Rumors, Gossip and Social Control.

Not long ago I saw a quarrel start in the community around me. The specifics aren't important, except to say that a well-established member of the community got accused of casting malignant magick against a very new person, who had previously been making claims of elderhood. In turn, the well-established member made the claim that, in fact, the new person had been slinging a lot of crap his way, and he simply opted to enact a mirror-spell, sending back what was sent out.

Rumors began flying left and right, gossip about the Elder's previous magickal faux pas, and about how this Llewiccan upstart might have more raw skill than said Elder.

We realized, after a flurry of yik-yakking (which some of us stayed out of) that one person was doing the majority of the rumor-milling. It was someone who had spotted an opportunity to "dethrone" someone he disliked (the elder), and control the social politics.

Ritual Recordkeeping and Books of Shadows.

One of the more important bits of Occult house-keeping (at least, to me) that is often overlooked is record-keeping. How often has each of us done a ritual, or even minor working, and then forgotten about it? Weeks later a result appears that may have been tied to the working we think we remember doing, but there's no way of telling for sure.

Not only do we owe it to ourselves to track the effectiveness of our methods, but to those for whom we work. If we did a ritual promising something to a force or deity, and failed to come through on it due to simple forgetfulness, it weakens our magick, because our Will is not so iron as we thought.