Originally, for this issue, I had planned a piece on metaphysical symbols and the importance of knowing them. However, due to the sudden flux of uncontrollable cosmic influences in my life (i.e., I left a job, started a job, was in the hospital, moved my residence and other really fun stuff), I decided to preempt that discussion in favor of something else. And, if you're like most of the pagans I know, you'll enjoy this subject even better than some pseudo-academic spiel about symbolism.
This article is about a sex spell.
To start, I'll give you a little background on the circumstances leading up to the spell. At the time, I had been sharing an apartment with my brother, who was gone constantly to his girlfriend's house, leaving poor, pitiful me to spend night after night without company. In addition, I've never been in a long-term romantic relationship with anyone, which as you can imagine can make a young guy go gaga. So, finally, I reached the end of my rope. After I finished a social call on my high priestess, I decided that was that. No more fooling around, I'm pulling out the heavy artillery. I'm getting the gods involved in this.
What follows is a step-by-step breakdown of what I did that evening.
What did I do?
The first and most important thing was not something that I did, but that I experienced: a change of consciousness. Meaning what? My mind and emotions both were focused on doing my spell without any distractions. I wasn't concerned about my financial condition, my health or my goldfish. It wasn't until the next day that I realized that this focusing had happened, when I began to analyze and catalogue my spell's components. Looking back, I can clearly see that this was the most powerful contribution I made: my focused concentration and willpower.
According to my tradition, a spell like this should be done during the waxing of the moon, that is, between New Moon and Full Moon. This seems to be the most appropriate time for conjurings that are constructive, attractive or growth-oriented in nature. I just happened to skinny under the wire, being as it was the evening before the Full Moon
Now, from the moment I walked into my house, I had been gathering power to myself. Remember, I was at the end of my rope, and my emotions were running high. I was stomping through my apartment (good thing I was living on the bottom floor!). And as I began to set the stage for casting my circle, I was slamming down my athamé, chalice with water, salt and broom in the south, west, north and east, respectively. Also, I placed two candles in the east toward the rising sun, one each for the God and Goddess. Experienced practitioners in the Craft may recognize this as a typical Wiccan setting, and indeed I did model it on Janet and Stewart Farrar's example in The Witches Bible. Although I am not Wiccan myself, my tradition encourages eclecticism, and this set-up seemed to feel right at the time.
To begin the ritual, I put on a CD, Horowitz playing "Isolde's Liebestod" from Tristan und Isolde by Wagner. Then I cut my first circle using the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, a ceremonial technique to clear my space of unwanted influences and to define it as sacred during my working. Next, after having emptied my space, I wanted to fill it with positive power, so I cast a second circle Wiccan-style, invoking the elements, the God and the Goddess.
Surrounded by two powerful circles filled with the love of the deities, I began the spell-casting. When I set up the circle, I brought a piece of notebook paper and a red ink pen with me. At the top of the paper, I wrote "Enduring Love and Satisfying Sex." Then I listed the names of 10 men I had known at various times in my life for whom I had had an attraction. Next to their names, I wrote the particular qualities about them that I had loved, things like loyalty, trustworthiness, intelligence, drop-dead sexiness and being loaded with money. You should know I was not trying to influence these fellows at all. Writing their names helped me in focusing on the qualities I was looking to attract, rather than trying to concentrate on words representing abstract concepts. For those that don't know, it is a really big no-no to try to influence someone's free will through magickal means. If you don't believe me, ask someone else in the Craft. If you don't believe them, go ahead and try it, but when you get a psycho-killer for your amour de jour, don't come crying to me.
Suddenly I had an intuitive flash. I spit on the paper and smeared it over the writing, doing the same again using semen.
After I recovered, I folded the paper and began to burn it between the twin candle flames, letting the smoke become a burnt offering. I held the paper there till my fingers started to burn, then dropped the debris in the water-filled chalice, stirring it with my athamé, opened my circle and let the mixture sit in the moonlight till morning. When I got up, I strained out the liquid and used it to anoint my forehead and my heart region every morning before my shower.
Did it work?
And how! The morning after I cast the spell, I experienced immediate results. On the way to the bus stop, guys slowed down in their cars to stare at me with a hungering look. Then, while I was sitting on the bus, this handsome stud sat next to me, brushing his leg against mine and grinning at me. The next evening, I was waiting at the bus stop when this nice fellow struck up a conversation with me, took me home and proceeded to screw me silly. Best sex I ever had.
Unfortunately, right after that, it seems that the spell lost its effectiveness, so I have to ask myself... what did I do wrong?
First off, my intentions were not correctly defined. I wanted an enduring relationship and satisfying sex. Since all I got was great sex, I think that my intentions were more geared toward finding Mr. Right Now than Mr. Right, as a friend of mine puts it. Or maybe the enduring relationship part of it has yet to manifest itself. I'm not sure.
Also, I recently read up on the myth of Tristan and Isolde, which inspired the music by Wagner that I used in the ritual. Ha-ha! The joke's on me. "Tristan and Isolde" wasn't just a love story, but rather a love story made tragic by enchantment. Now, while one of my coven members has argued that my understanding of the myth at the time I cast the spell should cancel out any negativity caused, I have to disagree. If you are going to do something, dammit, do it right. Since I feel that music produces very strong juju, I can't help but feel that my spell was seriously compromised from the beginning.
If that wasn't bad enough, I called on Ariadne, out of Greek myth, who helped Theseus get out of the Labyrinth of Crete. Unfortunately, when he got tired of her, Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos. So, basically, I called on a goddess who was jilted by a jerk. There is one bit of hope yet: Ariadne was later rescued and coupled with a god. Anybody know any Greek gods to send my way? Write in care of Widdershins and send a photo, eh?
Lastly, a not quite so obvious mistake: I talked. Apparently, some feel that silence on the magician's part helps to maintain the potency of a spell. A small example would be a birthday wish; you aren't supposed to tell anyone what you wished for if you want your wish to come true. When I began to see results from my spell, I was excited and wanted to share my excitement with my fellow coveners. As I related my story to them, I had a palpable feeling that power was leaving me. It just petered out until I had no further success. Next time, I won't breathe a word.
Reflecting on the whole situation, I feel intuitively that this spell wouldn't work a second time for me. I can't say if it would work for you or not, since so much depends on your own unique set of variables. When I was in pharmacy school, my teacher commented that medicine is as much an art as it is a science, if not more so, because no two humans are alike and we all react differently, even if we receive identical treatment. I say magick is the same in that respect. Our spiritual bodies are probably as varied as our physical ones and probably react just as individually as patients undergoing therapy.
However, far be it from me to discourage you from emulation! Heck, that's what I did, by using a little ceremonial magick, a touch of Wicca and a healthy shot of intuition. Just be sure that the systems you use complement, not conflict, with each other. That's the purist in me speaking.
I have to say, overall, I am pleased with my results and am looking forward to my next spell. Until then, I'll live filled with the magick of each day and joyful for the privilege. I hope you do too.
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