Tonight my Wicca 101 class will cover spells and related stuff, so it’s interesting that my “Open Thread” has focused in part on issues of spellcraft.  This is an area where I am pretty cautious of “book learning” myself, but here is some basic book learning that I think some people might find useful.  

In my understanding, spells are rooted in three assumptions
which I believe are well-founded. 
First, that everything is in some sense conscious and therefore
accessible to other consciousness. 
In short, there are no purely inviolable boundaries separating one thing
from another. From this perspective we are nodes, self-aware nodes, in a web of
consciousness.

Second, that focused strong intent can cross boundaries that
are relatively closed, and bring abut a response.  We see this all the time at a mundane level.  It also holds true at non-mundane
levels.  A well crafted spell is
like a mental arrow penetrating an environment that would dissipate a less
focused less energetic effort.

Third, in a sense everything can be considered as vibrations
at different frequencies.  All else
being equal, (and it need not be), lower frequencies can be penetrated more
easily than higher frequencies. 
Think of a rotating fan. 
When it turns slowly objects thrown against it can penetrate while when
it is spinning rapidly, objects thrown against it are bounced off as if it were
a solid barrier.

Spells are not intrinsically questionable ethically.  They are a part of life.  One way to see this  is to consider the “power of
suggestion” as a simple’ spell,’ one that works with the recipient’s awareness,
but not their deliberate intent. 
If the recipient’s vibrations are slow or if their trust is wide open
(they have few if any barriers) and the energetic content of the suggestion is
stronger than any energetic content (will) involved in rejecting it, the
suggestion will “take.”  We do such
“spell work” on ourselves all the time. 
Great harm as well as good comes from it with respect to raising
children.  Socialization is a related kind
of social hypnosis and hypnosis is related to spell work.

On the other hand, because they focus on power – on my manipulating the world in some way to achieve my end, employing spells run the same risks we all run when possessing power.  And let’s face it, human beings are not real good at handling power.  Disney’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” is very easy to relate to.  Because they can be used to manipulate people without their consent or knowledge, spells are particularly prone to abuse.  Fortunately major ones are often difficult to use, especially in this society.  At a mundane level I found the same problem with Neuro-Linguistic Programming by the way.  

Spells work best through the non-rational part of the mind -
both sending and receiving.  The
rational mind is a mind with barriers of reason and distancing.  Western reason separates us from
things.  It is vitally important to
us and protects us from spells, but can also become a trap, closing ourselves off from others, which is the
flip side of separation.  Being
willing to go beyond this part of your mind is vital in spell working (or understanding the world better).  This is why so many spells involve
rhyme, rhythm, and movement. 

Deliberate spellwork also carries a risk.  When you work with the more open parts
of your mind you open yourself up more widely to the wider environment.  When you do, the quality of your own protective
“vibrations” becomes increasingly important. 

This issue becomes even more important if you invoke
entities to assist in a spell.

It is best in my opinion to work with an experienced person in this area and/or to use very strict ethical guidelines.