Cat’s Rants: Confessions of an Occult Mastermind

Hey Occulties,

Just a brief little article for you on this beautiful September Sunday.

So I frequently get questions regarding why this or that isn’t manifesting, and as you guessed, nine times out of ten (if not closer to 49 times out of 50,) it’s lust for results. We’ve been over lust for results so many times that I’m reasonably certain you are all ready to die if you have to read about that again, ha ha. However, over the years, I’ve identified a number of subtypes of this phenomena and I think I have a new article to help everyone quit engaging in those anti-manifestation behaviors (including some which may not fall under the lust-for-results umbrella,) so let’s discuss getting your spellwork to manifest, shall we? Both of us will be happier when you start getting results with your spells (regardless of if you’re casting or I am!) because then I won’t get the same questions/problems in my inbox so often.

Problem #1 – you’ve already decided what your outcome will be (and it isn’t what you wanted.) This may seem bizarre but I get a strong number of people who come to me with a dark and sour demeanor, who are like “I know this won’t work,” or are acting clearly as though they believe they will not get what they are spellcasting for. This might surprise you, but you’re manifesting failure before you’ve even started! Don’t do that! When we “know” some outcome will be bad, we are literally drawing that bad outcome to us. While some people try to argue to me that they are merely prepping themselves for possible failure, I disagree that is true.

For example, let’s say you start dating someone new. You have a long history of choosing partners who eventually cheat, so you “know” this person will cheat, too. You start becoming insecure, demanding, accusatory, and eventually this new partner gets sick of being accused of cheating when they aren’t. When someone new and more patient catches their eye, they text you to let you know that they are leaving you for (new person’s name,) and you say to yourself “Well, I knew that would happen, – everyone always cheats on me!”  Well, if you hadn’t become so insecure and demanding, that likely wouldn’t have happened. Most people cheat for one of two reasons, – either they can never just have one partner (and you can usually identify these people well before the relationship gets serious, and choose for yourself if you still want it to be serious once you realize they are this type of person,) or because they lack something in their relationship. Believe it or not, lacking the trust of your partner is definitely lacking something and that might drive someone to cheat. 

So if this can happen in the mundane – you convincing yourself everything is doomed and then beginning to behave in such a manner that it makes doom and gloom actually happen, – it shouldn’t surprise you that you can do the very same thing to a spell! If I say “I know this won’t work,” then my very doubt and negativity create a “make this spell not work,” energy. Look, I don’t think if you suddenly convince yourself that you can fly that you will actually begin flying, or anything like that, – I realize the power of the mind is not the only limit in life, – but I do also know that spellcasting requires faith. If you’re always negative and believe it won’t work…well, there is now a far stronger chance it won’t – at least while you’re fixated on it. See, the funny thing there is, I also have a fair share of clients and readers who spellcasted and spellcasted for a thing, and when they got sick and tired of “being disappointed” (which was generally them obsessing and feeling a lot of self-pity,) and moved on, suddenly all their spells started to manifest. :P 

And before anyone tells me I’m being judgy, guess who does this to at least 2/3 of her money spells? Me. I am so acclimated to my money spells manifesting after I needed the money, that at this point, I’m like “I guess I’ll get this fecking money after the due date of needing it comes and goes,” and of course, that is very often what happens, hahaha.

Problem #2 – You expect immediate gratification. People are sometimes surprised to know that spells often do not work overnight. Even if this isn’t news to them, they will think they are exception to the rule. I am here to let you know that no matter how good you are at spells, the vast majority of them do not work overnight. Hell, the vast majority seem to take over a week to manifest. There’s even that personal target I had who took 60 days almost to the minute to have a spell manifest on him almost every single time I cast a spell on him. 

So while this is all good and fine, and it never hurts to remind ourselves to stop being so impatient sometimes, this also can make people do more and more spellwork while they wait for the spellwork to manifest. I am also prone to doing this, so you aren’t alone. That’s all great and fine until you (and I) realize….

We just did the spell-equivalent of using a stick of dynamite to kill a bug.

