#spell failure

Posting Date: May 10, 2026

Title: Out of Touch Tuesday Artist: @kalsoapie Author: @timehasa-way Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Pairing: Walker & Dean

This post will talk about the different reasons why your spells don’t always succeed, and a little about how you can deal with it.

Disclaimer: some UPG is inserted into this post, but I intend for it to enhance the content and not skew how you align your own beliefs and craft with what is covered.

really long post under the cut.

1. your worrying is what’s nullifying your own spell

we’ve all been there before, stressing out about a spell and worrying about whether it’ll succeed. well, guess what? these nagging thoughts can actually nullify the intended effects of your spell. when you cast a spell, your intent is going into it in order to power the spell, but when conflicting energies are being sent in the same direction, it’s going to neutralize the original intent. especially if it’s an emotion-heavy spell like a love spell. the spell may be nullified if your worry equals or outweighs the time and effort put into the casting long before any effects even start to show. give it some time, don’t worry your spell into the ground.

once I cast a binding spell that didn’t seem to take effect in the first two days after I cast it, so naturally I was quite concerned. however, after that I just kind of forgot about it and only was reminded of the spell when I caught a glimpse of the spell jar occasionally. and it worked out. the spell worked. 

2. your subconscious has a part to play

what if deep down you don’t really think the spell will work? what if your subconscious isn’t fully willing to be doing this spell? what if your heart isn’t in it and you don’t really want the outcome to happen? personal will and feelings are such an important thing in spell-casting that even if any aspect of your own moral system or personal desire is in conflict with the desired outcome, it’s going to be an obstacle. 

think about it this way. what if a friend asks you to cast a love spell to reconcile them with their ex, and you know it matters a lot to them so you do it anyway, yet you personally don’t really want them back together for whatever reason. the spell is Not Going To Work. 

3. you’re casting it even if you don’t feel up to it

if you’re low on spoons, the spell might not work out the way you want it to, because energy is an important part of spell work. or if you’re not in the mood to be casting a spell, your feelings can interrupt your spell work and cancel out whatever intent you tried to send out. 

sometimes we have our down days and our lulls or just have some unexplainable shy away from witchcraft. you’ll find it hard to raise energy, or focus, or find the intent, or even put the spell together, so all in all not a very fun or effective experience to be casting a spell when you don’t feel like it.

4. consent consent consent? have you got it?

every magic(k) practitioner will understand the importance of warding and shielding and probably have some form of method to keep someone else from casting a spell that affects them. even if your intended target isn’t a witch or does not practice anything of the sort, if the spell is intended to change something that involves a large part of their involvement, then you have to check if they’re already to willing to do this in the first place or nah. 

if their will is strong enough against something that you intend for them to do, then there is a strong possibility that the spell will not work. unless you’re able to channel something stronger, whether it is your own will and emotions, or that of a group of people. there are always exceptions, and it’s always a case-by-case basis. take curses, for example, when you have strong emotion or a cause pent up into a curse, it’ll really pack a punch.

I cast a spell that acted as a sort of wake-up call for someone to act on their priorities. someone who was waiting around for the opportunity. the person I cast the spell on was not already opposed to the idea of confronting their problems, so when I intended for the spell to put them into action, they were able to be swayed in that direction.

5. losing your focus

are you surroundings too chaotic or noisy or messy? are there any distractions in the room that can sway your focus? is something on your mind preventing you from keeping full focus on your spell? there could also be too many different energies coming from the surroundings, especially if you’re casting in a busy environment. here’s where circle casting can save you some inconvenience.

without focus, you’ll most likely lose your intent somewhere in the mix. you’re saying the words, you’re doing the things, but when your concentration isn’t there, you’ll find that your spell may not even be cast properly at all.

6. your spell is too specific or vague

sure, it’s good to get into the specifics and clarify terms, but when you go in with too specific an intention in mind, this may not leave enough space for the effects of the spell to manifest. most likely your magic will hit a corner and trip or get stuck. 

being too vague is also an issue. when you’re leaving Too Much space in your intent in a spell, it can make your intentions unclear. this can cause a lot of issues like misdirecting energy, your spell working on the wrong person or causing the wrong outcome, etc.

7. asking for something that a spell cannot give you

setting unrealistic goals and expectations. expecting the impossible. sure, the whole point of a spell is to bring something out of reach, but there are limits to magic. it cannot break the laws of physics in the physical plane, you may be able to get away with that in the astral planes, but not here. 

