Originally published as Power Spellcraft for Life: The Art of Crafting and Casting for Positive Change in 2005
This was the very first book I published.
I was working with Provenance Press as a consultant when the editor suggested that I write one of the books in the For Life series. She proposed the spellcraft title. I’d been teaching a two-part course in spellcraft for a while and had material that I could use as a basis for the book, I agreed. It was the first book I wrote for publication, and it taught me a lot of important things about the process. Spells are a way of focusing on your goal. Before you can do that you have to define it, which is something a lot of us don’t tend to do on a day-to-day basis. We wish we had more of something, or less, or think we’d be happier if only something were different. But we very rarely sit down and think through why we are dissatisfied, develop a clear plan to fix it. Spellcraft isn’t just throwing energy out into the universe and hoping it slaps a Band-Aid on your problem or magically smoothes out all your obstacles. You’ve got to be able to understand all aspects of your problem and have a strong vision of how to fix it, while still being open to what solutions the universe might provide. If you haven’t thoroughly examined your situation then you’re liable to miss something that can either derail your spell or render it ineffective, kind of like trying to walk through a brick wall when you could either open the door six feet to the right that you overlooked. I think this kind of work helps us a lot on a personal level because it teaches us to think through our issues, and thinking through them honestly means accepting a lot of stuff about yourself that you may not want to recognize. It’s unpleasant at times, but healthier than ignoring it and ineffectively trying to fix it over and over; that’s a waste of time and energy. So spellcraft helps us on an energy level, as well as teaching us to examine a situation critically, and to think through problems. It also teaches us to go with the flow, and to be open to different outcomes. And it also teaches creativity!
