1 - Witchcraft - What It's Really Like

"I'll walk where my own nature would be leading ... where the wild wind blows on the mountain-side ..."

(Emily Bronte)

Witchcraft has survived through the ages with astounding vitality because man's need to coerce destiny and subdue the fear within has never subsided. The art of enchantment attempts to deceive, cajole, and otherwise disturb natural inclinations. Children, politicians, actors and women in love have much in common with sorcerers who, with bits of colours, attitudes and words, weave spells.

Lovers draw or carve a circle or a heart on a tree or wall and put their initials inside, and this is supposed to have all magical effect of uniting them. They are trying to influence their destiny. New brooms are brought into new homes by people with the idea that they won't be bringing the dirt and problems of the old house into a new one. Hanging bright strips of ribbon in your window is supposed to attract friendly spirits into your home, and many people still do this, perhaps without knowing why.

Whether it is considered superstition or lore, witchcraft comes to us as a gift from the past. But nothing that lives is safe from Time, so that witchcraft, like a story of an ancient battle told and retold through the ages, is tainted by exaggeration and twisted by falsehood as it is handed down through the years.

Originally witches were involved in teaching, guiding and healing - all of the highly respected arts. Their practices were associated with all the vital phases of man: health, wealth and love. In later years, through fear and ignorance, the stamp of evil was placed upon those who possessed these strange powers, so that today witchcraft is either regarded as a complete myth or the misguided efforts of historic villains. There are so many false ideas about witches that little truth remains in the public mind.

Yet there are real witches today. Contrary to folk tales, they don't go riding about by night on brooms. They don't cavort in the nude unless they have something very normal in mind, and they don't cackle over cauldrons of vintage LSD. They DO dabble in spells and chants, burning candles and employing powerful processes, but once the mystery is stripped away, there is nothing much more strange connected with witchcraft than the mysteries of love and religion. In fact, when lovers light candles for dinner, and when churchgoers light candles in prayer, they invoke a force that witches always have known to be beneficial.

What is a witch really like? For one thing, a witch is not an ugly old hag. The very idea is unkind and illogical. If a witch has, as she is said to have, special powers and an ability to disturb natural happenings, then she must be able to project the illusion, if not the truth, of beauty. When one has the power to charm, enchant and fascinate, then it also follows that one has the power to create an aura of pleasing good looks if not something more. If a witch has some secret force that enables her to control and influence others, this ability should certainly lead to an abundant popularity and many successful attractions, rather than to condemnation and repulsion. Who then were the ugly hags called witches? If historical accuracy is lacking as to who and what they were, it must follow that there is little truth in how they "seemed" to look.

For a magnificent example of misrepresentation, look at Salem, Massachusetts, in the 1690s: political and religious victims, old tired wives, envied neighbours, folk doctors, hysterical teenagers, menopausal mothers-in-law, the retarded and/or psychotic, unwanted old souls - all were counted as fair and proper witch material. But let's face it: Would a witch with ESP and a strong inclination for survival have ignored the signs of a fast-decaying society and impending personal disaster?

Would a witch with energy and power to impose her will have suffered the extremes of personal humiliation? And if, due to some momentary weakness, all else had failed her, couldn't a witch at least have mustered up the strength to manipulate her jurors and thus go free? They were imposters who left Salem rich in history, and the real witches, if there were any, left that city long before history started. A witch is not an ugly old hag. A witch is a winner. No self-respecting, energetic, good-looking witch would have been caught dead in Salem!

The shape of witchcraft, in history and in legend, has been as varied as the imagination of the witch or personality involved dared. Little in common can be seen between Snow White's beautiful but wicked stepmother with her "Mirror, mirror, on the wall ...." and Joan of Arc with her dedication to a cause, unrelenting drive, thirst for adventure and celestial voices. And certainly these two women would never have felt a rapport with mythology's Medea, the sorceress who, when scorned by Jason, gifted his new and very much younger love with a gown of magical cloth that burned as fire.

However little there may be to bind these women in a community of interests, it is not too difficult to categorize them by virtue of the "esprit de corps" that motivates any enchantress: Those who wish to alter circumstances must be intense, emotional, self-motivated and capable of obsession.

Although popular knowledge of witches comes mostly from fairy tales and legends, not to mention superstition, let us set one thing straight: Witches are human, very human, and sometimes a little superhuman. They are physical animals who may have a special mental quirk; supernormal, perhaps, but not supernatural. As to the belief that witches live many lives, it is doubtful.

