Witchcraft at the turn of the year

[Adam Carlton writes].

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We know that witchcraft works in pre-capitalist societies. It sometimes works in contemporary societies too. The question is not whether but why and how.

The placebo effect.

The great benefits of magic, its real benefits: to decrease anxiety in the practitioner; to accentuate a sense of being in control; to modify the behaviours of those around you in a positive, beneficial way.

If someone is irking you, then casting a spell upon them will be efficacious to the extent that they - subconsciously - come to buy in to your prowess.

We are all superstitious, susceptible to the opinions of others.

So I would advise anyone who is in a bind, with no obviously-causal course of action to hand, to consider magic. It's like organised religion but works better.

Getting magic to work can be difficult. Spells do not always come off. This is usually because something about the casting was amiss: the timing, the ingredients, the utterance of the words. It can be a bit hit-and-miss at first, but the results will come - to the amazement of those around you. They will appreciate your true powers; and your powers will thenceforth commensurately increase.

I am not joking.

The book above is on order for me. I suspect the spells are a little on the simple side, simple hedge-magic. But it kick-starts the process. I expect to graduate to a fuller grimoire, with spells conjured in Latin and darker languages.

“Accerso alius sententia ut mihi, phasmatis de interregnum ego dico, solvo meus mens mei, ego dico phasmatis audite meus placitum meus mens quod iacio (person's name).”

 "I summon the other mind as my own, I call upon the spirit of the in-between, release that mind to me, hear me spirits, it pleases me to hear projected the thoughts of (person's name).”
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I had in mind to open a small office devoted to magic in a seedy area of the city, perhaps near Sacré-Cœur. My consultancy in wizardry would include psychometric and intelligence tests as well as a full history. Magic works better when it cleaves the personal along its natural joins.

It would not be cheap.

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