8. the spell worked, but not in the way you expected

spells are tricky things, the outcome may not turn out like what you expected. but it may very likely still fulfil the original intent you had. magic may be unpredictable, but it still has its ways. oftentimes, it’ll take the path of least resistance. for example, while you cast a spell with the intent to give yourself better grades, you may expect your grades to just miraculously improve, but most of the time that is not the case. the spell may clear your schedule so that you have more time to study. things like that.

9. sometimes they just don’t work, and nobody knows why.

don’t always expect a 100% chance of success when it comes to magic. that’s part of the fun, and leaves a lot more room for things to work out. even if the occasional spell fails, you’re still valid in your craft. everyone has their bad days. 

Well, there could be a lot of reasons for that. Of course, what I’m going to suggest here is not any guarantee, just some ideas of things that could prevent spells from manifesting.

Possible Reasons for Spell Failure

♦ It could be that not enough energy was put into the spell to allow it to work. 

♢ Or, the energy was directed to the wrong place / intent in the first place.

♦ Your energies at the time could have been the opposite of your intent, causing it to negate. (Some people believe this may not have an affect, but it’s happened to me, so it could be a possibility.)

♢ Not being specific about your goals or intent can also hinder the energy bringing you what you want - if it doesn’t know what it is, how is it supposed to produce it for you?

♦ Perhaps the spell did work, just not for the intent you were “thinking” you were casting it for? This is also why being specific and clear in your intent is key - sometimes you think you want something, but you want something different, or you don’t really know if you even want that thing at all.

♢ Something could be preventing your magic from getting out into the world and manifesting - this could be an internal block, too thick of personal shields, even spirits or other entities can break and hinder spells.

♦ If your spells are targeted, it could be that the target has magical defenses themselves, or that their will to stay as they are was stronger than yours to change them.

♢ Certain methods may not work out so well for certain intents. For example, I wouldn’t do a sea magic spell to bring myself closer to the element of fire, you know what I mean?

♦ Sometimes substitutions don’t work out so well for spells either, if the original ingredient was very specific in its intent and “essential” for that spell. This is why correspondences can prove difficult - if a spell is based around the symbolism and energy of one specific item, if the energies don’t match up just right, it is more likely that it won’t manifest as desired.

♢ If you had any fear or doubts casting the spell, that could also be something that hinders the results of your casting. Your negative thoughts about it not working could be counteracting the energies you sent out. They could be on their way to work, but because you wonder if they’re not, the energy just fizzles out before it can get what you want / to the target.

♦ It can be as simple as your timing was off - this could be in regards to moon phases or days of the week, but also that it was not the appropriate time for you to use magic for that intent.

♢ It may also be a case of, that is not something you should be doing with magic - a spell failing can be a sign from the world / universe that perhaps this is something you should work through on your own.

♦ In some circumstances, magic needs to be bolstered with “mundane” actions in order for it to prove effective. It is very unlikely that you will perform a job spell and a job just happens to fall in your lap the very next day - in these cases, we need to support our spells by giving it something to work off of (like job hunting and looking for work, for this example).

♢ Sometimes, no matter what we do, magic cannot change a situation. Some things are very hard to do alone, or the odds are just too small for it to succeed. 

♦ Perhaps your spell has worked, but they are “slow burns” - meaning you may not see results instantaneously, but they happen, slowly, subtly, over long periods of time.

♢ There may not be a reason, honestly. Sometime shit just doesn’t work, and yes it sucks, but that’s kinda how things go in this world of ours.

Here are some more posts for you, about why your spells may not have worked as you desired:

[Common Reasons a Spell Didn’t Work]

[Five Reasons Your Rituals Don’t Work]

[How to Tell If a Spell Worked]

[Magical Failure: Why Wasn’t My Spell Successful?]

[On Spell-Work Accuracy and Results]

[When Your Spell Fails] (cw: gif)

[Why Aren’t My Spells Working?] (cw: gif)

[Why Some Spells Absolutely Will Not Work]

Do not worry anon, dream work is very difficult. It takes lots of practice before you can really get a hang of it. It took me several months and I was a natural born lucid dreamer, so I thought it would be easy. I was proven wrong.

Something that will make it much easier is to get yourself a dream journal. Just a notebook by your bed with a pen on it can really help you. Before you go to bed write down the spell you wish to use or are planning to use, write down your thoughts and feelings before going to bed. Then when you wake up next, no matter what time it is, immediately write down everything. Anything you can remember from your dream, how you feel, how you feel emotionally and if you feel the spell is working or not. Come morning go over your notes, any dreams you had interpret them to the best of your ability. There are many sites to help you but don’t forget to think about ‘what does this item/object/being mean to me?’ 

For example: to someone with a fear of dogs, seeing a dog in their dream would hold a different personal meaning than to someone who is a dog lover.