And that might also be just fine because too much of a good thing can be an even more good thing, but sometimes you just wanted to sort of nudge something in your direction, and the more subtle nudge would have been better. For example, some years back, I jumped right into a love drawing on a young man I’d been dating for all of about a week. The next thing I knew he was saying I love you and telling me I was his dream girl and he introduced me to his parents – which would have been fantastic if he wasn’t actually kind of creepy and didn’t have a severe Oedipus complex like calling his mom directly after we fooled around to tell her play by play what we did while I was standing in his kitchen just looking disturbed. Clearly, my spells were doing all I wanted and more, except I didn’t want those things now. 

I often see this with lust and with cursing. Either someone becomes downright rapey because they are so lusty for you when it all hits, or you just wanted your enemy to have bad luck, and now you feel awful because you absolutely exploded their life into smithereens and it’s showing no signs of stopping.

And also some people who expect instant gratification are sometimes just as immediately downtrodden and then become “problem #1,” too, so there’s that.

Problem #3 – You confuse modern technology and convenience with actual magic or actual divination, for the sake of convenience, of course. Let’s just get this out of the way – no there is no such thing as a tarot card app that works. There, I said it. I’ve been reading cards for over 30 years, and I don’t even think an unseasoned deck works very well but it would work at least better than something you can’t physically hold. No, I am not being old and grumpy. If you are not attuned to your method of divination, it’s not apt to work. Random number generating algorithms and overly positive descriptors are not how you read cards or any method of divination.

I’m not saying technology can’t advance to where we might be doing magic through a computer, but rather I see people literally getting spells off of memes from a dubious source and telling me if they spit hot pepper spit in someone’s direction this meme told them that this will curse the person. I personally think if you’re the one spitting scotch bonnet pepper juice, you’re more cursed than your enemy, but then I also know that you’re not casting a spell as is. If someone can post it on a meme, you might want to disregard it. I know we all have to learn somewhere, but I’d actually suggest you try the written word – some blogs and sites exists, like mine but also others, where there are myriads of spells and occult literature for you to learn from, and I also recommend these weird rectangular things we all used to enjoy back in the day called books. I have yet to see any YouTube or TikTok videos where I wasn’t laughing at the end because they were that…um, not informative, and often made by someone who shouldn’t be instructing others at this point in their learning, but I am a big enough person to assume there are some kickass videos online somewhere…just that the amount of bad ones I’ve seen leads me to believe it might be some years before we have a good source for me to point you in that direction. I much more trust the written word over any other method of finding good spells. If you want a meme or a video, you probably haven’t lasted this long in reading this, but frankly if you want to learn real magic, at this writing, I’d stay as far from those video sites as possible. 

And if you want a spellcasting app…I’ve seen a few programs that were supposed to be just that, but for the time being I also think the classical methods using an altar and real herbs and candles and roots and physical items and etc are the way to go over using any app. That said, I’m not a master of psionics, and people who are practitioners of psionics might be able to help you with an app as that suits with their paradigm. I practice hoodoo which is pretty big on physical ingredients.

Problem #4 – You have unrealistic expectations. This is really a multitude of problems. On the one hand, someone might have the expectation that if they burn a birthday candle once and ask for money that they should expect a windfall amount. On another hand, someone might think they can be as bad and mean and awful as they want to be because they did a reconciliation spell, and so their ex will come back to them no matter what. On yet another hand, you might have someone who sees what they want coming into fruition, but doesn’t like HOW it’s happening (example, the client I had many years ago who wanted her ex to dream about coming back to her as being why he returned telling me I failed her because the guy did return to her but not because of any dreams – he didn’t remember his dreams!) 

Look, magic can really change your life for the positive, but having unrealistic expectations of spellwork can be damaging to it manifesting as well as to your psyche. We get to put in “the order” for what we want. How and why it manifests remains a mystery to us until we get what we want. We need to keep within the sphere of availability (so sometimes this requires a few spells like one might take a few steps to solve any large problem,) and we also have to keep in mind that if burning a freaking birthday candle won anyone the Powerball lottery, we’d all be doing that all the damn time. Money work tends to manifest as money owed coming to you and more business or a raise, and gambling spells are much better used on games of chance which have far better odds than lottery wins. Also if you work against your spell, you’re the reason that manifestation is taking so long (if not happening,) so blame your damn self, and not the work.

