Who Are You in the Tarot?

By  Mary K. Greer

© 2011  Red Wheel/Weiser

ISBN:  978-1578634935

272 pages

Paperback        $21.95 (U.S.)

This is, essentially, a reworking, updating and revision of an earlier work.  It is designed to be a workbook.  I’ve read Tarot for years and have never encountered the ideas she promulgates within the covers of this book, which doesn’t say much for the “adventurousness” of my readings.

This is not her first book on the Tarot, and I might,  perhaps, have gotten more out of it if I had read her previous work.  Still, this book is designed to stand on its own and needs to be evaluated on that basis.

Anything which helps to expand our understanding of personalities and why people react in certain ways in certain situations is an invaluable addition to our ability to foresee trends and thus help to control and alter our behavior.

It is not necessary to read through book in the order it is written, although it would be beneficial to at least skim quickly through the introductions to each chapter.  It is possible, however, to just skip around and tackle the topics in any order which appeals to you.

In spite of coming to this book with years of preconceptions, I found her ideas easy to adapt to and understand.  There are numerous charts, forms and illustrations (which you are encouraged to copy) to help you understand the relationships of the various cards and their groupings (constellations).

Her method for calculating Year Cards, for some reason, seems to me to be either badly explained or more complicated than it need be.  I had to read through the procedure several times, and even then I wasn’t real sure of my results.  I have had instances in the past where, for one reason or another, I have read unnecessary complications where none have existed, so I am willing to give Ms Greer the benefit of the doubt and assume that the difficulty lay within me and my perceptions.

Even if you find that the concepts of constellated cards and other ideas she puts forth do not resonate with you, she offers a great deal of insight into the cards themselves and the symbolism and meanings which can be derived from them through seeing them in “unconventional” ways.

While I have some reservations because of my personal difficulties making some of the calculations, I have no hesitation in recommending this book as an excellent source of insight and inspiration.

The Weiser Field Guide to Vampires

by  J. M. Dixon

© 2009  Weiser

ISBN:  978-1578634491

Paperback        192 pages

$14.95 (U.S.)

When people in the modern, Western world encounter the word “vampire” certain images spring immediately to mind, most of which center on Eastern and Central European perceptions – think Dracula in  all his many permutations.  But there is a lot more to the topic of vampires than that narrow perception admits.  They range from Papau New Guinea to Grenada; from undead relatives to modern day Strigoi Vii; and from those who subsist on blood to those who “merely” siphon off energy.  Although all of these are touched upon within the covers of this book, most are given only a passing mention.

Before I had really started this book, I began to run into difficulties.  I have never before seen the word “Sidhe”, translated from Gaelic, to mean “vampire.”  It seems as though Mr. Dixon presumes that all “evil creatures” are vampiric by nature, and I am not sure that is valid.  He writes as a member of the vampire community (with the expressed intention “…of being the first person in history to live for ever…”), and as such he accepts as proven fact that which others make take as theory only.

Since I don’t claim to be a vampire, or know any personally (that I am aware of), I can’t comment on Mr. Dixon’s assertions regarding “feeding tendrils” or types of feeding.  On a personal level, it reads like fiction (and low-budget, horror-film fiction at that), but I could be wrong.

The first 40% of the book is devoted to the type of vampire commonly referred to as a “psychic” vampire – one who does NOT drink blood, but merely siphons energy – and avoids the topic of the blood-drinking variety.  It isn’t until the fifth chapter that the topic of the blood-drinking variety of vampires is actually addressed.

From there on Mr. Dixon moves on to topics which are of interest to those who are not members of the vampire community itself exclusively.

Throughout this book, Mr. Dixon concentrates upon those differences which set the modern, living vampire apart from the masses of humanity with which they share the world, as might be expected in a field guide.  Very little space, however, is devoted to helping “normal” people identify vampires.  The descriptions he uses – fair skinned, soft hair, full lips, and white teeth – really don’t help much in terms of differentiating vampires from humans.  Instead, reliance is placed on “feelings” which often amount nothing more than a sense of unease in the presence of certain individuals.  His assertion that vampires don’t have an aura (the possible source of the no-reflection myth?) seems highly unlikely to me.  More likely their auras are tightly contained and thus hard to see, in my opinion.

He sees the vampire as beneficial to mankind in general, as their draining of energy encourages increased energy production and flow in the average individual, thus preventing and relieving blockages which may result in disease and illness.  I’m not sure how I feel about that idea, but if it is true, then it would appear that ethical vampires would almost feel obligated to work in the healing arts.

Mr. Dixon seems to assert (page 104, “…most modern vampires maintain strict workout regimens to keep them healthy and fit.”) that the modern vampire must not be overly thin nor overly heavy.  Coupled with his earlier physical descriptions, we are left to assume that the ideal modern vampire (and the archetype to watch for) would best be symbolized by the “surfer” culture, and that the odds of encountering an ugly (or even a “plain”) looking, anorexic or obese vampire are almost non-existent.  Nice job description, but somewhat limiting and unrealistic, I feel.

To an extent, this book comes across as a self-serving promotional tool (read “recruiting tract”) trying hard to look like an unbiased investigation into a phenomenon which has fascinated mankind almost from it’s very emergence into civilization.  Whatever it is, recruiting tool or investigation, it is well-written and interesting.  I’m not sure it will appeal to everyone, but that is really too much to expect in any case.

The perception that vampires are inherently different from mankind in general seems (to me) to border on the delusional.  Mr. Dixon acknowledges that vampires are physically nearly indistinguishable from humanity, while asserting that a few characteristics are enough to place them in a separate class of beings.

Regardless of my personal feeling about the subject matter and/or author, Weiser has a reputation for producing high quality books, and this continues that tradition.  You will not likely go wrong when you purchase one of their books.

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Weiser (December 1, 2010)
• Author: Judith Joyce

A Paranormal Spectacular [Fail]

Last month I got to review an absolutely amazing book, The Clavis or Key to the Magic of Solomon as edited by Joseph Peterson.  While that was an interesting and illuminating experience, its far more fun to take on a popular book where I don’t have to worry about dusting off 18th century references and doing what passes for fact checking in my columns.  Fortunately I’ll have none of those tasks this month as I’m reviewing the Weisser Field Guide to the Paranormal [1].

