Why did your spell or work fail? 

Well, I don't know, because the Universe is obligated to meet your demands, right?

Ok, so let's unravel this tangle and figure this out.  Spells are: focusing your intent, energies, and will and manipulating or channeling the energies where you want them to go to change the outcome of a situation. Spells are not: fast food, next day delivery for online ordering, or a vending machine. 

Rootwork is a lifestyle, a routine of practices of daily living that are intended to help improve your life and circumstances and change the course of events. Rootwork is not: a better way (reputed more aggressive than Wiccan spells, or a shortcut around actual effort) to get what you want no matter what. It is folk magic, a way of life, and much more than that, but I'm keeping the definition short for the points I am trying to make here.

You are not entiteld for the Spirits, Saints, Deities, Orishas, Loas, the Universe, or God Himself to move Heaven and Earth to change what you want them to change while you sit on your butt and wait to see some results.

Is that too harsh? Good. Reality and truth can be harsh.

Do you understand everything about your situation? Do you know all the facts? Have you tried mundane methods first of solving your problem? And by mundane, I mean real-world, non-magical, real-life fixes. 

Here's a basic example, something we can all relate to. Finances: "I have no money, and I want to manifest money."  Have you tried getting a job or a better paying one? Have you been saving money or blowing money? What do you need the money for? To feed your baby or to get that new iPhone? Have you been giving to charity or to others in need? How have you managed the money you have? Have you invested? Have you planned ahead? 

Not to say that we aren't all in that situation at one point or another. We ALL have been there, in a tight spot and have a bill come due but you can't pay it because of an unexpected expense earlier in the month when your tire blew out. So yeah, three are some legitimate reasons for needing to come up with money in a hurry. I've been there. And medical bills, student loans, credit card debt, and other things that a lot of people deal with can be a huge reason for lack of money. 

But at the same time, have you blown money at the casino trying to hit that big jackpot and lost your whole check? You might as well have just driven by the casino and thrown your money out the window as you go by.  (I have personally seen people's lives destroyed by gambling. It's an addiction for some, and I know someone who ended up losing their house and their marriage because of gambling. I also worked with a woman who was escorted out of our workplace by police because she did some things to "come up with" money for her gambling addiction.)

Have there been opportunities when you should have done something differently like take some classes to get a better position? Have you turned down job offers that you felt were beneath you? 

Have you relied on drawing some kind of assistance check when maybe you didn't really need it and drive a better car than someone who works 40 hours a week? I'm not saying everyone on assistance is like that, but there are some and we all know it. My mother-in-law received $606.50 a month from Social Security. Little did she know, and we were not aware either, that there was more assistance available to her. She worked all her life as a cook and got very little reward when she became retirement age. But she always gave to others in need no matter how little she had. She didn't consider herself needy and lived within her means, which was horrible. In case you're wondering, we took care of her and bought her anything she needed, I cooked for her when she was still living on her own, began paying her bills myself, and I bought her clothes, groceries, household needs, etc. She would always protest though saying she didn't need anything. Those are the type of people who NEED (not just want) government assistance because they are being screwed over by the system at the same time. Not because they are just plain lazy.

Yes, I said all of that. The system is not always fair. Life is not always fair. It's up to you to make real-world decisions that benefit you. And there are magical methods that help as well. But don't rely on them if you aren't going to do something to try to better yourself and your situation.  When my Dad retired from the Navy after 20 years of service, it was tough to find a job. He took a job at a gas station to feed his family. Was it ideal? No. Was it beneath him and his qualifications? Yes, absolutely. He worked there until he could find a better job. He had to look for one, it wasn't handed to him or just fall out of the sky into his lap. Were we ever on any type of assistance or receive commodities? No. Did we ever apply? No, it would have never occurred to my parents because we didn't consider ourselves needy or disabled in some way or that the system was stacking the deck against us. Did my parents ever steal? No. I wasn't raised to expect anything from anyone or rely on somebody else or take what wasn't mine. The only person you can rely on is yourself. True story.

So, when you find yourself in such a situation, as yourself what should you have done differently? What actions are available for you to take? What are your options? What can you actually get up and do yourself that can improve your situation? 

