Do No Harm But Take No Shit

You see that there? I see this little gem floating around the internet, particularly social media, almost daily. I think it’s bullshit, but I’ll get back to that in a minute or two. (This is going to be a long one).

Brace yourselves for a rant. (Cut me some slack, I haven’t had a good one in a year, I’ve been relatively well behaved in that regard, so I’m over due).

Recently, the beloved author, Raymond Buckland stirred up some controversy on his Facebook wall when he responded to the article that had gone viral about hundreds of witches publicly hexing the now convicted Stamford rapist, Brock Turner. He said:

“So very sorry to see so many people who call themselves ‘witches’ talking about hexing people. Just undoing all the work that we pioneers worked so hard to do.WITCHES DO NOT HEX PEOPLE; DO NOT DO NEGATIVE MAGIC – period! Send out love. Find a POSITIVE way to change someone, if you really feel that necessary. (I wouldn’t mind betting that these people haven’t got the power to hex the skin off a rice-pudding anyway!) In love and light — Ray Buckland.”

People

Went

Ape shit.

I’m not kidding. If you saw it, you know what I’m talking about. There were outward verbal attacks, harsh criticisms, pot shots, peace makers, haters, and those who tried (and failed) to be the voice of reason (I was one of them, surprise, surprise!) It was bloodier than the Game of Thrones “Battle of the Bastards” episode. I swear. It caused such a stir that The Wild Hunt picked up the story. It was brutal.

But I’ll tell you why.

Many (not all, and I can’t even confidently say most) of us witches today will absolutely, unequivocally give you a good return for your actions if you wrong us. It may not happen right away, and may not even happen in a year, but it will happen.

I’ve written about this before.

That being said, I applaud those who stood up and said, “Yes, we do!”… it was just the delivery of their responses that made me cringe (and I’m not much of a cringer). In all honestly, I sort of felt bad for the way he’d been verbally accosted, but I also understand the anger and frustration from the feeling that our own kind has been burying us for decades, sweeping us “Hexers” under the rug, shaming us, and hiding us in broom closets to attain mass public acceptance. Don’t get what I mean? Buckland followed up with this:

“We all walk on different paths and must all be accountable for ourselves. I can only speak for what I have learned and what I teach. In the early days of the Craft in the U.S. a number of us worked long and hard to try to get rid of the misconceptions of witchcraft; the belief that witches worked evil magic and cast curses/hexes on others. To me it is a shame to see all that work being undermined in many ways. But I have spoken my piece. Perhaps it’s good that it has started a discussion?”

Please don’t misunderstand me. I have a massive amount of respect for the man, his books taught me how to make talismans from stones when I was 19, and in one passage he is right. It was a “Hand full” of them (he, among them) who brought modern witchcraft out into the forefront of society. Prior to this, most people were either scared to death of us or scoffed at the mere suggestion that we even existed. We had our children taken, we were mocked, outcast and punished in many ways. Most of us would still be in hiding had it not been for these pioneers. But if you’ve been reading my blogs for a while now, you’ll know how I generally feel about the sort of nearly Jehovah way many (ahem, “Neo-Wiccans”) have jammed that Three-Fold down our throats. I thought it was the Christians who banged the “It’s the only way” drum.

Anyway, I’m going to stop with that before I go offending someone else… I’ve picked on the Wiccans enough over the years. Moving along…

Getting back to the “Do no harm, but take no shit” meme. I notice that at least 98% of the people I have seen posting it on social media think that turning the other cheek when someone hauls off and smacks you in the face is “Taking no shit”.

I’m just over here all

One sniff of a witch war, trouble among members of a coven or any other type of situation that may or may not find them in the thick of actually having to defend themselves or someone they call a friend, aka “Drama” and these same people are like

Seriously, wtf? Are we witches, or wimps?

Yeah, I know, fighting words.

Whatever.

C’mon people! Reach into your handbags and pull your balls back out!

Getting yourself dragged into someone else’s drama is something no one wants, I get it. I learned that lesson the hard way this past year when I tried to be the peace maker between three people, wound up with the name “Switzerland”, when what I didn’t realize, was that I was dealing with a lying, manipulative and destructive North Korea. Lesson learned. I’m I’m not advocating that we toss a magickal banana peel in someone’s path for looking at us sideways or criticizing us either (it would be wrong—– FUNNY, but wrong). Not even if they call us horrible, mean things (sticks and stones ya’ll). If someone is criticizing you, that means you are relevant and they are keeping you relevant. It’s not always a bad thing. They’re clearly thinking about you more than you’re thinking about them, right? It also makes them look like a hopeless, hung-up tool if they’re carrying on and on and on about you. Fact is, if someone’s got that kind of time to watch your every move and have something to say about it, it tells me their life really isn’t going as well as they’d have people believe. No one has that kind of time, and most people move on from it.

What I’m talking about is dealing with what inevitably ends up in your own back yard or even being dropped right on your lap.

I’m talking about someone really coming after you, trying to cause damage, trying to hurt you or hurting those you care for and really, reaaaalllllyyyy asking for it.