The short review:  don’t buy this book.  Don’t even buy books that resemble it to make sure you don’t buy it accidentally.  Now you can go read another column and be free from the screed that follows.  You are welcome.

Still with me?  On with the fun!   First, the book in question is called a “field guide to the paranormal.”  Which begs the question, what is the paranormal, and where exactly in the field would you need a guide to assist you?  If you guessed, um…nowhere? You might find a lot of self-satisfaction in your cynicism, but I would disagree.  Field guides seem to my untrained eyes to involve a disposition on the nature of the subject and then a detailed set of reference material detailing either how to identify them, or some other useful information one would need in the field [2].  There are many paranormal and occult things encountered accidentally or deliberately out in fields, and a detailed guide might just provide good armchair, or even practical, reading.

The idea of a field guide is that it might be actually used in the field.  Thus they are smallish books, and often printing on robust paper designed to survive being chucked into and out of a backpack under gritty, damp, conditions.  My Peterson’s Guide to the Atlantic Seashore [3] follows the general pattern of a field guide perfectly, its small, sort of waterproof, and has a broad and interesting introduction to seashore related stuff in the front (intertidal zonation anyone?).  With plates in the middle (who would not want at least another page on the brown seaweed “sausage weed”?), worms in the back, and an extensive bibliography to ensure that you know that it was written by real serious scientists with the intent of walking you through the complex muddle that is the Atlantic seashore it is both interesting to read and somewhat useful in the field.  And it’s written in type and layout designed for 30 year olds (field guides are too serious for 20′s and apparently not read by those over 50 without glasses).  And it contains an information density resembling a well-written encyclopedia on the Atlantic Seashore.  This is pretty much what I expect when I pick up a field guide.

Now, given all this, what, exactly, should a Field Guide to the Paranormal cover?  First we have to decide what we mean by “paranormal.”  The most obvious definition would be “not normal” but then many of our co-workers and relatives would need to be included.   Generally “paranormal” means things that are not easily explained by science, but could be explained if we could either catch them in a net or try a little harder with our experiments.  This differs from the occult in that it is not just dealing with hidden, secret, or mystical knowledge, but tangible things that exist in the world.  Overall the basic cut seems to be that cryptids (Bigfoot) and UFOs are included in the paranormal while they are excluded (by most circles) from the Occult.

This means that a field guide to the paranormal must encompass a huge range of subjects.  The key ones would be ghosts, UFOs, cryptids, strange events (spontaneous combustion), strange places (ley lines), and magic to name a few.  Ghosts could have a field guide all their own.  But life at the seashore is no small topic, so it should be possible to organize a book that helps people deal with paranormal events in the field.  In general it should cover the key topics, and it should do so in detail.  Ghosts, for example, would require a section on various ghost hunting procedures and technologies, an identification guide, and likely locations where they might be seen.  Bigfoot would have illustrations of the different types and a chart showing their worldwide distribution.  In color [4].  The same thing should apply to UFOs, other cryptids, and strange places or people.

At least that is how I would write and organize such a book.  It would be what it says:  a guide for people dealing with this stuff in the field.  For believers.

So lets see how this guide compares.

Weiser’s field guide is organized like an encyclopedia or dictionary, not a field guide.

Entries are listed alphabetically, with little regard for whether they are related.  Looking up Ghosts (under “G”), for example, gives a five and a half page write up that indicates paranormal investigators look for EVP and EMF readings.  But it neither explains what they are, nor indicates that by looking under “E” the reader will be able to cross reference those entries into the field guide.  Poltergeist and Stone Tape Theory [5] are called out in the entry under Ghosts, but residual haunting does not appear as an entry in the guide.

What all this means is that the “field guide” reads as a bathroom book.  A dictionary or encyclopedia would have cross-references to other articles that allowed the reader to follow related topics.  This book seems to assume you are reading it from front to back.  And cross-references would be easy in an encyclopedia dealing with a narrow subject like the paranormal.  This book is one of those generic encyclopedias of the occult/witchcraft/magic/whatever that we find taking up shelf space in the new age or paranormal section of the bookstore.

The writing is both skeptical, and colloquial.

Remember I said that field guides go a long way toward establishing scientific decorum with references and neat little line figures and whatnot.  Here the author seems to take the opposite approach.  Many entries begin with a breezy question:  “Does the human soul survive death?” is the opening line for Ghosts while the entry for Ghost Club [6] references Harry Potter and Casper in the first sentence.  This style would be fine for a bathroom book, but just looks odd in a field guide.

Even worse, in many of the entries the author comes across as skeptical.  While the author is clearly not a skeptic in the classical sense, she is also not writing as if the existence of these phenomena is a given and all we need to do is experience them.  Many times she comes across as winking at the reader, implying something along the lines of “look at all this stilly stuff that scientists don’t believe in.” Which is not what I would expect from a book that takes seriously the subject it was discussing.  For example, on ghosts:  “Modern science-oriented societies, however, ridicule this belief in ghosts.  Paranormal societies, thus, focus on providing the existence of ghosts in a scientific manner.”  While this is certainly true, the emphasis and focus here and throughout the book is more balanced than would be the case for a normal field guide.

There are too many extraneous entries.

This is a field guide, so why would you include entries that have nothing to do with what goes on in the field.  The biographical entries (Thomas Edison, Eddy Brothers, Sir hur Conan Doyle to name a few) are puzzling because I’m unlikely to run into them in the field, except perhaps on a ghost hunt.  The information contained under their entries could easily go elsewhere.   Or the space could be devoted to more detail on the relevant entries.

But, seriously, this isn’t a field guide.

Instead it is yet another example of the endless number of regurgitated encyclopedias and dictionaries on the occult thrown up by publishers.  The reason why publishers publish this stuff in such volume totally escapes me.   The sheer number of them means that if someone even does manage to poop out a good one, it will be lost in the hundreds of bad ones.   And this one wasn’t good at all.

