Author: dar

Whether you’re searching for a coven or hoping to build one from
scratch, you’ll no doubt find valuable information in Amber K’s
book, Covencraft. Many books purport to be as useful to beginners as to
those further along on their path, but this 500 page tome really
fulfills the promise. For beginners, it outlines what being a witch is
about, providing everything from a cosmological overview of the
religion to ritual outlines for just about every imaginable category.
It also conveys a bit of wicca’s history, and while Amber K’s unbroken
tradition slant is not one that I personally ascribe to, she can be
credited for noting when there are conflicting opinions on certain
details so that readers are at least aware of them. The real treasure
of this book, however, is her mechanic’s approach to writing about the
actual practice of the Craft. While many books provide ritual scripts,
meditations, spells, correspondences, philisophical musings and the
like, Amber K gives the reader the usual array plus
a down and dirty lesson on the dynamics of how people and groups
actually work. Everything from budgeting and filing for nonprofit
status with the IRS to how to handle specific types of group conflict
are covered. For example:

Rosetta Stone is the High
Priestess of Small Unidentified Pond Creatures Coven. She is very
capable and efficient, and somewhat lacking in trust that anyone else
can do a project as well as she can. . .but clearly Rosetta is stressed
and overworked and some of the other members’ skills are underutilized.
What do you do?

Beyond just ritual, the covens
are provided with a variety of exercises designed to help the group get
to know one another and develop bonds. After all, religion isn’t only
about gods and goddesses, it’s about people. You can talk about
ethereal concerns all you want, but that won’t solve the conflict
between your covenmates over what to bring to the potluck after next
week’s esbat!

Let me start by saying I am nearly 40 years old, and I have never read
one
of Silver RavenWolf’s books before. I know her work is wildly popular
among
witches, especially her writings for teenagers. I am a witch, and I
collect
teenage girls’ series novels, so I had high hopes for this little book,
the first of a series about teen witches. Even though I’m not a
teenager,
I had hoped I would enjoy and resonate with the story. I am as
engrossed in
the Harry Potter series as any 11-year-old out there!

But, alas, I did not enjoy this book. I should have been able to tell from

the cover what was to come. It shows a group of five teenagers through a

window, dressed in midriff-baring street clothes, with the most glamorous

one front and center, her arms stretched out. The four others

are slouching in the background with their hands in their pockets; the young

man even has a hat on, backwards. The illustrator either has no occult

knowledge, or had no interest in portraying a witches’ coven raising energy

in an authentic manner.

And the story is not much better. The story centers around Bethany Salem

(what a nice witch name, don’t you think?), a sixteen-year-old who just lost

her boyfriend in a car accident and is determined to use her coven of five

teenagers to catch the person who killed her boyfriend. Her favorite form of

magick seems to be curses — definitely not ‘harm none, for the good of

all.’ She breaks the nose of one character in a brawl while invoking the

Dark Mother, and cuts the face of her teacher while invoking the Dark

Goddess.

There were also small details that distressed me. A male cat, her familiar,

named Hecate? Why didn’t RavenWolf pick a name befitting a male cat, rather

than name a cat after a formidable goddess? Now if Bethany should ever want

to invoke the goddess Hecate in a circle (which she doesn’t in this book),

she will have an imagery of the cat in her mind, at least at first, because

she uses the cat’s name on a daily basis. Another detail that bothered me

was the appearance of a wart on the cheek of a rather unlikeable character

who may have some occult talent of her own. So witches are warty, cruel

creatures?

I just could not get into this book, nor feel any great warmth or concern

for the characters. The teens did not seem to talk to each other in

teen-talk that felt authentic. The slang seemed dated. They didn’t

seem to interact like friends; when another of them is in a car accident,

they don’t seem to show much immediate concern, and not until six pages

later do they even explore what injuries had occurred. And there were twists

and turns to the story line that had completely unrealistic results. Someone

dies in our heroine’s bedroom while she is in there, and no one explores the

possibility of murder? It becomes known to the parents of these five that

they are practicing witchcraft, and only one of the sets of parents shows

concern? There is no punishment for brawling and breaking someone’s nose?

