Recommended Witch Books:
Rituals & Spells
Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
Review:
Lavishly bound English translation of breathtaking facsimile illustrations from ancient papyri and carvings explaining how the dead should propitiate ancient Egyptian psychopomps and deities to earn rest and reincarnation.
Tags
- Egypt
- names; Nile
- tomb
- mummy
- history
- pharaohs
- pyramids
- masks
- afterlife
- Rituals & Spells
- costumes
- personification
- illustrated
- Africa
- art
- deities
- tradition
- language
- gods
- customs
- stone-carving
- goddesses
- appearance
- embalming
- pantheon
- chthonic
- temple
- ceremonies
- reincarnation
- nonfiction
- liturgy
- burial
- Recommended Reading
- magical: correspondences
- hieroglyphics
- mummification
Witchcraft Basics
Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft
Review:
The famous “blue book” features illustrated, authentically traditional magic authored by the first Gardner-trained Third Degree Witch to publish such material in America. However it cannot, as promised, impart the reader “the equivalent of Third Degree.”
Tags
- dream-work
- ritual
- European
- robe
- sabbats
- grimoire
- spells
- healing
- covenwork
- herbalism
- scourging
- gods
- magic
- solitary practice
- goddesses
- occult
- Gardnerianism
- paganism
- Olde Religion
- American
- circle: casting
- Witchcraft
- athamé
- esbats
- Priest
- channeling
- nonfiction
- divination
Witchcraft Basics
Dictionary of Ancient Magic Words and Spells
Review:
Extensive guide about more than 1,000 magical alphabets, phrases, symbols, and words that will help you pronounce, understand, and use them for maximum power; written by a respected occult author.
Tags
Witchcraft Basics
Etruscan Roman Remains
Review:
A facsimile copy of the folklorist’s authentic 1892 masterwork revealing the beliefs, customs, deities, formulas, recipes, rites, and spells practiced and prized by 19th-century Witches in Tuscany. Written by the President of the Gypsy-Lore Society, this classic is the only book to list names of pesky daimons that plague lonely men and women, etc.
Tags
- Italian
- recipes
- rituals
- persecution
- customs
- spellbook
- paganism
- ancient occult philosophy
- nonfiction
- Etruscan
- spells
- incubus
- magical formulas and recipes
- Olde Religion
- Pagan customs
- Pagans
- succubus
- daimons
- Tuscan Witches’ beliefs
- Rites
- European
- formulas
- deities
Witchcraft Basics
Goodly Spellbook, The
The Goodly Spellbook: Olde Spells for Modern Problems
Lady Passion (Dixie Deerman) & *Diuvei (Steven Rasmussen) (Sterling Publishing, 2nd edition, 2014)
Review:
Illustrated, definitive, fascinating guide to Witchcraft that explains how everyone can use common ingredients to work effective magic to help themselves, others, and the planet; written by trained, experienced Gardnerians.
Tags
- Roman
- attraction
- freemasonry
- Norse
- Voudon
- history
- reference
- conjure
- herbal medicine
- protection
- esbats
- spirituality
- Elements
- movement
- spell ingredients
- sites
- authentic
- German
- numerology
- Water
- illustrated
- Wicca
- cooking
- herbalism
- Puritans
- Initiation
- folklore
- entities
- music
- spellwork
- statues
- banish
- gesture
- offerings
- wind
- deities
- Witchcraft
- Crossing Over
- home
- purity
- nonfiction
- paranormal
- essential
- names
- Strega
- Craft terms
- Barbarous Words of Power
- ghosts
- oils
- world
- gods
- America
- culture
- invocation
- Renaissance
- ritual
- Activism
- European
- numbers
- Sumerian
- love
- Gerald Gardner
- body
- Golden Dawn
- oral tradition
- goddesses
- ceremonial magic
- cure
- Italian
- Russia
- sabbats
- African
- fascination
- and squares; medieval
- survival skills
- witches
- Gardnerian
- brew
- Greece
- Pagan dances
- tradition
- Earth
- cursing
- justice
- sacred: geometry
- spells
- Air
- fairies
- Meso-American
- symbolism
- cauldron
- New Forest Coven
- Burning Times
- grimoire
- Paleolithic
- reincarnation
- gatherings
- death
- kitchen
- substances; Santeria
- spirits
- ancient
- fertility
- mind
- travel
- occult
- Celtic
- guide
- persecution
- language
- nature
- daimons
- magical: colors
- scourging
- animals
- Fire
- monotheism
- the Mysteries
- Olde Religion
- chanting
- gypsy
- planet
- paganism
- polytheism
- divination
- décor
- secret
- cosmology
- Asian
- flowers
- mythology
- voces magicae
- practices
- Church
- healing
- practical
- ethics
- Priest
- dreamwork
- gems
- sex
- Pagan
- astrology
- fortunetelling
- Native American
- virtues
- Rites
- Priestess
- compendium
- herbs
- prevent pregnancy
- England
- principles
- Egyptian
- foods
- solitary practice
Witchcraft Basics
- By Lady Passion & *Diuvei
- Beliefs, Practices, & Traditions of Pagans, Witches, & Wiccans
- Fortune-telling & Divination
- Healing Arts
- Rituals & Spells
Greek Magical Papyri
The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells, Volume 1
2nd edition, trans. by Hans Dieter Betz (University of Chicago Press, 1996)
Review:
The title word “Demotic” isn’t a typo of demonic: That material is Coptic. The illustrated main corpus is a collection of 2nd-century B.C.E. to 5th-century C.E. Egypto-Greco-Roman magical spells, rituals, and invocations from ancient papyrus spellbooks, many of them found in the tomb of a magic man in Thebes. Also known as the Papyri Graecae Magicae, or PGM.
