Valeria Ruelas - Cosmopolitan love potions : magickal (and easy) recipes to find your person, ignite passion, and get over your ex

Bienvenidos al mundo de la brujeria del amor, welcome to the world of love witchcraft! My name is Valeria Ruelas, but most people know me as The Mexican Witch. I am a professional bruja, spiritual teacher, and intuitive tarot reader. For those not familiar, bruja is the Spanish word for witch, and brujeria is the specific type of witchcraft practiced by the people of Latin America, Spain, and the Caribbean. Brujeria is a sacred art, and is often taught through family lines. If you have no familial ties to brujeria and would like to learn more about it on your own, be mindful to learn from the right teachers.

Out of respect, a person of non-Latino heritage should not refer to themselves as a bruja because a connection to brujeria must be established by blood and culture. However, someone who respectfully learns the art of brujeria can certainly call themselves a witch. Over the past few years, brujeria and witchcraft have become very popular spiritual practices because they bring desires into reality. While the enthusiasm surrounding these topics is very exciting, much of brujeria remains misunderstood. For example, a quick internet search on brujeria will lead you down a rabbit hole to pages of dark and violent images. This is very misleading because, at the core, brujeria and witchcraft are healing arts. As a bruja, I want to teach people the positive sides of witchcraft and brujeria and how they can help you change your life.

TV series like Chilling Adventures of Sabrina starring Kiernan Shipka on Netflix and the CWs Charmed have also really helped bring witches into the public eye. While publicity is appreciated, these dramatizations can make people believe several misconceptions about what it means to be a real witch. Actual witchcraft is very practical (sorry, we dont create sparks of light or raise people from the dead), and there is nothing inherently frightening about the practice of witchcraft. Real witches who walk among us are normal people just like yourself. They can be healers, feminists, as well as an integral part of your community. In an article in Newsweek, Benjamin Fearnow noted that several recent studies indicated there may be at least 1.5 million witches across the country. He also notes that With 1.5 million potential practicing witches across the U.S., witchcraft has more followers than the 1.4 million mainline members of the Presbyterian church. This is an astounding number, and it is growing fast!

I consider myself an expert in the type of witchcraft I call botanica magick. This type of magick is simple in many ways but it is also considered to be VERY powerful, involving skills like making magickal herbal oils, candle rituals, and spiritual petitions. I grew up around brujeria and botanicas. My bis-abuela (great-grandmother) Maria Luisa was well-known for her practice as a curandera, or a healer, in our hometown. People sought her out for psychic advice, energy cleansing, and indigenous medicine. She was renowned for being a powerful healer of the evil eye, and could cure this ailment using only an egg. In many cultures, it is believed that someone can cast an evil eye on you if they are jealous or negative. We are all vulnerable to this on an energetic level, and so if we feel negative energy, it is important to release it with the help of a spiritual practitioner.

Generally, in Mexico, people who practice witchcraft are considered healers and spiritual workers. They are sought out for their intuition, ancestral work, and knowledge of practical magick. You can find brujas at stores called mercados and botanicas, which specialize in selling esoteric supplies and herbal remedies. Lining the walls of these shops are hundreds of colorful glass candles, statues of saints, crystals, bath soaps, and spiritual washes.

My magickal practice is highly inspired by my great-grandmother and our family lineage, but as a modern practitioner of the craft, I find that it is also important to reinvent and get creative with recipes so they dont seem outdated.

By the time you finish reading this book, you will have all the essential knowledge and skills to become a practical witch. You will learn how to do many basic types of spells and create potions that you can use in your daily life for highly effective magick.

In witchcraft, magick is spelled with a k to differentiate it from stage magic (in magick, rabbits arent being pulled out of hats). Among the many definitions of magick, one of my favorites comes from the renowned occultist Aleister Crowley. He states, Magick is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will. I like this definition because it is simple to understand and it defines magick as a sort of science.

Although there hasnt been a scientific study to prove that magick is real, there is no denying the power of manifestation. Think about the placebo effect in clinical trials, when a patient experiences improvement to their health even though they have blindly received a placebo (a fake form of treatment) or a sugar pill. These benefits are due to the patients blind faith in the treatment that they believe they are receiving, which proves that our thoughts are capable of healing us and affecting our reality.

This is why I like to frame magick as the use of personal energy when I explain its effectiveness to skeptics. Intention, love, and faith produce results in magick. The amazing thing about adding magick and ritual practice into your life is that it will amplify the effects of your positive thoughts. Those of us who choose to believe and practice magick are giving our natural powers of attraction a huge energy boost.

Decide on your purpose and intention, then dedicate time to performing a ritual with the potions you learn from this book. There is no right or wrong way to perform a ritual, but a spell is more likely to succeed if you take the time to plan and meditate on your desired outcome. I suggest that you track your progress in a notebook or spell-work journal when you first begin practicing.

Initially, spell work may seem very mechanical, but as you master your magickal skills your intuition will guide you and magick will become more natural. So that you dont rush the process, plan to work on your spells when you have plenty of time to do so. Be persistent and make sure to continue your energy work through meditation until you achieve your wanted result. It can take a few weeks or sometimes even months, but dont give up.