What does everyone do when this happens to them? They turn the other cheek. They stick their heads in the sand, or they suddenly become like Jon Snow and “Know nothing” either. Yep. They ignore the wrong-doer and keep it all hush-hush as to not draw attention to the matter and hope it just quietly goes away. Often times, it does. But what do you do when it doesn’t?

Let me give you an example of someone who was really asking for it. I know a woman (We’ll call her Linda) who runs a moderately successful business. One of her own people (We’ll call her Mary) royally screwed her. Mary nearly drove Linda’s business into the ground by having her bank and online financial accounts locked up. She nearly destroyed Linda’s reputation by ordering wholesale from companies under Linda’s business name who Linda had an established relationship with and not paying the COD bill. We’re talking thousands of dollars, folks. Things were so bad, friends held fund raisers for Linda to help her pay the business bills, including its rent, until Linda could get the banking issues cleared up, and her accounts unlocked. Let me also add that this happened quiet some time ago, and Linda is still experiencing the financial repercussions of what Mary did.

When I heard Mary’s name, it sounded familiar, and I looked throughout my own social media accounts to see if she was on any of them. Sure enough, she was. She was immediately removed and blocked. Why? Because I don’t want someone like that around me (would you?) and because, even though Linda and I don’t particularly see eye-to-eye on many things, I am of the belief and practice that you support and protect those in your tribe. Period. I don’t have to agree with or even like someone to know that what was done to them was wrong.

Two weeks after I’d removed Mary, she showed up at an event I was present for, and I watched how many of Linda’s own people greeted Mary when she showed up, (she avoided me like the plague) and then individually exhaling what seemed to be held and heated breath, rolled their eyes and murmured something inaudible the moment Mary turned her back and walked away. Everyone would rather internalize their disdain for the woman and act as though she were still good in their books, and then shit talk her the moment she was out of ear-shot, with another round of gossip that will carry on for months. This sort of behavior has become an art form within the pagan/witch community. “She should be ashamed to show her face here”. Well, TELL HER!!! At the very least, stand there stoic as she parlays and makes an ass out of herself when she realizes you know what she did, and you aren’t pleased by her presence. You don’t even have to say anything unkind. But the kiss-kiss on the cheek and hugs and how are you’s and then the “Blah, blah, blah’s” after…It makes me insane. There are people I’ve known that could be on fire in front of me and I wouldn’t pee on them to put it out.

And they know it.

It’s passive-aggressive bullshit. Why not just let a person know exactly where they stand? They won’t bother with you anymore. They won’t waste their time and you won’t be wasting yours either working so hard to pull off fake. This behavior from the pagan/witch community reminded me of this, in regard to the entire topic at hand:

Don’t look shocked or act like you haven’t a clue what I’m talking about. You all know who you are. I want to know where the rest of these witches are:

We are not victims, people. Karma will not “get” them. That’s another common phrase used that really frosts my ass. Karma doesn’t work that way. The Universe, and its law of balance does, but Karma does not. If you want to sit around waiting, hoping, that “Karma” will get someone, have at it. You won’t know about it until your next life and theirs, and that’s if you’re even a part of it or will even remember how they wronged you in this one. I’ve gotten more emails from people expressing frustration for how Karma hasn’t worked for them, and their wrong-doer has gone on to live a happy, full and successful life, than I have from people who have had success with it.

Have you ever wished for your ex to get their heart broken after they broke yours? Did it happen? I bet it felt good. That wasn’t Karma. That was your thought and desire for this to be so that was sent out into the Universe to be manifested. That was witchcraft.

Have you ever had someone try to destroy you financially, or steal from you, to then find months later they lost their job, couldn’t pay their own bills and had their electric shut off? Did you hope what they did to you returned to them? That wasn’t Karma. Again, you put it out there to be manifested.

Witchcraft.

See how this works?

I am certainly no authority on the matter of cursing or hexing, but what I, and many others believe, is that as a witch, you have a specific set of skills and tools at your disposal that the mundane do not, in which you have every right to protect yourself with. If a witch knows how to heal, trust me, she/he also knows how to harm. If they tell you they don’t it is simply because they choose not to, not because they don’t know how to, and if they have ever done it, you will never, ever know.

Aside from our own will for it to be so, factored in with the ability to concentrate acutely, witches have an amazing variety of tools at their disposal when dealing with an untoward individual. If there is anything I have learned in the past six months, it is patience. Patience is key when giving someone their comeuppance. So is silence. When I grow quiet about something, you can bet that nine times out of ten, it is because I am up to something someone isn’t going to like the end result of. When you tell others what you have done, it lessens the power of your spell. Patience is needed to see the spell through, because if you are casting one spell after the other on the same person, you negate it all together, and you also run the risk of it back firing on you. A good rule of thumb is to wait three months, If your spell has not taken affect at the end of 90 days, you then try something else. I recently used a spell where I enlisted the help of the spirits around me. I simply asked that they silence someone I was to contend with the following day. I’d grown tired of listening to them flap their lips, and everything that came out of their mouth was either a blatant lie, or some skewed version of their truth. The next day, they were not permitted to speak. They were left feeling frustrated, and I giggled like a school girl all the way home.