Unless you are a diehard Silver RavenWolf fan, I’d say skip this book. I

don’t see anything about this book that would be enjoyable for teenage

witches. If you’re looking for magickal suspense novels for teenagers, I

think Lois Duncan’s novels (“Locked in Time,” “Stranger with my Face,” and

“A Gift of Magic“, for instance), are much more authentic to a teen’s

experiences. And I adored Caroline Cooney’s time traveling series of three

books, “Out of Time,” “Both Sides of Time,” and “Prisoner of Time.” Any of

these titles will give you much more enjoyment than RavenWolf’s story.

This is a beautiful book, in more ways than one. Physically, it is beautifully designed. The cover shows a ripe and burstingThis
is a beautiful book, in more ways than one. Physically, it is
beautifully designed. The cover shows a ripe and bursting pomegranate,
evocative
of the yoni, with gold embossing at the borders. The chapter
illustrations by
Nyease Sommersett are wonderful. After encountering the first one in my
reading, I couldn’t resist paging ahead to look at them all. All the
drawings are in the round … am I the only one who looked at some of
them and said, “wow, that would make a great tattoo!”?

The beauty of the book is more than superficial, however. This is a finely

crafted, thoughtful, engrossing work. I thought I’d never finish the book;

each chapter begged to be examined in depth. After the introductory chapters

on the basics of goddess spirituality and ritual, the book has twenty

chapters, each devoted to one goddess. Her myth and meaning, her symbols,

and her celebrations are explained, and then Monaghan gives some suggestions

of how to work with that goddess individually. The chapter ends with a list

of questions best explored in a journal writing session.

The first two chapters in particular spoke volumes to me in my life at this

time. The first one was about Gaia, the creator goddess who feeds us all

from her bounty. The journal work for the chapter revolves around hunger

issues – what we hunger for, how we satisfy that hunger, what we fear we

will never have enough of in our lives, etc. The day I started working on

this chapter was the day after I had joined Weight Watchers and had begun

dialogue with the other folks in my WW group about these issues. I lingered

on this chapter for at least a week – examining on my own, and processing

with my group members. It was extremely revealing, and very helpful as I

started to explore how to feed myself without binging on food.

I had a similar reaction to the second chapter, which focused on Athena,

the protector goddess of the Greek cities. The journal work for the chapter

centered around protection – how we react when threatened or challenged,

experiences with physical assault and martial art forms, etc. The day I

started on this chapter happened to be the day after I had been walking with

my partner near a pond, and we were surrounded by four men determined to mug

us. I was able to deter the attack by screaming “Police! 911!” but the fear

I had felt was still ringing in my body the next day as I read this chapter

and started the journal work. Again, this was a chapter I lingered on for a

long time.

The next chapter focused on Hera. I put the book down for a long time,

dreading that if I started reading that chapter, I’d find out about some

secret affair my partner was engaged in! But eventually I did pick it up

again, and I found the rest of the book spoke more to events in my past than

the first two chapters did. (Much to my relief!) And I found them all just

as interesting, and revealing, and helpful.

This is a wonderful book. I love the fact that the ritual ideas for each

goddess was not a completely scripted rite, but simply an outline for the

reader to flesh out as she sees fit. I loved the ritual poetry to each

goddess that started each chapter, and I’m glad that Monaghan quoted her

sources for these invocations. I highly recommend this book.

This novel is the second in the author’s Witches’ Chillers series of teen mysteries. I reviewed the first one in the series, Witches’ Night Out, for Spiritualitea a few months ago, and was promptly criticized in the Forum for my negative review. So why did I even pick up the second one in the series, you might wonder, if I gave the first one a no-star rating?

Well, chalk it up to idle curiosity. I am fond of series books; I like to see how an author develops her characters from title to title. So when I spotted this book recently, I couldn’t resist sitting down with it for a few hours. It’s written for teens and pre-teens, so it’s short (less than 300 pages) and easy to devour.

I am relieved that I won’t have to write another no-star review for this book. I had been quite disturbed by all the cursing in the first book, and this sequel didn’t have anything like that in it. Bethany Salem, the heroine of the story, does disturb someone else’s spell, though, with the deliberate intent of interfering with the spell’s purpose. But at least there’s discussion about the repercussions of choosing to interfere, before Bethany acts on her decision to interfere. And she did choose to interfere because she thought the spell was blocking someone else’s safety and well-being. So there’s definitely some signs that our heroine is maturing in her magickal knowledge from the first book to this one.

