Witch: a Magickal Journey: A Hip Guide to Modern Witchcraft Book

For anyone beginning to delve into Wicca, Witch: A Magickal Journey is a marvellous introduction. Subtitled "A hip guide to modern witchcraft", it is a personal, quirky, idiosyncratic and perhaps above all both fun and informative book. For those readers still harbouring old misconceptions, the author states right at the beginning that witchcraft has nothing whatsoever to do with Satanism: "Most Witches find the idea of a God who'd create a demigod of evil with whom to play cosmic war-games a little mystifying". She also expands the well-known Wiccan Rede to "Do what you will as long as you don't interfere with anyone else's free will".Horne covers a lot in this book: the magical correspondence of numbers, colours, crystals and herbs; herbal remedies and spells for various illnesses; animal partners (usually known as familiars); how to cast circles and make a sacred space; what's needed on a witch's altar; when to be skyclad and when to wear clothes; over 50 pages on "The Wiccan Wheel of the Year"; and a whole host of spells for all occasions. But this is a guide rather than a manual: "Witchcraft is about using your initiative and being resourceful, so learn from traditional ways of going about things but be ready to expand on that too and create the traditions of tomorrow". There's a very thoughtful section on love spells, where she stresses "not to specify one particular person as this is both manipulative and potentially disastrous". The most important love spell of all, she says, is learning to love yourself--and she includes a ritual to help with what many people find so difficult to do.This book is a very easy read, with a chatty, informal style throughout. One word of warning: don't leave it lying around where children or your Great Aunt Maud might find it; some of Horne's language is, shall we say, forthright, and there are sections on magical sex. --David V BarrettRead More