Spells: Write, Beg, Borrow or Steal?

I came upon an interesting topic on a few forums. The initial post always deals with some kind of warning or disclaimer in the general direction of good spells or bad spells. Bad in the sense of unrealistic, "fluffy," misleading, ect versus spells geared towards doing bad, like hexes and curses (more on that later). But its the comments that get me. Most of them go along the line of  "I'm new, I want to do spells. How do I write good spells"' or "This didn't work."

And this is what comes from dabbling; I mean you can't practice witchcraft while you look down your nose at it.

~Aunt Jet
(Practical Magic) 

I actually have to post this one verbatim because it covers several errors one makes when new to the Craft:

"none of the spells worked for me.does magic spells really work?i want a real time travel spell.has anyone ever time traveled through magic spell?"

Let's pretend for one second that this is a preteen or teenager. They've read Harry Potter, they loved watching reruns of Charmed on TNT and now they found a website via Google that allows them to look at a huge index of spells and they expect them to work because they worked for Harry Potter & the Haliwells. Preteens and teenagers are always the unfortunate victims of that limbo between childhood and adulthood. Most still cling to the naivete of children while protesting to be treated as adults and cannot fathom for a second why adults still treat them like children.

This person expects instant gratification, with little to no work involved and clearly isn't interested in education. My gut tells me this is about a 13-14 year old child, who is maybe suffering from some kind of trauma and thinks that if they can go back or forward in time it will help them. What they really want is an escape. They don't want to do magic, they aren't interested in the Craft or any occult path and that's totally acceptable. Except they have a childhood expectation that was cultivated by fantasy TV shows, movies and books and are disappointed (and maybe discouraged) by what they've found in reality.

I'm going to dissect what's wrong with the quoted person's comment. The first part,

"none of these spells worked for me."

1. How long have you been practicing?
2. What spells did you use or try exactly? There is no way you tried every single spell.

Those are the first things that popped into my mind. The next was, "you must be new here." To quote a rather famous movie,  "And this is what comes from dabbling; I mean you can't practice witchcraft while you look down your nose at it."

The quote was aimed at someone who turned away and doesn't practice or walk the path daily, but only when it suits them. Beginners, like the one quoted above usually have that same mentality, yet aren't necessarily looking down on it. Rather, they came looking for answers and found disappointment.

I suppose I should clarify for beginners that it is called "Practicing the Craft" because just like how doctors practice medicine or attorney's practice law, it's not a perfect thing. It's not quantifiable like mathematics. In math 2 + 2 will always equal 4. But with Magic things are more blurred. There are factors, symptoms if you will, that can prohibit or promote your purpose. Magic itself isn't a tangible thing, it is more symbolic. Spells are a prayer or show the universe, Gods, Mother Nature, ect that you are declaring your purpose, your intent, your wish and asking them to receive it and manifest it. Whether you are banishing loneliness, need monetary help, guidance in love, a cure for cancer, ect.
But the universe, the Gods, Nature, ect owe you nothing. It doesn't mean that it "didn't work" it may mean several things such as, it was not right, your request was not worded properly, it did work just not in the way you expected, it is still happening or could still manifest it just didn't do it on your clock, ect.

"does magic spells really work?" 

*cringe* The website this came from was Spells of Magic, which I'm sure all of you are laughing at me right now but for the research part of this post I started to type into Google "Spell for..." and then cringed multiple times as the predictive text opened up and showed me the horrors of what types of magic spells people actual research on the internet. How to write spells is a big deal for newbies and to them it's the whole point. They want to learn so they can write spells and manifest their wishes into reality. They want to be Harry Potter. Once they learn that it's not so simple they usually go away and we aren't bothered by them again. But that doesn't usually get rid of their problem so they go elsewhere and fall into a much deeper problem. I'd like to help them and prevent that. Vulnerable people or impressionable children make easy prey for the "Bad Witches" of the world and you know what I am saying. Those who charge for spells, who promise results, who dupe others and give genuine practitioners a bad rap.

"i want a real time travel spell.has anyone ever time traveled through magic spell?"

 Someone posted a reply and handled it beautifully:

Nope, time travelling is only "imaginary". If you want to travel in time physically, you should turn to quantum mechanics. Time travelling is still only a theory.

 But I wanted to add to it. So I did.

I would like to add that sometimes new people turn to the craft thinking it will be a quick fix to a major problem. If you have no experience, have never been taught even the basics and/or have no desire to learn but want instant gratification then none of these spells or even spells you create yourself will ever work for you. You need a basic understanding and some practice before you can even begin spellwork.

Many understand ranks so let me put it simply that remedial, novice and beginners should not even attempt spellwork. Spellwork should be reserved for intermediate, advanced, master, expert, ect practitioners. Or at least beginners should be supervised by someone at a higher level.

This isn't to discourage you, but hopefully will enlighten you to do some more research. I would be happy to help anyone who has a genuine interest in the Craft.

So to conclude this post I'd like to ask:

Do you write your own spells or do you borrow or use existing spells from others?
Post why or why not in the comments below!