Cat’s Rants: Confessions of an Occult Mastermind

Hey Occulties,

Many of you have written in asking Miss Cat if I could help you with cleansing yourself after you’ve done harmful or dark spellwork. 😉 Well, certainly!

First of all, you should smoke your spell area regularly to remove unwanted energies, and perhaps your whole home with a “smudge stick” or bundle of white sage. Sometimes these are coupled with other elements. I can’t think of the brand, but my favorite smudge stick is a combination of white sage and copal resin. When I smudge, I first wave the smoke all over my body using my right hand, and holding the stick in my left. Then I switch hands, carrying the stick in my right hand, and I walk through every room in my home, making the sign of the cross wth the stick over and over, saying, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I purify this house of dark and harmful energies, I purify this place of all energy that would cause harm to those residing here, I purify this home of all beings or energies that would be here undesired by myself.” I repeat this, walking through each room and saying this. If you do not feel comfortable calling on the powers of the Christian Trinity, you might say, “In the name of the Lord and Lady,” (for Wiccans,) or “With the power of the Great Spirit,” or whatever you feel is appropriate for your religious beliefs or lack thereof. 😉

I am also a big believer in cleansing and wiping down altars, candle sticks, – even those cake tins I always tell you to use. 😉 Try to wipe down everything. To cleanse all of your ritual items and altar, you can use Florida Water in a spray bottle. I’m not sure if this comes in a spray bottle (really,) but I use a spray bottle I bought at the local hardware store (this is often located in the plants section.) 🙂 The spray bottle is great, and can be used in a fashion where the florida water can evaporate on its own, or can be rubbed in using a paper towel.

If you are feeling super “grungy” you can also use a blend of equal parts hyssop, eucalyptus, and rue brewed into a strong tea, and added to a large bucket for a ritual bath. To do this take about 1/4 to 1/2 cup each of the herbal ingredients (you can stuff them into an old pantyhose stocking or even staple a large coffee filter together to contain them,) and steep in about 3-4 cups boiling water for about 10 minutes. Add the water along with some regular water to a large bucket or washing basin (you should be able to stand in this,) and place both of your hands over the water in the bucket, and bless the water. I will give a lay-blessing here to suit most religious (or lack thereof) beliefs, but if you prefer a religious prayer, you might use a blessing psalm or any prayer given to purify/bless within your religious practices. Say, “I ask the Universe to bless this bath water that it may purify my energy, and wash it clean. I bless this water to rinse from me any energies that are harmful or dark which may have attatched to me. As is my will, so be it!” Now, step into the bucket, and wash yourself down, from crown to feet. When you are finished, throw the bathwater to the west, OFF of your property.

Hope this helps everyone get some of the negative energies off of their tools, altars, and themselves. 🙂

~Cat

Hey everyone…

This one is a big concern in my inbox, so I figured I’d touch upon it. 🙂 I realize for some of you, this is review and I am sorry. This is also not a full or complete list of reasons, but hopefully it will aid some of you in your own spellcasting. 🙂

At some time or another every spellcaster will experience spell-failure. This is not the ultimate sign of badness, it is not a sign (necissarily) that you did something wholly wrong, and its no reason to kick yourself or someone else. 😉 I am going to see if I can’t flog some of the mystery and melodrama out of spell-failure everyone today, so as that we can all know why and how this phenomena can and does happen.

Possible Case for Spell-Failure #1: The petitioner/spellcaster overly obsessed over how/when/why the spell would manifest, strongly doubted manifestion, or in some way thought the spell unto death.

Yep, this happens a lot. Nope, that’s not a cop-out. Yes, I too have done this to myself. I didn’t freak out and tell myself that I just am saying that to myself so I have a reason for failure. I actually take ownership of my own mistakes, so I wouldn’t do that. 😉 I have found more oft than not, an obsessive mind has a difficult time with spell manifestations, whether or not they or someone else cast the spell for them.

