h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm working on my first entry. It needs to be longer, and better. Please take a look, make any comments you have and ask questions so I know what needs adding.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A574120

this subject could get very big very quickly. first, you have things like sympathetic magic, and homeopathic magic. then you have the stuff that would come under the banner of psionics (enhanced mental abilities) you also have things like the use of misdirection (as found in conjouring) to present as doing one sort of magic while in fact doing a different sort of magic. give us a little bit more, so that we can know what sort of magic you are writting about, and we will try and help. xyroth (muse of technomages).

After a long hiatus from H2G2 I have returned and done some editing on this entry. Any comments, questions and suggestions would be appreciated.

I think that considering the direction that this entry has gone in (ie spell casting) you should mention that it is NEVER a good idea to perform ingredient substitution in you protection spells.

OKay, I've updated it to include comments on differing views about following established formulai in casting.

no problems so far, and "playing around" with spells is actively encouraged for the advanced, but protection spells are a different matter.

if the original spellcaster thought that a protection spell was necessary, then you can bet that they thought the consequenses of getting it wrong were dire. modifying spells can cause them to fail to work as advertised, and because of these dire consequences, protection spells are not safe to meddle with, due to the adverse effects if they fail to work.

OKay, I've added a warning about playing around with the formula for a spell.
I've also added a list of tools. If there are any suggestions for additional tools to be listed, or comments about any of the tools, I would appreciate it.

Forgot to ask: Does the way I have the headings and subheadings set up make sense? I don't have much experience using them, and I want to get it right.

The headings seem fine to me.

I like the rest of it too.

oh, and you mention religious symbols, but crosses, daggers, pentagrams (and pentacles), candles etc are all religious symbols.

you might want to rethink the phrasing of that list.

Hello all,
Nice to see someone ambitious enough to tackle such a tricky subject. Interesting to see different peoples ideas.
I think care needs to be taken that the article does not just reflect how a certain group of people do it. Starting generally is good. Magick is generally the effect of focusing the will on a particular outcome. All the tools and rituals are basically ways of focusing the mind on this. The same appies to carving runes, chanting mantras, hypnosis, and so on. I would like to see magick as a more general description, and then casting as you have described it titled something more specific like Casting Spells in the Wiccan Tradition.

Have fun with it