I did odd jobs for a voodoo priest when I was in college–he hired me to do them specifically because I didn’t believe, and therefore wouldn’t get spooked. Some of them involved ritual elements of one sort or another, but nothing major. Just stuff he didn’t figure an unbeliever would mess up.
When I was in junior high school, my best friend and I were very interested in “witchcraft”. We did some love spells, but we noticed the same thing Jragon did, which is that you’ve got to be pretty damn intimate with someone already to be able to carry them out. I never did collect the hair that was called for from the boy I had a mad crush on.
We did try some “vengeance spells” on a boy who always teased me. He lived the next block over from her, and we did a spell that involved burying something in his back yard, which we were able to do by hopping the fence one night. The next day, he was tormenting after school, walking backwards in front of us down the street, and I told him he’d better watch it, because we were witches. He laughed, turned around, and ran directly into a light pole. We put that down to the spell. A week or two later, he broke his leg playing football. We freaked out, and that night we went back over to his yard, dug the thing back up, and did the “reverse spell” on it. We forswore magic from then on.
Now, in retrospect, the boy was a football player, and a lot of them ended up breaking limbs. He was also not paying attention to where he was going, and that’ll make you bump into stuff. And, from the perspective of an adult, he probably had a crush on me, which would have been the reason for the teasing in the first place. Too bad I didn’t try one of those love spells, huh?
I think that the paranormal holds a lot of attraction for teenagers because the idea that you can gain power over people and control your environment is especially compelling when you’re an adolescent, living in your parents’ house and under adults’ rules. It seems like something it would be good to outgrow.
Magic probably has to be practiced as carefully as science. Are you being precise enough? Are you measuring your wolfbane carefully and accurately counting your eyes-of-toad? How’s your pronunciation? Are your spells fluent? When you make an incantation in Sumerian or Pictish, is your accent up to the task?
I think you should re-try summoning up eldritch horrors, but start with really clean bell jars, professional mortars and pestles, and make sure your candles and robes meet the standards of the Craft.
You can’t really come to the conclusion that Magic doesn’t work if you’re doing it wrong.
Have I screwed around with it? I can’t answer your question here, but I’ll say this, in all sincerity: I don’t believe Science can explain Magic, nor do I think Magic operates in the domain of Science. You can’t convince someone by using scientific terms; may as well try to describe faith and it’s ramifications by using the Scientific Method … doesn’t work. It’s all superstition to one degree or another.
My friends and I played with an Ouija board when I was 12-ish.
It’s amazing how often the spirits spelled out “fuck you” and “blow me” and “your sister is hot”.
In high school and college I mucked around with some things: learned to cast a horoscope, read Tarot, read runes. I never really saw them as “supernatural” but rather as a way to direct and focus personal thoughts, sort of like journal writing, and also as a way to explore spirituality after having left religion. I still think things like Tarot cards can be helpful as symbols to allow exploration of difficult topics, but don’t think they have any predictive value.
I once screwed around with the paranormal. I got a Satanically Transmitted Disease the first time around wouldn’t ya know.
Lets just say my nether regions smell strongly of sulfur and goat. For years copious amounts of Old Spice did the trick (but barely). Fortunately Axe Body spray was recently developed by Big Pharma and I’ve since switched.
Never again.
You weren’t humble enough.
I’m the humblest man in the room, and damn proud of that fact.