I practice hoodoo — a form of folk magic, famed as superstition. It's got more in common with those lucky rabbit's feet you find at the gas station than it does with anything seen in a Harry Potter film. I spend a lot of my time unselling people on my spells in order to avoid gaining customers who have inappropriate expectations about spell casts.

For a genuine magician/witch/mage/etc., casting a spell is something like trying to aim an arrow at an invisible target — even if you've hit it, it can be hard to convince anyone else of the victory. I've known many people who perform spells for anxious petitioners, who afterwards are left to complain that after having performed successful rituals that achieved results, the clients were still unhappy because some element didn't play out according to expectations -- the spell worked but didn't happen as fast as they wanted, or they got more money/love/success but not as much more as they wanted. We must remember that magic is considered to be scientifically unproven. One reason it is bestowed with this status is because we cannot really view the alternate timeline wherein the spell wasn't cast — which is just about the only way we would be able to prove what the magic did or didn't do. If a man casts a good luck spell, and two weeks later his car breaks down, does that mean the spell failed? Or might it be that the car's being in the shop saved him from a worse misfortune, like a serious accident, and consequently it is good luck that his car was in the shop? There's no way to compare situations to see the “what if.”

Spells meant to influence someone else can be even harder to judge, since we might not be privy to all changes in the subject's behavior. It is even possible that we might see only behavior that seems opposite of what we wanted, and so we would assume failure of a spell that actually had been a success. For example: I knew a woman who had a love spell put on her by a man that she hated. She hated every moment she spent with him, but when they were apart she couldn't seem to get him off her mind, and always was willing and anxious to see him again. She eventually figured out that he'd put a spell on her, and she took steps to remove the magic. After that, she didn't speak to him anymore. The man might well have assumed that his spell didn't work, since all he would have observed was a woman who could barely stand him and who ultimately severed all contact with him. He wouldn't have known just how well his magic worked.

The point of all this is a reminder to keep reasonable expectations when it comes to the practice of magic. It's not a practice that's about a lot of concrete Yes and No information. It's more art than science, and many of its powers remain mysterious due to their blurring of all that which is natural. Success is subjective. In effect, any time a person wants a spell to gain "more" of something, it is impossible to promise how much "more" one will get. One can always have "more" and still find it lacking. With magic, even when we get what we want... we may find that we want it again.

A healthy skepticism is a very good thing, and will protect against being scammed or misled. At the same time, one cannot expect to receive concrete answers to a question like "will it work?" when even medical doctors and attorneys cannot make those kinds of promises about their jobs. The definition of success relies on the individual, and having a sensible expectation about what's possible through magic will ensure that one can get more out of spellcasts.

With any service-based purchase it is your job to be clear on what you are buying before you buy it. The FAQ, as well as several other pages on this site, strive to make it absolutely clear that there are no guarantees that your magic spell will "work" in some specific way. I promise to cast your spell according to traditional methods -- what results, if any, should be produced by that casting are thereafter not in my control.

The good news is that spells have been known to produce many happy surprises and exciting results! It's just a matter of keeping a realistic perspective: a perspective where you can realize that one is participating in something many people see as inherently unrealistic, and that just "believing more" isn't going to produce better results. What will help you is to look upon magic as an aid to your life, and to keep living knowing the magic is at your side. Looking ahead without worry is to your greatest advantage.

Is it enough? That's up to you. If there is sufficient potential despite the uncertainty, please click here to visit the Hoodoo Page for more information.