The story lines are absorbing, and deal with aspects that many teens can relate to: first love, a widowed father starting to date someone his daughter doesn’t trust, not getting enough attention from a parent, and bullies in school, for instance. The author has created a circle of friends from many backgrounds and races, which is nice to see in a world of mostly white book characters from other authors. And Bethany is having potent visions and is doing rituals and spells with her coven and teacher that could make this book interesting and meaningful to a young witch.

I wish the author had been more careful in the final editing of the book,

though. There are several clues that are laid out that go undetected by the

reader because of bad editing. I don’t want to give away any of the story

line, so this is not the real clue but a similar example. At one point in

the story, a “yellow ball” is introduced as a clue. In the final twist and

turns of the story, a “green ball” leads to an identity, and Bethany bemoans

the fact that she didn’t put two and two together earlier about the “green

ball” connection. Too bad nobody in the editing department at Llewellyn

noticed the original “yellow ball” reference in the text should have been

green!

I wish some of the dead-end clues had been explained too. In one scene,

one character refuses to go to a place where she would meet up with another

character, leading one to conclude that there is some fear or bad blood

there. In reality, it is revealed that they are good friends and on good

terms with each other. So why go through all that drama in the first place?

RavenWolf never offers a theory.

I wonder what teens will pick up about Wiccan practice from this series.

Bethany’s teacher is a French-Creole black woman who gets her spiritual

supplies from a botanica. While the author doesn’t say the woman practices

Santeria or Vodou, she seems to imply it with these details. Yet the

French-Creole woman teaches Bethany and her friends Wiccan practices. Is

RavenWolf trying to say that Santeria and Vodou are Wiccan? Similarly,

there is a Native American character in the story that they want to get into

the coven; since he is Native American, goes the thinking, he’s already

familiar with Wiccan practice. Adults who have studied Wicca for a while

will be aware that Native American practices are not Wiccan, and Santeria or

Vodou is not Wiccan, but will the teen audience of her novels know that?

So, while I found this book to be entertaining for a few hours, I don’t

think I would recommend it to a teen unless it was someone who had read a

lot about Wicca already and could discern between the good and the dubious

in this book. I think there is definitely a need for teens to get good

information on Wicca and its practices, but I hope they will not be turning

to these books to get that information.

This 300 page tome is chock full
of dragon lore, magical principles and knowledge gleaned from author
D.J. Conway’s 25 years of metaphysical experiences and, of course, her
own magical workings with dragons.

Books by D.J. Conway: The Celtic Dragon Tarot Moon Magick : Myth & Magick, Crafts & Recipes, Rituals & Spells By Oak, Ash & Thorn : Modern Celtic Shamanism The Celtic Book of Names

As I understand her premise,
dragons are creatures of the Astral Plane related to Elementals. They
and/or their potent energy may be summoned and used by magicians (if
approached in the proper manner) to enhance magical workings. This book
explains how it all works and provides rituals, spells, correspondences
and heck, even the kind of music and dance that dragons prefer. A whole
cosmology is described down to the minutest detail. Overall, it’s
really well written and researched (the “Dragons in Myth and Legend”
chapter is great!) and the Appendices provide good general witchy info.
But really, is there an audience out there for dragon-centered
spirituality?

A book like this would have made
any self-respecting Dungeon Master back in the seventies drool, but I’m
sorry to say it’s not my cuppa (Spirituali)tea. Sorry, DJ Conway fans.
I mean no disrespect. I actually like dragons, which is why I chose the
book to review. I was born in the year of the Dragon. I rooted for
Smaug in the Hobbit. I’ve collected dragon stuff over the years. Old
boyfriends have called me Dragon Lady..uhm, anyway, as I said I don’t
wish to offend but I really don’t know who I could recommend this
volume to. Then again, if you like DJ Conway’s other works or you are a
practitioner of dragon magic yourself, this book is certainly worth a
look.