The crappy layout and aesthetics of the book are obvious indicators it was done on the cheap.  It is double-spaced.  Let me repeat that.  It is double-spaced.  Lots of white space to makes your reading easier, but I suspect its there because it fills out the page count.  The figures are black and white clip art that meagerly illustrate their subjects and do nothing to enhance the book aesthetically or pedagogically.   Go to any bookstore, or even your own shelf, look at a real field guide, they are far from double-spaced, and are lavishly illustrated.

This whole project looks like someone had a gap in the schedule for a printing press and had to throw something on the schedule to make sure the down time was not wasted.  “Hey, lets get a lesser-known writer experienced in the occult to poop out some text, throw in some clip art, double space it and cut it down and hey, we’ve got something that we can sell as a field guide.  That will keep old Betsy the printing press working over the holidays.  And those crazy investigatin’ kids will like the idea of a field guide.  Yeah, that’s the ticket.”

I am being hard on this book for a reason.  While this book is about the paranormal, and I don’t care a lot about the paranormal, it too much resembles other books occupying shelf space on subjects I do care about.  I care deeply about Paganism, Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult beliefs.  And there are too many of these silly dictionary/encyclopedia/survey books churned out about them.  We need fewer of these sorts of books because they hurt our religion.  Let me repeat, they hurt our religion, and our reputations.   And we need to ask publishers to stop putting so many of them on store shelves and start putting more books of substance and vision on the shelves.  And we need to be writing more visionary and substantive works.

How many kids or curious adults pick up these books thinking they will learn something serious about the craft or our religion or even the paranormal and instead find dreck?  Too many do, and too many walk away because of it.  Many start with an interest in the paranormal and find their way to Paganism.  Many starting on their journey don’t know the difference, particularly kids.  A really good book on the paranormal, like Colin Wilson’s book, might just capture their imaginations, might just cause them to seek deeper truths.  These naive readers are exactly who this book is most likely targeted at.  Given that you are reading this column means you would look at this book and probably never even pick it up.  But someone who knew little or nothing about the paranormal just might.  And that makes me sad.

Perhaps some who have the true voice of the Goddess talking to them will persevere despite this crap.  We can tell ourselves that.  But in this economy, when the kid is from a family that has a tight budget, even buying books like this at a yard sale wastes something more precious than money.  It wastes a life that could be transformed by the Goddess.  And that’s why I really don’t like this book.

[1]  Judith Joyce, The Weisser Field Guide to the Paranormal, Weisser, 2011.  Interestingly Judith Joyce is a pseudonym.  The author is Judika Illes, an aromatherapist and scholar of many things occult.  http://www.judikailles.com/.  She seems like a sensible and nice person who writes professionally.

[2] The books I pulled off the shelf are all about seashells and the North American seashore, including one Peterson Field Guide to the Atlantic Seashore.  This stems from my inherent dislike of going to the beach with my family.  As a skin cancer victim I see it more as a slow motion death chamber than a vacation.  Thus I tend to wear big hats and try to remain interested by pestering the wildlife.  And, yes, I grew up a block from the beach in Florida.

[3]  Kenneth L. Gosner, Atlantic Seashore (Peterson Field Guides), Houghton-Mifflin, 1978

[4]  Bigfoot/Sasquatch are not topics in the book.  Let me repeat.  Not.  Even. Topics. But cryptids and chupacabra and Charles Fort are topics.  Thump, thump, thump, that’s the sound of the obvious hitting the table over and over again.  As yet another aside, I find it remarkable that Bigfoot was left out given the sasquatchploitation bandwagon we are currently on.  I just love it when they call them ‘squatch on Animal Planet’s Finding Bigfoot show.  Sounds like a particularly dirty kind of squat.  (http://animal.discovery.com/tv/finding-bigfoot/).  And yes, I come by all my paranormal creds honestly, by watching TV.

[5] An interesting theory that I have never heard of that means “residual haunting.”  Why the author has an entry under “stone tape theory” and not “residual haunting” escapes me.

[6] Some sort of United Kingdom ghost club claiming to be the oldest in the UK.  Ok, fair enough, but if you put in a page about this organization, why nothing about The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) and the US ghostploitation movement it has spawned?

I guess I’m just may be too inclined to try and stuff things into categories and bins but it has always escaped me why ceremonial magic and Paganism are often tied together.  I understand that modern Paganism is a broad net that sweeps up all the little fishes it can find, but I do sometimes think we have to draw the line somewhere.   Given the recent debate about who is and isn’t and does and doesn’t want to be a Pagan, I think this is a valid question [1].  In my opinion, ceremonial magicians are inherently Christian, given that their originating materials are all focused on angels and devils and whatnot.  That does not mean we can’t learn from them, or even participate, but we should at least know what we’re doing.

This screed is relevant because I’m reviewing an original “talismanic grimoire” The Clavis or Key to the Magic of Solomon, by a late 18^th century magician, Ebenezer Sibley [2].   Joseph Peterson [3] is a scholar of renaissance occultism who has been translating and publishing several of the grimoires of that time period.  His previous books, such as the Sixth and Seventh of Moses, Arbatel and the Lesser Key of Solomon, have been absolutely beautiful books [4].

Peterson’s version of Sibley’s Clavis is in four parts, an introduction outlining the history of the text, a facsimile reproduction that makes up the bulk of the text, a series of notes to the facsimile, and a critically established text that reproduces the text of the facsimile in regular typography.    What I am referring so breezily to as the “Clavis” is actually eight manuscripts bundled into one book.  The Clavis, or Key to Unlock the Mysteries of Rabbi Solomon makes up the bulk of the text.  It focuses on the manufacture of talismans and pretty much has all your talismanic needs covered, from being invincible to winning in games of hazard.  The Complete Book of Magical Science (by Hockley) concludes the book and focuses on conjuring spirits.  In between we find a series of “experiments” on the conjuration of spirits and a manuscript on magical rings (of the planetary, not Tolkien, kind).

The Clavis continues in the same tradition of Peterson’s previous books, but amps up the beauty by several notches.  The color facsimile is in itself a work of art, nearly flawless despite both its age and the fact that it was originally copied by hand.  It is perhaps the best-done grimoire that I have seen, even better than Skinner’s amazingly useful and well laid out books [5].   If you want to see how an 18^th century magician executed the various seals, figures, and talismans you can’t do much better than this short of the original manuscripts.

