DALLAS -- If you're worried about coping with this economic downturn, you could call a career coach for advice. For inspiration, you could read that little book about mice chasing cheese.
Or you could head for the supermarket, where you'll find the ingredients for magic spells to protect your job, change careers, even get a raise.
"It's a witch's form of prayer," says Lexa Rosean, a Wiccan high priestess whose new book, "PowerSpells," was conveniently available in time for Halloween.
"You're petitioning gods and goddesses to grant you favors, just as ancient societies always gave offerings of food in their endeavors. And the ingredients themselves have magical properties or energies."
Rosean, an astrologer and psychic who lives in New York, has written five books about witchcraft -- a cheerful, positive witchcraft devoid of the stereotypical brooms, warts, and Satanic ritual.
"It's not what a lot of people think," she says. "I'm a real witch, but I'm always compelled to say I'm a good witch."
Wiccans, Rosean says, incorporate ancient beliefs and practices harnessing the power of the Earth. They utilize everything from pagan rituals to tribal shaman rites to astrology and psychic phenomena.
A big part of that is casting spells. When she became a witch in the early 1980s, Rosean says, she found that people were put off by magic concoctions that relied on incense, hard-to-find herbs, and off-putting ingredients like eye of newt.
"So I looked at the older methods of doing magic, called kitchen witchery," she says. "I started to think about how people could perform magic spells using simpler ingredients."
Exhaustive research led her to the grocery store. Eye of newt, she concludes, is a marshberry; tongue of dog actually refers to a vanilla leaf. A bag of Earl Grey tea contains bergamot, which helps protect you. Many common foods, from lemons and cinnamon to olives and root beer, pack a powerful paranormal punch.
If you buy into these notions, all you need is a cookbook. Beginning with "The Supermarket Sorceress," Rosean has written five of them.
"People have been getting very good results," she says. "You don't necessarily have to believe in magic for it to work, but you have to believe in yourself and want it to work."
It works, she maintains, for three reasons: Offerings to gods and goddesses summon divine energy, the ingredients have magical properties, and people who cast spells are focusing their subconscious on the task at hand.
"The ritual itself triggers or harnesses your own will," Rosean says.
Previous recipe books concentrated on relationships, love, and self-improvement. In "PowerSpells," the Wiccan priestess gets down to business.
So how do you protect your job? Every third day eat mixed-berry yogurt (yogurt represents sustenance, berries ward off envy) and a green salad with radishes (greens for prosperity, radishes for protection), garnished with salt, olive oil, and lemon juice (for protection and purification).
"Use a green or blue or white plate for best results," the book adds. "Before eating, visualize your job and your income being protected, surrounded by a circle of white light this spell is most effective when performed (eaten) on the job site."
The book also includes spells for networking (cinnamon, dried rose petals, and glitter), getting a raise (bake two loaves of bread -- one for you, one to leave under a tree for the goddess), and changing careers (pimiento, pine nuts, and eggplant).
Much of Rosean's research involves applying old spells to new concepts. Hermes and Mercury, for example, are the gods of communication.
"What's sacred to them are lavender and cinnamon," she says. "Put them in a bowl next to your computer and it will help prevent crashes."
The author doesn't promise this will work, just as prayers always aren't answered and an apple a day doesn't always keep the doctor away. But like chicken soup, it can't hurt.
In Manhattan, Rosean advises clients to leave a few M&Ms between their cars and the curb to ward off parking tickets. Nobody, she says, has proven that it doesn't help.
A lot of her ingredients -- mostly fruits and vegetables and spices – are good for you anyway.
"Eating cucumbers can dispel anxiety," she says. "I don't care what religion anybody is. I don't think it's going to hurt anybody to eat cucumbers and calm down."
In the new book, Rosean has a spell for what she says is her most-requested magic: how to kill your boss. She advises against it, and we're prudently not going to provide exact instructions, but you'll need eggplants, toothpicks, combat boots, an oven mitt, and today's newspaper.
Whether or not it works, she declares, "I guarantee you will have a good old-fashioned healing, cathartic, cleansing, and empowering experience in those combat boots!"