Your old friend, Cat is here to tell you what you can expect, and how to help your spells manifest if you’re ever curious, but for goodness sake, please ask before you might engage in some self-defeating behaviors! And STOP ASKING HOW AND WHY it would happen. I can always tell something is going to fizzle when I get “I just don’t get how there is any reason this could happen,” because you are obviously THINKING THE SPELL TO DEATH trying to suss that out without remembering that you will know how and why it manifested when it manifests (and I guarantee 99 times out of 100 it makes so much sense once you get what you want that you are pleasantly surprised that you didn’t think of it!)

Problem #5 Everything is always bad news (sort of related to problem #1 but not,) until you get manifestation. If you’ve ever worked with me, you know how much I resent when people come in every day and need me to put a positive spin on what’s going on in their situation. I realize we all get overwhelmed sometimes and need a cheerleader or someone to help us see a silver lining, but if every time something happens that you didn’t expect (and sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s blah, and sometimes it what’s I term a “false negative,”) you fall into negative thinking, complaining and asking me if you should just “give up,” you’re going to drive me insane. In fact, you’d drive everyone insane.

This is where I give the old “roll with the punches,” speech: Look, you ultimately make the decision whether or not to panic or be miserable, and while I think any of us can stumble and fall and need some encouragement, if you constantly become noticeably upset or angry or freaked when something happens and demand others try to encourage you or reassure you, you’re going to run out of friends, and you’re never going to be able to hire me after you get what you want because I have a limited amount of time and patience, too. It is ultimately up to you to stay upbeat or not become dark and brooding and nasty. That might mean avoiding known triggers to this behavior, that might mean telling yourself to calm down when you get upset by a trivial occurrence like a “favorite” or “like” on social media, or it might mean clearing your mind instead of inventing hurtful scenarios in your head then getting mad at someone for things they never thought nor did. If I get bad news when I’m working on a situation it can unbalance me, too, but instead of sitting there and fussing on it, I get back up and steady myself, – and more often than not, the manifestation still happens, and shortly thereafter, – the difference being I didn’t stress myself out or start thinking my work to death in the interim. This is what I call rolling with the punches – it means even if you get knocked off balance, you balance yourself right back as fast as possible.

Problem #6: You were absent that day that they taught that one of the KEY requirements to spellcasting is to “Keep Silent” until the spell manifests. Why are you posting a picture of a spell casting for a spell which hasn’t yet manifested? You do know that you just let however many people looking at it think it to death alongside you, right? And if you’re in some group where that isn’t discouraged? Leave the group. Whoever is running it should discourage showing images of active, non-manifested work to a large chat group, and if they don’t, they don’t know magic. 

I don’t think it’s mandatory that no one know, but keep the group that does know small (not like 100 people certainly, even over 5 would be a stretch,) and keep it to yourself until it manifests. Everyone who knows about your spellwork can think it to death with you.

Alrighty that’s it for now kiddos. And pre-emptively, no this isn’t about any of you. There is this fear of becoming a blog topic, and frankly this stuff is so common for me to see, I’m not at all trying to call anyone out. If I avoiding discussing problems I see frequently everytime one arose, I’d literally never be able to publish any of my articles more or less ever again.

~Cat

Hey Occulties,

Since I basically started this blog 17 years ago to just speak about common misconceptions and errors regarding spellcasting, the occult, and the paranormal which I saw people making on now defunct chat groups (it was really more to entertain myself than anything else….little did I know what it would become,) it seems only fitting that I come here to talk on that very topic.

For example: "I never pay a psychic for a reading!" "I tell the psychic something wrong and if they don't know what I said which was a lie, I don't go back to them!" "I'm purposefully over-vague to test their abilities!" (and a lot of bullshit about free stuff and getting free stuff as is to be expected with this type.