When I first opened The Shining Tribe Tarot
I was immediately enthralled with the cards themselves. Each card
brings to mind images of Native American stories and mysticism. In
fact, the artwork is said to be drawn from Stone Age rock art, Native
American and African shamanism, Australian Aboriginal art, and the
Kabbalah. It is no wonder, as each card stirs feelings of ancient
wisdom that continue to hold truth and value in our modern day lives.
The cards are different: instead of the expected Minor Arcana Wands,
there are Trees representing the Fire element. Rivers, Birds and
Stones, stand in for the usual Cups, Swords and Disks. Personally, I
enjoy the use of such elemental symbols, drawn straight from the
natural world, for it seems to touch a more ancient place within
myself, a place more tribal and rooted in the Earth.

The
deck comes with a superb guidebook, with each card carefully explained.
The book is very easy to read and follow, even for a newcomer such as
myself. At the end of the book, Rachel takes time to suggest possible
spreads and includes a glossary, as well as an index of name changes
she implements in these cards. For instance, the 12th Major Arcana card
is named “Hanged Woman,” rather than the more traditional “Hanged Man,”
which may also account for my strong appreciation of these cards, for I
tend to enjoy cards that are more woman-centered and woman-identified.
I would certainly recommend this deck and accompanying manual to anyone
who is searching for a slightly different tarot and/or a deck that
reaches into the ancient times where mysticism and symbols were more a
part of everyday life and taught all the lessons.

In the dark time of the year, there’s no more enjoyable reading for
me than garden and seed catalogs. This new book by Patricia Telesco
was an ideal supplement to my catalog reading and my sketches and plans
for my spring garden in my new home.

This was a fun book to spark ideas in even the most experienced
gardener. She offered suggestions for gardening by the moon cycles,
gardening with crystals, and blessing the land. She also gave
tips on fertilizers and companion plantings for those with little or
no gardening experience.

The bulk of the book described specific gardens designed for a
particular goddess. She included historic and cultural information
about the goddess, suggested plants that the goddess held dear,
patterns in which to lay out the garden to harmonize with that goddess,
colors, stones, and decorations that honor that goddess, how to
orient and adapt the garden to fit your garden and its location, and
what to do with the harvest afterward.

She selected goddesses from many different cultures, which was a
welcome sight to me. And I enjoyed reading her suggestions, which were
creative and evocative. I was disappointed that she did not include
drawings for any of the gardens, to see how she’d suggest grouping the
plants to be visually appealing and practical. And I wished she had
footnoted her information so that I could read more about a particular
goddess. For instance, I didn’t know the Egyptian goddess Kefa before
reading here about a garden dedicated to Her. It would have been
helpful to have the Kefa chapter footnoted with a resource or two
specifically about Her, rather than going to the bibliography at the
end of the book and guessing which might be the one to explore(Most
of the bibliography was about gardening and herbology, not mythology).

But despite these quibbles, I still think the book offers some
wonderful ideas and is worth the purchase. Enjoy your own dreams of
spring!

The
progression of the soul after death is a mystery that has been
contemplated since ancient times. In Destiny of Souls, Dr. Michael
Newton shares his work with and case studies of past life regressions
to reveal the spiritual realm beyond death.

Dr. Newton holds a doctorate in
Counseling Psychology, is a certified Master Hypnotherapist and is a
member of the American Counseling Association. He describes himself as
a traditional hypnotherapist who was initially skeptical about the use
of hypnosis for metaphysical regression. He subsequently stumbled upon
past life regressions in his practice and over the years embarked upon
a path of research which enabled him to construct a model of the spirit
world and its processes.

In this book Dr. Newton gives us
a view of the afterlife as an orderly and loving place of regeneration,
learning and progress in-between incarnations. His case studies review
the process the soul goes through after death beginning with some of
the therapeutic techniques recently departed souls use to aid the
grieving processes of the living left behind. He also explores the
concepts of Angels or Heavenly Hosts, Spirit Guides, ghosts, and nature
spirits as reported in his regression sessions with clients and their
relations to the myths and legends of Earth.

He goes on to explore and
describe the process souls go through to recover from their
incarnations before they are able to rejoin their collective soul
groups. His subjects describe the greater soul community extensively
as a loving and orderly place/existence where souls are guided to learn
from their past lives so that they may be enabled to move on to new
incarnations and so learn new lessons.

He gives in great detail
descriptions of the progression of levels souls go through on their way
towards growth and enlightenment, their access to their Akashic
records, aura color associations and much more. In like manner, Dr.
Newtons case studies also describe the evaluation process a soul
encounters, as well as the appearance and composition of the Elder
beings, which evaluate it. Some of his more interesting studies cover
the idea of soul-mates as well as groups of souls that incarnate
together over and over.