I am a witch and the only life other than this one that I believe possible would be some extension of self. If it is im-

possible to explain this thing called self, then it may be possible to entertain the idea that all humans are tuned into a vast, ubiquitous source of energy that enables each individual to think or be. If that were so, then maybe when I am no longer around to tune into that particular force of energy, someone else will, and then the thoughts will exist again, but not necessarily me.

If I have lived before, I certainly am not aware of it. And, I don't think I will come back knowing I'm me; in fact I don't think I will come back at all. If I do, I shall be the first one to pass out from shock.

As to whether witches are good or evil, that depends upon your point of view about what's good and what's evil. From the average man's interpretation of evil and good, witches seem to be evil. Organized religions have branded witchcraft as evil, but they did this because they considered witchcraft a form of competition and naturally reasoned that anyone against them would have to be on the side of the devil.

There is no such thing as good and evil witches on the basis of one of them deriving their powers from the devil. The power witches tap is an energy inside themselves. It should be considered wasteful, stupid, and therefore bad, not to use the energy within one's self to gain one's desires, to fulfil one's self.

Witches are selfish, but is that evil? Being self-interested, a witch has to be personally motivated to dp anything, anything at all, even to get up in the morning. Witches do not go anywhere they don't want to go or do anything they don't want to do. This kind of an approach to living would naturally enrage churchmen who demand strict obedience to their rigid laws and condemn the nonconformers as satanic or evil.

Actually, there were witches before Christianity came along, and although there have always been evil gods in religions in all parts of the world, Satan exists only in limited areas. So who would witches be in cahoots with in, say, China? Selfish, yes; in league with the devil, no.

Many similarities can be seen between the attitudes of witches and those people who are successful doing anything. There's a big difference between having things turn out well and having things turn out badly. If you want them to turn out well, you're bound to have something in common with someone else who has things turn out well, even if you're doing it one way and he is doing it another.

Witchcraft is simply a form of self-promotion. People have always secretly agreed to the existence of witchcraft, and it may be that they have become more open about it (not I - I always have been open about it!). Everyone I talk to, even if they do not want the public to know that they believe in this sort of thing, will confide their belief to me. I've never felt the least bit odd or self-conscious about doing what I do or being what I am, because everyone always admits that they believe in what I do. They may not tell each other, but they tell me - doctors, lawyers, and other professional men who don't want their clients to know that they believe in magic.

Most doctors readily believe in witchcraft, but they believe anybody can develop it. Many agree that it exists. Of course, I admit that to a certain extent, anyone can do anything. I believe, however, that there is a big difference between the chants or spells cast by a non-witch and those done by a lifelong witch, if only from the standpoint of experience and power of controlled emotions.

Witches are sharp people. If they're not above average in intelligence, they're above average in cleverness, and they don't get into unhappy situations; they are productive types, and they're always successful in what they attempt.

Most of the so-called witches in Salem were victims of circumstances. The cases you read in reference books point out that witches usually were somebody's unwanted mother-in-law or an old grandmother whose family couldn't support her any more and so would accuse her of witchcraft. But the greatest percentage were religious-political victims, because at that time the church was in a frenzy, and the religious leaders felt the more witches they got rid of, the better became the church's reputation.

So they looked all over hell-and-gone to find witches. It was very simple. Mental defectives were easy to eliminate. People of power were a bit more difficult, but it didn't prevent them from eradicating a few mayors and governors, too.

Mass hysteria is commonplace in any era. Just look at what Hitler did by turning "Jew" into an evil word. Nor was 20th-century America immune. Joseph McCarthy had the same effect with the word "Communist." Remember what happened to the Indians? So many dollars per scalp. Those bounty hunters were direct descendants of the witch hunters of the 1600s who made a pretty penny by turning in their neighbourhood nuisances under the handy label of "witch."

Even so, fewer witches were put to death in Salem than in England or France. The fad didn't last as long here. The European witch hunters received a yearly stipend to go from city to city, and when they arrived in a new city, they would set up a little office and then find local assistants who were also paid for finding witches. Soon the whole town would be involved in a nightmarish hysteria. Chemists and doctors were prime targets, understandably. Medicine was so primitive, mistakes were bound to occur; it was easier to attribute a death to witchcraft than to a dirty scalpel or the wrong medication.

Personally, I don't believe any of those people were witches. Most of the cases have been investigated and proved to be something other than supernatural. In those days, if they suspected someone of being a witch and then found a wart on her, that was all the proof needed to make her eligible for a hideous death.