Like you never pay for a reading? So I would guess you also shop only on free-sample day and never buy groceries? Is there a free tune up day to fix your car? Take a crowbar to get some free nails out of that abandoned house to build yourself a porch? Do you insist that everything is free? Everyone you hire works for free? And do you also work for free? If yes, then OK, you aren't even a freebie abuser (which is horrid in it's own right,) but you are the cheapest person and you truly hate money…and also expect shitty service when you ain't paying for it. 🙂 However, if you never pay your psychic for a reading, you are a freebie abuser. These people are degenerates, and also incredibly rude, rushed, critical, demanding… Imagine doing the chore or part of your job you hate most, and then have people yelling at you to do it faster because they get five free minutes of your time. When one exits, another comes in and starts up. You are the bane of psychics everywhere who are just starting out's existence. And why? Because so many of them depend on reviews* and start out on a website offering readings for free or a pittance, and if they don't tell you exactly what you want to hear, many times you will destroy their ratings. You want them to do a very draining, very demanding job for you, and do it very well, and because they need the experience, they are offering you a free taste…and you're making them regret every moment of it. Anyone else want a taste of this.

"Hi My name is (Psychic), and how may I help you today?"
"Is my high school boyfriend ever coming back?"
"Well, let me ask my cards. What is his name and your name?"
"Bitch, you call yourself psychic and you don't know my name or his? Hmmph"
"I need to know to connect my energy."
"Fine. I'm Karen, He's Kyle." 
"Okay! Thank you, Karen! Just give me a moment to tap in and-"
"Sure but don't take all day,  – only four more minutes are free." 
"I understand. So what I'm getting here is that Kyle isn't near you in the geographical sense, and until such a time as you get geographically close to him-"
"Where he at?"
"Excuse me?"
"Where is he at? Like where do I find him. I'll get geographically close. Last I heard we both live in the same state so it can't be too far."
"I am not certain but I'd say about 45-60 minutes away."
"He still thinking of me? It's been 30 years but I bet he is."
"Ma'am, I feel like he only recently got out of a marriage. He seems to believe you're married too. I'm going to be honest, I don't think he's thinking about you-"
"FUCK YOU."
"Ma'am you can make him think about you easily if you just visit where he li-"
"FUCK YOU SCAMMER BITCH. HE NEVER STOPPED THINKING ABOUT ME. YOU LYING JEALOUS WHORE! FUCK YOU! TALENTLESS SCAMMER!"

This is actually cuffed from one of my early psychic line readings. I'm probably being nicer than that person was to me. And the above, my dears, is what free and low cost services attract. They also attract people who want to know if an alien is living in their brain, and people who want you to mystically wiggle your toes and make frogs fall out of the sky.

Do you know what most of my readings are like? I greet the client. Client greets me back. We small talk for 2-3 minutes as I lay out the cards. THEN I ask the client what they want me to look into today. Usually I've put it out before even being asked. During this time I am told some deep dark secrets, sometimes people cry, and sometimes they get mad or happy…but at no time does anyone become rude or disrespectful, and no time does anyone ask me if an alien lives in their brain, and at no time is someone asking me to do some neat Harry Potter type party tricks. I give the most honest and compassionate advice to help this person reach the goal they have. Sometimes this is not what they want to hear, but because they don't just view me like a freebie asshole would, just someone that they get five minutes to interrogate, unsurprisingly, they tend to listen to my good advice far better than they did back when I read on psychic lines many years ago. And the reality is that you get what you pay for. If you pay nothing, you're probably getting a shoddy product. If you don't want to pay my rates, there are several good readers out there. If you want to pay my rates and speak to me, I have  more than 2 decades of reading for others under my belt, and the vast majority of the time, I'm told I'm more than worth it because I'm compassionate, helpful, honest, and really telling you what I'm getting which…a lot of people are scared to give client's bad news but still, I find it can be better to give it to them if you see it, so I also don't sugarcoat. But I will never give someone five free minutes of a reading ever again. And the people who love those….well, I don't know if I'm your type of reader. 🙂

