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I was sent a copy of this book to review back in March. Looking around the blogosphere, I'm thinking that the publisher must be plugged into our informal magick blogging circle because fellow blogger Rob was sent a copy to review as well. I recommend that you take a look at Rob's review in addition to mine, as he makes some good points about the book's weaknesses from the perspective of an experienced magical practitioner. He wound up not recommending the book, and while I agree with a number of his criticisms my impression is more positive so long as its target audience is taken into account.
Let me be clear - this is not a book that I would buy for two reasons. First of all, I am not nor have I ever been a Wiccan, and there are a number of assumptions in the book coming directly from that worldview which I disagree with, in some cases quite strongly. Second of all, I doubt that even an intermediate magical practitioner is going to find anything new or useful in it. Nonetheless, that's not who the book is aimed at. This is the sort of book that is intended to sit on a shelf at a bookstore and attract the attention of seekers who know nothing about magick or Wicca and want to learn about it from a very basic perspective. I don't know that many readers of this blog fall into that category, and the book is certainly not targeted at those of you who come here to read my articles on theoretical models of magick or advanced spellwork techniques.
What I like best about the book is that even if you know absolutely nothing it contains enough information to get you started practicing right away. The techniques that it covers are limited, but one of the things that bothers me about a lot of beginning books on magick is that in too many cases there isn't much "magick" you can really do with them aside from bits of psychological trickery here and there. You don't learn how to do effective magick by reading and studying, you learn how to do it by practicing. The four sections of the book - Altar Magick, Candle Magick, Pendulum Magick, and Healing Magick - give you techniques that are simple but which at the same time can be used to do some genuine magical work. Altar Magick tells you how to set up a basic ritual space, Candle Magick covers some very basic sorcery, Pendulum Magick explains a simple method of divination, and Healing Magick touches on introductory energy work.
That the book is set up to encourage magical practice relates back to my recent discussion with Rob in that there is pretty much no way anyone could pick up this book as an introduction to Wicca and get the idea that Wiccans don't cast spells. I wouldn't have even considered that concept as a possibility except for the media attention around the case of Carole Smith who apparently believes it. Since then, though, I've heard there are apparently a fair number of Wiccans out there who don't practice themselves and a few who will insist that it's not something Wiccans even do. They must be learning that "somewhere", probably from bad introductory books. For all its simplicity, this book is not going to be encouraging that attitude. If this is your first exposure to Wicca, which seems to be the author's intent, you'll understand right away that generally speaking Wiccans do cast spells and at the same time learn a few simple ones of your own that can help you out right away.
In Rob's review, he comments that he isn't clear on why the book leads off with Altar Magick, as he considers it the weakest section. From a beginner's standpoint I think it makes sense, though - if you're going to sit down and do some magick you need a space to perform it in before getting started. And while advanced practioners see an altar as a very simple thing - flat surface, some images, some tools, and you're done - one of the things that I have learned over the years of trying to coach people through the casting of magical spells is that rank beginners are unsure about "everything". As I see it the author's intent with this section was to go into enough step-by-step detail regarding the creation of an altar space that most of these questions would be answered. "Do it however you want" doesn't work with novices. Even if you say, "Some magicians do it this way, some do it that way" they'll still ask you to tell them which one is better. And "whichever one feels most natural to you," the correct answer, usually only confuses them.
As an aside, I'm convinced that this is not because beginners are necessarily stupid, but rather that there's so much nonsense about magick in the popular culture that it's hard to cut through it all. Movies and television programs constantly depict spells in which if one tiny thing is overlooked or done wrong the consequences are disastrous, which is nothing like reality. The free-flowing, artistic aspects of magick are rarely discussed or even addressed in media treatments. Rather, it's all about whether or not you can pronounce "wingardium leviosa" with exactly the correct intonation. Once you start practicing and get a feel for how the magick works you can experience for yourself how ridiculous this mindset is, but how is a beginner supposed to know? A book like this, that gets you working magick right away, can help.