And all the time the characteristics of the real witch were overlooked. The magnetism and forceful personality that characterized the authentic witch were never seen in an evil light. It was only the poor helpless woman or the politically inept man who were swept up and tortured until they confessed to practising witchcraft. The accused, in turn, would helpfully accuse almost anyone they could think of, thus causing large numbers of innocent people to suffer a painful death.

Sex was a distinct liability in those days. The servant-girl mistress of a well-placed man could easily find herself hunted down by a "virtuous" mob if she proved troublesome to her benefactor. It didn't do to look too appetizing, either. A sexy-looking girl was thought to have charms (which indeed she did), but these were invariably evil charms, and she could not be allowed to display them. On the other hand, things haven't changed too much on that score! An exotic, sexy-looking lady is frequently looked upon with suspicion and hostility in certain of our communities, even today.

When accused witches were brought to trial, the questions they were asked were of the "When did you stop beating your wife?" genre. Women were asked to admit they were having sexual^ relations with the devil, and under torture they admitted it. I find it very difficult to accept the idea of the devil romping around and mating with all these warty women. If he did exist, it seems to me he could have done a lot better choosing ladies more like Sophia Loren or Brigitte Bardot, perhaps.

At one time chemists were considered magicians. Albertus Magnus (1193-1290), considered a wizard in his day, was responsible for the discovery of caustic potash, cinnabar, and ceruse. He was a leader in witchcraft. You may remember his name from the film Rosemary's Baby. He was a chemist who was preoccupied with turning other metals into gold by (transmutation) alchemy. In the course of his experiments he discovered things that were to be of far more value to succeeding generations than a pot of gold.

Potassium bicarbonate was discovered by another alchemist of that era. Sulphuric ether and hydrochloric acid were other compounds the alchemists discovered as they practiced their kind of witchcraft. The existence of gas, sodium sulphate, phosphorus and tin oxide were other discoveries made during that period. In the course of their experiments, these men chanted, lit candles and did all sorts of weird things and, as a result, became the forerunners of the abracadabra type magician.

Even today you see things happening that resemble the witch hunts of old. Once, a mother-in-law wrote to me, convinced her daughter-in-law was a witch. The girl had pointed teeth, and she did have a few quirks in her behaviour, but the mother-in-law must have spied on every move the poor girl made, even in the bathroom.

The woman had kept some kind of record to prove that every time the girl did a certain thing, some relative in the family would die within a few days. Sometimes, reading mail like that makes you fear that the whole world has gone mad! Here was this woman taking out her hatred of her daughter-in-law, and connecting all sorts of unrelated events to prove the girl was a witch. If that had happened 200 years ago in Salem, they would have burned the girl.

I had a lovely woman acquaintance, a divorcee with two children, who worked very hard. Her capable, fifteen-year-old son would watch his ten-year-old sister after school until his mother got home from work. One day she came home and they were gone. She found a notice from the police stating that they had taken the children away on the grounds that she was an unfit mother. The neighbours had turned her in! She didn't even know her neighbours except to say "Hello," but evidently they were very interested in her. And that happened in the 1960s. It's easy enough to see how things were twisted in the unenlightened 17th century.

We Americans were originally Puritans and any unconventional behaviour was taboo. An immoral affair may have seemed "witchy" merely because it was considered a terrible sin. We should remember that we were a bit "different" to begin with, as we left one society, the old world, in order to find a better one, the new world. Obviously, people don't leave the society in which they are born unless there is some incompatibility in the first place.

Put enough of these "different" people together, and something is bound to happen. High-class, well-fed, well-adjusted people are not going to leave their communities. Rarely will somebody make such a drastic move, uprooting himself from his native soil, for some kind of ideology. Not if he is happy. The people who came here and set up the colonies and their rules were of a lower class, and they were hungry. Many had left home due to emotional problems. Looking back on their stage of history, one can understand the people and events.

There were, however, educated people who practised witchcraft. It is known that Jackson and Benjamin Franklin dabbled in it. They surmised that environment could be controlled through emotional self-control. Franklin investigated this area quite extensively. Abraham Lincoln had some strange ideas; he had several psychic experiences that are recorded in the history books. This phenomenon is not unusual among powerful men in any society.

Rasputin in Czar Nicholas' court attempted to exert control through sorcery. MacKenzie, the Canadian prime minister, openly delved into the supernatural. Many professional men and women and political leaders practice forms of witchcraft, although what they do seems to be much more fun than what took place a few hundred years ago. There is, for example, a political organization that meets regularly for the purpose of projecting its desires on to society. Call it witchcraft or not, they perform special rituals to trigger their collective subconscious. They attempt to influence and control by sheer force of desire.