I found much of Dr. Newtons book
to be quite interesting, however, some of the case studies became
rather tedious, especially as similar information is often repeated.
Despite the many excerpts from his case studies, his overall message is
one of hope in that as we grow in awareness of the true meaning of
perfection, so too will the quality of existence expand to encompass
that awareness.

I would recommend this book
especially to the reader who is engaged in pursuing some of the more
contemplative questions of the meaning of life and death. Whether or
not you accept Dr. Newtons view of life after death, he does bring up
stimulating theological and ethical issues which engage the reader in
deeper thought.

“Do not judge a book by its cover,” it is said. This

would have been good advice for me. From the cover, I

had expected this to be a book of croning rituals. But

it really wasn’t.

So what was it? The author identified seven stages

of transition that a woman goes through as part of the

menopausal process, and suggests ways for women to

move most easily through those transitions. She

doesn’t create formal rituals for these milestones,

but she draws parallels to various scenes in Marion

Zimmer Bradley’s “Mists of Avalon” to illustrate the

menopausal transitions with them.

For instance, the first rite of menopause is

“summoning the barge.” Our biological clocks indicate

that the time has come, and our inner timekeepers

summon the vessel to take us to the next step. She

sees this stage as a deliberate act by the life force,

not a haphazard occurence. While women may be

surprised by the appearance of the barge, the author

believes most women welcome it. The vessel takes them

from an outward life self-denial, career, family, and

self-discipline into a life that is more focused

inward. Their souls called for the barge, needing the

emotional and spiritual nourishment of developing

their own selves.

There are no scripted rituals for each rite. What

the author points out are the things that will come up

for each woman at that stage in the journey, and makes

suggestions as to how to handle or approach each one.

The last rite of the seven, the crowning of the crone,

does have a suggested ritual to be done with a

community of adults and children. It’s not scripted,

but it has a clear outline to follow if you were to

write one for yourself or someone else.

The appendix has a good glossary of hormones and

remedies, and affirmations for each of the seven rites

of menopause. I appreciated the affirmation section of

the glossary, as I do think they are very powerful

tools for personal transformation, and I think the

author did a nice job in creating these particular

affirmations.

In summary, this book was a short but valuable

addition to a woman’s library on menopausal resources.

I have not yet gone through menopause, but I am sure

that when I summon my barge, I will give this book

another reading.

Celtic Druidism has been a path steeped in mystery with a power at one with the earth and as ancient as the land from whence it comes. In her book, Exploring Celtic Druidism, Sirona Knight gives the reader a look into the history, mythology, beliefs and practices of Celtic Druidism. Sirona Knight is trained in a form of Celtic Druidism known as Gwyddonic Druidism, a Welsh tradition. In enchanting detail Sirona reviews the myriad aspects of the Goddess and the God, their connection to and expression of humanity’s link to everything or Oneness. As she puts it, “when you struggle with your world, you’re struggling with yourself”.

 

Sirona takes the reader on a step by step journey which enables those seeking to start along the path of Celtic Druidism. Some of these steps range from gathering and consecrating one’s magical tools or working with divine teachers and choosing a craft, totem and secret name. She tells about initiation as a rebirth and a promise to work in harmony with Oneness.

Sirona teaches the basics about Celtic Druidic altars, circle casting, rituals and Celtic Druidic philosophies. She also writes about the Wheel of the Year with its associated lunar and solar festivals. Sirona tells about the Druidic Five Magical Works or little works as they are also called. These are the art of creating and utilizing talismans, pentacles, binding, healing and the cone of power as a means to “attain magical goals and create a positive life pattern”.

I found this to be an interesting book with many similarities towards Celtic and American Wicca. This book would be a good starter book for those with an interest in Druidic beliefs and even to those who are started along the Wiccan path. While much of the information seemed to be basic in comparison to in-depth studies which can be required or attained in some traditions, I found reading it to be a re-affirming experience. The continuing trend towards reconnection to the old ways and the feminine aspect of the godhead are movements which I personally hope this book enables onward. I hope that other readers are able to find the sense of reflection and peace which I experienced while reading Sirona Knight’s book. Blessed Be.