Take notes as you do this, you will find dream work has a lot of note taking. Once you have finished think about what your intent was. What parts of it succeeded? What parts of the spell seemed to fail or not work properly?

Well the fun thing about dream work is, they’re spells you can cast nightly! Yep, dream work spells you can recast nightly if needed. The only exceptions would be things such as sachet spells and jar spells. These ones are long term. In case of these types of spells just keep them near you. It may take several days to even weeks before the spell works. Sometimes it takes time. But it also takes practice.

Some tips for dream work:

Before going to bed, meditate and ground yourself, this can help you focus your energy on the spell as you sleep.

In your dream journal write down your intent and desires for the spell, this helps put it into your mind before bed

Clear Quartz helps energize and ‘improve’ spells and this includes dream spells so keep some near your bed

Cleanse your room, negative energy can still mess with dream spells

Take a bath or shower before bed to cleanse yourself and to help relax yourself, this will help with falling asleep too

Keep your bed and bedding clean 

stretching before bed can help loosen up your body but also loosen up your energy flow and make it easier for spell work (from self experience)

Drink chamomile tea to help you sleep, this often puts you in a deeper sleep which helps with dream work and spells

Have patience, it takes time to get dream work well working! Just like lucid dreaming, it takes time to get the hang of it. Be persistent, keep up the dream journal, and don’t give up

“The spell still isn’t working after weeks though :( what do I do now?” 

Unfortunately this happens with spells, sometimes spells written by one person doesn’t work so well for another. Thats okay! Put your own spin on the spell.

For example from my own experience:

I was trying to use a spell from a book to help me remember my dreams in better more vivid detail upon waking. The spell called for Smoky Quartz, well I personally never much liked how smoky quartz looked and I often felt distant from it. Well the spell wasn’t working, even after a month. I decided to take out the smokey quartz and replace it with clear quartz which I prefer far better. A week later I find that the spell is working!

So sometimes, substituting ingredients for ones that you ‘connect’ with better is fine! If after a long time the spell isn’t working, its okay to start adjusting it. Thats when you look to your notes of all the failures and see what in the spell, and those notes, doesn’t seem to click with you. Look for substitutes, do research and then try the modified spell. Take notes again and keep at it, if after a long time that one fails, try something else! Its all trial and error.

☀ Why did my Spell fail? ☀

✯ Is your intention strong enough? ✯ 

You're a beginner. You read your books, you read more books, more books. Then, you practise, practise, practise some more, your energy manipulation, your meditation, grounding, centering, energy flow. OK, bravo! Well done! You're good to go! Then, you feel that you're ready to cast a spell. You cast your spell, and you wait, you wait to see if it's going to work. And it doesn't, so you come to the conclusion that your spell hasn't worked and then you get disappointed in yourself and your abilities. 

☹ Why did this happen? Why didn't your spell work? What did you do wrong? What would a sane person do after a "failure" like that? ☹

First of all, let me clarify, go one step further and say that...

 No "failure" is a "failure". 

☾ ☽ See it as a learning experience , because in actuality that's *precisely* what it is. A learning experience, an experience that is, that can help you grow and keep you from repeating the same mistake over and over. Sit down, relax yourself, maybe get some herbal tea, turn all the lights off, all the appliances off, take a warm shower and sit down. Nowadays, in our modern society we're all constantly on the go, go, go so much so that we have forgotten the simple act of just relaxing, sitting down and reflecting on what's happening to us, of what's going on in our lives. ☾ ☽

۞ ۞ Well, make the difference and just do that. Think this through from the moment that you decided to cast that spell of yours until the moment you cast that spell. What was your intention? Why did you want to cast that spell? Did you doubt in yourself? Did you know that it would work? Were you certain about yourself? Was your motivation strong enough? Did you have positive thoughts during this whole process? Because yes, that is a process. Sit down, maybe in front of your altar, take some deep breaths, ask your patron or matron deities to help you and think things through. What did you do wrong? Ask yourself all the above questions and reflect on them. Write down your experience on your Book of Shadows. ۞ ۞

✯ *Did you doubt in yourself? When we do spellwork, guys, we want to show the universe that we deserve what we're asking for, that we're worth it. The universe is not going to "trust" you if you're not sure about yourself. Doubting can only destroy your spellwork, and any magickal working you might want to do in the future. Get a grip of yourself, stand still and be proud of yourself, your knowledge, your potential, and your abilities. Make sure you know what you're doing, and if you don't, see what needs to be done so that you get there. Don't have any doubts, especially when you're doing spellwork. Know that it will work, know that your attempt will be successful, be 100% sure of it. Visualize the outcome, feel it, taste it, embrace it, touch it. It's right there! You're halfway through! Have a positive attitude during this whole process. ✯