My best answer as to WHY spells are effected by “thinking it to death,” may be located here, first question.

Possible Case for Spell-Failure #2: The petitioner worked against the spell energies. For example, you say you want your ex back, but then attack them when you see them, or you say you want a spell for a new job, but don’t fill out any applications… 😛

Try to work WITH your spell…not against it.

Possible Case for Spell-Failure #3: Wrong “plan of attack” was used in fixing the problem. Sometimes, we must realize the problem itself is not its own cause…wow, that sounds weird, does it not. 😉 For example, let’s say I’m fighting with someone…regularly. 😛 Well, I can recon spell and recon spell all of the time to try to get the person to reconcile with me, but realistically, if I were to look at the issue, the problem isn’t the fighting itself, its what’s CAUSING the arguments, which may be a lack of communication. The communication issue must be addressed. So the “failure” lies in the fact that I am fixing something repeatedly which is only a result of a greater problem.

Possible Case for Spell-Failure #4: The Universe says, “NO.” I am in no way of controlling this factor because when it comes down to it, the Universe/God/dess/Spirit/etc, has the final say as to whether or not a thing can or cannot be. Its not always sensible to us that the Universe would say no, but the Universe must also kill moms and dogs (which feels equally unfair to us,) and must do other nasty hurtful things to keep the “Greater Plan” in check, but this is still the hardest one to accept. Personally, the last dog of mine the Universe took from me earned a massive spew of cuss words spat right at it for that action, and I’m still peeved my dear friend Kyle isn’t here incarnated in his fat golden body of dogginess….though he’d be going on 21 now, and probably that’s a bit too old for a dog anyhow. 😉 The same goes with spells. Maybe it seems unfair to YOU that you can’t have what you want, but the Universe has the final say, and I’ve tried arguing and reasoning with it, and it often doesn’t do a lick of good. 😉

HOWEVER, this is not as common as people tend to worry it is. 😉 So please do not email me with a “why isn’t it pointless, then?” email. The reason it is not pointless is sort of like getting treatment for a disease. If there is a 1% chance you could die even WITH treatment, and a 98% chance treatment will fix the problem, which chance would you take? Aha.

I’ve also noticed that the “squeaky wheel,” does not get the desired figurative grease when it comes to the Universe. The Universe hates crybabies. Seriously. If you can only complain, then the Universe figures you want more to complain about and delivers it to you…and if you want to complain about that, well, go ahead. 🙂

Possible Reason for Spell-Failure #5: The power is not released from the spell/s because the spellcaster is working TOO MUCH on the situation.

If you do not take a break and let the energy go (by not spellworking) for a few days, sometimes you just keep building up the energy and its not being sent. Think of this a bit like putting helium into a balloon…we have to hold the balloon in one spot while we fill it, but as we add more helium, we are not going to see it float – not until its tied off and the helium balloon is allowed to be let go. The more helium we put in does not always mean that balloon will float higher, – does it? No. So, just putting in ENOUGH until we know the figurative balloon is full is as good as overfilling it. Once our helium (energy) is in our balloon (spell,) we can let it go (manifest,) rather than continuously filling it and making the balloon pop.

Possible Reason for Spell-Failure #6: Similar to reason number 3, you could have what’s known as an “unseen obstacle” blocking your spellwork. For example, if you are casting on a magic/kally adept person, they may have protective spells up blocking your spells, or there is another person simultaneously spellcasting on your target, or someone spellcasting on you…or perhaps, (and I’ve seen this,) your target is gay and your love spell will not “un-gay” them, even if they are in the closet. 😉

***

This is in no way a finite list of things which could impede or ruin your spellwork, but hopefully it has flogged out the mystery and drama of spell-failure for some of you. I realize its easy to project blame if someone else cast the spell for you, but I’ve heard people confused as to how their spell could fail when they did it for themselves…well, because there is no 100% foolproof spell, and I’ve been telling you kids that for 3.5 years now, have I not? 😉

Best,

~Cat