What is a spell?

For the purpose of this page, I will be quoting from 'The Wicca Spellbook' by Gerina Dunwich. The title of this is actually 'What is Magick?', but it will serve the same purpose, and probably explain it better than I can.


Magick is difficult to define. The dictionary calls it "the art of persons who claim to be able to do things by the help of nature's secrets." Most Wiccans and Neo-Pagans alike would agree that although magick might appear to be "supernatural", it is a power or force that is quite natural.

For many people, a first impression of magick is that it is all "bell, book, and candle", but upon closer examination, they find that there is more to it than magickal parapheralia. (The tools of the Craft are mearly "props" serving as sources to help us focus power.) Magick is a wonderous energy that is raised through various means (meditation, dancing, adn ritual sex, to name a few) and then psychically directed at a specific goal-to heal an illness, attract love, or remedy a bad situation.

Magick is "the use of will to effect some desired change"; therefore, any open- minded human being who possesses the ability to focus and concentrate their will is capable of working successful magick. Some folks need to practice often to get their magickal skills fine-tuned, while others are blessed with more of a natural aptitude for it.

Magick is a state of mind and a Goddess/God-given gift that plays a major role in the religion of Wicca. It is the Witch's contact with the Divine. It is the Witch's prayer.

Just as there are many different ways to define magick, there are also many different ways to percieve it. Magick is all around us, and within us. It radiates in all things that live and die. It can be felt in a baby's first breath and in the changing of the seasons. It is a part of the Earth, the mysterious ocean, and the starlit heavens above us. There is magick in love and magick in dreams. It can be found on a hill of wildflowers dancing in the sun-drenched breeze, in the cool shadows of some quiet enchanted woodland, or in the lines of a beautiful poem. All you need to do is open your heart.

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