Witches have always been linked to strange happenings - good, bad and always mysterious. And when astounding things happen, it doesn't take much imagination to see how witchcraft could have started and spread as it did. Everybody's imagination was captured by the idea of this power, which is actually only a way to reinforce the mind's potential.

As noted, the earliest witches were alchemists whose prime concern was discovering a chemical way to create gold. And there were women who taught young girls how to capture their true loves by digging certain roots under certain lunar phases. However, these women weren't really witches; they were superstitious peasants, thoroughly steeped in herbal lore, who lived throughout most of the European countries.

Herbs were used extensively in ancient Rome, as well. They were not only employed for refreshment, but also burned as offerings to the gods. Frequently, inhalation of certain fumes would cause odd reactions, which led to the belief that various herbs had magical properties. As one conclusion generally leads to another, certain effects were often attributed to various substances, thus somewhat removing the substances from their originally intended purposes. Rosemary, for example, was thought to improve the memory. From that premise, it developed into a love potion, as it was presumed that the herb would prevent a young man from forgetting the lady who administered to him. This is just one example of the way in which spells and potions usually ended up with a kinky romantic flavour.

Of course, many herbs are still very much in use. A well-known cough medicine uses a herb that has been prized for centuries. Digitalis, once a witch's love potion because of its obvious effect on the heart, is still a standard medicine for cardiac patients. Then there are the real love potions, those substances that cause sexual stimulation, such as Spanish fly and the other cantharides. And, of course, there are those that have the opposite effect, like saltpeter, which is extensively used in the military and in prisons to keep the men cooled off. The pharmacopoeia is loaded with products whose bases are roots and herbs that have always been known to witches.

People used to believe that witches caused sterility. Well, I've got news for you: They still do. Last year I was contacted by a family who believed that the husband had been hexed and as a result was sterile! In another case a doctor from UCLA sent two women to me after they had been checked out at the campus, and he asked me to look into the possibility that they had been hexed. He was an accredited doctor - a psychologist - who wears the cloak of respectability to the extent of having offices on the campus of a highly respected university, and then he sends patients to a witch to be dehexed. So are you going to call a witch crazy? People constantly write to me in the belief they have been hexed; they've consulted with medical or other authorities who agreed and suggested the patient call a witch to see if the spell could be broken.

Of course, being hexed does happen. A hex occurs when you allow some other people to exert control over you, when you surrender your own control to whatever the force may be, and let it take over. To combat a hex, you must simply take control of yourself. An occasional thought might slip into your mind - it happens to everyone - that you're no good or that you're failing. But immediately when this hits you, you must counteract it and supersell yourself in the other direction. Thoughts are very powerful. Thoughts are all we are, all we're made up of.

Most people have experienced the power of psychic vibration, although many don't realize what it is. It's that feeling of instant recognition that flows between two people, like electricity. Sometimes it's mistaken for "love at first sight," many times as a strong sexual attraction. In actuality, it's the psychic force emanating from the individual, not the individual himself, which causes the attraction. Two people may be operating on the same wave length, the same level of psychic energy; when that happens, they zing into each other like 'two strangers in a foreign land, drawn to each other by a common bond of nationality. It's not necessarily love, or even sex. It's psychic attraction and should be recognized as such.

This is not to say that witchcraft and love are incompatible. Even our language reflects the similarities in the two. Such words as charm, enchant, fascinate, and casting a spell are common to both worlds. When you fall in love, you feel as though you are under a magic spell. The fact that love is an unseen force does not make it any less real; a psychic involvement has occurred.

The same sort of psychic exchange happens when I cast a horoscope. During the time I work on an individual chart, I feel drawn to the subject, almost as though I were in love with him. I know it isn't love, but simply a concentration of psychic energy at work. But the force feels the same. With this knowledge, it seems strange to me that people can accept the energy force of love, yet refuse to acknowledge that other forms of psychic exchange can take place, such as mental telepathy.

Almost everyone has, at one time or another, experienced forms of psychic energy. We all know the common occurrence of suddenly thinking of someone we haven't seen in a long time, only to receive a phone call from him shortly thereafter. Or having letters cross in the mail, indicating that you and a parted friend had simultaneous thoughts of each other. It may be as simple a thing as wishing you had some ice cream, only to have your husband stop and buy some on his way home, with no word from you. Or it could be an incident as disturbing as having foreknowledge of a death or accident to a loved one, sometimes at the very moment the tragedy is occurring.

