One of the questions that I sometimes get asked quite often, especially by people that are either brand new or outside of the Craft, or even those that are still only a few years into their work, is “Why do spells or prayers go unanswered?” There is this idea that when you’re a Witch you somehow have your finger on the cosmic cash machine or that you have a genie in your pocket and that just about anything you want in life is only a spell or prayer away. It certainly would be nice if that were the case, but it’s not.  And there is a very good reason why.

Life is not easy.  Being a Witch can make it a little easier, but being a Witch or knowing how to work with magick and energy, doesn’t mean that you are going to float through life without a care in the world.  Being a Witch often means dealing with a lot of things that most people are oblivious to; pain, suffering, the darker aspects of our selves and the world around us are all things that are more apparent to those that are spiritually and psychically aware.  We often find that the energy from events around the world, like the tragedy in Haiti, may impact us on a different, deeper level than someone that is not empathic, for example.  If we are tuned in to the spirit world, we may find that a local disaster where many people have died suddenly have us very busy navigating visitors who lost their lives and are in need of help.  Things like this don’t bother your neighbor in the same way, unless of course your neighbor is a Witch.

The point is that life is hard, Witch or not, and sometimes there are lessons that we need to learn through our experiences both as magickal people and as humans living on this planet in this lifetime.  Even with the abilities that we may learn and naturally possess, we still need to live our lives and experience life itself.  We can’t expect that we can always spell our way through difficult situations and come out clean and smelling pretty.  Sometimes we need to be down in the mud, getting dirty and learning life’s lessons, just like everyone else.  Eventually every experiences love and the loss of love.  Everyone experiences being prosperous and having to go without.  This is part of learning those lessons and learning to appreciate what you have.

I’ve had people come to me for spells for love, for money, for a new job, or for healing and they have been in great need or great desire for their spells to come to fruition.  The spells are cast and energy sent but nothing manifests.  The spells can be technically perfect, timing correct right down to the moment the moon enters a certain astrological position, but still nothing.  There is always a reason, and sometimes if we go back and use divination we can find that reason and discover something we didn’t think of before, but more often than not it’s because there is a lesson that needs to be learned that will be missed otherwise.  Maybe you’re supposed to have this illness so that you are forced to take time out from your busy life to refocus your priorities; maybe being unemployed and having to go without will teach you lessons about your personal strength and resourcefulness that you otherwise wouldn’t learn.  If everything were just given to you for the asking, you wouldn’t learn anything in this life or the next.

This isn’t the say that spells or prayers don’t work because our lives are predestined; what would be the use in believing that since then there would be no use for spells or prayer.  But sometimes the Gods, the Spirits and the Universe have a different idea in mind for us since they have a different view of our lives from where they’re standing.

When you cast a spell, work a meditation or send out prayerful energies and you don’t receive the answers you wish, consider it more deeply.  What is it that you might not be seeing on the surface?  What lessons are there within what you’re going through?  What shortcut might this spell or prayer grant you and is that a shortcut that you need to avoid? There are many times that we end up discovering, at the end of the day, what we thought we wanted wasn’t nearly as great as what we actually got.  And that happens by living.

I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.  ~Jim Carrey