Next we look at INTENTIONALLY DECEIVING THE PSYCHIC (aka lying to them,) in an effort to see if they can pick that up. Do you know how many people lie to me daily during their readings? Probably 2/3 – 3/4 of them. Yes, I can tell. But if they are lying it's nearly always something that they are embarrassed about so I don't make it known that I know. I'm not sure if it's psychicism or an innate talent but i can smell a lie like a fart in a car. Therefore if you tell me something like your dog's name is Charlie but it's really Champ, I'm going to pick up deception but just assume your dog's name is something like ChampDickMonsterCock and you call him Charlie because you really should never have named him such a crazy name. I'm not going to alert you that I know your dog's name isn't Charlie. I'm not going to dig for what his name really is. I'm going to move on and call the dog whatever you want me to call him. Now if you really just make up a completely bullshit story, I'll know you're lying, but if it's about all of it….I would be so confused and pissed off. Like I would keep getting dead ends and not be sure why – because what sort of fucking freakshow asks for someone's help on a problem that they just made up? Some test the psychic weirdo, that's who! "Psychic brain," is always in conversation with "conscious brain," and if "conscious brain" Is trying to be polite and hear your story, getting something entirely opposing psychically is unpleasant at best. You aren't testing the psychic, you're just being a fucking asshole.

And lastly to the overly vague, no details giving person…. Look, it's your money, and if you want to waste it hearing what you already know because it will take that sort of time to start pulling up the layers to get to what you wanted to learn, and then our time will be through. So you just paid for a half hour to hear what you know…and you pissed me off because talking to you was like having a conversation with one of those Beefeater soldiers when they are on duty, and I'm not going to read with you again – because I don't like game playing assholes like that. There are some AMAZING psychics out there who will tell you to say nothing and they will give you three free details and they impressively do. If you like playing games like that, find one of them. Me? I like us feeling comfortable because if I'm going to look deep into your personal life, it's better if I don't feel like you're defensive, hostile, and silent. But, that's just me. 

Also, from psychics everywhere (as this is one opinion I've found to be universal to every psychic I've ever met,) STOP ASKING US FREE QUESTIONS OUT OF THE BLUE. This is the same as asking your dentist for a filling for free just because you're also getting a root canal next week, or insisting the supermarket give you all your produce for free because you're buying a ribeye steak. So, if you have any service you've purchased with that person and it DID NOT come with a free reading, DO NOT sneak in free reading questions. Everyone likes being paid to do their job – even psychics. 😉

Next we move on to "reviews" – I will hear that x or y has "glowing reviews!" Or "they have bad reviews!" 

Ah, let's gather round for story time, shall we, kids? It was probably about 3 years ago at this writing that I first encountered someone I will call CB (for Crazy Bitch,) though if you want to find her name online, you likely can. She had some SEVERE issues to fix, but when I dealt with her she was very pleasant, very nice, asked great questions, and I really found her quite a lovely young woman to work with. She was cautious but not defensive, had lots of questions and concerns but did not pose them rudely, and while she had contacted me in August or September, other than exchanging some emails, it was October as I remember it that we started working together. I was really excited for this project. She did have some MEGA issues to fix, which were clearly caused by a lapse of reason, but at the same time….the thing that happened to her might make anyone unreasonable. So, it was around Thanksgiving as I remember it, which would mean right around my birthday, and the email came on a weekend, though I can no longer recall if it was Saturday or Sunday for sure…I'm going to say Sunday. So, Saturday and Sunday are my days off, and while I do tend to work too much and not take a day off for 6-8 weeks in a row, given the time of year, it makes sense I'd have taken this time off that I have. Anyhow, the email says, more or less verbatim, "Hey Cat, I was wondering if we could schedule a reading sometime. How are you? -CB" Clearly I saw no urgency in it, as I told myself I'd answer it the next day which is why I think it was a Sunday (Monday being the start of a new business day.)