Incidents like these are the result of free, high-level energy flowing between individuals. It is not then possible to conceive of controlling and directing this type of energy for your own use or to help others? This is what a witch does.

Many nonwitches have and use this power. The friend who visits a dying hospital patient, and by the very force of his emotional energy revives the ill person, is an example.

More common is the appearance of a strong personality in a confused, panicky situation, like an office crisis. The individual who exudes composure and control can use his strength to pull the rest of the people into a calm, unified, problem-solving group. Nothing in the situation has changed, nothing has been said, but the atmosphere has been altered. It is simply a matter of one person being able to harness the wild energy around him and controlling it. Anyone who learns to do this cannot help but improve his life circumstances.

And that's the witch's bag in a nutshell. She knows how to put the power of her secret mind to work, how to harness the wild energy around her. But not all witches do their thing the same way.

Some witches always begin with a romantic interlude. The charged atmosphere between a male and a female cannot be duplicated, and it does generate high-intensity energy. That's why the stories of sexual orgies involved with witchcraft got started. But that certainly is not what witchcraft is all about, even if some groups use it as an excuse for wild sexual excesses, which sometimes include sadomasochistic practices. It's too bad that these groups get so much publicity, because it leads the general public to believe that's what witchcraft is all about. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Don't get me wrong: If a person gains energy by taking his clothes off, I'm all for it. There are witches who cast spells in the nude, and are thereby utilizing a way to become dynamic. Some witches use drugs to heat themselves up for spellcasting, although I don't believe in that. I would never take chances with anything that might harm me physically, and rather than experiment with drugs, I experiment with life.

One of the reasons witchcraft and sex are closely allied is the psychic feeling that can easily be confused with a sexual feeling. Psychics have sensations all over their bodies, as do all sensating creatures. We feel all over a sensation similar to that of sexual arousal when we "tune in." We experience a sexual, sensual, physical and emotional sensation that is all-pervading, but it's not in the pubic region.

The confusion probably arises because the only tune most people have experienced this kind of sensation is in a sex situation, so naturally it is associated with that. However, if you experience the feeling because it's a nice day, you can't go to bed with the universe. Some people can't understand that there is something else going on besides the need to go to bed. This joyful, exhilarating sensation can be experienced just through being alive.

Witches are far from extinct: They are not even rare. And people who are psychic have always been around. They may be very telepathic, and they may be picking up somebody else's energy without being a practicing witch. Strange things happen to them, seemingly unexplainable, and people marvel at it all. Criswell, the world famous predictor, told me that when he was a youngster he would stand on top of a hill and feel godlike. I've had the same sensation, ever since I can remember. It's a feeling of being all-powerful, knowing there wasn't anything I couldn't do or be if I wanted to. Maybe that's just being healthy, but I'm sure everyone doesn't feel that way.

I've known about my power since I was a schoolgirl. I knew that I could make my teachers do what I wanted just by concentrating. The more successful I was, the more powerful I felt. I would do little experiments, like deciding what a person would say, then making them say it. It may be that I was simply manipulating them, setting them up to react in a certain way, but the method isn't important. It's the result that counts.

When I was a child, my mother and my grandmother did all sorts of psychic, witchy things, so they naturally recognized that I was a bit different from the rest of my cousins. My sister doesn't do this. She is a medium; She receives, which makes her very important to anyone who is a witch. I have been psychic since childhood. People used to visit us, and I could tell them things about their lives that I could not possibly have known if I hadn't been psychic.

Frequently, people would react in a nervous way, and of course, any child enjoys causing a sensation in adults, so I kept it up. I soon learned to differentiate between true psychic vibrations and imagination. When I'm receiving a psychic impression, my whole body is involved. I know I'm right, and if I'm not sure, then I'm not receiving in a psychic way. There's never any doubt in my mind.

All of my family were involved in astrology, which has nothing to do with witchcraft. My grandmother was especially creative. She wrote songs, both words and music. and she sculptured and did many other things that might be considered a bit above normal. She was very far out for her generation; consequently she was a loner, although she managed to have eight kids.

She could break a glass by using her mental strength and nothing else. She had tremendous strength and energy that could be felt. She'd place a glass in the centre of the table and I could feel a concentration of energy coming from her and know she was going to break that glass. Without touching it, just sitting there, and turning on this power, the glass would shatter.

