Caldwell: Tell the story of casting the old-fashioned spell to get your man.

Curott: I was 27, and practicing Wicca at the time. I was a witchlet, a baby witch, and had been practicing for about a year. So I concocted a potion which was made up of an herb which at the time was much more obscure and now much better known in the medical community, using the bark -- it's called yohimbe -- of an African tree, and it has to be treated very specifically because it can be toxic.

Caldwell: Wow.

Curott: It was a full moon on a Friday night, the night devoted to the Goddess of Love, and I cast a circle to create sacred space and to contain the energy that I was going to raise, and I had a drawing of a very romantic image of a man who looked like a king. I clutched that to my chest as I went into an altered state, which was extraordinary and intense, with amazing feelings of energy coursing through me. And I then proceeded to use a little good old-fashioned sex magic, which is essentially the harnessing of one's arousal and orgasm. That energy is directed into what it is that you are longing for, the goal of your spell, the object of your prayers. And for me it was embodied in this image. I fell asleep after the culmination of this rite and the raising of energy.

A number of weeks later, lo and behold, one evening the priestess that I was studying with said, "I have somebody that I want to introduce you to," and she pointed to a man standing, looking at a book, his back to me. When he turned around he was the image in that drawing. I almost passed out.

Caldwell: Suppose you're a typical American woman who is not a Wiccan. How would you cast a love spell?

Curott: You don't have to be Wiccan to understand love. You could sit down and make a list of all the qualities that you want in a partner, and then you take that list and you put it in an envelope and you put it some place safe. Then lo and behold, that person appears. Anyone can do it, because what you're doing -- whether it's a spell or a potion or a meditation or wish or a list -- is opening your heart to the universe.

Caldwell: You experienced love at first sight with Derek, the object of your love spell, but then it turned out he wasn't the right man.

Curott: Yes -- you know, you go through life, you have relationships, you approach them with a full and open heart, and a belief that this is the one, and you commit yourself to that journey together. Then you begin to find that the reality doesn't conform to your fantasy.

Caldwell:: So you finished your book and wrote an ending that was a fantasy about meeting Mr. Right. And then what happened?

Curott: My editor called me up and said, "You have to get the guy in the ending." And I said, "I'd love to but it's not a novel, it's a memoir. This book is the story of a spell that worked but the book itself is also a spell." She said, "You're a witch! Make it work!" and I said, "I'm doing the best I can." And then about one lunar cycle after that, I met someone -- it was utterly guided and incredibly magical.

We didn't meet in person -- we met over the Internet, and we corresponded for six weeks before we actually met in person.

The little voice inside that I had learned to listen to said, "That's the one." And up came the profile and I started reading and it was written by someone who was clearly a terrific writer, and there were pictures of this dark-haired, dark-eyed guy. I sent him a note and he looked at my profile. And we had, as two writers would, a very 19th century courtship of correspondence.

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