My grandmother was an herbalist or natural healer. She was also the village psychic. Her name was Antolina Mateos Ramos and she lived in a little village 30kilometers from Seville, Spain.
In the days of the Spanish Inquisition, people like her were burned at the stake or drowned. But, after the world wars there was a reemergence of folk magic and my grandmother practiced it a lot.
She would gather things from the orchards or the forests to cast spells. I had just turned 14-years old and I was excited at the prospect of learning the craft from her. Although I lived in the USA most of the time, my parents would send me to stay with her during the summer so I would "know" my grandmother and the "old ways" of the Spanish gypsy.
One of the things she always emphasized when gathering ingredients was that if you stayed focus on finding the ingredients that it puts you in the present moment and helps you focus on the spell and what you wish to manifest.
I'll never forget the time she took me out to gather some stones, herbs and flowers. She said we were going to cast a powerful spell for a lonely neighbor who just lost her husband several months ago. She said we were going to bring her love and someone else for her to take care of. I was excited, it was the first time I was allowed to "participate" in anything magical :)
I looked and looked for a heart shaped rock (which is what the spell called for), or a rock that had any hint of it being a "heart." I picked a bunch of flowers, all sorts, blues and oranges and tons of primrose that grew wild and sweet. We both walked and walked all afternoon, the whole time thinking of "Carmela" the lady's name. I thought about how we were going to bring love into her life. Every time I picked a flower, I saw her face, all sad and lonely, and saw how this magic spell was going to TRANSFORM her forever.
When we got home, my grandmother put the heart-stone in a vase with water, then put the flowers in it. She ground up some of the herbs we found. I think it was like wild oregano or something. I kept asking her questions on when we would produce the magic. She was silent and gave me the mortar and pestle to grind the herb a bit more while she cooked the dinner. I ground it up with enthusiasm, proud to be a real witch, casting real magic. Intent on how the spell was going to lift up this woman to higher heights.
We then gathered the flowers in the vase with the stone, and she put a cover on the pot of food and told me we were going to Carmela's house. I was like "What about the magic spell? Are we not going to do something "magical" here? She said we already did the magic. "Every time we took a step we thought of bringing love to Carmela, in the flowers we picked, in the rocks we looked over, in the food we cooked with the herbs in it. "Everything that afternoon was a focus on bringing Love to Carmela," she said. "You will see in two weeks how well the spell works."
Well two weeks later Carmela ran into an old childhood friend. He too had lost his spouse his wife. So next thing you know our neighbor Carmela is happy, cooking for and laughing with this man...(true story)...there was no hocus pocus, just meditation and prayer and love going to Carmela from us, and that was the true magic. :)
To me real magic is how we use our hearts and minds. That's my tip and my "secret."
