Oh I adore this question though I am highly suspicious that it likely doesn't come from a trainee witch.....

Difficult one to answer. Probably the most widely popular is Waterloo. The most critically acclaimed would be The Visitors. But I think my personal favourite is Super Trouper. I don't actually rate the title song much, nor the equally well known Winner Takes It All. But it does have a lot of my other favourites on it.

Tell you what, as you're so interested, I'll give you my list of top ten personal Abba favourites (in order of preference of course).

Andante Andante
Under Attack
Disillusion
Dancing Queen
Hasta Manana
Cassandra
I do I do I do I do I do
Our Last Summer
Rock and roll band
SOS

(The first half of Me and Bobby's brother and the last 45 seconds of People Need Love would have made the list if the rest of the songs were as good as the good bits.)

Ok, were I actually going to perform a love spell (read any of my answers as to why I rarely think they are a good idea) I would do it by obtaining something belonging to the person I wished to make love me and then charming it to that effect. So, I'm going to assume if you want a relationship with this bloke you are already close enough to be able to get your hands on some of his hair. If not, I'd question your motives...

Get a lock of his hair and place it inside a small salt circle. Around the parameters of the circle use an essential oil with sensual properties (ylang ylang is a good one) to draw a bigger circle. The idea behind this is that you are creating a circle of protection with the salt and then a circle for the parameters of your magic with the sensual oil. In the centre of the circle, place a small pink candle and a small piece of rose quartz.

Spells tend to be more effective if you use your own wording, but you may choose to speak some words like:

Love is drawn and love defined

With these words, I compel your mind

What once was dormant now must be

I awaken and control your love for me.

Light the candle and visualise how he will be affected by his changing feelings for you. Visualise how this will make you feel. Try to generate a really definite outcome in your mind of how you want this love to materialise and the future you will have together.
When the candle has nearly burned down, use the remnants of the candle wax to bind the lock of hair to the rose quartz. Store safely in case you wish to reverse the spell.

I'm not actually recommending you do this by the way. I'm not a great fan of love spells. But you wanted to know how to do it, what you do with the information is up to you!


Image http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=1413178 (Gioradi)

Not really. I can't entirely rule it out but as a construct it is at odds with the way I view the world. Good and evil are within us all and I dislike the concept of demarcating the two. It is too simplistic a view. However I do believe that we all look in on Hell occasionally, but as a visualisation of our own fears and problems on the earth, not as a separate place designed for evil.

Nor do I agree with Sartre that Hell is other people. I think we are more likely to find Hell inside ourselves than in others. Kind of like your own personal room 101. I know what terrifies me at the core of my being but I would lay good odds that nobody else has a clue.

So as a separate place where the naughty end up a la Christianity - no. As a part of ourselves where we occasionally go to face our own demons - yes.

Image http://fav.me/dy06tp (piagoras-dirkin)

Undoubtedly a question from a witch.

Well I don't hold a conventional view on power. The things I can do are largely irrelevant. I think people get very hung up on the trappings of witchcraft. I do not believe my power is defined by my ability to control the minutiae of my life. (Though of course it is naturally confined to an extent by the big stuff. I can no more prevent myself from being diagnosed with a terminal illness than the next person can.) Obviously I have a greater control over details than a non witch would. I can make people agree with me, I can manipulate my surroundings to a certain degree. I can change the things I dislike and I usually get my own way...But this is quite showy stuff for a witch.

The real essence of any power I have lies is my control over my own mind. I can choose how I react to things and cope with them. So I may not be able to ensure I never lose a job, a parent or a husband but I can certainly ensure none of those scenarios will ever push me to a place where I am no longer comfortable in my own mind. I can flat out guarantee I'm the least likely person I know to ever have a nervous breakdown. I think of that line in Kipling's "If" where he talks about meeting triumph and disaster and treating those two imposters just the same. Some people think witchcraft is managing your life to avoid the disaster, but to me it is about learning how to integrate the disaster in your life and not allowing it to influence you. And its perspective. So little actually matters. Not really. I have the power not to care. Interestingly enough that is one of the things that people find hardest to understand about me.

Power to me is taking control of my life and my identity and finding the courage to be honest about who I am. It's about forcing a balance. I may not have wanted to be Mrs 2.4 children but I didn't want to be the crazy cat woman living in the middle of a wood either. I didn't want to leave one group behind just to conform to the expectations of another. So my power was about creating my own niche in the world and to a certain extent refusing to live in extremes.
I suppose really its been about doing exactly what I want and compromising as little as possible – and to do that I've had to bend the world around me to accommodate the space I want to fill.  That's power - to get exactly what you want at very little cost.

They can be quite temperamental little things. I’ve had experience of degus not eating for two separate reasons. The first is due to over grown teeth. I would suggest you pick your degu up, pull its mouth back gently and see if the front teeth have grown too long. If they have, then a pair of small cat/dog nail clippers can be used to gently clip the teeth down. I’d go with trimming them little and often rather than taking a lot off in one go. Leave a good 0.5 cm of tooth protruding above the gum line at both top and bottom. If the degu is struggling with overgrown back teeth then likely you will not be able to clip without sedation. I am afraid if this is the case your degu will die without veterinary assistance. However if cost is an issue and you currently claim benefits, the blue cross (UK based advice) will treat your animal for free.