Say your business isn't doing well.  You don't have as much customer flow coming in as you used to. Does it mean you are cursed? NO!  Well, you may be, that is a legit possibility. But it isn't what should first come to mind. What you need to look at first before jumping to that conclusion is, what are you doing differently than when you first started and the money was rolling in? Has something changed? There are mundane real life explanations sometimes that you need to consider. Maybe the demographic has changed, maybe the neighborhood your business is in has changed. Maybe you haven't utilized marketing to your advantage. Maybe you haven't been putting 100% into it. Maybe you haven't given as good customer service as the next guy. Are you utilizing Social Media?  If you have no online presence, you may as well not exist to the average consumer in this day and age. Maybe you are taking shortcuts. When you take shortcuts, you get what you put into it. We can't expect a big payout with very little effort. Maybe that will work for a short while, but it will catch up with you at some point. There are tons of possibilities, and that is a subject for another time, as is the topic of giving back and paying it forward.  And dirty money.

So, I'm going to get off the subject of finances right now, I know it is a touchy one. And don't even get me started on sending money to televangelists who promise you're going to receive it back 20-fold in some unexpected way.

I'm not saying that I haven't had money troubles, or that I'm better than anyone else. But I think that these newer generations have a mindset that something is owed to them, or that they are entitled to something. It boggles my 40+ year-old mind.

And there are indeed situations that you did not cause or contribute to. Like someone sues you for something that was not even your fault. People do like to take advantage of other people.  Crappy things happen. Even when you have done everything right, by the book, followed everything to the letter, dotted your I's and crossed your T's and had all your ducks in a row. Why? Because those are the kind of people that feel like someone "owes them" and that they are "entitled to something" at the expense of another. They don't care about you or how much hardship it causes you, it's that sense of "entitlement".

Ok, so let's move on to another topic. Relationships. Everyone wants help with relationships. So, when I am helping a client with relationship issues, there are usually some basic questions I will ask.  If they want help with returning a lover to them, I will usually ask what the cause of the breakup was in the first place. Why did they leave? Usually I will get, "I don't know." And I never believe that, even if I let it go.  So, they don't want to tell me. That's fine. Do I think that their reconciliation is going to be successful? Probably not. Not if they are not being honest. If they aren't being honest with me, then there's a good possibility they are not being honest with themselves. Or with their partner or ex.  

So, this person left them.  Is their ex currently in a relationship with someone else? Let's take this situation apart and look at it from all angles, like the facets on a diamond. You can look at something from a different angle and see something new, or completely different aspects.  

Why did they leave? You have to ask yourself that. Not saying you were bad to them, or anything like that, but you've got to get to the core reason they left, why they are staying away, why they blocked you, and what is really going on with them, or you're never going to be able to fix things, either mundanely or with magic.  

We can do spells all the do-dah-day but until you figure out what was or is wrong with the relationship, it's not going to fix itself.  I very often recommend a love uncrossing working before any reconciliation work because you want to try to start with a clean slate. To eliminate negative residual energy and to help facilitate a successful future relationship. Give it some building blocks to start fresh on. There are times when you can't just pick up on a relationship where it left off and everything be fine from then on. Think solid foundation, remodeling, or even rebuilding.

I know every relationship is different and there are always different things that need to be taken into consideration. But I have been doing this for long enough that I know there are always some common threads.

Maybe it's you.  Maybe it's not. Maybe it's them.  Those are the hard things we must figure out first.

"Well, can't you just do a spell to make it all right?" You bet!  It's not really going to make it ALL right, though, is it? They may indeed return as a result. But when they return to you, are they going to stay, or is there still going to be an underlying issue you're not wanting to address or that maybe they're not wanting to address? If so, it's just going to continue in that cycle. Lover return work is sometimes a good way to get a window of opportunity for them to return and start some meaningful dialogue to set the relationship right. You're going to have to realize that underlying problems that were there before are not just going to go away.  But the other person probably will.

What if that person truly doesn't want to be with you anymore? Regardless of their reason, we can try reconciliation work but it doesn't mean that they are going to show up on your doorstep ready and willing to give things another try even though they don't want to. If they truly don't want to be with you, that's their decision. At some point, if all else fails, you're going to have to work on acceptance.  But that is also another story I can expand on later.  But do you truly want someone who doesn't want to be with you? Because you feel like you are entitled to that? That they have to bend over backwards and do something they don't want to do just because you want them to? Because you feel like you deserve another chance, or an explanation? That's not really love.

To be continued. Relationships are a huge subject, so we'll talk more about that subject later and how Rootwork can help and how it cannot.

This will be an ongoing series, thanks for reading and for overlooking my photoshop skills or lack thereof. 

Love to all!