Tags
Witchcraft Basics
Key of Solomon
The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Solomonis)
ed. S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers (Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1972)
Review:
Illustrated ceremonial magic spells and techniques.
Tags
Witchcraft Basics
Long Lost Friend
The Long Lost Friend: A 19th Century American Grimoire
Johann George Hohman; ed. Daniel Harms (1820; Llewellyn Publications, 2012)
Review:
A goodly scholarly treatment and reprinting of the most famous American book on spells and herbal remedies — the authentic, early 19th-century Pennsylvania Dutch grimoire The Long Lost Friend. Edited with added spells from alternative versions by anthropologist Daniel Harms, and a foreword by Esoteric Archives curator Joseph H. Peterson.
Tags
Witchcraft Basics
Necronomicon
Review:
Marketed as real but utterly fake, the Necronomicon (“Book of Dead Names”) existed only in H.P. Lovecraft’s horror fiction, and even there only by allusion to its eldritch-sounding title. But if you’re a Lovecraft fan like *Diuvei, you’ll want to have it on your bookshelf just for its own sake — and to observe who does or doesn’t recognize it for what it is.
Tags
Witchcraft Basics
Sarava: Afro-Brazilian Magic
Review:
Thorough, illustrated explanation of Brazilian mystery religions such as Amer-Indian, Candomblé, and Umbanda, etc.; written by an experienced Wiccan Priestess.
Tags
- indigenous religions
- sacred substances
- illustrated
- scholarly
- customs
- superstitions
- paganism
- traditions
- herbs
- techniques
- Afro-Brazilian magic
- altered states
- astral
Witchcraft Basics
Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Three Books Of Occult Philosophy
Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (written 1509-10; tr. by James Freake, 1651; ed. by Donald Tyson, Llewellyn Publications, 2005)
Review:
Illustrated, archaic, authentic, essential: De Occulta Philosophia (Three Books of Occult Philosophy) is the most influential book on magic ever written. Agrippa was a Renaissance German knight, theologian, feminist philosopher, and defender of witches who wandered the courts of Europe learning about and advocating for magic as the true synthesis of religion and science. His celebrated and persecuted grimoire and textbook on magic was an inspiration for The Goodly Spellbook. Editor Tyson’s well-researched explanatory notes and illustrations more than make up for Freake’s awkward 17th-century translation from the original Latin, which unfortunately remains the only available version in English of all three volumes.
Tags
- daimons
- of weekdays
- entities
- magical alphabets
- deities
- European
- Western
- grimoire
- planetary squares
- philosophy
- herbs
- spheres
- magic
- numerology
- planets
- occult
- moon
- art of correspondences
- nature
- archaic
- natural
- celestial
- astrology
- ceremonial
- authentic
- of color
Witchcraft Basics
Wicca: A Guide For The Solitary Practitioner
Review:
Simplistic stuff marketed to practitioners who work Witchcraft alone and, thus, can easily believe contentions posited by this magically untrained author.
Tags
Witchcraft Basics
Witches Bible
Review:
Illustrated with nude photographs, this book features modern British Alexandrian magic with an Irish emphasis; objectionable because: Its title is ungrammatical and contains an Xtian term, the term “complete” is arrogant, and the authors broke vows by including Gardnerian material forbidden to be printed.
Tags
- nudity
- Alexandrian magic
- ritual
- circle: casting
- sabbats
- England
- spells
- God
- spirits
- Goddess
- banishing
- esbats
- covenwork
- Elevation
- Initiation
- Ireland
- nonfiction
Witchcraft Basics
