How can I offer to perform a spell for somebody else?

QUESTION - I want to cast a healing spell for my mother. She often gets very strong headaches that render her incapable of doing anything other than lying down in the dark. She currently takes migraine medication however that only helps so much. My question is not so much how to help her but rather how to ask her. I hold a very strong belief that you should not cast a spell on anyone unless you have previously gotten their permission. My mother does not know that I practice witchcraft and although she may be a little surprised, I doubt that she will have much of a problem with it as she is rather open-minded. At the same time, I don't really want to be like, "Hey Ma, I'm a witch. Can I cast a spell for you?". Any suggestions as to how I can ease into asking her?

Also, why does it require you to give a name when you ask a question, even if it is not your real name?

ANSWER – A name can often help quite a bit with a question. It may indicate if a person is male/female and a name, even a made up one, can give clues about a person. Jane Smith for example portrays herself in a very different manner to SilverHawk WolfsBane. It also feels more polite if I need to send an email back to address it to a named person rather than “Oy you”. The reason I go to some length to explain that it need not be a real name is to protect our readers from the fact that putting personal information on the internet can be abused by confidence tricksters and criminals. It also underlines the point that the sites that do ask for your name, address and credit card number may well not have the moral scruples of WPF and are looking to exploit their readers or extract money from them.

I think it is great that you have such a good relationship with your mother as many young witches are not fortunate enough to have open minded parents who accept their interest in the craft. I think such a well established relationship will take your revelation about your interest in witchcraft in its stride but I do have a few tips for how to broach the matter…

My first suggestion is that you avoid labels. Unfortunately there are so many stereotypes and negative associations with so many of the labels involved with witchcraft (witch, spell, magic..) that people with limited understanding of the craft can often form the wrong impression when these words are bandied about. Rather than telling her you are a witch, tell her you have started to do some work in the general area of the craft and resist putting a label on yourself. Focus on what you do rather than what you are.

The same goes when you make your offer of help. Don’t throw the word spell at her as it will conjure up all sorts of mental images that probably don’t relate at all to what you want to do. Explain that with the reading you have been doing and the direction your personal path is taking you feel you might be in a position to offer some help and support. If you introduce your topic in language that your mother is comfortable with and can easily relate to then you will find she is more amenable to the nature of the help you are trying to offer.

I always feel that a working like this is at its most beneficial when both the witch and the person being helped are involved with the mechanics of the spell work. Get your mother talking to you and get her involved in her own healing process. If you go down the route of a healing oil for example get her to contribute suggestions as to what scents she finds relaxing rather than pulling off a list of correspondences. Get her to talk about why she gets the headaches. You will want to handle stress differently to dehydration headaches for example. There is a benefit here involved in the discussion as it may be your mother ends up diagnosing herself when given the opportunity to sit and really think about the cause of all this. At the very least it will out you in a position where you can be precise about your spell work and target the cause rather than treat the symptoms.

Image http://www.deviantart.com/art/Migraine-330699868

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