Also by Gerina Dunwich Candlelight Spells The Concise Lexicon of the Occult Wicca Candle Magick Wicca Craft Circle of Shadows (poetry) Wicca Love Spells Gerina Dunwich A Citadel Press Book Published by Kensington Publishing Corp. I dedicate this book with loving gratitude to the following beautiful people: Al B. Jackter, my Gemini lover, friend, and inspiration; my mother, Teri LoMastro, who has more love in her heart than anyone I know; Barbara Jacobson, for her love, laughter, and friendship; and, of course, my publisher for making this book possible. Contents Also by Gerina Dunwich Title Page Dedication Introduction: All You Need is Love 1: The Secrets of Love Magick 2: Spellcraft 3: Love Charms 4: Ancient Love Magick 5: Herbs of Love 6: Love Potions and Aphrodisiacs 7: Star Signs of Love 8: Love in the Palm of Your Hand 9: Goddesses of Love 10: Gods of Love 11: Handfasting 12: Love Divination 13: Love Omens Glossary of Terms Bibliography Index Copyright Love magick, ancient in origin, has been practiced for countless centuries on every continent by every culture in one form or another. Love potions and love spells are two of the most popular and best-known examples of love magick, but there are many other elements as well, including charms, amulets, talismans, herbs, omens, astrology, palmistry, and the divinatory arts, just to name a few. In the United States, love magick is a common practice among the Creoles, Hoodoos, the Voodoo Queens of Louisiana, and the Native American Indians. It is also practiced by most modern Witches in every state of the country. Among nearly every North American Indian tribe, various forms of love magick have been practiced, notably by the Canadian Indians known as the Cree. Their reputation as “love magicians” is greatly respected (and often feared) by many of the surrounding Indian tribes. In Great Britain, love magick was the most popular type of magick, and some form of it was practiced by nearly all Witches, especially on Saint Agnes’ Eve (see Glossary of Terms) and Saint Valentine’s Day. Saint Valentine’s Day, observed to acknowledge love and romance, is (like most of our modern holidays) Pagan in origin and stems from the Lupercalia, an ancient Roman fertility festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of February in honor of Lupercus, a fertility god similar to Pan and Faunus. It is said to have been established by Romulus and Remus, although other evidence suggests that it is probably older than Rome itself. During the festival, young men chose their sexual partners by drawing the names of young women out of a bowl. (This is most likely the origin of our names of young women out of a bowl. (This is most likely the origin of our modern valentine custom.) As the influence of the Christian church began to take over the Old Religion, the Pagan fertility god was replaced by their Saint Valentine. February 14 was named Saint Valentine’s Day, following the tradition in supplanting the old Pagan holidays. In Europe, many plants (in particular the mandrake) have been widely used in love magick. Aphrodisiacs and love philtres made from ginseng and other exotic plants are common in the Orient, and various animal parts are popular love-potion ingredients in Africa, Haiti, Cuba, and Australia. Love magick is simple and easy to use. Its popularity is increasing, and nearly everybody has practiced it at one time or another (either consciously or unknowingly), even if only by one of the most simple forms, say, breaking a wishbone and wishing for a lover, wearing jewelry (love charms) to make oneself attractive, or reading a horoscope column to gain information or advice about one’s love life. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to “provoke another to unlawful love by means of magick or witchery” violated the law. It was punishable by imprisonment, torture, and sometimes even death. Luckily, today the ridiculous laws against witchcraft and magick are no longer a threat to anyone; however, in certain places witchcraft remains misunderstood and socially unaccepted, and one has no choice but to be forced into secrecy to protect his or her craft or else run the risk of being subjected to public ridicule, discrimination, job loss, and possibly even violence. We sincerely hope all of this will change someday and that men and women of all religious beliefs, as well as all customs, races, colors, creeds, and sexual orientations, will be able to accept each other and live together on the same planet in peace, harmony, and love. “DO WHAT THOU WILT SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW. LOVE IS THE LAW, LOVE UNDER WILL.” Love magick can be used to send out your own personal love vibrations to attract the right lover or spouse, make yourself more desirable and “magnetic” to the opposite sex, and set the proper magickally charged atmosphere in which love can bloom. Once the spark of love is magickally ignited, however, the fate of the relationship is entirely up to you and your love partner. Magick can bring two people together, but it cannot force another person to love you or stay married to you against his or her will. Magick cannot join two people together for life if they are not karmically correct for each other. (Any person who tells you otherwise is either