So, basically, that’s my review.  If you care about Grimoires, or if you care about magic, you should be aware of both Skinner’s and Peterson’s projects to bring beautiful and meticulously crafted versions of them to us.  And Peterson’s Clavis is pretty much the zenith of the current art of reproducing such things.  So you should buy it.

But it is unlikely that I’m going to stop at one page for such an amazingly beautiful book.  Instead I’ll go on to tackle what I think are the important questions:  What is a Grimoire?  Why should you care?  And why should you care about this grimoire?

Ok, so what’s a grimoire? A grimoire is a book of magic, typically specializing in charms and protection as well as conjuration of spirits.  It is most likely, though not exclusively, western European and Christian in orientation.  Of course all these features are not exclusive, many of the earliest Grimoires were of Middle Eastern origin.  Christianity and Judaism are often rather oblique features of these books, as they focus on angels and daemons, not the baby Jesus.   They were typically written by cunning men or ceremonial magicians and date from ancient times to the present day.  Their zenith in terms of power and frequency occurred in the late middle ages where their authors, mostly men and priests, were busy not being burned at the stake despite their active practice of magic and conjuration of devils.  Because they were men and priests they got a pass on real demonology, while a bunch of poor hapless women got burned for, well, being poor hapless women [6].

These books were used as practical tools right up until the 1800s (and beyond).  Cunning men and women sold their services to find, protect, or heal by using symbols and knowledge they gained from Grimoires, or fragments of Grimoires.  Grimoires also form the basis of modern, ceremonial, magic.

The problem with these texts is that it is hard, if not impossible, to map their interrelationships.  Just reading Peterson’s exhaustive and fascinating introduction to the Clavis shows why this mapping is hard.  Sibley apparently had a series of manuscripts on magic that he referred to but never intended to publish.  These were copied in his own hand from even older source documents, probably in the late 1700s.  But not too old, as Peterson points out a lot of the symbology and material can be traced to other popular Grimoires, including Scott’s Discoverie [7].

A series of booksellers obtained the texts from Sibley’s estate, and eventually the booksellers asked Hockley, who was one of the foundational members of modern occultism and magic, to write some copies.  Hockley made several copies, but perhaps not the copy that is reproduced in facsimile in Peterson’s text [8].  These copies have all come down to us, but not the original that was in Sibley’s library.  Peterson goes into an interesting amount of detail in tracing all of the influences that went into Sibley’s Clavis, ranging from the Discoverie to Arbatel de Magia Veterum. These books all intertwingle with Francis Barrett’s The Magnus, Levi, and other occultists of the 18^th and 19^th centuries  [9].  All of this influencing and being influenced makes it tough to figure out the original source for a lot of this magic, was it Scott or did they have other sources from either England or the continent?  Who influence Barrett and Levi, and who, in turn, did they influence?  Just like today with our froth of Pagan groups, the early 1800s were awash in different occultists and beliefs.

Peterson addresses a lot of this in both his introduction and his notes, and the results seem to point to Scott as a major influence at least on this grimoire.  That is kind of disappointing.  Scott’s Discoverie was perhaps the first skeptic’s view of magic and witchcraft, written with the hope that reason would prevail over superstition.  Which is why King John I burned all the copies he could get his hands on in 1603.  The tie with Discoverie is disappointing because the book’s information was drawn from witch trials, which means that the information may have been obtained through torture.  And, if you believe the FBI, torture is not perhaps the best way to obtain accurate information, even today.

But why should modern Pagans care about any of this?  Well, as I said before, Sibley and Hockley both had significant influence on the people who started the Golden Dawn movement: Israel Regardie and AE Waite.  They, in much the same fashion that the shinbone is connected to the knee bone, influenced Crowley in return who influenced Gardner.  This means that these late 18^th and early 19^th century grimoires are some of the foundational documents for modern magic, if not Paganism.  They don’t quite look like it, but they are.

Much of what passes for “standard Wicca operational plan 100” comes from these sources.  The elements, the circle, calling and evoking, all stem from ceremonialist influences.  The wands, the swords, the Athame, the magical writing also all were inspired or directly derived from these influences.  Not to mention that much of modern Masonry, Rosicrucianism, and Thelema hark directly back to these gentlemen and their influences.

But why should you care about this particular grimoire?  If you are the kind of magician who cares whether their instrument kit’s “little green stick of [hazel] wood” is from a year old branch or not (pp. xx and 31 Clavis), then you are already going to buy this book and there is nothing extra I need to do to convince you.  If you are not that guy, and you probably are not, then you may wish to pick up a grimoire just for the fun of it.  Typically the Lesser Key of Solomon is pretty much the standard baseline grimoire [8].   But, if you have special interests in manufacturing talismans, rings, or in conjuration then you may want to pick up the Clavis.  Or if you just really want to see what a “real” 18^th century grimoire actually looked like in facsimile, you may want this book.

But, lets be honest, if you are a guy like me who collects magic books and loves the lore of ancient texts and magical tomes, then you need this book.  In fact, I’d say you need all of Peterson’s books.   It won’t be cheap, but it will be worth it.

[1] Of course this whole terminology thing is a hot topic this month, see my column and the Pagan portal at Patheos (http://www.patheos.com/Religion-Portals/Pagan.html).  Not much discussion of this issue by the ceremonialists, however.  Though I suspect that the traditional Witches problems with the term Pagan could also extend to them.

[2] Joseph Peterson (ed.), Ebenezer Sibley and Frederick Hockley, The Clavis of Key to the Magic of Solomon, Ibis, 2010.  Joseph Peterson is responsible for putting the book together, and writing an extensive introduction and set of notes.  I suspect he also transcribed the facsimile reproduction as well.  Not to mention that he is a Chemical Engineer, which certainly recommends him as someone who is both careful and capable (not to mention highly intelligent – perhaps you can tell my profession).

[3] His web site explains a lot: http://www.esotericarchives.com/

[4] This is not just me Amazon shopping as I review, I happen to own all of them except the Grimorium Vernum and I’m fixing that right now based on the Clavis.

