I thought I would share with you my real spells, the ones that actually work for me and do something. I don’t mess around with snippets of paper and cute rhymes. My spells are grounded and connected to the Earth, the place where I live and to my life. They take months to complete and they are unique to me.

The Offering for the Hungry Birds

I was awake before sunrise. When the daylight came, the little animals came out to feed. The night has left them hungry. I saw two hummingbirds and a bumble bee. I made a bread offering to the little birds that no one pays attention to, the sparrows and chickadees. The whole flock showed up and gobbled down my little squares of bread. Not a single piece was left. The hummingbird feeders were also busy

I suppose the offering to the hungry birds has become a grounding spell for me. You have to do it early in the morning because by mid-day, the flock is gone somewhere. Feeding the little birds is a way of reconnecting with the natural world, to smell the morning air and feel the light. My mind opens up when I interact with forms of life that are different from my own. I always feel stronger and more awake after I’ve fed them.

The Meditation of the Bees

The meditation of the bees, butterflies and birds is a grounding spell also. It connects you to the natural order in a very direct way. When you find yourself caring about these tiny lives, you know you have progressed a few steps along the path of spiritual evolution. We should teach our children how to connect to the Earth. There is much that is good about Christianity, but I feel that the doctrine is too other-worldly. Our spirituality needs to move in a more Earth-centric direction. Having a connection to the Great Spirit (whatever name you choose) is a wonderful thing, but we need to be making connections with the small lives, the bugs, flowers and trees – our Mother Earth.

As I practice it, the meditation of the bees is done by buying pineapple sage plants in the springtime. Then they are cared-for during the summer with its droughts. It makes beautiful big bushes of lush green leaves. One gets impatient for it to bloom, but it won’t be rushed. Early in October, long after other plants have stopped blooming, the pineapple sage begins to bloom. At this time, the bees are still around and they’re hungry. The bees have a fascinating collective intelligence that enables them to know in some way that the sage is blooming and where it is. If one finds it, they all find it. It happens every year as the bees swarm the pineapple sage in a happy, busy cloud of insects. I can’t adequately articulate the magic that the bees on the sage release but it is deep and profound.

The meditation of the bees is about the health of the planet and our own. It is about providing the bees with a safe haven and nourishment at a time when food is getting scarce for them. It is a very direct connection with nature every morning. It makes me feel like I’m helping. My little plot of ground won’t change anything by itself, but if millions of people dedicated a few square feet of their yard to be a bee sanctuary the bees would get stronger and our planet and its food chain would be healthier.

The Rite of the Pen

There are few acts more primal than making marks on paper. We have captured our ideas and dreams on paper since the first sheet of papyrus was hammered flat on a smooth rock. Today, people like me capture our thoughts and dreams on paper with a pen. The drawing of sigils and talismans is an important element in witchcraft and magic. Our lives are directed by signs, multi-color marks on paper, plywood or metal. Our beliefs are shaped by words in the pages of ancient books. I have drawn and written my whole life. I have given shape to my experience in words with a pen on paper. If you can describe your present, you can cast your future.

There is a revelatory element to writing. Often, you see things in the writing, that you hadn’t thought of before. For myself, I know that I do my best writing when my soul needs to talk to me. The writing gives me a concrete reflection of me to myself that may go onto the internet or help to express my vision some other way. It may only be a message to me. It may be only an evocation of a little corner of my unconscious, but that’s good enough. The writing becomes both the record of change and the instrument of it.

Final Thoughts…

The best spells emerge from deep within our own personal experience. They may speak a language that only our own souls will understand or they may be down-to-earth practical with obvious and concrete results. The only thing required is that they be an authentic expression of our own magical will. If you are new to the craft and need a pre-written spell to prop up your work, or just to see how other people work, that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as the prefab spells don’t become a crutch.

I hope I have been able to show the kind of “spells” that have been meaningful to me. To me, the good ones are those that make the energy move so that you feel it flowing through you. Blessed be.