Miss Reid:-) Having read all the above story about
your business and personal interests towards self
esteem; it all sounds very pure and beautiful in
concept to me. I am a Senior Cit. male; strange I
have developed a strong curiosity towards Wicca
and stuff. Why do they use the word, "Witchcraft"
to describe this form of practice? Is Witchcraft a
form of religion? This word is so stereotyped as to
made all who hear this word invision a long nosed
female riding a broomstick with arthritic hands
and fingers, usually green skin and long black
robe or dress; standing around some large cauldron
with other members of her covy as if to be the
Queen Bee Witch! One never imagines that these
Witches are capable of making such wonderful
Potients as to enhance facial beauty, let alone
an inner calmness which may be achieved by the
various incantations that would be spoken aloud
with a certain sincerity of mind and inner self as
to comply truthfully with the given of the spoken
words. As you said before the Devil is a Christain
belief started some centuries after the alleged
death of this new and innovative up-start, the man
who goes by the name of Jesus. You know reading
some of these alleged miricles that he performed
sounds not to much unlike a form of wicca; yes?
Can a spell be spoken or applied to oneself also;
or is it just for other people we may be concerned
about? I know about fairies, gnomes, leprechans,
and various other forms of what we now call fantasy. Dragons and other related feared types!
But I've been told that all these things or beings
existed millions of years before mankind or the
Dinosaures ever existed. Biblically speaken it is
said that "man" has only existed 7 thousand years!
Actually no real evidense of human remains has
been found and authentic

You bring up a lot of good questions about how your article came to be.

Also you surmises about how magic function makes a lot of sense to me as a Wiccan who has been practicing for twenty-three years.

I certainly have run into circumstances where things have come together in curious ways to get something to happen that ordinarily would not have happened.

I know that just going about doing a spell often lifts my spirits before it has had any time to work, so perhaps being able to do anything gets rid of the helpless feeling that holds us down so often in our life.

Plus never underestimate the matter of what you believe. To some extent we do program our lives and personal reality with what we believe, as much as we do with what we actually do.

We seem to find what we seek. If we search out trouble, we find trouble just about everywhere. If we seek out wisdom, it will show up in the strangest of places. Build up our confidence and more things that we try seem to go right, while lack of confidence seems to help things fail.

So all of these may be factors in, and along with, doing a spell and its effectiveness. But it is the overall effects over the years, and the changes that it has made in me, that is the main reason I still practice today.

The ultimate magic is not changing the world but changing yourself so that you function better in your world.