With pleasure, I, Helen Kuhn, tell my story.
A New Wiccan in South Africa
I am from South Africa, and when this journey began, I was entirely new to Wicca. The Craft fascinated me, but it also made me a little afraid. There was so much I did not understand, and every page seemed to open another door into the unknown.
Still, certain ideas had always felt familiar to me. I believed in reincarnation and in the presence of a higher energy moving quietly through the world. Wicca did not seem entirely foreign. It felt more like something half-remembered—a path I had once glimpsed but never followed.
At the time, I weighed 115 kilograms. I had struggled with my weight throughout my life, trying one approach after another and always hoping to find something that would finally help me remain focused.
Many nights found me browsing the internet on my new BlackBerry, searching for an easy spell. I wanted something simple enough for a beginner: no elaborate altar, no collection of rare ingredients and no tools I did not own.
Finding the Skinny Spell
One evening, during another of those late searches, I came across a collection of Wiccan magick spells and downloaded it.
Among the pages was a skinny spell.
I did not have all the beautiful and mysterious objects that appeared in many rituals. There were no shelves of colored candles, no cabinet of oils and herbs, and no carefully assembled temple waiting for me. I had only the spell, my intention and the hope that something within me was ready to change.
So I performed it with what I had.
The ritual became a companion to a healthy eating plan. The spell gave my intention a shape, while my daily choices carried it forward. Every small decision became part of the work: a promise repeated quietly, meal by meal and day by day.
There was no dramatic flash of light and no sudden transformation before the candle had burned away. The change entered more softly than that.
It gathered through repetition.
The First Signs of Change
After six weeks, people began to notice.
Friends and family complimented me and told me how good I looked. Their words surprised me because I had been so close to the process that I could not always see what they saw. To me, each day appeared much like the day before. Yet something had shifted, and it was becoming visible.
Those first compliments mattered. They arrived like little confirmations that the intention I had set was no longer confined to thought. The work was showing itself in the world around me.
I felt happy, but more than that, I felt encouraged.
The spell had not removed the need for patience. It had given my patience a purpose.
Four Months Along the Path
By the fourth month, I was still going strong.
My goal was only another twenty kilograms away. What once seemed distant had begun to feel possible—not because it had become effortless, but because I had learned to continue.
That was perhaps the most important change. I was no longer waiting for a perfect moment or an easy answer. The ritual had marked the beginning, but every day afterward became another quiet act of magick.
I had begun as someone uncertain of Wicca and unsure of herself. Now I could look back across those months and see a path where there had once been only hesitation.
When Magick Reached Beyond Me
In the meantime, I began using what I was learning to help the people closest to me.
I performed a banishing spell when my daughter was in danger of losing her job. Later, I worked a freezing spell for a dear friend I had known for twenty years. Her supervisor had been making unfair reports about her, and the spell was intended to still that harmful influence and bring the trouble to an end.
These workings were different from the spell I had performed for myself, yet they carried the same lesson: intention must be clear, and it must be followed by patience.
Each experience drew me a little farther into the Craft.
The Beginning of Belief
That is the story of a new Wiccan believer.
I began with fear, curiosity and a simple spell found during a late-night search. I did not possess elaborate ritual tools or years of experience. I only knew that I wanted something in my life to change.
The change did not arrive all at once. It came quietly, gathering around small choices until other people could see it too.
Sometimes the first spell does more than answer a desire. Sometimes it opens the door through which the witch finally meets herself.
Love and Light,
Helen Kuhn