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Book Review – The Ultimate Guide to Witchcraft: A Modern-Day Guide to Making Magick by Anjou Kiernan
Book Review The Ultimate Guide to Witchcraft A Modern-Day Guide to Making Magick by Anjou Kiernan 192 Pages “The Ultimate Guide to Witchcraft” is a beautiful and substantial book of full-color (and sometimes full-page) photographs, detailed and thoughtful charts and diagrams, and clearly expressed, well-thought-out explanations of basic witchcraft systems, ritual, and practice. Its focus is to be an introduction to beginner witchcraft, but it’s one which more experienced witches may enjoy enough to use as a reference as some of the diagrams are particularly pleasantly-designed and easy to use. While none of these craft practices is explored in very great depth, the book offers fairly involved summaries…
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The Lunar Horse and Spell for Beauty & Physical Attraction Excerpt from the Book ‘Horse Magick’ by Lawren Leo
The Lunar Horse Beware reader! Not all religious tales are pleasant, and sometimes the path to esoteric enlightenment is sullied with offal. The choice is yours; turn back now or just step around anything you may find offensive until the path is once again clear. Is this not, after all, the case in life itself? It is certainly the case in the ancient Japanese myth of the sun goddess, Amaterasu, which is drawn from the sacred text of the Shinto religion, The Kojiki (An Account of Ancient Matters). This myth has repulsive elements, but ultimately it edifies. Amaterasu and Susanowo The tale starts with the first parent, Izanagi, giving…
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As Above So Below (How the Stars Became Our Hearts) 2nd Edition
How to Cook Cliché What is the nature of reality? As Morpheus from The Matrix describes, if real is what we experience with our senses, then it’s simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. As Plato describes in Allegory of the Cave, you can only postulate at what the universe really is by deductive logic based on the very limited sensory data interpreted by the brain. This isn’t a new thought. What is new is now we have scientific evidence that the universe may be nothing more than a simulation. We’ve been indoctrinated by surface physics. That is to say, our entire interpretation of…
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Notes from the Apothecary
Notes from the Apothecary: Cherries I’m inspired to write about cherries because of my next door neighbour. They have a huge cherry tree that hangs over into our garden. We don’t mind. In fact, we love it. Not only is it a beautiful tree, with strong, thick limbs and richly coloured bark, it encourages all kinds of wildlife. Just this afternoon, we all sat enraptured in the kitchen as a squirrel hopped around the back garden munching on the fallen cherries. They’re just starting to ripen as we leave the summer solstice behind, and the windfalls attract all manner of birds and small mammals. There are actually over 50…
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Book Review – The Junior Witch’s Handbook: A Kid’s Guide to White Magic, Spells and Rituals by Nikki Van De Car
Book Review The Junior Witch’s Handbook A Kid’s Guide to White Magic, Spells and Rituals by Nikki Van De Car 98 Pages I would give anyone ages eight to twelve interested in learning about magic and witchcraft, and desiring to become more empowered in common life situations a copy of “The Junior Witch’s Handbook: A Kid’s Guide to White Magic, Spells and Rituals.” In it, three major areas of a young witch’s life are addressed: friendship, personal fulfillment, and family. Each section includes simple spells, rituals, activities and meditations to heal and empower. For example, a healing spell to let go of hurt feelings is offered in the…
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So Mote it Be
The first time I saw a honey locust tree, I was both intrigued and terrified. Three-inch thorns poked out from around the trunk of the tree at all angles. Near the bottom, you couldn’t see the tree trunk at all for all the thorns. There was no way anything was going to harm this tree! I walked up to it and gently touched a thorn. It was extremely sharp, but it wiggled under my touch, so I pulled a little. It popped off the tree and landed in my palm, as if it was a gift. I wiggled a few more thorns, and though most were firmly attached, the tree…
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Book Review – Hieroglyphic Words of Power: Symbols for Magick, Divination and Dreamwork by Normandi Ellis
Book Review Hieroglyphic Words of Power Symbols for Magick, Divination and Dreamwor by Normandi Ellis 264 Pages Let me begin by saying that I may display a bias for this book from the start. I work with the Egyptian pantheon, have read other works by Normandi Ellis and find her works the perfect balance of academia and magick… … Words are magic. They operate on many levels through both sound and symbol. Egyptian priests understood that language and thought could create the realities if the exact words are uttered at the right time, properly intoned, and filled with intention. They called their magical language of hieroglyphic symbols, medju…
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Book Review – Make Magic of Your Life: Passion, Purpose and the Power of Desire by T. Thorn Coyle
Book Review Make Magic of Your Life Passion, Purpose and the Power of Desire by T. Thorn Coyle 256 Pages I will admit to pre-judging this book, thinking it yet another New Age tome on how to “attract” your best life. But, John Waterhouse’s painting of Circe Invidiosa, the one of her staring into the bowl of iridescent water as if to see the whole of creation, persuaded me to give it a try. Circe has never led me astray, and she didn’t this time. Once I started, I didn’t put it down, finishing in one sitting. T. Thorn Coyle’s book is a masterpiece of magic, a weaving…
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Book Review – Practically Pagan: An Alternative Guide to Cooking by Rachel Patterson
Book Review Practically Pagan An Alternative Guide to Cooking by Rachel Patterson 288 Pages Practically Pagan is a new series of books from Moon Books, a publisher which focuses on Pagan spirituality and related topics. The series is designed to give readers a new perspective on everyday topics, with this volume on cooking looking at a variety of ways to incorporate your faith, spirituality or pagan practices into the dishes you make. Rachel Patterson is a prolific author and famous as a Kitchen Witch. She heads up the Kitchen Witch Coven and is an Elder of the Kitchen Witch School of Natural Witchcraft. Previous books by Rachel include…
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‘Bad Words, Good Smells’ An Interview with Desiree Horton of Co-op of Creation
‘Bad Words, Good Smells’ An Interview with Desiree Horton of Co-op of Creation Desiree Horton is currently on call 24/7, providing terminal decontamination for hospitals and other places, some of which have tested positive for COVID-19. She works as needed, so her schedule “can get a bit crazy.” A few years ago, she started making candles in her kitchen before moving her workspace to the garage. Before the pandemic, friends and family would come and create with her. “I was doing my candle shop full-time, but I stepped back into this to help train people and to handle these places since it’s hard to find people willing to…