I awoke, made my coffee, and fed the single bird I at that time had (because I had a momentary lapse of reason and now have three, haha,) and I went into my email only to see that this woman had charged back EVERY SINGLE THING SHE EVER BOUGHT…which amounted to about $3000. I gathered my jaw off of the floor, and I asked her why she felt this was appropriate. I had read her "complaint" that she said I never replied to her emails but I had one single one here, and it was received on my day off and also was not late in reply (by site rules), so I was merely waiting to schedule with her this morning. I then went on to ask her "could you please send me any emails I'm missing. I think this may be a severe overreaction if it's this single one, but if there are several, please furnish them. This is my job and I need to know if this sort of thing is happening where I'm losing emails." She basically flipped out, claimed I was "threatening her" and not to contact her further. The above is basically what I said to her verbatim. Now, that might sound weird that she'd act like a complete psycho once she stole from me (chargebacks are theft,) but it's a defense mechanism I see in a lot of people with either a particular personality disorder or also 2 particular psychological issues, so you or I could have been sweet and loving and encouraging, and she'd be claiming we were threatening her. Trust me. Since I recognized immediately what was going on, I just looked through my emails. About 2-3 weeks previous a message which had somehow floated into my spam was "Hey Cat, how are things going?" or similar. This was literally the only other email. I spoke to my payment processor, and she could not furnish any other emails because there were none. Needless to say, her complaint was judged as groundless, and the money was returned to me quickly by that payment processor. She wasn't done though. She went to her bank, said she did not recognize the charge, and then the bank quickly stole my money (it debits your account when someone does this,) which was then not returned for 3-4 months while they reviewed the easily dismissed charge as her complaint to the payment processor was given to them and she's there saying she did recognize the charge. 

Now, on it's own, that sounds like a fucking nightmare and a half, right? How dare I not work on my day off!? OMFG! Given the lack of urgency in her requests, seems rather ridiculous that she would even panic, right? Well, she did more than that. She left some nasty reviews of me. And here's the thing, kids, you wanna do that, most of the time I'd ignore it, but I'd done NOTHING WRONG AT ALL in this case, and had in fact gone out of my way for her. We had consulted over things for a MONTH at one point and I don't recall charging her for that much consultation which was hours of my time. This was all over an email that was perhaps 24 hours in my inbox (probably less) when she charged me back. So, there is at least one, but I believe 2 reviews of her acting batshit insane and acting like I was this monster who she spoke to once, and then she never saw me again (OMG, I SPOKE TO HER FOR HOURS AND HOURS BEFORE SHE HIRED ME, UGGGGGGHHHH!) where I respond to her – much time later after she'd left said reviews, – and since she tries to go anonymous, I call her out by her name. If you're going to call me out, and make up lies, be very sorry when I show up with a smile and tell my side of the story, and I will gladly call you by the very name I've called you by since we met. I will be pleasant on my blog and not give out that detail. The proof was on my side, still is…but that is MOST BAD REVIEWS.

Do you know that MOST bad reviews are written by someone who's probably just being an asshole? I have myself left a bad review whilst being an asshole. If someone finds that and says "Cat, do you really think that storage place sucks," privately, I'd probably be like "the late charges are off the hook and it's not that nice, but perhaps I was a bit severe." An ex of mine left a famously awful review for a restaurant he eats at practically every single day because they didn't have seating for him on a Saturday some time ago and tried to put him on a waiting list. He was so offended that he left a scathing false review about the place. 

So, I think we call assume that at least some shitty reviews come from people who are probably exaggerating their experience or are very bent of shape. Of course, it would reason that some are actually on the mark, right? Well, that's where things get a bit sticky. For example, imagine you are taken to see an opera. You've never been to one before and you didn't really know what one was before going, and you did not care for it. So you write a review on it and say it was awfully loud and annoying and everyone had too much make up on. This opera could have opera critics glowing and praising it, but you know nothing about operas, and don't realize you don't enjoy operas so you just shit all over it. Now imagine that the layperson finds your review and thinks you must be on to something. Sure they don't know that you had never seen an opera nor had understood what one was, but you, Mr/Ms Nobody must be trying to help out your other consumers, including people who love opera. Well, OK, Cat, you say, but that's one bad review from someone who really shouldn't be reviewing operas. Yes, kids, and most people don't have the education or experience to rate spellcasters. I have had 5 people come to me just last week telling me someone scammed them as they did not get what they wanted within 3-5 days. I told them that would be strange that they should expect such a thing so fast or for magic to work that fast. See, it can work that fast, but it's the exception, not the rule, and had they known one single thing about magic, they would know that…but they don't know about magic. So….in saying that, yes, I do feel that others misled them, however, I would also say those people are not qualified to leave a review. The only people who should review something are really people who are authorities on such a thing. Seeing as that would mostly be "the competition" or "friends" of a particular spellcaster who could be considered authorities, it kind of leaves a big gaping hole for "believable reviews" as friends or competitors also have motives for being positive or negative…so, there really isn't any way I personally know where reviews would be "astute" on any spellcaster (we aren't listed in something like Consumer Reports magazine) where it isn't just ignorance and asshole-ery, or overly-glowing. 