This fear of doing something wrong is also one of the reasons I think the author chose not to include various negative symbols in the book. While I think that the "Wiccan Rede" and "Threefold Law" concepts the book emphasizes are beyond silly ("Harm None" is ridiculous because you can't exist without harming something, and the "Threefold Law" is in my experience an unsupported superstition), I can see where the emphasis of positive symbolism can serve to reassure the beginning practitioner that they're not going to, say, unleash an army of Deadites if they can't quite remember that phrase from "The Day the Earth Stood Still". More advanced magick does require exploration of those darker paths, but so long as this is understood there's nothing wrong with starting off on the the brighter, happier ones. It's also true that the methods in this book are really too basic for sending out curses safely - that requires a more detailed understanding of containment structures, Godhead assumption, delivering charges, and so forth than I think would be appropriate for a book written at this level.
So my take is that this book is a decent introduction to Wiccan magick and a beginning student could certainly do a lot worse, judging from some of the attitudes that I have encountered over the years in the Pagan community. At the same time, though, keep in mind that being neither a beginner nor a Wiccan it's hard for me to compare it with other books on the same topic written for that particular audience as I've hardly read any of them. Also, if you already have a magical practice and some basic technical understanding you're going to find something more advanced than this book a lot more useful.
Want to buy your own copy of "The Big Little Book of Magick" by D.J. Conway? Order from my Books and Media page and you can help support Augoeides.
Suggested ebooks:
John Frederick Charles Fuller - The Star In The West A Critical Essay On The Works Of Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley - Lecture On The Philosophy Of Magick
People who have been practicing magick for more than a little while will often say that the practice of magick is a lifestyle. Sure, there are folks out there for whom magick is just a hobby of sorts - we tend to equate them to Sunday Christians (those who only practice when it's convenient for them rather than every day). The best practitioners live and breathe magick at every moment of every day, or at least try to. Every action you perform can be imbued with intent and mindfulness that makes it magick. This is as true for Shadow practitioner as it is for anyone else, and is perhaps even more important.
Shadow Magick is serious work. It requires the practitioner to be absolutely honest with themselves: to pay attention to what they do and why, to examine their own motivations and feelings, and to own up to the consequences of their actions. Shadow Magick doesn't work if you do a ritual with absolute honesty and intent and then bugger off and start lying to yourself and others. Shadow Magick is designed to change the way you look at and interact with the world. You "have" to integrate it in your everyday life for it to work properly. Shadow practice is always going to be more effective when integrated into your life than otherwise. The bulk of Shadow Magick's formal practice is made of rituals and exercises to recognize our shadow selves, to see ourselves and our world more clearly, to integrate our shadows, and to transform ourselves. These practices need to be supported by our everyday actions, but it isn't easy.
Living shadow every day means being very, very self aware. Self-destructive habits, meaningless routines, and self-deception can all kill shadow work. You need to be able to step back out of the every day and look at what you're doing and why, and whether or not your actions are really supporting you. Too many of us are trapped in routines and habits that just take up time for no real benefit or, even worse, that actually send us backwards. Living shadow means looking critically at every action you take and asking yourself if it gives you a benefit. Your actions can help you earn a living, gratify your senses, make you feel good, help you improve yourself, help someone else, etc. Are there things that you do that don't actually benefit you? Why do you do them? ("Because you always have" is not a sufficient answer.) If you can't answer that, then it's time to stop doing it. Living shadow means acting mindfully.
Even more difficult than being aware of what you do is being aware of what you think and feel. Yes, living shadow means looking at your feelings under a microscope. It's not exactly a comfy process, but it's necessary. Are your thoughts and feelings based on truth, or are you twisting the facts to fit the way you want them to? Are you angry at your friend because she actually wronged you or just because she did something totally benign that made you feel threatened or did you just misinterpret what she did? Look at the facts of a situation objectively before you make decisions. Get an outside objective opinion if you need one (someone who has their own experience of the situation, not just your [probably biased] description). This examination is most important when you find yourself thinking negative thoughts or experiencing negative emotions because they have such tremendous power to color your entire experience. What a waste to spend all day angry because of a simple misunderstanding. Even worse, how are you supposed to do magick to see yourself more clearly when you've spend eight hours in self-delusion - that's energetic moment that will ruin the most carefully planned working. Being mindful of our thoughts and actions helps us to sustain the magickal momentum we begin in our workings and makes it more effective.