I don't know what that psychic force is. She could make something at a distance rattle, and I imagine she'd be very good material for some psychic investigators. She'd CALL bugs into the house. An insect would fly through the window when she said it would, and then she'd put her hand out, and it would come to her. She could get a praying mantis to come in just by saying she would. The insect would come in through the window, come to the table and sit on her hand. She spoke to it in Yugoslavian or English or Italian, or she'd sing and hum; she'd say, "C'mon, C'mon, I love you," and she'd charm it in.

I lived with my grandmother most of my life from the time I was six until I was twenty. She taught me astrology, palmistry and how to read cards and tea leaves. She told me stories about the Pagan gods and the symbolism involved and how to apply it to everyday living. She taught me to be a witch. It was a crazy way to grow up, but it was fun.

I always knew about fortune telling. My grandmother and I established such a good rapport, that we could each project into the other one's house and know what was needed - as though we had shown up to ask. Things like that make you know very early in life that there is no limit to the mind's power.

If witchcraft is a mental power, why do witches usually use props? I use candles, bells and other things to get into the mood, because I was raised to believe they were necessary. But I believe a very strong person can do without the candles and other objects. My grandmother feels that the flame of a candle can change the atmosphere and can create vibrations; that may be true, although I'm not sure. I know I'm becoming more and more able to cast spells without props, but I'd rather use props because I am comfortable with the old methods.

There's nothing wrong with using candles and other props to condition and key up your senses. For ages, religions have employed candles, bells and incense to affect the concentration of their congregations. Lighting candles, as is done in church, can be done at home for the same purpose. It's not such a hokey thing that it should occur only in the dominion of witches. Many clever people in all professions are aware of the power of objects.

A bell is supposed to attract the spirits, and it may, but I believe spirits are energy from within yourself or from within other people. What does ringing the bell in church mean? It may be that the bell sets into motion some sort of electrical vibrations in the atmosphere that eventually lead to something. I use bells in much the same way as Pavlov did. I am conditioned to hear the bell, and I say, "Okay, my subconscious has now taken over."

Anything that will stimulate your senses can help. The bell is for the ear, the candle for the eyes, incense for the nose; they get all the senses working. Some people prefer to cast spells nude; others like to wear clothing with a pleasing texture. Some people cast spells right before they make love. Everybody does it differently. The whole point is to become stimulated enough.

All witches are not the same. I have a good witch friend who never uses candles. She draws designs to release her powers, although drawing does nothing for me. It's simply a question of conditioning. What works for one witch may not work for another. The only thing that my friend and I have in common, as she's more of a housewife-type witch than I am, is the need to absorb everything around us in order to possess it. That goes for people as well as opportunities and situations. We both are able to get out of ourselves and use our minds independently of our bodies.

I have another friend, a man who is considered a wizard. He's very psychic and can move objects by mental power alone. He uses no props at all, not even a candle. He doesn't need to, as he is a very strong type and extremely self-confident.

Every once in a while I find a psychic who likes to hinge what he does on an exotic past. I'm sure you've met people who say that in another life they lived in Turkey or Arabia or some other exotic place. If they get their kicks that way, and if that gives them energy and power, then I'm all for it. If the designs my friend uses trigger something for her, I think she should use them all of the time. She has a happy, productive life, and I think that's the goal we all are seeking.

It's all right to be a little bit odd today. Before, if you were a little odd or different, you were considered completely psycho; now, however, so much is being accepted that it's very difficult to find the borderline. It seems sometimes that there is no norm. Most of the people who are interested in witchcraft want to know about spells, and particularly how to increase their sexual vitality, to capture or keep somebody ... it's never to get rid of somebody or decrease something, it seems.

Almost anybody can benefit from the powers of witchcraft. It's a lot more than just a positive way of thinking. It taps a source of power far greater than the conscious mind.

The power of positive thinking is one thing, but with witchcraft you use something other than your conscious mind. I believe positive thinking works to a certain degree, but how do you keep your thinking positive? No matter how strong you are, your subconscious is going to trip you up. You can't sustain a positive thought without thinking something negative is going to happen. What you must do is perform a certain ritual that reinforces the positive thought when it starts to slip. That's witchcraft. That's when you start using objects to do the work of your mind.

An object that has no connection with your purpose, but in which you believe, can be used. For example, if you believe in a certain cup, and if you put it beside the phone with the thought that your lover will call because of it, that's more than positive thinking. When your lover does telephone, that's witchcraft.