A lot of my readers are asking for information about spells and instructions on how to cast them. Step one, I believe, is an understanding of what a spell is and what we hope to achieve with it.

What is a spell?  I have a collection of more than 5,000, many of which involve the creation of potions and the performance of rituals rather than the use of incantation which is the first thing I think of in connection with ’spells’ – a carefully intoned poem focused through a wand. Words have great power – everything we perceive, all we experience, what we remember and how we remember it, all this is codified linguistically. Spells are attempts to edit, to emphasize, to transform through language. Consider hypnosis and how it can alter perception and behaviour. Consider the use of prayer and the power and comfort many draw from it.

Consider too the use of “I love you” – probably the most powerful binding spell we’ve come up with. The right words delivered in the right way can become irresistible commands, often obeyed instinctively and triggering this ‘programming’ aspect of language is when ritualistic, magical spellcraft is most effective. We use words to convey something in our mind to the mind of another and just as the best poetry is spare and economic with words, so are the best spells. The power of “I love you” lies in what isn’t actually said but nevertheless explodes from those three words like a single zip file filling a computer directory with hundreds or even thousands of files, sub-directories, images, progammes… I think you get the picture. It even has an unspoken need for a response, a need to ‘accept the terms and conditions’ as it were, in order to run it.

The use of ritual, incantation, potions, music – sensual devices, essentially – connects us at a level that shuts out our ‘thought police’ who guard those personal borders that define us and separate us from the wider reality we inhabit.  We use spells to protect, to influence others, to invoke such higher powers as can put a thumb on the wheel of fortune for us. How many of us can spill salt without throwing a pinch over a shoulder? Walk under a ladder? Not make a wish when pulling a wishbone? Superstition is one of the scale, sophisticated and highly intellectualized magic lies at the other and yes, illusion and trickery can often be a major part of it. The Shaman who has studied the stars will be in a similar position to the time traveller who goes back in history with modern technology. The Shaman becomes powerful by drawing down the moon, perhaps with fore knowledge of an eclipse, just as long as he hets the timing right, while the time traveller will be a figure of awe for as long as his batteries hold out. Could ancient wizards really create fireballs in their hands? The science exists: electricity, magnetism, chemical reactions – all can create ‘magical’ effects in the eyes of the uninitiated. The power of the spell lies in how it affects our thoughts and perceptions – removing the supernatural doesn’t make it any less amazing.

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