From: "Sheila Watkins" > Date: Fri Jan 5, 2001 9:52 am Subject: Volume II, Issue 1, January 5, 2001 The January thaw has hit us early. For those of you who don't get snow the January thaw is a few days to a couple week period in January where the temperatures get just above freezing and the snow starts to melt. It's the time when winter coats seem a bit too hot but you dare not go without one unless you want to get sick. It's the promise of the coming spring and summer and it brought this to mind. Winter Takes a Nap By Sheila K. Watkins Winter rests her weary head Her icy grip released Slowly the snow does melt As deeply Winter sleeps. Her son starts to wander Laughing bringing heat Stumbling starting steps Promising Summer's heat Winter starts with a gasp Her icy chill returns Pulling her son onto her lap As it's not his time to run She wraps her arms around him A sign of a mother's love With a kiss she covers him again With a blanket of purest white Slowly Summer drifts back to sleep As Winter sings her song A promise has been hinted at A promise will be renewed With that I have made this issue a lot longer than I planned but I hope you enjoy it just the same. Submissions are always welcome. I have decided even if it hasn't been a ful year yet to start Volume 2 stuff at the beginning of the year so that I have a set date for changing which volume I am on. Sheila K. Watkins Web page: Subscription & unsubscription information: Submissions: zeliziw@n... ~*~*~*~ Cool Link of the week: Clan of the Cats: The Daily Comic Strip by Jamie Robertson is a truly magickal comic strip ~*~*~*~ Some Thoughts on Magick By Sheila K. Watkins Several times over the years I have tried to write about magick and spells but the timing was never right. I'm actually glad that the first time I suggested it I didn't write it because I would have to rewrite it now. Not long after I started out on my Wiccan ways I was working as a security guard. One place they put me was in a bank, twelve-hour shifts, locked in with one other person until we were relieved. The person I was assigned with followed the left-hand path. We had basically two choices. Either makes each other miserable or get along. We chose get along. Looking back I do realize he was trying to influence me more towards his way of thinking magickally but what happened was I started thinking long and hard about if I really wanted to do the magick part. So for a long time I ended up focused much more on the spiritual aspect of the religion. The little bit of magick I had tried to that point got pushed aside. I did continue healing and communication with spirits but I didn't really consider them magick. Quite frankly until I got a boot in the butt by themselves, I tried to avoid doing anything magickal. Admittedly it did help me to avoid a lot of mistakes but it might not have been the best way to go about it. One of our discussions he told me how to put a curse on someone. He started telling me and it was a simple candle spell. At that point I got the notion in my head that there were no evil spells except those which actually physically injure to be cast. Now it's more a case of yes and no. Seems the older I get the more shades of gray there are. A lot of spells it is the intent rather than what you actually do that makes it happen especially with candle or cord magick. I will admit I am very anti-tool use when doing spells. The strongest tool one has is the heart mind body and soul; anything else is just a tool to make it easier. When I do use tools I use primarily stones, herbs (including inks, incenses and oils), colored cords (yarn embroidery floss etc) and my Athame. The magick comes from within. Some spells though yes the tools, the items used, do matter. I'm on a paganism list that is for those a bit more advanced in the craft. A gentleman, who was rightly appalled by it, sent a spell to the list. He gave it a D minus. He was told he was being too generous in his grading curve. I'm not going to quote the spell here because I don't want everything around disappearing and the spell it's self going on to someone else. The spell was to bring you success in business. It contained sulfur, some very strong herbs and a couple other ingredients. It also told the person who cast the spell to pray. Yeah prayer would be good so that you didn't kill yourself and/or several others casting the spell at the very least from the fumes/ resulting fire. The ingredients used were for banishing so you better pray you still have a business when you were done with the spell too Basically what I am saying is if you stumble across a "cool" looking spell. Do a bit of research on the energies of the items you are using. This means those found on the net and those found in books. Another point to consider is whom you are calling upon when you do a spell. Who you call on Deity wise can have a drastic impact on how the spell blossoms. I was told once of a young man who wanted to cast a love spell. He gathered together everything, he needed made it a call out for love to come into his life, and chose a strong goddess to help him, Kali. His spell worked. Found a young woman fell in love she was in love with him and several weeks later she was chasing him around with a butcher knife. Last I knew he was still attracting women of a Kali type temperament. Magick, yes it exists, but like any tool you need to figure out what you are doing with it before you get into the hard stuff and do a bit of research on what makes it tick. Sheila K Watkins Copyright (c) 2001 Sheila K. Watson. All Rights Reserved