The other problem I had was when my Minstrel degu had a respiratory illness. This is very common in degus and usually follows some kind of trauma or shock to them. I was advised by my vet to make a humidifier. We did this by getting a large Tupperware box, drilling a hole through it and placing a fish tank pump tube through the hole. We then pumped diluted pet disinfectant (see any reputable pet shop supplier) into the Tupperware and put Minstrel in for five mins a day to inhale the fumes and clear her lungs. Hold your degu close and see if you can hear it wheezing or struggling to breathe, if this is the case, humidifying may well be a positive course of action to take.

I’d also suggest you change its food and try some tempting sugar free treats. Try dandelion, broccoli or curly kale. Obviously anything sugary should be avoided but it may well be worth seeing if you can coax it back to eat with something really really tempting like a yoghurt drop and then switch back to non sugar when it starts eating again.

Good luck x

Hell, no! I hate those holier than thou witches who think being a witch gives them some weird right to lord it over other people. They come across as self centered and more than a little bit pathetic. The vast, vast majority of people have something inspirational and wonderful to offer the world. It is very rare I meet anyone and feel they have little worth. 

I'd be an awfully narrow minded person if I only made friends with other witches. And sometimes, friendship with other witches can be a bit of a busman's holiday anyway. I don't spend all my time talking about witchcraft, I have other interests and I share those with my non witchy friends. I actually really genuinely like most other people. I've got a lot of time for my family, my friends, my work colleagues...I enjoy a right good laugh with most of my customers. The world is a much nicer place when you look for the good in other people.

And only a really stupid person would overlook the fact that you can learn so much from other people. That old maxim about learning something new every day is a true one, but only if you open your mind enough to listen to other people. I have no problem with the fact that some (rather a lot!) of people are more knowledgable than me and I'm happy to learn from them. The day I start telling you I always know best is the day I pack up my website and hand in my witch membership card (not literally, don't write to me and ask where you get one.....)

I'll tell you hand on heart that in the last five years I have only personally disliked one person enough to use spellwork to cause serious harm against them. And I was very, very provoked. And even then I didn't go quite as far as I had planned.....

So no, not isolated at all. I get on with most people. I will admit that when a person does take a dislike to me it is often pretty intense and I've made my fair share of enemies. That's more to do with my habit of speaking without thinking than it is to do with anything about being a witch.... But in general I feel pretty accepted and integrated wherever I go and I can't imagine how boring life would be without other people to brighten up my day.

Image http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1109275 (lusi)

You can like my page on Facebook - “Witchpathforward.” I post most days and update all my questions and articles so you can get them direct to your news feed. Its also a good place to spot some other quality witchy sites as I regularly share the good stuff with my own readers. You can also follow me on Twitter if you like (Deguwitchrose).

QUESTION - 
Would it be easier for a witch to be married to a witch? I’m due to marry a man in a few months but I’m worried that our different paths (He’s a Catholic and I practise Witchcraft) will pull us apart.

I can only offer an opinion. My husband is not a practising witch and it hasn’t caused any issues in our marriage at all. In fact, I don’t think I would like to be married to another witch, I think we’d compete for time and resources and it would perhaps feel a little too much like working with somebody. I like the fact that my husband and I have different views on things and different friends, practises and interests. It makes the time we spend with each other more interesting as we always have something to talk about.I think it is (very) important for a witch to be married to somebody tolerant of witchcraft, my own husband certainly can’t afford to be squicky, I’m covering the witch room in bottles of diluted menstrual blood at the moment and he hasn’t batted an eyelid. But tolerance doesn’t necessary imply involvement. He’s an interested observer rather than a partner in my craft and that is very much the way I want it.

I’d have a few frank conversations with this bloke before you marry him if I were you. Particularly if he is Catholic, blending Witchcraft and Catholicism is a bit like mixing blood and oil. It doesn’t work well at all. Is he happy for you to do your own thing in the home? Will his family accept who you are and what you do? Will he object to spirit conjuring etc? Will there be issues as to how any future children are brought up?

I can’t tell you what to do but I’d say that if this man is a laid back “Catholic in name only “type then you are likely to be ok. If he’s a die hard, doctrine worshipping, Pope loving type then I have to be honest, I think you’ll find that will bring a lot of problems for the two of you. Have a chat and see where the common ground lies. But if there is no middle ground, you may have to decide what is more important to you – your marriage or your witchcraft.


Image http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=1418526 (Krmm777)

QUESTION - I want to know if John Smith likes me, we have both just turned 18. I have crushed on him for 3 years. he always leaves me confused. and i would give up but i don't want to until I know for sure. Please answer soon because I never get an answer when i go to these sites, plz be different. We both live in Kansas city. He is a dirty blond I'm a brunette. thanks, i don't care whether its bad or good. i just need to know.
(Names changed on the site for privacy reasons)


ANSWER - You don't give me a great deal to go on here and I suspect you are looking more for a clairvoyant than a witch, but I'll tell you what I think. I think three years is more than enough to know if there is ever going to be a spark between the two of you. I'm not saying friendship doesn't occasionally blossom into romance, it certainly does, but as a general rule of thumb if you have spent three years lusting after the bloke and he hasn't managed to make up his mind as to whether he reciprocates or not, I don't think the two of you are destined to have a relationship that sets the world on fire.  I'd cut your losses, stop wasting time on him and find someone who is as keen for you as you are for them. You're eighteen, that's a fantastic age to be, enjoy dating and partying and the fun of finding the right person to be with, don't spend your time mooning after somebody who doesn't sound ready for a relationship anyway. Life's too short to throw your love away on somebody who refuses to value it.

Image http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1410640 (bschwehn)