Witchery: Physical Manifestations from Spell Work

Some witches have them and some witches do not. It is a common thing in discussion within groups of witches as to the performance of our spell work and rituals. We compare rites and spells; we help each other with verbiage, components, and correspondences. We discuss the typical results and at times the unexpectedly shocking results. There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason behind the times when physical manifestations occur. While some of the witches I have spoken with have never seen a physical manifestation, others have them often. While I have seen a few in my lifetime, they are by no means, frequent.

The first such example was the spinning feather of Azrael’s spell to prevent shoplifting. When we first opened our shop, we had issues, as all stores do, with a certain amount of shoplifting. When a new business opens there are always tight times financially, times when every penny counted and inventory closely watched counts toward success or failure. In a small family owned store, inventory only disappears when purchased or stolen. After a few months of carefully checking the inventory and cross checking it with sales slips, it became obvious that we had a slight problem. A few high dollar items were missing. It was not a large amount of money, but if it continued, it would become a big problem. As such, Az decided to take matters into his own hands. He spent a couple of days researching spells, gathering components, and writing the words. When he decided he had it all as perfectly arranged as he was going to be able to achieve, he decided to cast the spell on a feather and we would hang it over the doorway leading into the shop.

Now bear in mind, by this time he had been writing spells for quite a while, we had used them to great effect for several purposes. We had never seen a physical manifestation of a spell to date, though. In this particular spell, we raised the energy; he used a special oil and incense I crafted to bind the spell to the feather. The last step was the spoken invocation to cause anyone who stole from the shop to have nightmares until the stolen item returned to us or the thief returned to pay for it. This was where the feather, which had been peacefully lying on the green marble altar decided to stand on its quill without human assistance and spin in place slowly. I am not certain who was more surprised, Az or myself. I just know that it was the first, but not the last time, I saw him achieve things that a Hollywood special effects designer would envy.

After mounting the feather over the door, we sat back to see what would happen. We did not know what to expect, but a few days later, a tarot deck disappeared. We waited. Two days later a teenage boy who always came in with other regular shoppers, but never purchased anything himself, came into the shop. I was sitting at the register, talking with a couple of our regular shop kids. He looked frazzled as he slapped the missing deck down on the counter, along with a small book and a couple of other items that had gone missing previously. He turned and walked out of the shop without saying a word. We never had a problem with shoplifting, afterward. Things that went missing one day, would “turn up” somewhere else in the shop a few days later. We never knew if they had been returned after shoplifting or just liked to move around on their own, but we kept the feather over the door, just in case.

Another time, Az intended to look into the future for a specific time, he sought an answer to the question of keeping the shop open, and continuing to split our time between it and our newborn son. Our precious son, born with several severe heart problems, had open-heart surgery at four and a half months to repair the issues, but his three-month checkup was looming and we were worried, nonetheless. Thus, the question, keep the shop open and keep profit flowing to live on or close it, deal with no new income, and focus 100% of our time and energy on our precious baby. The night he chose to cast the spell, he constructed a circle inside our living room as I sat inside it with our sleeping son in my arms. All went swimmingly well, until Az asked for the veils to be lifted and the future revealed. While Az saw the future presented, all I saw was the side wall of the room opposite me ripple, then disappear and I saw the house next to us as clear as day. Their front door, the windows with lights reflected through the kitchen curtains. I know I jumped because the sleeping baby suddenly fretted in my arms in the same second. At this point, I decided I was not going to be surprised by Az and his spell works any longer.

My only physical manifestation to date has been during a healing spell for the sister of one of our adopted shop kids. Years after the shop had closed, and after Az had crossed over, I had talked her into coming to work at the company where I worked. One day, her sister was undergoing a surgery to remove a growth from her neck. It was a dangerous growth and she was terrified for her sister. As agreed, I cast the spell during the time the doctors were performing the surgery and I kept the candle burning and spell going throughout the day until after the recovery period where her sister woke. Since I was at work in a fairly new job, I did not feel comfortable casting at my desk, so I cast in my car. I had the altar erected; the candle centered and secured so it would not tip over if someone bumped into the car. I set an alert on my computer for each hour. I went out, tended the candle, and refreshed the spell. When she called me from the hospital and told me the surgery was successful, I went to the car, closed the spell, and put the candle out. The next day at work, she was telling me how she kept smelling flowers all day at the hospital. When she was in the waiting room, she smelled flowers. When she went for coffee in the lunchroom, she smelled flowers. When she sat in her sister’s room, she smelled flowers. When her sister woke, her sister smelled the flowers, too. Suspicious, I asked what type of flowers and she said she did not know the names of all of them, but she named two. In order to confirm my suspicion, I took her out to my car, which smelled strongly of the healing oil I crafted especially for her sister’s healing spell. My car literally reeked of the oil thanks to the hours the candle had burned the day before. As soon as I opened the car door, her eyes widened and she said, “Oh my God, Tee! That is it! That is the flowery smell we smelled all day, yesterday!”

Who knows why physical manifestations of spells occur. I certainly have no idea why some spells physically manifest where others do not. I have heard several witches report the same sporadic, on again, off again, manifestations. No matter how often we discuss it, no one I speak to has a clue as to why it happens occasionally or how to make it happen every time. Personally, I just consider it a blessing, a sign that a spell worked to a higher or more potent degree than a spell where no manifestation occurs. As eclectic as my own witchcraft is, I will take what I can get, I am not a picky witch.