I think I am an all powerful wizard.  It says so right here in this book. . . . 

I entered my study of Wicca with more than a few preconceived notions.  Yes the spiritual path called.  My beliefs in reincarnation, the more tolerant path, the view that God is not going to smite me for not believing X, Y, or Z, that feeling I get when a storm starts rolling in, or I am standing in wilderness, the very belief that people can and should make themselves better with the help of the Universe and its energies.  

But the call of magic and what it could do, well that was just all consuming.  I wanted to heal the sick, swim in piles of cash that would fall from the sky at my command, influence people’s minds, (mostly my teenagers but I later found they didn't have minds just hormones!), and to summon good luck. I crafted my tools based on a love of Tarot almost twenty years before thinking about Wicca.  So somehow it felt the path called to me. 

Healing the sick.  That was my first big adventure.  I was going to save someone close who was dying of cancer.  That ran into so many walls with Wicca it is amazing, but in the end I walked away with a faith that the religion was true.  I asked for help at a Pagan store, the owner, a lady named Jane patiently smacked me upside the head in the way only a seasoned, loving woman can do to a man.  She said what you want to do is a marvellous thing, but you need to know that it's wrong to do.  First you need permission from the person with cancer because they might not want you interfering in their life.  Second magick works best by the person who is sick helping their self. Third you may be up against the normal order of the universe.  We only have these lives on loan from the Goddess.  We don't get to keep them and your friend may not at her stage need saving.  She may need instead for you to look after her child, be there so she will know that she can go on safely, that her family is in good hands.  As it turned out that was exactly the right path.  Jane a total stranger, hugged me, and quietly introduced me to a love and an honesty that I had never had in a traditional religion.  I stood there and cried, and she told me about how the universe worked in her opinion, how she felt losing her husband recently.  Now do I believe that people can use magick to heal?  Absolutely, there are even American Medical Association journals that indicate that the power of positive energy can indeed influence the healing process.  What I learned is that what I do for me, is not right for everyone, and certain laws of the universe apply to all magick and its users. 

Side effects.  So with careful consideration, I began learning, doing, listening with half my attention to my high priestess/teacher.  I say half because in the natural order of things men never listen to women until things explode!  I started visualization exercises, filling myself with energy, learning to see what is not to be seen.  My home life is a wreck, my kids are not listening to sound advice, things are just not good.   Hmmm?  Perhaps if I fill my home with the same energy I do myself in the visualization exercises.......hmmm?  Okay, so I find a quiet place in the house and begin drawing in energy, then filling every room, every corner, every space, one by one with that light.  Visualizing as I do all the negative influences being pushed out, the house would now be protected in my mind from outside influences, that it would be safe, and protected from the outside world.  Well you know what?  Just like a switch was flipped, things with my family also improved.  It's not perfect, but much much better than before.  We are working together now my kids lives are improving, they are taking better care of themselves, working harder, just over all a better place to be.  I wanted the house protected from the outside, but in doing so things got better on the inside.  A side effect I may have hoped for subconsciously but did not actively pursue.  So lesson learned, think it through before you do!!!  

Piles of cash. Okay so perhaps you have heard?  There is a major recession on.  Well no problem.  I'll just get to work on winning that lottery!!!  Yeah me and ten thousand of my closest broom jockies!!  So I started reading and learning about drawing in money.  Nothing.  I tried herbs, stones, energy, prayer, and yeah I even bought a lottery ticket.  Zip. Zero. Zilch.  But you know that side effect thing above?  My kids started helping out, contributing.  We have been in talks with a counsellor who is helping our financial picture to go from catastrophe to we might avoid living in a card board box, to maybe we will get out of this.  Was it coincidence?  Could be, but this has been going on awhile, and when I applied all those things to the problem, walls that kept us imprisoned in the feelings we were doomed, started cracking and daylight began to filter in to the dark places.  Lesson learned you may get what you want, but the Gods and the Universe will do it their way not yours.  It's harder than if a gazillion dollars fell from the sky, but we are learning things we should have already known.  Things that will serve us a long way into the future.
The Rede.  Jane is one of those women who is beautiful.  I don't mean a ten in Playboy standards.  She is about average good looking, but something radiates from her that you can't walk away from.  I talked with her about the Rede thinking it was mainly about not harming others.  Then another of those beautiful people almost at the same time brought me an understanding that the Rede must first and foremost be applied to yourself.  That if you don't take care of or respect yourself, how can you take care of anything or anyone else?  So rather it’s just a woman thing, or maybe Amethyst and Jane are just exceptional women I may never know.  I do know that your life will improve, that things will get better if you put yourself first.  Physically, emotionally, mentally, and most especially from your heart.   An it harm none, is especially important for yourself! 

Bottom line. The magick could be taken from Wicca and it would still be a great place to be.  The strongest magick is that which you make with the struggle to do the right thing, to make positive changes, and to love and protect others. 

Thank you dear lady.  For being patient with me as I learned what should have been obvious from the get go.