[5] Skinner’s books are quite similar to Peterson’s, including a version of the Clavis.  However Peterson’s Clavis totally beats Skinner’s as Skinner tends to rely on black and white and lacks Peterson’s graphical pizzazz.  http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Skinner/e/B001HOA5US/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

[6] The best history of grimoires is:  Owen Davies, Grimoires:  A History of Magic , Oxford 2009.  It is a remarkable history because it is factual, readable, well organized, and make sense.  I have not found this to be a common feature in books on this subject.  Davies is mentioned in the Clavis, but his book in turn does not mention the Clavis, though he does mention Sibley.  He emphasizes Sibley’s role as the pre-eminent astrologer of his time.  This is logical if the Clavis was taken from Sibley’s unpublished papers since it would not have been part of his public persona.

[7] Reginald Scott in 1584 published The Discoverie of Witchcraft.  This text has been very influential, from being cribbed in later grimoires and cunning men’s materials (including Joseph Smith who was perhaps more of a cunning man than Mormon’s would admit).  In another section of the text Scott also tries to show how some of the things conjurers would do were actually slights of hand, making it one of the earliest books of magic (See Robert Kaufman’s forward to the Kaufman and Greenberg edition of Discoverie.)  Reginald Scott, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, Kaufman and Greenberg, 1995 (a beautiful hardbound version by a stage magic publishing company).

[8] In reading about the various copies and Sibley and Hockley you get an appreciation for life before laser printing technology and the ability to easily copy words and documents.  If you wanted a copy back in 1825, you got out a pen and wrote yourself a copy.

[9]  Arbatel de Magia Veterum is another Peterson book, http://www.amazon.com/Arbatel-Concerning-Ancients-Joseph-Peterson/dp/0892541520/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307312039&sr=1-1, and there are many versions of Barrett and Levi’s books out there:  http://www.amazon.com/History-Magic-Eliphas-Levi/dp/0877289298/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307312089&sr=1-1;

http://www.amazon.com/Magus-Complete-System-Occult-Philosophy/dp/0877289425/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307312114&sr=1-1-spell

[10]  Of course Peterson has come out with a wonderful version:  http://www.amazon.com/Lesser-Key-Solomon-Joseph-Peterson/dp/157863220X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1307315567&sr=8-2 but the standard text is Waite:  http://www.amazon.com/Lesser-Solomon-hur-Edward-Waite/dp/1163064300/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307315640&sr=8-1

by Kami McBride

© 2010    Conari Press

ISBN:  978-1-57324-421-3

Paperback      255 pages

$18.95  (U.S.)

www.redwheelweisr.com

One of the nice things about this book is the fact that the herbs discussed are all easily accessible.  Add to that the fact that all the basic information about them is placed in one location and it becomes even better.  Then there are the recipes – over 250 of them.

Of course, all the standard disclaimers apply – consult a health care profession before adding herbs to therapeutic medicines; begin with small amounts to check for adverse reactions; pregnant women need to be especially careful; etc.

The first two chapters (“Kitchen  Medicine and Culinary Culture” and “herbal Kitchen Materia Medica of Fifty Healing herbs and Spices”) serve as a general introduction and are quite valuable on their own, but then come the recipes (11 different categories).

From the outset, I must make it clear that I am neither an herbalist nor anything more than a rudimentary cook.  In fact, my wife asked me what I was doing, requesting a batch of cookbooks (I have another five in the pile waiting to be reviewed).  My daughter had asked me what I knew about kitchen witchery and, when I confessed my ignorance, went online to find a few titles.  So, I am definitely approaching the topic as an interested amateur, like many of you.

Ms McBride stresses that her recipes are intended for culinary use.  Obviously, some of them COULD be used medicinally, but that is a subject for another book.  The culinary use of herbs and spices can help to prevent minor health problems (stomachaches, colds, etc.), but treating medical conditions is something best learned by apprenticing to an individual who knows what they are doing.

Ms McBride shares little bits of personal experience gleaned from her decades of working with herbs, and this adds immeasurably to the pleasure of reading this book.  Make no mistake about it, reading this book IS a pleasure.  No matter what section you are in, there is always something which will bring a smile to your face.

I have to say that, as I started into the recipe section I was unsure what to expect, but the first recipe section (herbal Waters) tied in so nicely with the fruit waters we enjoy in our own household, I was sure I was going to enjoy the rest of the recipes (and I was right!).

You will find the usual categories here – Teas, Vinegars, Cordials, and the like; but there are also some unexpected ideas – Smoothies, Ghees, Sprinkles and Salts.  If, for some reason, you can’t find something to pique your interest, this is the wrong book for you.

This is not a book to be READ, it is a book to be experienced and enjoyed.  There isn’t a lot of magic in this book (other than the love which makes everything better), but it deserves to find a prominent place in every kitchen.

Stellar Magic: A Practical Guide to Rites of the Moon, Planets, Stars and Constellations

Payam Nabarz has once again provided reader and practitioner alike with an invaluable tome that will aid its readers for generations to come.

~Michele Burke PaganPages.org

A Little about the Man:

Payam Nabarz is author of ‘The Mysteries of Mithras: The Pagan Belief That Shaped the Christian World’ (Inner Traditions, 2005), ‘The Persian Mar Nameh: The Zoroastrian Book of the Snake Omens & Calendar’ (Twin Serpents, 2006), and Divine Comedy of Neophyte Corax and Goddess Morrigan (Web of Wyrd, 2008). He is also editor of Mithras Reader: An academic and religious journal of Greek, Roman, and Persian Studies. Volume 1(2006), Volume 2 (2008)

His latest book is Stellar Magic: a Practical Guide to Rites of the Moon, Planets, Stars and Constellations (Avalonia, 2009). For further info visit: www.stellarmagic.co.uk and http://www.myspace.com/nabarz

Interview with Payam Nabarz

Pagan Pages: What were the driving forces that led you to write Stellar Magic: A Practical Guide to Rites of the Moon, Planets, Stars and Constellations?

