Masters of Our Destiny -- What to do when a spell fails
(A Rant)
Copyright � 2001 Jaz Gordon (with permission)

I am sick to death of hearing, "Well, it wasn't meant to be, the Goddess has other things in store for you" when someone's spell fails. Pardon? What religion is this anyway? It's all about personal responsibility here, folks.

When a spell fails, it's because something wasn't favorable for the outcome you desired.

Check some things.

1) Were you focused during the writing and performing of the spell?

2) Was your intent strong and uninhibited?

3) Was the outcome of the spell in accordance with your will? Not "did you want it?" Most likely you did, or you wouldn't be casting a spell for it.

4) Did you act in accord? Did you do everything you could mundanely to make it happen? Magick follows the path of least resistance. If you're doing a job-finding spell, and you light all the right candles and toss all the right incense into the perfect little cauldron, and then fail to crack a newspaper or call your recruiter, chances are that spell is just not going to do you a bit of good. Help the universe out here a little.

5) Did you work with the phases of the moon and other proper timing conventions? While you *can* cast a spell to banish negativity under a waxing moon, it isn't going to have the same punch as casting it during a waning moon. Note that you can be in the perfect phase of the moon, on the exactly correct day of the week, at the most proper hour, and if you don't have 1-4 above, it just doesn't matter.

6) Did you raise energy and send it out toward your goal? I know, sounds simplistic. But a lot of spells I've read online don't include this little bit. I'm hoping most people figure it out, I'm betting that some don't. Raising energy can be raised by candle lighting, chanting, drumming, breathing, dancing... But don't forget to send that energy out toward your goal when that energy is raised.

Did all that, and still your goal didn't manifest? I don't believe in "She had other plans for you". We are free-willed, not some marionettes on the Goddess' strings. We are masters of our own destinies, directors of our own plays, writers of our own stories. But even plays and stories have outside influences. It could just be that there are things happening in the world that you are unaware of, have no way of being aware of. "Circumstances were not favorable". That's just the way the ball bounces sometimes. Pick yourself up, reevaluate, and decide to either try again, redoubling your efforts, or change your goal.

Now, on that free will front... everyone has either been, or knows someone who has been, hit by that proverbial "Goddess' two-by-four". It is my contention that before this lifetime, we sat with the Goddess', and maybe a soulmate or two, and planned what we wanted to accomplish in this life. In some cases, a life-lesson or accomplishment was important enough to ask the Goddess' help in remembering while in this lifetime. Or, sometimes, it's just hard knocks that magickally end us up on the correct path for us... is there a difference?

The article seems to highlight candle magic, moon magic, perhaps also verse and astrological timing. There is always a chance that the caster may not identify very well with the systems that they are using to implement their spellwork. Maybe its less that it wasn't done right, and more that it wasn't personal enough. Perhaps at that point, it might be useful for them to learn about different symbols and methods with which they may resonate more closely.Witches' runes, sea runes, ogham, futhark, or other linguistic scripts; objects found in nature (like acorns for fertility), pendants to wear on a necklace, numbers/numeric systems, oils and incenses, stones, colours, even writing personal verses (not necessarily the ones on the internet that other people write) and they may not have to rhyme either. This is where experimentation could open many doors.