Because that's the thing, kiddos….the flip side is "FIVE STARSSSSS!! YESSS THIS PERSON CAN DO ALL THINGS AMAZINGLY!!!!!!!!" Okay, this is fantastic if someone says this personally to me, but I'm no fucking miracle worker (sometimes I've definitely helped to bring about some amazing changes in people's lives, but I still am just a human being,) Now, while I LOVE that someone loves my work (it makes me so happy, and thank you!) what will now happen is that people will start bringing me basically impossible requests. Can I make them into an elephant? Will I grant them powers to fly? Because this review here said "I can do all things," so may as well ask, right? 😉 Good reviews can be even more overwhelming than bad ones some days, albeit, like anyone else, I'd much rather have someone thanking me than making up stories because I didn't schedule them for a reading on my day off. The thing is, again, in most of these cases, these people are overjoyed by getting what they want (as am I,) but are not really knowledgeable enough about spells to know if that was amazing or mediocre (I prefer to hear amazing, haha,) and furthermore, let's say that they WERE educated enough in spells to know such a thing, now we have the added layer that when it comes to businesses, virtually everything is five stars or 1 star. So, even if my work did manifest but the educated consumer found it mediocre, they are still more or less obligated to give five stars because if they don't, four and three and two stars are viewed by most people as being nearly a one star review. I mean when I Uber or use Instacart, if you show up and do your job, even if it was somewhat bleh, I'm giving you five stars because it's how you make your living. :P 

In short? Reviews are often worthless. Jaded asshole people (I have too been an asshole to my storage company, so it happens,) leave mean reviews – whether or not they are deserved, – and nice people who think someone at least did a competent job (even if they can't judge from any educated perspective,) will generally leave five star reviews. While I guess we could just say "a lot of shitty reviews at least means that person is an asshole," and I'd agree to a point, there are also now posting bots which create several fake reviews and apps with which to find them…which means ALL REVIEWS MIGHT BE BULLSHIT, and you legit need an app to get 85% or so of the places using them….ergo reviews are worthless. 😛 If you are curious about someone, I honestly suggest you speak to them personally. I have had clients and friends who had stalkers leave reviews on them all over the internet posing as various people and often totally making things up about the merchant or business, so a little one on one contact with the person you are thinking of hiring can let you know better if they are really the person you want to hire. 

Now let's talk about: Why are spells X price here and then Y price there!? Spells should only cost about Z!

I have friends who run a site who charge substantially less than I do on the surface….except they don't. They are doing less work than I do for what I charge for a seven day package with virtually unlimited email/text support through the manifestation process, and if you added in all of what I include…it's actually almost the same price. Why? You pay to speak to them in many cases. They are offering things piecemeal as well, whereas I generally do a cocktail of approximately five spells in that package. Now to someone comparing my site to theirs, they look cheaper, but in the end, that might not be true. And see, if I charged you to speak to me about your problem (so for any consultation, or anything past a sentence or two in reply,) every time you had a question, and if I chopped it up and sold things piecemeal like that, it might actually come to being that my prices are less because just with the virtually unlimited spell manifestation phase support that I do, I actually make less than $10 per hour with several of my spellcastings. If you're high-maintenance, sometimes I'm lucky if I make $1 per hour. 