Payam Nabarz: When walking on a clear night and staring at the stars, something does capture one’s imagination. It may be the simple beauty of the stars and the planets, or perhaps a religious meme that compels one to head out night after night in the footsteps of the modern and ancient stargazers. It is not only the full moon that turns people into lunatics and poets; there are another subtle forces there too that inspire us; the constellations. To use a metaphor, if the sun is the ocean and the moon a sea, the planets the rivers, then the constellations are the streams. There has been much written about the magic of the sun, moon and the planets, yet the gentler streams of the constellations largely remain unspoken of. The constellations that are popular are the twelve signs of the Zodiac, which are seen as part of the celestial powers that influence us from birth. However, in modern astrology the interaction with the constellations is a reactive rather proactive relationship viewed as a unidirectional flow of energy from the heavens to us; this is referred to as ‘divinatory astrology’ by the Swiss mystical writer Titus Burckhardt in his book Mystical Astrology according to Ibn Arabi. The field of divinatory astrology is well covered by thousands of books on the subject and it is part of popular culture, with many newspapers printing daily horoscopes. The divinatory astrology is practice which goes back centuries, the focus of the work in this book is on divinatory astrology’s less popular cousin, which Titus Burckhardt refers to as ‘spiritual astrology’.  The aims of following stellar workings in Stellar Magic is to make such relationships a bidirectional flow of energy and to honour the constellations in a same many modern Pagans honour earth, moon, sun and the planets. To draw down powers of the constellations as some modern Pagans draw down the moon or the sun, or as some magicians work with planetary hours and days of the week for the ideal time in which to achieve their aims or create talisman as we see in works like the ‘Picatrix’ or ‘The Lesser Key of Solomon’.  In following the approach of using star lore for spiritual astrology and not just divinatory purposes, we are in good company as this is in line with ‘The Chaldæan Oracles’.

PP: From which mystery school do you draw your knowledge?

PN: Many systems, Persian, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Celtic, Theurgy, Mithraic Mysteries. I am a Sufi and a practicing Dervish. A Druid in the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, and a co-founder of its ‘Nemeton of the Stars’ Grove. I am a revivalist of the Temple of Mithras, and a Hierophant in the Fellowship of Isis. In addition to this I have also been working for number of years in the Golden Dawn system, Thelema, Nath Tantra, Wicca, and the Craft. I am a third degree in three separate systems, this allows me to blend different material and currents and create syncretic systems.

PP: How has your background in Druidism brought you to where you are today?

PN: It is one of the strands of I work with. A key aspect of being a Druid or Duir (Oak) is Duir is also root word for ‘door’, that is a druid stands at doorway between the worlds, acting as a conduit, manifesting spiritual currents. One example of how as a Druid I operate is the workings I have carried out with the Celtic Goddess Morrigan. Some of these experiences inspired me to write the ‘Divine Comedy of Neophyte Corax and Goddess Morrigan’(Web of Wyrd, 2008). It follows the initiatory journey of Corax and his learning’s from Goddess Morrigan. It also covers lots of Druid and Wiccan material.

PP: Did it take you a long time to write the Stellar Magic: A Practical Guide to Rites of the Moon, Planets, Stars and Constellations?

PN: It took four years to research and write the book. I began after my publication of ‘The Mysteries of Mithras: The Pagan Belief That Shaped the Christian World’ (2005, Inner Traditions). It took some time to work with all the constellations in the book. My approach was first I did a meditation and an astral quest on the constellation of interest, and wrote my experiences as notes. I then researched the constellation and compared my own experience to historical references and other writer’s experiences. The areas where my experience matched historical sources provided the raw material for the creation of the solo and group ceremonies in the book. The match areas can be seen as historically/externally validated insights; hence the book is both modern and historical.

PP: What are the main principles of Stellar Magic, and what would be a prime example of a these principles?

PN: My own interest in Theurgy and Stellar Magic is rooted in the Mithraic Mysteries. In this stellar religion, the individual’s soul is seen to have descended from the starry heavens to earth and at death the soul makes its journey upwards again into the firmament, a vision similar to vision of Jacob’s ladder. The initiatory system allowed the neophyte to become familiar with the cosmos, and learn the star ‘signposts’ which would have allowed his return journey to be smoother and reach a state of henosis (union with the divine, Source).

The place of stellar magic in modern occultism is best seen in works of Rudolf Steiner and Aleister Crowley. For example Aleister Crowley’s saying of ‘Every Man and Woman is a Star’, and to aim for our One Star in Sight. A view that we have inherited from the Ancient Greeks, as we see in Plato’s Timaeus, and according to the classical writers it is not only the human souls that originate in the stars and strive to return to them. The gods too have their origins among the stars, in the Hermetica (the Greek Corpus Hermeticum) we read about the birth of the universe and life and a creation story which is centered on the stars.

This magical and religious approach to the constellations is not a new idea; indeed it can viewed as the root of many ancient religions. The field of archaeoastronomy has shown us numerous religious structures since the megalithic had cosmological roles and were aligned to the stars, moon or the sun. For example from the period Callanish in Scotland, Stonehenge in England, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, and Newgrange in Ireland.

PP: Can you give the readers a little insight into the Cygnus?

PN: The legend of Cygnus is a tale of camaraderie and brotherly love. In Greek Mythology, the great bird constellation was called Cygnus. According to one legend: Cycnus, the King of Liguria, was friends with Phaethon, the son of Helios (Apollo). Phaethon drove the sun’s chariot for a day, which was a disaster, as he could not control the fiery horses of the sun’s chariot and nearly set the whole world on fire.  Phaethon’s drive was brought to an end when he saw the constellation Scorpio, and Jupiter struck him with a lightning bolt. Phaeton fell from the heavens to the earth burning like a meteorite, and plunged into river Eridanus. Aratus in the Phaenomena describes the river Eridanus as the river of many tears, as the tears are referring to those shed by Phaethon’s sisters, the Heliades. The river Eridanus is the modern day river Po in Italy. Cycnus was heartbroken from the death of Phaethon, and left his kingdom to wander the land and bury Phaethon’s remains; for his devotion, Jupiter transformed him into a swan (Cygnus).

The star Deneb in the Cygnus constellation  is part of the summer triangle, the other two points of the triangle are the star Vega in Lyra and the star Altair in Aquila (Eagle). The triangle can act as marker for identifying neighboring constellations in the night sky. The Swan acting as Eagle’s wingman as the fly in the night sky! Aratus in Phaenomena refers to the Eagle as the ‘Storm Bird’, when the night is waning and its rises, storms occur. The Eagle is the messenger of Zeus and it is partnered with Lyra or the Vulture constellation. Lyra is shown as Orpheus’ harp, and sometimes a Vulture carries the harp. The winter triangle is essentially connects three birds around the Milky Way together. The Persian Phoenix the Simurgh or the Arabic Roc are also constellation Cygnus.

