Hey Occulties,
You know what time it is – its time for some questions you’ve asked me. Now, if you’re really feeling like you want to get edu-ma-cated, you might also try hitting all the articles in this catagory. 😀 I try not to repeat myself repeat myself repeat myself, but inevitably I must and I do since too many people are lazy and refuse to read the archives, therefore re-asking those very questions you’ve asked me a long, long time ago. 😉 So, if any of this is review, I apologize in advance. 🙂
Anyhoo, let’s get on with it. 🙂
Q. Regarding a mojo-bag: Does it need to be a specific color, or a specific fabric?
A. I was taught (and my other rootie friends feel free to comment,) that traditionally a mojo bag is made from red flannel. Someone had also told me that traditionally they were made of chamois (lambskin, – though properly it should come from a chamois mountain antelope, it probably is just lambskin) back some time in the late ’90’s which is probably why I don’t remember who that someone is. 😉 I do not use chamois bags so I can’t comment. I personally make my bags all out of red flannel. 
Today, people use bags of many different colors, and I would say if you want to use a bag-color corresponding to the nature/use of the bag, this is perfectly fine and will not negatively impact the work whatsoever. I feel the fabric, so long as its not going to stretch or be easily worn out, is really up to the creator of the bag. Its really a preference thing. Some rootworkers will swear by using only red flannel – others like using an array of colors.
Q. How often do you recommend performing a cleansing on myself/spell-casting area?
A. Well, while that is also a preference thing, look at it like this: cleaning yourself (magically, – I should hope your hygiene is good too, but that’s not what I’m talking about,) is just as important as say…washing your hands before you eat when you work on a farm. 😉 What? What am I talking about? Okay, when we perform spellcraft, we leave behind energies and vibrations on our area and on ourselves. Maybe these energies and vibes are sometimes not of such a strength its noticable, but in any case, its good to clear them out regularly so we don’t “infect” our other spellworkin’s with the energies of prior spells. Furthermore, we don’t want bad and nasty energies to get caught up in our auric energies, so if you curse someone, you usually want to cleanse yourself and your area after that to ensure the cursing energy doesn’t effect you as well as the target.
However, I have known people to leave certain altars used for specific purposes (like money drawing,) uncleansed in an effort to keep all of those energies working strong. I personally feel its still a good idea to “clean house” every once in awhile to keep the area clean (again, compare this to bodily hygiene – do you leave a part of yourself unwashed for any length of time? And if so, why?) but some people apparently enjoy keeping certain objects, altars, or items magically uncleansed. I am not one of these people, but I know them. 😉 I guess I’d put them in with that group of people who never washes a specific skillet with soap so it retains some of the flavors of prior meals… 😛
So…when you think about magically cleansing yourself or your altar, or your ritual tools, etc, just think about it like mundanely cleansing yourself, or washing the floor, or etc – its a similar idea. 
Q. Is it EVER a good idea to tell someone you cast a spell on them?
A. If they asked you to, it could be. Otherwise, no I don’t feel its a good idea. People who claim the “victim” of a curse needs to know the curse has been cast for it to work, for example, are just people displaying their ignorance. I have known many a curse, love spell, healing spell, money spell, and other type of spell to work on a target who was never the wiser of its existance.
Q. Is it appropriate to refer to all spellcasters, male or female as “Witches?”
A. While some Wiccans don’t mind the title (some very much do,) in general it is very inappropriate to refer to a spellcaster (especially one who is not a practitioner of a Neo-pagan style spellcraft,) as a witch. It is considered derogatory in many circles around those who DO NOT practice Wicca or Wicca-derived magic/religions.
There has been a movement by Wiccans and Neo-Pagans to “reclaim” the word as a word of honor. While this may be fine and well if they already consider themselves witches, I know several rootdoctors and rootworkers who do not appreciate the term being applied to them. I personally do not care to be called a witch, but that is because, to me, the word applies to Wiccans who want the word applied to them, and not so much to other spellcasters belonging to different traditions.
If in doubt, the words “practitioner,” or “spellcaster,” tend to apply to most people who practice spellcraft without causing anyone any hard feelings on being mistaken for belonging to a culture/craft they don’t belong to, and without applying a word that some people find as offensive as “bitch,” because historically and etymologically speaking, it is only recently that people tried to “reclaim” the word and after hundreds of years of it being an offensive/negative term – one than generally denoted an “evil spellcaster.”