I get that some of you reading this will still be on the fence or down-right hesitant to take any of my advice to practice. Maybe you’ve always wanted to and just don’t know where to start. If I can’t lead a witch to the cauldron, I can at least hand her a map showing her how to get there. I’ve clearly got the stomach for this sort of thing, but know that sometimes, by you not responding to someone’s actions against you is the best revenge. If it’s someone who is obviously begging for your attention, not giving it to them is torture. Sometimes, their life is so shot you think to yourself, “What more could I possibly do to this person that they haven’t already done to themselves?” But if you are turning away to simply avoid the conflict or confrontation, you are setting the stage to be a victim. That person’s victim, and someone else’s victim in the future.

Some of the tools witches have at our disposal range from books on how-to, candles and oils, as well as powders and rituals. Naturally, anything I am going to suggest here would not be suitable for the faint of heart, or those concerned with “Karma” or a three-fold boomerang affect gracing their lives with retribution in the future

I’ll leave you with these four pearls of wisdom: Take back your control.

Poppets & Voodoo Dolls

Although most people think of a “Voodoo doll” when they think of poppets, there are many different ways to create one. These dolls are used in sympathetic magick and have been used for millennia, even as far back as Ancient Egypt. With sympathetic magick, you are literally creating a miniature version of the person you are casting on, tag-locking the doll with an item or photograph belonging to the individual, and “breathing life” into the doll, essentially creating a living, breathing essence of the person. Sometimes, these dolls are made of nothing more than wax and a strand or two of the person’s hair.

#1

Denise Alverado’s book, The Voodoo Doll Spellbook: A Compendium of Ancient and Contemporary Spells and Rituals …..

This book is off the hook when it comes to poppets and voodoo dolls. Within it contains dozens of ways and situations in which you would use these dolls, including how to make specific dolls for specific results and situations. Complete awesomeness, and one of my favorite books.

#2

My Reversing Candles

Ok, so I’m going to give myself a little plug here. Reversing candles. These are magnificent for when you literally want to give someone a dose of their own medicine, without having to spare the energy it takes for casting and sending something their way. Just give them a “Return to Sender”. A reversing candle will literally reverse back what they’ve dished out to you, courtesy of them. That’s right, their own juju that they sent you makes a full stop, a three-point turn, and goes back to them. These candles are typically found in the tapered variety, but I like to make them in votives. Although you should always take the necessary precautions when burning candles, a votive won’t give you the same need to watch it the way a taper would, with its wax dripping down, and flame out in the open. These candles are two-colored, (red and black) are hand-poured with the appropriate oils inside, and pre-dressed in the associated herbs for sending someone’s crap back to them.

#3

Azure Green’s Hot Foot Powder

Have a pesky neighbor? Does your daughter have a boyfriend who is bad news? If you don’t want to be bothered with a ritual, or if you worry about “Karmic retribution”, but you need this person gone… hot foot ’em. Hot Foot is an old hoodoo formula that is used to rid yourself or your home of an unwanted person. Hot foot powder will send them packing, and will keep your home and life free of the trouble maker. The scent is hot and spicey and not at all pleasant to the senses, as it should be.

But here’s the trick: they have to actually step in the powder for it to work. Hot Foot powder, as its name suggests, is an old form of Foot Track Magick, where its intended has to make contact with it by stepping on, over or through it. In the case of Hot Foot powder, they have to physically step on the powder for it to work, which makes this manner of magick ideal for those cauldron stirrers you physically come into contact with, or have access to their walking path.

#4

Human Figure Candles

Another one of my favorite types of candles. They can be used singularly to represent a person, or you can use them in sets of two, one representing you and the other person, or the other person and someone else. I’ve actually used these candles to end relationships, when they guy wasn’t getting the picture, no matter how I spelled it out to him. They come in a variety of colors specific to the the outcome you desire, and come in male and female forms as well as in certain…shall I say, “Body Parts”. They would be used much in the same manner as any other candle, except that the figure candles clearly represent a specific sex, and you may enhance your spell by linking it to the person you are performing the spell on, by placing a lock of their hair under it, burning it within the flame of the candle, and so on. You may also carve the intended’s name into the candle, personalizing it even farther. I lust love these, and have used them for years for various situations.

While I watered it down a bit for the sake of this article, my methods of dealing with annoyances may not be for everyone. I would strongly advise doing your research on a spell before performing it yourself, and it is always wise to follow your gut. If you’re angry but your intuition is telling you not to act on it, always trust your intuition. You never know, the Universe may have already decided it is going to deal with the other person for you, and it’s your intuition’s way of saying “Spare your energy, the Universe has this”. Also, I would advise against searching Google or anywhere else on tbe Internet for spells. Talk with your Elders, seek their wisdom. Talk with others in the community and find out what has worked for them, or look to authors who have tried and tested the spells they are recommending in their books. It isn’t always true, just because it’s on the internet.

“Bonjour!”