The swan is also a part of alchemical symbolism, a marriage of opposites like fire and water a sign of bermaphroditism. In case of stellar fire-water the connecting point appeared to be the Cygnus (Swan) constellation; what appeared to be two separate currents and metaphors meet in Cygnus. The watery majestic Swan (swimming in the Milky Way) and the fiery ever changing Phoenix shared a common symbol, the Cygnus constellation. From the Persian Phoenix the Simurgh or the Arabic Roc and Greek we see a thread that links the constellation Cygnus to both water and fire birds.

PP: Who was your teacher and how did their teachings stand apart from those of others?

PN: There have been several, as I have worked with several systems. I don’t think all of them would want to be mentioned in a public forum! The one who are public figures and can be mentioned are Dr. Nurbaksh, Mogg Morgan, John and Caitlin Matthews.

PP: What is the ‘The Book of Omens from the Moon’?

PN: An interesting lunar omen system was developed by Persian Zoroastrians called: Persian Burj Nameh: the book of omens from the moon. Burj Nameh can also translate as ‘book of the constellations’. This is a Persian poem of 26 couplets in Persian lyrical rhyme and are part of the ‘Parsee Revayats’ prose and poem collection, whose official title is ‘Revayet-i Darab Hormazdyar- Autograph of the compiler written 1679AD’. It is uncertain how old Burj Nameh actually is; while it was written down in 1679AD it is probably several centuries older. However, while this text is an important part of the Zoroastrian body of work, it is not seen as the words of Prophet Zoroaster himself as stated in the Gathas texts. The couplets are saying what the appearance of the new moon portends in each of the Zodiac signs. In Stellar Magic I have included a combination of my translation and that of Louis H. Gray paper. Also included is a new calligraphy of the Persian text. A similar approach was taken in my book ‘The Persian ‘Mar Nameh’: The Zoroastrian ‘Book of the Snake’ Omens and Calendar.’ Both Burj Nameh and Mar Nameh are closely linked.

PP: Can you tell the readers a little more about the ‘Astral Tour of Oxon’?

PN: I live in Oxford so my poem ‘Astral Tour of Oxon’ in the Cygnus chapter takes the reader through a magical tour of the city of Oxford and county of Oxfordshire. I felt it is important to expand on the spiritual aspect of Oxford and its connections, or rather, the magical side of Oxford. The magical Well in Oxford is one that many writers have drawn from, Lewis Carroll, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and Phillip Pullman to name some. According to the Welsh epic The Mabinogion, Oxford is at centre of England, as this is where the two dragons meet (see the Draco constellation chapter in Stellar Magic for more details) and the place acts as an Omphalos. For this I wrote the poem to celebrate this magical Well. As a druid working with the land you are based on is important, Oxon has local stone circles and a rich ancient sacred landscape.

PP: Do you believe that regardless of our heritage we all connected as one, if so how?

PN: The Web of Wyrd connects all, there many currents that connect us. For example the World Axis. The sight of the World Axis (Axis Mundi) is a sight that many Magi, Shamans, Pagans, Mystics, and Magical practitioners from different cultures have seen through the ages. We see the Christian, Golden Dawn and Kabbalistic views of the Throne of Heaven, the Nordic Yggdrasil the world Ash tree, the Greek Omphalos, the Tower of Babel, the Vooduan poteau-mitan, and the Spindle of Necessity, the Shiva lingam etc… all are linked and are human interpretations of the same ‘thing’ (World Axis) that exists in many worlds, in the astral and stellar realms. This is a thread of infinity that pierces each world at the pole star- the keystone, and Sufi’s Qutub.

One can climb the World Tree (World Axis) to other worlds, or hang like Odin from the Ash Tree, or become part of the Throne of Heaven by sitting in a chair which is the Throne, or, like Heracles and Perseus take the Golden Apples from Garden of  Hesperides ( located at the Little Bear/Pole Star guarded by constellation Draco), fly around the Stambha, the Shiva Lingam, dance circling the  poteau-mitan, stand at top of a Ziggurat, receive feathers from the bird Simurgh who sits on the top of mount Qaf (axis mundi): all are reflections of the same ‘thing’.  This where the Shamans, Pagans, Mystics and Magicians interaction differs to Orthodox religion’s clergy; for example, in book of Revelation the Throne of Heaven is to be worshiped and Apostle Paul’s interaction is one of observation and worship only.  In another Christian observation, it is Lucifer who wanted the Throne of Heaven and this caused his fall. Jacob, Paul and many others who have ascended to this point are simply worshiping the Throne, or want to take it; both approaches fail. In the Myth of Er we again see a description of the Throne this time as Spindle of Necessity. In Dream of Scipio another vision of the Throne is described. The Mystic’s and Magician’s interaction with Throne or Axis Mundi as we see in the Stellar Magic is quite different.

PP: What is ‘The Stellar World Cave’?

PN: The cave-like temple, (called a Mithraeum) was a representation of the universe; here the initiate ascended through various planetary degrees and learned about the constellations and their meanings. The Mithraeum is an authentic microcosm, literally a model of the heavens. The Planetary initiates were:

• Mercury (Corax/Raven)

• Venus (Nymphus/ bee chrysalis or male bride)

• Mars (Miles/ soldier)

• Jupiter (Leo/ lion)

• Moon (Perses /Persian)

• Sun (Heliosdromus)

• Saturn (Pater)

According to the Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs : ‘Thus also the Persians, mystically signifying the descent of the soul into the sublunary regions, and its regression from it, initiate the mystic (or him who is admitted to the arcane sacred rites) in a place which they denominate a cavern. For, as Eubulus says, Zoroaster was the first who consecrated in the neighboring mountains of Persia, a spontaneously produced cave, florid, and having fountains, in honour of Mithra, the maker and father of all things; a cave, according to Zoroaster, bearing a resemblance of the world, which was fabricated by Mithra. But the things contained in the cavern being arranged according to commensurate intervals, were symbols of the mundane elements and climates.’