Q. Are your friends afraid of you because you cast spells?
A. Anyone who thinks they need to be afraid of me wouldn’t be my friend, would they? 😉 In all seriousness though, I think I’ve had the title of the “evil witch who makes all her ex boyfriends crazy” before…. I didn’t appreciate that one. 😛 But, generally speaking, that would not be the most common negative s***-talking I hear about myself. It usually has more to do with being a sexy boobalicious redhead who speaks her mind that gets me in trouble. As for the spellcraft, I don’t hear much about it. People ask me for it, people want to know more about it, but rarely do I get crap for it.
I have run into a few “friends” of mine from the past who chose to become prejudiced against me for my beliefs in the occult. Again, these people are obviously not my friends. If people can’t accept you for who you are, they aren’t worth your time as is. When it came to those I mentioned, none of them were really close friends back in the day, and if time and bigotry caused them to reject me, so be it. I have more friends than I can count anyhow, so the loss of 2 or 3 due to ignorance and petty reasons is no huge loss.
So, while I can’t speak for everyone I know (because really, if these people claiming to be friends of mine fear me or my knowledge of spellcasting, they haven’t said,) I would say the short answer there is no.
Q. Why do you often tell people not to look for signs, but to let the “sign find them?”
A. I say this because to tell a newbie to look for signs is akin to telling them to project the idea of a sign. So many newbies are desperate for signs they start seeing signs that never existed, and further, it amounts to not letting go of the spell energy to instruct someone to go to look for the little signs of manifestation.
Now, this doesn’t mean to IGNORE what might be a sign, as I mean that if and when a sign occurs, the subject to whom that sign is for (generally the spellcaster him/herself,) will not have to ask themselves if it is a sign or not. Its obvious. I say this a lot, but getting a sign is a bit like falling in love for the first time – until you’ve experienced it, you don’t know what it really is. 😉
Here’s a good case for not telling newbs to look for signs – some of them will, for example, have say, a target named John or Michael (very common names, especially in the USA,) and they will say “Oh me, oh my, I have seen the name John everywhere, and when someone talked about using the toilet the other day, they said they were using the John, so it must be A SIGN my John is returning.” Uhhhh….okay. Listen… That’s a very common name and you are apt to hear it around a lot, and if someone calling the toilet “The John” makes you believe that’s a sign, then hang out with my dad for a day because he refers to it as such quite often. Apparently Cat’s dad is fulla signs for you, huh? 😉
OR we have the ol’ “Tell me the candle signs” person. Okay, here’s a bit of something I have to say here – the candle wax does not always make a picture. I have seen OBVIOUS pictures, but often times when someone asks “Cat what is this,” I am handed something which is not even a promising Rorschach blot in wax. 😉 So, unless that OBVIOUSLY resembles a picture (not a kidney in vomit, or a mis-shaped brain? or a half a horse with a melted end that explodes? WTF, really, people,) there is no sign. Sorry. Hey, you know I have a candle stick that gets wax blots all over it, it usually just produces the sign of a drippy candle covered in a lot of herb matter, which is all it is. 😉 Or the jar candle drama…. Oh, boo, my candle burned black! Oh boo, indeed, because then you should try another candle on the same situation, and chances are it won’t burn black, and what happened to you was a matter of physics, suchas a bit of herb matter caught fire and smoked the chimney up – not anything mystical. If the second candle burns black THEN maybe you have a sign of a not so positive nature. And finally, that flicker or pop may be the sign of a draft in your house or a bubble in your candle….make sure you don’t have a draft, and peek in on your candle to see if there is a “sign” going on or a bubble.
I know, I know, I took away your fun by telling you the truth. Boo to me.
Now, this isn’t to say that signs do not happen, as the spellcaster often will get a sign, its simply an instruction to stop stop stop projecting fake signs all over the place…because its newbish and it doesn’t help the situation at all.
I hope this has been educational for everyone. Remember not to plagiarize my work (you know who you are people,) since I offer a $25 reward for anyone who locates a theif. 🙂
All material in this article is copyright OriginalNinjaCat, all rights reserved.
~Cat