And this brings to mind another good point – here I am with friends who do very similar magic to my own, but the manner in which we sell it is different, so we're doing nearly the same types of work on your problem, but maybe you only want something simple and you don't care if you get to text someone at 2am to alert them there is movement in your case and you need guidance – in that case, they are possibly a better fit, and I have honestly recommended them before when I feel that may be the case. Since many of my clients have been my clients for over a decade (I love repeat business!) several still opt to stick with me and not save the money. I can't offer the prices they do because all of my clients more or less expect to be able to reach me and speak to me about their case throughout the manifestation phase, so I have to calculate that into the price. 

Also, you may be comparing apples to oranges. Do you know their materials? What paradigm are they casting under – is it Solomonic, ATR-Based, Euro-folk magic, Middle-eastern magic, or maybe Tibetan Buddhist? Maybe none of those? What I do could be substantially different from what someone else would do. There is no sliding scale that says if I want a particular type of spell that it should be between these two monetary figures or else someone is overcharging. Yes, some people do charge a lot and some people do charge far too little, but GENERALLY if you speak to practitioner before handing over your money, you can get a good idea of how they work and why the cost is what it is. I would say if they tell you that they need to get dragon scales and fairy wings and those cost thousands of dollars than yes, that's a ton of bullshit, but give them a chance to let you know how they work and why the cost is what it is if you're concerned. I get at least 4-5 people a year who try to tell me I cost too much and I come right back with that the spells make me hardly any money, and I'll tell them why. 

Now let's talk about: "Let me post images of this spell I just cast!" and "Can anyone write me a free essay on how to cast a spell, write out all of the ingredients and explain it to me in depth merely because I posted this request?"

Ah, newbies. I love you, my newbies, because it gives me a great sense of happiness to see you working towards being a salty old occultist some day, but some of you really need to learn 2 major things. The first is that you should never post images of your spellwork or ask a large group of people to discuss your active spellwork because you are destroying your spell energy by having others group think it to death. That's a topic I've gone over in here a lot. Sure, take some images of the spell. Wait for it to manifest. Then share. Otherwise, the less people who know about your work, the stronger the manifestation should be. 

The second thing you must learn is that people who know spellwork are not your free encyclopedias. The people who generally respond to the "tell me all this shit at length for free" requests these days are people who are also newbies or who populate incredibly suspect sites and think they are fantastic. Whether that's the chatroom of a guy who literally has an entire group devoted to making memes about him (I've read his work…and while some may think he's the Guy Fieri of spellcraft – which is fair to a point, – at least Guy Fieri can make some tasty food, whereas this guy's spellwork that I've read is just terrible, though I admit I only read one of his books, so, that may be unfair of me,) or people who post in social media groups to promote "spells" like chew a pepper and spit it at your enemy to make them go away (honestly, if you keep spitting at me, I'd probably go away, pepper or no, because ew, grossssssss,) so there is a chance that you're setting yourself up to get bad information just making this type of request. I will go into social media groups and reply to some of this, but often the requests are very overly particular, or I can get the idea that I will suddenly have 5 hours of extra unpaid work if I do try to help, that I often avoid this stuff. If I can link to a few articles – great! But I spent my time writing those articles for my readers and clients, whereas, if you ask me for some bizarrely particular type of spell and then to spend 2 hours explaining it, and writing it out and etc…I sell that service and it's called spellcoaching. I do enough pro bono work on the side in groups or even fielding brief questions. Five free hours of my time  for one person is unfair to all of the other people I'm helping. That means less time to offer quick guidance for everyone else and it also cuts into the time of my paying clients. 

This means if you're asking for very specialized customized help, you probably should pay a professional for their time. Otherwise, you go do your own work by how we used to do it which was a lot of research on our own. I even used a card catalog at one time, which I'm not even sure people under 35 remember what that is. The side benefit of this is that when you understand spellwork, picking out the real from the bullshit is as easy as finding a whale in a tiny fish tank. The bad part is you might become a salty old occult expert who's like "Dude, you did not just ask me to spend several hours writing out a spell for you and then helping you cast it, and explaining novice subjects like lunar correspondences and etc and do that for free, did you?" 

Alright…I'm sure I've just pissed off enough people for one week. 😉 Back soon with that dang attraction spell article that I keep getting side tracked on finishing up! ;) 

~Cat