Whatto Do When the Spell/Ritual Flops

Author: TheRedneck Pagan

Picture this: a quite, beautiful full moon night in September. The air iswarm and the leaves are changing and you can hear them rattle against eachother as you step outside into the night. You have your list in hand, yoursupplies have been gathered and you have learned the ritual inside and out. Yougo to a spot in the yard, and set up your altar and prepare yourself. You castyour circle; you follow the script to perfection, not omitting a single word.You then close your circle, leave your libation and pick up your tools. As youwalk back to the bright lights of the house you frown because you have anagging little thought in the back of your head… “Did the dang thing work?”

Sound familiar yet? It probably does, but do not feel bad if this readslike a ritual you have done because it has happened to me as well! In allhonesty, I would wager that this has happened to everybody at least once intheir witchy careers, and probably more than once! And if someone says that ithas never happened to him or her, then I call BS because we are all human.Being human means we are going to make mistakes, have off days. Sometimes ourrituals and/or spells will flop and we will feel… nothing.

So, why do our rituals flop? Well, there can be a lot of reasons; I haveyet to go through them all myself. Let’s start with the scenario I gave, thefull moon solo ritual. There are a lot of reasons that ritual or spell couldhave failed. A major one is the mental state. Did your day at work suck and allyou can think about is the crappy day? Do you have a huge project to do that islooming over you? Did you just have a fight with a loved one? Did you justloose someone you love? Are bills piling up and have you worried out of yourskull? Are the kids being brats today? Do you have a high stakes meeting the nextday at work? In my humble experience, fatigue and mental stress are the biggestways to tank your ritual.

In a ritual or a spell, it is our intention that determines the outcome,and if you are worrying about something else, then you are not focusing yourintent. Instead you are gnawing at the problem like a dog with a bone. I canpersonally think of a handful of rituals and spells I did that failed because Iwas too distracted to perform them! This doesn’t mean there is anything wrongwith you; it just means you need to either sort the problem out in your headbefore a ritual or find a way to set it aside before the ritual. If I have aproblem that is going to last a while, I take a piece of paper, write it downand put it somewhere outside of my ritual space. I tell myself that I amputting this down and will pick it up after the ritual. I then find I can shiftmy focus to the ritual.

The next thing you want to look at is your medical health. Did you have aheadache before the ritual? Were you really hungry? Did you get enough sleepthis week? Are you getting over a cold or flu? Did you eat something that madeyou feel off? Are you taking any prescription medication? Did you take an overthe counter medication? Are you feeling healthy and well or run down and blah?Working a ritual does take up our energy, and if you are sick then your body ispulling that energy to heal itself and might not be able to spare any for aritual. I once tried to do a Samhain ritual right after having the flu; it wasa terrible idea. I spent the whole ritual feeling too hot, too cold, my headwas pounding and I felt queasy. Halfway through the ritual I apologized to thegods and shut the circle down. I lit a candle, said a prayer to the dead, leftan offering outside and went to bed.

Any kind of medication is going to play havoc with your system and can evenplay with your mind. When I take cough syrup I often will feel dizzy andsleepy, and cold tabs make me feel rather stoned. I am not functioning at 100%on those medications and will avoid rituals when I am taking them (and as Itake them when I am sick I know from experience working when sick is not alwayswise) . Prescription medications are a touchy subject, and one I do not haveenough expertise to fully address. I would advise that if it is a short-termmedication, such as an antibiotic, wait until you are finished the medication.You are taking it to get well again and you want to conserve your energies forthat purpose. Long-term medications are a different story, you might be on themfor weeks, months or even years and I am not a medical expert. I would advisethat you seek out an elder or a very long time practitioner for their expertiseand assistance. They would be able to help you learn your own boundaries withhow your body and mind interact with the medications and ritual workings. Iwould also advise you use good judgment. If a ritual is making you feelterrible and out of whack while you are on medications, stop the ritual andground yourself immediately.

Okay, so your mental health and intentions were set, but the ritual stillflopped. Is it possible you missed something? Maybe you forgot a part in theritual, or didn’t have your correspondences fine-tuned, maybe you mixed upsomething. It could be that the time of the day was wrong for the intention ofthe ritual, or perhaps you selected a Deity that didn’t quite match up withwhat you were doing. There are a lot of ways that we can make a mistake in ourritual planning and execution. Maybe it was a ritual you read in a book thatlooked cool, but didn’t mean much to you so you weren’t able to get the rightframe of mind. There are lots of things that can throw a ritual off or throw amonkey wrench into a spell.

So what do we do? Well, step one is going to have to be not to panic! Thefirst time I felt nothing in one of my rituals I freaked out and tried to redoit three or four times. Guess what, that didn’t work. I felt less and lesspower each time and more and more fear and panic. Finally, I got bright andwrote down what happened and walked away from it. A few weeks later I was ableto look back and figure out what went wrong. In that case, I was getting over abad flu and my body was not really ready for the ritual.

First, calm down the panicked recital of “Oh my Goddess, it didn’t work.I’m going to lose my broom! I’m not a witch because it didn’t work”. Take amoment, sit down and write out everything you can. Write what you ate that day,what the weather is like, moon phase, what did you do over the last day or two,what your health is like and for women where in your cycle you are. Then walkaway from it for a few days. No, really. Walk away from it for a few days;forget it ever happened.

A few days distance gives you a clearer perspective and can let you see ifthere were any mistakes made, if your health was off or if your mind wasn’t inthe right place. It also gives you some time to watch your life unfold andperhaps see your ritual or spell working. Maybe you cast a spell for abundanceand a few days later you got a raise at work, or a friend gave you an old tableshe didn’t need, or you got an unexpected cheque in the mail. These are resultsthat take some time and you won’t see them right after the ritual/spell.

When I was a very new witch, I would perform a ritual and then sit back andwonder if it did work or not! I was a solitary for years and had nobody to askif it worked or not. I eventually came across a book that a friend lent me (andI wish I could remember who wrote it so I could credit the author!) and in thebook the author spoke about rituals and spells. The author explained that thereis no Hollywoodeffects, no lightening in the sky, no booming voices, or sudden windstorms. Theauthor explained that it would be far subtler. You might feel calmer, morerelaxed after ritual. Other people might feel pumped up, full of energy andhappy. Others might get chills and tingles across the body while another personmight feel a sense of accomplishment at the end.

So, your ritual might not have flopped at all, but you just haven’t learnedhow your body and mind reacts to the ritual. After I read that, I jotted itdown on a sticky note and left it on the front of the notebook I was using as abook of shadows. The next full moon, I went along and performed my ritual. Irecorded everything as I have recommended above, and included how I wasfeeling. I did this for a few months for rituals and spells alike. I discoveredthat after a successful ritual, I often feel really relaxed, peaceful and a bittingly inside. After a spell however, I feel pumped up, like I could run to thenearest town (25kms away) and a sense of accomplishment. After I learned thisabout myself, I was able to gauge when a spell or ritual worked or failed.

So when your ritual or spell goes flop, do not panic, but rather treat itas a great chance to learn something new and to grow. You might discover thatyou need a certain type of ritual to set the mood or that you are just no goodat working a spell when your workload is stressing you out. You might discoverthat certain Deities don’t work out well with you or that a certain formatmakes your work tank every time. Either way, it will only lead you toself-discovery and a better understanding of the path you are walking on!