off of him and it was vile. I would compare this as I've consulted an attorney or three on the bedbug problem I was having and when the attorney was clearly not a suitable match (and in one case one of the most ignorant bad attorneys I'd ever consulted on any matter,) I thanked them for their time and then moved on to the next candidate. This is how ADULTS handle such things.
A psychic reading does not often give the psychic the type of insight people think. A good movie called "The Gift" with Cate Blanchett several years ago was one of the better movies as far as close to a realistic portrayal of what it's like to be psychic. That said, as above movies are for ENTERTAINMENT and this is why most shows and movies depict being psychic very very wrongly. It generally is not a frozen moment in time, a movie clip, or a alternate reality where I can move around and do whatever I want (especially if I'm freaking ON THE PHONE with you, because I'd have to be pretty deep in meditation for the world to entirely melt away so I can walk around, etc. There are times I pick up something which has more meaning to the client than it does to me (I'm entirely confused,) and even times where I pick up something and neither of us understand it until it comes to pass. The client also immediately begins to alter many outcomes by FOREKNOWLEDGE, which is why if you know you'll be hit by a car at 5:30pm in a particular intersection, you would avoid that intersection, therefore making the prediction no longer come true. It is best to use this foreknowledge as a GUIDANCE TOOL to your next actions rather than an inescapable outcome that you are doomed to follow through on or guaranteed to have.
A good spellcaster has so many different spells for so many different types of spell, – I have said this recently wherein I say I have you know 40 different versions of this specific spell where enough of the elements are the same that you'd know they were related, but which all are slightly different, which then falls under this subset, of another subset, of yet another subset, and then reconciliation which is a subset of love work. That's true for nearly every spell I have…it's one of so many of the same kind that to assume there are only a handful of good spells for any condition or problem is actually quite naïve. Without understanding a situation, the people involved (if applicable) and the desired end, a spellcaster is working rather blindly to just apply "generic money drawing" say to a situation.
While clients don't want to hear it, sometimes people forget that the root of their problem is in no wise magical. If you want a person to marry you, but you cheat on them, refuse to hold down a job, and lie constantly, for example, it isn't a spell's fault if they continue to reject the idea. You're the one refusing to make yourself a good candidate for your chosen partner by engaging in those activities. A spell may make them feel more attracted, more loving, and desire you so strongly while their brain is like "No effing way am I marrying a lying ass cheater," which is, frankly, a sound choice on their end.
This is true for me as it is for my clients and absolutely NO ONE (including me) wants to admit it but the more whining you do about a situation the less likely magic is to be effective, which has less to do with the actual whining and more to do with the emotional state of the person doing it. The more I've bitched and moaned and felt self-pity over something, the harder it was for me to fix with magic. I've noticed a similar trend with clients. I don't expect anyone to be stoic all of the time or never complain, but if your day to day setting is constant petulance about a situation, chances are you need to work on YOURSELF and healing before you get to working magic on the situation. It really sucks and I know that from personal experience, because I've been there more than once. 😦
Just because technology has allowed far greater access to occultists, spellcasters, and psychics, that doesn't mean that they are here to do everything for you for free. I really miss that cool thing people did in my neophyte days which was a lot of learning by trial and error which really really really helped you learn.
A good psychic doesn't see some bad things coming in their own lives, and great magicians have problems. Did you know doctors can also get cancer and it doesn't make them a bad doctor? That psychiatrists can have mental problems? Did you know a mechanic's car can break down? A fireman can have a house fire in their home? Plumbers sometimes have leaky pipes? Nutritionists enjoy some junk foods, too? Yep, it's all true. People have problems – all people, – so if a spellcaster or psychic has some, it doesn't say anything about their expertise.
I hope this has been educational!
~Cat
PS- halfway through my money spell article and about 1/3 through the attraction spell….it's coming along. 😉
Cat’s Rants: Confessions of an Occult Mastermind 
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