Using Your Words – And Why They Matter

One of the things I always try to stress to people when they’re working magic is that words matter – and by this, I mean you’ve got to be REALLY specific. As an illustration, let me share with you a story from my own checkered magical history. I like to tell this story in some of my workshops, because it feels like it really drives the point home. Plus it’s a great example of how stupid I was when I was a n00b witch, and I like to remind people that while it’s great to learn from your own mistakes, it’s also helpful to learn from OTHER people’s mistakes.

Teenage Patti: screwing up so you don’t have to.

Anyhoo, way back when, in the days when I was too young to know any better, I decided that a recent speeding ticket would be the target of my newly-discovered witchy wisdom. I had gotten the ticket because I was flying down the highway well over the legal limit — like probably by 20 mph — when I got popped. I’d been traveling from Ohio to South Carolina, and there’s a stretch of I-77 in West Virginia that is just beautiful. It was a bright sunny morning in the mountains, I had the windows down, Guns ‘N Roses cranked in the cassette player, and was paying absolutely no attention at all to my speed, when I heard the bloopBLOOOOP of a siren… and sure enough, right behind me was one of West Virginia’s finest.

So, yeah, the speeding ticket was justified, I totally own it. Unfortunately, I was also flat broke, so when time came to pay it a few weeks later, I was all HELL NAW and decided I just wasn’t going to. I was 19, cocky, and dumb, so I decided that in order to make this $164 problem go away, I would turn to the recently discovered world of magic.

In all of my 19-year-old wild and crazy heavy-metal-punk genius, I cast a perfectly magnificent spell….

asking for “truth and justice to prevail.”

Boy, did it EVER. In addition to the original $164 fine, I also got a letter telling me I had to pay to get my license reinstated, because the state of Ohio suspended it when I failed to pay my speeding ticket. I also got slapped with two bills I had defaulted on in another state, because somehow the collection agencies had found me.

Yep, truth and justice sure as hell did prevail.

Speeding ticket:  $164
Past due phone bill:  $91
Fines from some other crap I forgot to pay:  $389

Learning the value of wording your spell properly:  Priceless.

Words matter. THINK about what your intention is. Remember the old adage about being careful what you wish for, because you just might get it? Intent and purpose are everything, so be deliberate, be focused, be specific… and be careful!