❀ ❀ *Do you really need what you're asking for? Sometimes, the universe comes up with ways on its own to show us that what we're asking for is not in alignment with ourselves, with the things we need to do to reach enlightenment and grow. You cast your spell, and you made sure that your intention was strong enough. You can just wait and cast the same spell, after a while (maybe after a month or so). You repeat the spell and it "fails" again. Maybe that's a sign! Yes a sign, a sign from somebody out there who wants to show you, that you do not *need* what you're asking for, what you're craving for. Now, 'need' and 'want' are two entirely different words with two entirely different meanings to them. When we say that we 'want ' something, then our ego meddles in our way and our ego is nothing but a burden towards growth, the way I see it. Now, when we say "I need" something, though, the word itself has an entirely different connotation to it. The word "need" means that you *have* to have something, in order to survive and grow. Ego has nothing to do with "need", yet ego has a lot to do with "want". I hope you can see where I'm coming from. So, maybe it's not meant to be. Someone might be sending you a signal that you're not meant to get this "thing" you're asking for, whatever that is and that's for your own good. ❀ ❀

♆ ♆ ♆ * Was your intention strong enough? OK, nothing to talk about here. Magick is all about intention , every serious practitioner must know that. You must have a very strong intention when doing magick, any type of magick, really. Crave for what you're asking for with every cell of your entire being, desire it, love it, be ... "it"! If your intention is not strong enough your spellwork is not very likely to work. ♆ ♆ ♆

☯ ☯ ☯ * Do you know what you're doing? Take a moment to sit back and just think about that. Are you ready yet to jump into spellwork? Do not underestimate yourself, but also do not overestimate yourself. Acknowledge the situation you are in, acknowledge your potential, and think very well whether you're truly ready to do that. We're coming back to the "Know thyself" concept here. Yes, you' and only you are the only one in this world who knows...yourself better than anybody else. If you feel you're not ready yet, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with that!!! Just take the time to do what needs to be done and then you can get back to your spellwork once you're feel you're ready to handle something like that. ☯ ☯ ☯

* ツ ツ ツ Were the energies of the day, month in alignment with what you tried to achieve? For example, Friday is indicated for love spells -- The Waxing moon is indicated for anything that's to do with growth, loving yourself, acquiring something new, for new beginnings, a renewal and so on. The Waning moon now is indicated for banishing spells, to get rid of something that no longer serves you in your life, maybe a bad habit or even... a violent husband. All in all, you need to make sure that when you're doing spellwork, the energies of the day and moon are in alignment with what you're asking for. However, I've got to add this as well right here and say that there are people who do NOT take all the above into consideration, and they just act on impulse and they go by gut feeling. Nothing wrong with that, you know what they say? To each their own. I suggest our beginners do take into consideration the above, though. ツ ツ ツ

Title: Out of Touch Tuesday Artist: @kalsoapie Author: @timehasa-way Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Pairing: Walker & Dean

Summary: Cordell Walker had just returned to his family after being undercover for months, only to wake up on a Tuesday morning and find himself taking the form of a golden retriever. Quickly returning to his human form, he considered the fact that the transformation may have just been a dream, but knew better than to ignore just how real it felt. Luckily, Cordell had come across someone several years before who would know exactly how to deal with something so unexpected and strange: Dean Winchester. He expected Dean to be able to help him with such a bizarre situation, but didn’t expect for Dean to help uncover and heal an emotional rift within his family.

I have a few.

Maybe your problem is that you have too many things. Hear me out. Because you have so many, it’s harder to create personal bonds with all of them, since it takes some time and you have so many to do that with. So, maybe the problem is you don’t have any bonds with them, so they don’t work as well for you. 

Perhaps they aren’t filled with enough energy. Try charging them one at a time, as you need them. So, when you decide to do a spell, pick a rock with matching correspondence, and charge it in some matching way. Then try using it in the spell.

Maybe they don’t even have any magical correspondence, or they’re being misused - as in, their properties don’t line up with the spell’s intent.

Some methods of magic may not work for some people. This may come off as rude, but I swear I don’t mean it to be, just truthful. Just because you like it, doesn’t mean you’ll be good at it, right? Like, I love watercolor painting, it’s gorgeous, but no matter how hard I try, I just can’t do it right, and I never get better. We can’t all be awesome at everything. :/

I have some links for other posts that may help you:

[How to Tell If a Spell Worked] (an ask)

[Magical Failure: Why Wasn’t My Spell Successful?]

[On Spell-Work Accuracy and Results]

[When Your Spell Fails] (tw: gif)

[Why Aren’t My Spells Working?] (tw: gif)