A spell is a prayer
A lesson I'll never forget
During the early days of the pandemic, my witchcraft1 practice really took off. Although I had been studying tarot and astrology for a handful of years - and had dipped my toes into LA’s very woo New Age culture - I hadn’t really studied the art and science of this spiritual genre in depth.
Confined to my six hundred square feet of apartment space, I began taking online classes from Patti Negri, the “Good Witch of Hollywood” and star of Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel. I eagerly took every Zoom class she offered on Thursday nights - spellwork, goddess archetypes, tarot, communicating with spirits, ancestor magic, spellcrafting for healthy eating, et cetera. I eagerly absorbed her wisdom and her insights, which seemed to reflect my own life experiences and make meaning out of so many things I still had questions about.
In one class early on in my studies, I asked her why it felt like spells didn’t work for me. I was skeptical about how to use herbs and candles and crystals and moon cycles to get what I wanted - I liked the idea of it, but I didn’t understand how it was all supposed to work. I will never forget what she told me: