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I came across this article by Mat Auryn (author of the super popular Psychic Witch) today - he went around and interviewed basically the most famous Traditional Witches/authors, from Gemma Gary to Lee Morgan to Daniel Schulke, what books they'd recommend to someone curious about the Craft. They give detailed reasons so it's rather interesting. I'm familiar with some of these titles and I think they're great additions to a bookish witch's library at any level, I've added a few to my reading list! https://www.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2017/11/09/book-recommendations-trad-craft-witches/
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Greetings, I’ve been a Seeker for a while now, reading almost everything on this forum, I must say I am so very grateful to have found this community here, at the right time I needed it and now I feel it’s time that I posted something, to follow my introduction.I will first tell you a little bit more about my practice, my surroundings, I feel I have learnt a lot from you by reading your posts and comments so I believe it is only natural that I explain a little more in depth about where I come from and my habitat. I grew up in the countryside, with my grandparents, feeling a profound connection to nature and extremely drawn to certain plants that later I would find out that are some of the most potent in magical practice. Picking up little stones that felt protected me, always aware of what went on around me, in both nature and people’s cycle of birth, life, death. Magical realism at its best, something that now aids me both in my literary career (I am a published poet, among others) and magic. I moved to the city when I was 7, started questioning every rule the society and religion were preaching (I live in an Orthodox country, in the Balkans), so many things seemed unnatural to me. I never lived with my father, but up until I was 14, he lived in the same city I did and somehow I went to him with all my questions, learning about his practice as a practitioner of magic and some of the theory around it. Around the age of 12, I started trying tarot divination, mirror scrying, they all led to great results. I once tried to astrally project, I think I was 15 at the time, and it took me just a few minutes to start ‘floating’ around the room. I am not bragging about this, it is merely an introduction to my consequent dilemmas, I know it’s not a big deal around here. My father moved away and kept moving to this day, from city to city, from country to country, leaving me with a bunch of theoretical insights but less practical stuff. For a while, I tried to focus on life, high-school, college, jobs, then a family, trying to convince myself that magic is no child’s play and once you start, really start on the path, there is no going back and it must be taken very seriously. Of course, not practicing ritualistically or however you wish to name it didn’t mean that my natural 'witchiness' was put to rest, but just that my magic would occur organically, with not so much effort. In the past few years, life really got in the way of everything, I went through a few years of being very depressed, but I have rearranged my life in the past year and started feeling this strong calling to start my ‘serious’ journey on the magical path. Then I found this forum and started reading more and more, about your practice, some books (the good books are so hard to find, though, other than the old sacred texts and Eliphas Levi, Aleister Crowley, etc., some newer books that can’t be found online and are out of print, man, that really is hard and all the wiccan content online is annoying). Now, as you may have noticed from what I wrote here, I am a cautious creature. I have only been using my own ‘power’ up until this point in life and perhaps some of nature’s as well and I could see that most of you work with guide spirits, ancestors, deities. I get this and I would really like to learn more about this. I believe that learning must come first, though of course most learning is done through practice. I guess it is part of my protection, something that I must take further. It would clearly be easier for me to be living closer to nature at this point, but it so happens that I live in a flat in a crowded city. 4 days of the week, my 7 years old son is with me, also, he is very sensitive as well, and an empath, like me, so it’s him really that I must protect the most. Once I start with the ’serious practice’, I don’t want weird lingering energies around the house. I feel that the best for me would be to use the magical circle (again, it’s mostly mental, for protection), as a sacred space in which I feel the most part of the magical activities and spirit work should take place, I feel this strongly, also because the energies would not scatter around and grow in a specific circle, also because I feel it’s good to have a space where you can start a new ritual and finish it when I feel it’s over. I feel I must say, what I am mostly interested in to achieve through magic is of course, knowledge, and the ability to heighten my healing powers, astral travel to places I feel I need to go and learning about past lives which may lead to learning about the goal I need to accomplish in this life. Now, most of you say that your spirit guides and ancestors protect you from potentially malevolent entities, etc. Now is where my questions really start B) ^_^ 1. When you say ancestors, I believe it’s not just blood-related family from the past, but I guess ancestors could also mean spirits that have a strong connection to our spirit, from past lives or from the time we spend in the spirit world, am I being mistaken here? 2. I could not find enough information on spirit guides, I wonder to what extent can they be trusted? Who are they and why would they have such a big interest in us, Unconditionally? I couldn’t emphasize this enough, Unconditionally. 3. Before I start on any ritualistic spirit communication and astral traveling, I feel I have to learn more ways to protect myself, my surroundings and ways to banish those entities that might become harmful. Do you have any insights on this or reading material I could look into? It would be greatly appreciated. Also, I believe that even benevolent entities and spirits can harm us without meaning it, as their energies are so potent and their mere presence and touching could prove problematic sometimes, am I right or is this something that I shouldn’t ‘worry’ about? This is it for now, I thank you all for your patience in reading, I look forward to sharing great conversations with you. I must now run to a meeting, trying to develop a music and arts festival that draws awareness on global warming, deforestation and pollution, I think this is a time when the material world could use all the help and assistance we can provide. You all have a wonderful, magical day! p.s.: I can't tell if the font color is alright, I am meaning to use a white font on a black background, does it show the same for you?
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Moon Books is an imprint of O-Books (John Hunt Publishing) and they have graciously offered to take part in our first publisher pitching contest. The prize: a chance to go through the entire proposal system for an opportunity to score a contract for publication. This contest is open to anyone who is interested in submitting a proposal for a manuscript that is either written or partially written. The proposal can cover any aspect of Paganism: Asatru; Druidry; Heathenism; Wicca; Witchcraft, etc., but it must be non-fiction. To enter, please submit the following information, via email, to Trevor Greenfield (trevor.greenfield(at)o-books.net), Submissions Editor for Moon Books: Author Name;Book Title;Book Status (Draft, Complete, Percent Complete);Book Summary (100 word maximum);Author Biography (100 word maximum);Audience (If you had 500 copies, who would you sell them to and how?, 200 words maximum);Attach a sample of the manuscript (25,000 minimum final word count).The deadline for this contest is noon on Friday, September 30th. Each entry will receive a reply within five days. Good luck! Reblogged from the Pagan Writers' Community.
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Being in the UK for only a few days this time, I wanted to make the most of it by gathering as much relevant material as possible about witchcraft and other magic paths. I went to the antique shops in Lewes but this was quite a disappointment. Even though there are lots of interesting old things, it was not quite what I was looking for. I did find the first book about witchcraft in one small bookshop. (Witchcraft, A beginner's guide, Teresa Moorey, 1999.) It was really interesting, lots of good information about the craft but the part of religious in it is quite high, that's the only bad point for me. Hence I did what I do with everything, analyze it and take the good bits out :). One of my friend talked about a bookshop in Eastbourne, it's not too far from the train station. They have a massive collection of books for every kind of spiritual / magic / occult craft. After a good hour spend rummaging through all the books (from floor to ceiling, literally) I bought The Roots of Witchcraft by Michael Harrison, 1975 which is a really good book for it explains how Man has evolved up to the point of acquiring consciousness and how through historical facts Witchcraft has evolved through the ages. Other books were The Earth Spirit, John Michell, 1975, complete book of Natural Magick, Cassandra Eason, How to make white magic, Raje Airey, The secret of the runes, Horik Svesson, The druids, Stuart Piggott, 1968, Tarot, the royal path to wisdom, Joseph D'Agostino 1985. I intend to buy Herbs: Medicinal, Magical, Marvelous! for it allies the scientific qualities of the herbs as well as the spiritual and mystical qualities. So that's a start, now I need to read all this before buying new books. I also would like to know more about geomancy, any suggestion is welcome. As for the work I am doing now, I am doing some exercises to open myself to the flows of energy and meditating to be in harmony with who I am inside and bringing it outside. I need to affirm myself more, society and the pressure of the institutions is hard to overcome even if we say that "we don't care"; for some it's easier, but when there's a wild beast inside of you it's not easy to let it run free. I am trying to communicate with the different elements and energies around me. Yesterday I discovered that I had quite a good contact with birds. The owner of the house I live in has a parrot and I managed to establish friendly relationship with him (the parrot). I had a very good example that auras, waves, in other words "what emanate from people" is very important to the animals. A friend of mine was in the room and was not feeling comfortable around the parrot, and when the owner tried to give the parrot to her the parrot didn't want to approach her. Similarly, maybe due to my wild nature, the parrot was a bit reluctant to approach me at some point until I changed what I naturally emanate "I am an unpredictable predator" to "I won't do you any harm, I come in peace", and then the parrot came on my hand and up to my shoulder. Later on, the parrot didn't want to go back in his cage and I went towards him with the same message and he came willingly on my hand and then flew up on my head, then it went back into his cage with no trouble. This is a good experience for me. I really want an animal I can communicate with, my idea being of having some wild animal with which I establish a bound but I want to let it free. For example, if I have a bird, he/she will have a shelter inside the house but will be free to fly anytime. I thought about a prey bird but the legislation in most countries is very strict about it. As I am better with mammals, some kind of lynx or bobcat would be my preferred choice but then it is not easy to take care of it and let it wander free especially with other houses and people nearby. 1:16 UK time: Hewwww, something very unexpected happened. Last week as I had a huge spider in my room but wanted to increase my compatibility with nature I did not kill it as I usually do but simply put it into an open box. No need to say that it was gone in the morning. The funny thing is that I haven't had a spider in my room since then. Now the thing that have just happened, a wasp entered in my room (I'm very scared of wasps usually, but confronting my fears is part of the work I have to do) so as I have decided of harmonizing myself with nature and not being stupidly fussy about insects I made up my mind to accept them and everyone mind it's own business. Thus the wasp enters my room, I see it, having made up my mind I stay composed and stay on my bed. Then as I do want the wasp out of the room, I say "out" several times in a firm voice. The unexpected thing is that when I said "out" and directed my finger towards the window, the wasp, a good yard away, went bumping into the wall my finger pointed out, I then redirected my finger more appropriately towards the window saying "out" again and it went. Coincidence or the first results of the work I do on myself? I was so amazed by that that I needed to write it down ^^ That's it for today :)