a liar, a fraud, or an unenlightened person who doesn’t know the first thing about how true magick works.) Love magick can be performed by both men and women (gay, Lesbian, or straight) to attract a lover, a soulmate, or even the platonic love of a friend or a relative. Before performing any love spell, be absolutely sure that you are sincere and emotionally prepared to enter into a new love relationship with another person. However, if you are only interested in attracting a lover into your life for sexual pleasure rather than for a lasting, meaningful love relationship, it is best for you to work with aphrodisiacs and passion spells, and not use love magick. Most love spells should be performed on a Friday and only during the waxing phase of the moon—the time ranging from the new moon through the first quarter to the full moon. Consult an up-to-date astrological or lunar calendar. Magick to end a love affair or reverse a love spell should be performed when the moon is in a waning phase—the time ranging from the full moon through the last quarter to the new moon. One of the most important elements in the practice of love magick is feeling. It is absolutely essential that you possess strong feelings about what you are attempting to accomplish in order to produce the power needed to perform magick. For instance, if you are working a love spell to help a friend and her estranged husband get back together, you must strongly feel in your heart that it is right for these two people to be back together. You must sincerely want them to make up with each other and be reunited. The same thing applies whenever you are working love magick for yourself. It is also very important to use creative visualization (also known as “willed imagination”). This is the magickal art or skill of imagining the end results of your magick in order to make your desires materialize. It is a natural, Goddess- given ability in certain people, but most of us need to activate and cultivate our powers through much practice, concentration exercises, and meditation. When spellcasting, always concentrate deeply and get a clear mental picture of what (or who) you want or need. For example, while you are casting a love spell or crafting a special amulet to return a lost lover, see in your mind the image of your lover and yourself happily back together. Without feeling and creative visualization, it is extremely difficult, if not absolutely impossible, for love magick to work. You will find that better results are achieved if you work love spells yourself and/or make your own amulets and philtres rather than have someone else (especially a stranger) perform the magick for you. When you perform a spell for yourself, you empower the magick with your own emotional and spiritual vibrations. Use love magick wisely, cautiously, and only in a positive way. All magick Use love magick wisely, cautiously, and only in a positive way. All magick is serious business and should never be abused or treated as a game or as a joke. Always keep in mind the Wiccan Rede of Witches which states: “AN IT HARM NONE, DO WHAT THOU WILT.” Do your own thing, just as long as you don’t harm anybody. If you do bad unto others, the bad will return to you threefold. This same karmic law of retribution applies whenever you do something positive—three times the good will come back to you. Never attempt to use love magick to manipulate another person’s will or emotions. Apart from the fact that no amount of love magick can ever enslave another person to you or turn your beloved into a mindless, emotionless love- slave, magickal manipulation falls into the category of black magick, and can bring disastrous results. Use love magick to attract love or to spark a romantic interest, not to manipulate or enslave another human being. To avoid being manipulative, many Witches suggest you should perform spells to attract a lover in general and not a particular man or woman. If you desperately desire the affections of another, however, you can cast a perfectly “legitimate” love spell by sincerely adding to it (or your request to the gods) an expressed desire to attract and hold fast that person’s love, but only if you are karmically right for each other and no harm will come of it. If you perform such a spell insincerely, be warned that it could easily backfire! Before performing love magick, it is always wise to do a divination of some kind to find out whether the results of your magick will be positive or negative. For example, if you desire the love of a certain man who is currently in love with someone else, and you selfishly cast a love spell on him, the spell may have serious consequences. You might win his love, but only at the expense of his lover’s accidental death. In such an event, your love magick (even though unintentional) would have the same effect as evil black magick. You would be subject to threefold bad karma and probably end up losing his love anyway. Always do a divination first, just to be on the safe side, and consider all possible consequences before you act. For a divination, you may use a crystal ball, Tarot cards, candles, rune stones, or whatever method you prefer. If you are not yet skilled in the art of divination, consult an experienced Witch or a reputable master of the occult arts.