We have seen the stellar relationships within the cube of space. All these come together in forming the World Cave as described in Porphyry; a cube of space as a sphere, which fits well with the view of the universe as a space that has been ever expanding since the big bang. The Cave is the microcosm, and the Magi inside it aim to connect to the World Soul, which is surrounded by the four Persian Royal Stars or Stellar Guardians (Eagle, Bull, Man, Lion).

From a Neo-Platonic view the initiate’s aim is to ascend and return to the Source, the constellation Cancer is the gate through which souls descend (genesis) and Capricorn the gate through which they ascend (apogenesis). The journey is made along the Milky Way; the river of souls or stars. The seven planets are the first stepping stones in this process and being liberated from their influence, the initiate passes through the eight gates into the realms and of the fixed stars and continues their Ascension until they reach their Star in the company of heaven. In the world view of apogenesis; this is what happens to everyone after they die, however, the initiates begin the process while still alive and ‘die before they die’, they learn the signs and actively make their journey to their Star.

As always Bountiful Blessings go out to Payam Nabarz, thank you so very much for granting the readers and myself such a fortuitous chance to get a firsthand look into the world of Stellar Magic. It has truly been awe inspiring. Again thank you.

Links:

http://www.myspace.com/nabarz

http://www.stellarmagic.co.uk/

Other books by Payam Nabarz

• The Mysteries of Mithras: The Pagan Belief That Shaped the Christian World by Payam Nabarz. Inner Traditions, 2005.
• The Persian ‘Mar Nameh’: The Zoroastrian ‘Book of the Snake’ Omens and Calendar & The Old Persian Calendar by Payam Nabarz and S, H Taqizadeh. Twin Serpents Ltd, 2006.
• Mithras Reader – An academic and religious journal of Greek, Roman, and Persian Studies. Editor Payam Nabarz. Volume 1 (Twin Serpents Ltd. 2006), Volume 2 (Web of Wyrd Press 2008).
• Divine Comedy of Neophyte Corax and Goddess Morrigan. Web of Wyrd Press, 2008.

By Raven Grimassi

Raven Grimassi is an award winning literary genius with twelve books on Witchcraft and Wicca to his name. And this newest book is no exception. Crafting Wiccan Traditions is a comprehensive guide like no other. Once again Raven shows the reader what is necessary to craft a Wiccan tradition that is permeated with one’s own inimitable signature.

Price $15.95

~ Michele Burke (2009)

Over the years I have read a vast array of books aimed towards teaching our pagan youth the practices and principles of our craft, but I must say this is the most awe inspiring of them all.

Charm Spells is an ingenious easy to read literary guide for both young and old witches alike. Teaching the basic tools every young witch needs Ileana Abrev has created a grimoire like no other. Instructing white magick from the very start not only is the right path to take, but it sets young practitioner on the path to lifelong success in their lives as well as their practice. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to read this book and forwarded it on to my daughter; that there is just one thing left to say go out and get a copy today it is one book we all should ready regardless of our age.

Authors Kristin Madden, and Dorothy Morrison

ISBN  0738706361   $14.95

I have read several books with regard to the Maiden, Mother and the Crone and all gracious in their right.  But “Dancing the Goddess Incarnate” is one book I truly believe every Goddess out there should have in her collection.  While I am well versed on Goddesses I am far perfect on all Goddesses and I will admit there are times I am not so forth coming on being myself and I stay very reserved being an adult.  After the first chapter getting to know Tatiana, I am no longer shy, quiet, withdrawn and I DANCE!!!!!!

Dancing the Goddess Incarnate is all about waking you up again reminding you what life is really about and not to be afraid of it.  You’re not getting old and boring; there’s no need to be put on the shelf.   Read this book and do the homework, the spells and the dances and put the spring back in your life.  No matter how old you are you will laugh, giggle, remember your childhood, have fun and you will DANCE like there is no tomorrow.

There are 9 Goddesses in this book that take you on the journey of your life and I can say that I sincerely hope that Kristen and Dorothy put their heads together soon and write a second book so I can take a second ride soon.  I laughed, cried, remembered good times, acted like a child, and I danced like I use to when I was young as a child, teenager, young adult and yes-party drunk.  I have never felt so good about myself as when I did after reading this book.  Take the time to get know these Goddesses and dance with them.    I for one can say that I never thought I would be a Hecate fan but she grabbed me and hugged me and is now carrying me through my times and we are great friends dancing through my days.   I will be forever grateful to Cerridwen for her dance of Magic.  It has enhanced mine so much.  This is definitely another book on my 10 lists for the beginning of the year for 2009.  Make it one of your must-reads!   You will be amazed by the joy you receive from it.

Author Kristin Madden

ISBN 073870214  264 pgs,    $14.85 RETAIL

This is the first book I have found that gives the shaman healer all he/she needs in their toolkit to be the best they need to be. Shamanism is an all-encompassing lifestyle of deep self-knowledge and powerful healing. In this book, a modern shaman gives the practitioner concrete advice and ideas on several aspects of shamanic healing. You will learn to prepare yourself for healing work, communicate with spirit guides, free your voice and seek your power song, safely explore your shadow side, partner with your drum to create healing, and heal yourself and others. The author also covers practical ethical matters such as taking payment and working with friends.  I personally while reading the book went through a personal drama and if I had not had this book in hand studying it, do not believe I would have weathered the storm as well as I did.  Learning the healing work and developing my shamanic abilities along with the ability to communicate better with my guides gave me the advantage of overcoming my grief and dark times and heal that much faster.  I have always been a believer that people, items and things happen in your life for a reason.  I had put off reading this particular book for some time and started reading it once I had relocated to FT Carson, CO and once I moved it was the perfect time.  Learning the lessons written here within the in-depth discussions of the theories, practices and ethics of the shamanic healing works gave me the strength needed to over come my adversities and continue on the path that is meant for me to follow here in Colorado.    Learn how free your voice and seek your power song, explore your shadow side; connect to the healing universe and live in balance.    Find the disciplined you!!

For those of you looking for a new book to start the New Year off with this is definitely one that should be on the top ten of your list.  I give it 5 stars.