Of course, being mindful of our emotions does not mean we don't feel them. We all have moments when we feel things that we'd rather not or that seem counterproductive to our plans. There's nothing wrong with that - we're just regular human beings not bodhisattvas. The trick is to experience our emotions and then let them go, rather than hanging on to them and stewing in our own juices. For example, when I get cut off in traffic I get furious and that anger will stay with me for a while, depending on just how close the bastard got to hitting me. When I step back from the situation I realize that I get angry because someone has endangered me for no good reason and forced me to modify my behaviour unexpectedly. What I'm really feeling is a flash of fear and panic, and being forced to feel those negative emotions makes me angry. Knowing that my anger is really caused by fear will allow that anger to dissipate once I'm secure in my physical safety. My anger is a defense mechanism that fills me with adrenaline so that I can deal with danger. It's a useful emotion that serves a purpose, but it can be destructive if I don't truly understand it. I'm not actually angry with the other driver, I'm afraid for myself - that's a big distinction. Shouting at the other driver or getting road rage, while oddly satisfying, does nothing to satisfy my need for safety and thus won't actually help deflate my anger. I can feel the fear and anger, recognize them for what they are, and then let them go. Unfortunately, it's hard to step back when we're in the midst of strong emotions and if you can't do it at first that's ok. When you've calmed down a little take some time to examine what you were feeling and try to identify the root causes. Once you learn to do this after having strong feelings it will become easier to do so while you're feeling them. Much of the practice of meditation is designed to help people do just this, and for many people it can take a lifetime.
Living shadow means being mindful in your everyday life and making choices that continue the energetic momentum of your workings. Having the courage to be truly honest with yourself during your everyday life and not just in circle is difficult. In circle we know we're in a safe space and we usually have the time to take care of ourselves if we have disturbing realizations, in our workaday lives we rarely have this luxury. Make this level of awareness a goal and work towards it slowly. Allow yourself to progress at whatever pace you need and just see what happens.
A few resources that I found helpful:
Suggested ebooks:
Sirona Knight - The Cyber Spellbook Magick In The Virtual World
Joseph Ennemoser - The History Of Magic Vol 1
Anonymous - The Basics Of Magick
We've all seen in the movies where the desperate girl goes to the witch or the sorceress and asks her for a love potion to make the man she loves fall for her...
Is it right to do? Would you do it? Who does it harm? Who ends up getting hurt?
Love magick is an interesting, problematic and debatable subject. These are my thoughts:
If you were to use a love spell or potion to draw a specific person to you then surely you are manipulating that person? Making them do something that is against their own free will? And that goes against the witches rede "do what you will, but harm to none".
Personally before I undertake a love spell, or indeed any spell come to that I ask myself does this fall in line with the rede?
Questions for you - What is my intent in performing this work? Is this spell influenced by anger, hatred, lust, greed, jealousy or envy?
If your answer is yes, then if you follow the rede you must (said in a loud boomy voice)...'step away from the spell'.
A true witch that follows the rede would not use manipulative magick to negatively influence another person for their own personal gain. One of the main ideals of this path is to live in harmony and balance with the natural rhythms of life, not to manipulate them for selfish ends.
If you proceed with the spell regardless of the rede, then you are playing with the forces of the threefold law and erring on the side of dark magick - on your own head be it!
Once you have created and released this energy, it will acquire life, form and substance. It will run it's course, and the final outcome through the laws of cause and effect may not be what you wanted. The potential for great harm to both yourself and others is very evident in such a working.
I will re-iterate these are my views on the subject, others may think differently. But for me? It ain't worth it!
Who would want a lover that was brought to you falsely anyway?
However, on the positive side of love magick - I do believe in helping the universe to provide love in your life.
A love spell or working to bring love generally into your life
To bring happiness and harmony to a relationship you already have
To offer out to the universe a 'shopping list' of characteristics you would like a new partner to have
All fine, none of those go against the rede or play dangerously with the threefold law. Those intents are all put out there for the universe to deal with, and don't target a specific persons free will.
With Valentines Day coming up - bring some love into your life!
Tansy
x
All images are taken from Kitchen Witch website
Suggested ebooks:
Aleister Crowley - Intro Magick
Daniel Defoe - A System Of Magic
Anonymous - The Basics Of Magick
