The hag is an archetype we come across in many old stories, always frightening, always threatening. In this book, she reflects the deepest, wild, most mysterious and creative nature at the heart of every woman, the part that is dangerous and untamed, the part most in tune with the cycles of nature. The forces of nature themselves are frightening, simply because they are unpredictable and we can’t control them. We try to keep them at bay, keep them contained, in the same way that we try to contain our own deepest natures, ashamed of the fact we bleed, sweat, piss and shit. Girls in particular are taught to behave in a certain way, painting over the flaws, deodorising their natural odours, shaving their bodies and hiding their menstruation like a dirty secret, even calling it ‘the curse’: “Just as a culture loses its understanding and so its connection with its environment, so girls disallowed from exploring their own nature grow to be women disconnected from the basic cycles of their being, the tides of their hormones, appetites, talents, cravings and emotions.”

For children, imagination and reality have no boundaries, but as we grow we learn to conform to society’s expectations. But that artificial veneer of civilisation is little more than a puddle of light where we huddle together in fear of the primal darkness of limitless possibility which is the seething cauldron of creation and destruction: the womb of the Goddess. “That dark womb of creation is the core of woman; together with its currents and tidal flows of hormones, of blood, fertility, emotion, it is what makes a woman, drawing her into the tides and cycles all around her. It is her very nature. It is the centre of her creativity. But we’re afraid of the dark.”

We’re afraid to let go of what we believe to be ourselves - which in reality is nothing more than the sum of our inherited beliefs, prejudices and experiences - and sink back into the dark cauldron where we discover there is no ‘self’, only connection, transformation and change. Exploring this is not easy, we are afraid to surrender to the darkness, the nothingness – we want to keep to our safe pools of light, the things we know, our familiar boundaries; in the darkness, there are no reference points and madness can beckon. Some find it through drugs and can never find their way out again. Some spend years training themselves to access it. Some are projected into its realm by pain and illness, experiencing the shamanic crisis. In the darkness we face our self created monsters (the beliefs and ideas that restrict us) which must be fought or assimilated. But at its heart, the cauldron is a place of unlimited potential: “Yet here too is our dark goddess, she that is the formless unknown of complete release and pure potential. Deep within us, she is a well of serenity. Perceived through fear, however, she is the ugly horror of our eventual and inevitable annihilation…”

However, the central thrust (pardon the pun) of this book is woman’s owning and expression of her sexuality and the cauldron of her womb as the source of her power and deep connection with the Cosmos. Running with the metaphor of the hag as the untamed, innate power within every woman, the hedge-rider, the transcender of boundaries, the book explores female sexuality and the power of the wise wound, expounding on those well explored feminine archetypes (first encountered nearly sixty years ago in Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex) of virgin, mother and whore, adding bitch, witch and old bag, though here we have the virgin-hag, mother-hag etc, each drawing on hag-power (try that one, Spice Girls!) at each stage of life.
As a Pagan, I’m not entirely comfortable with this metaphor of the hag as woman’s wild power at whatever age. For me, the essence of the hag is that she is a hag, the initiator, the one that challenges our accepted ideas and beliefs, the one who makes us change in radical ways during times of crisis. She holds up the mirror to our deepest fears - the loss of youth, beauty, health and vigour, all the things that society insists we are valueless without; why else do we spend billions every year in an attempt to stave off the wrinkles and grey hairs? One thing has always bothered me about the story of Gawain: he only falls in love with Lady Ragnell when she is transformed into something socially acceptable to men, someone young and beautiful. He can’t love her as old and plain, because as we are constantly told, old and plain women are valueless. Of course, the story is an allegory of the hag of winter transformed into the maid of spring, and the sovereignty she owns is that of the land, but that is not the context of the story here.

And as a woman, I’m not comfortable with women being defined by the function of their wombs. Do we define men by the function of their penises? What about young women whose wombs don’t function? What about transsexual women? What about women who go through the menopause in their teens, twenties or thirties? Yes, the womb can be a source of raw power that connects us to the visceral cycles of nature, but we are far more than the sum of our parts. We also have intelligence, wisdom, spirit and soul. Archetypes can be broadly useful, but they can also imprison us. The male stereotyping of the function of women as either virgin, mother, whore, witch or hag has held women in chains for centuries.

The author describes the ‘old bag’ that emerges at the menopause: “Through that decade, with its beginning and its end often too pale to be perceived, most of us journey through two distinct periods of menopausal crises, each one marked by a flood of utter desolation: during the first we lose the joie de vivre, the second erasing any remaining sense of purpose. The point of being alive slips from our tired and sweaty fingers” and “For a while we’ve held the position of pivotal generation, in our family, in our community and in the workplace, but our inspiration is no longer the driving force.” Neither of those things was my experience of the menopause when I went through it in my mid-thirties. For me it was a hot cauldron of transformation, exciting, liberating and empowering; I emerged feeling more alive, connected and in touch with my power than I had ever been before – freed from the demands of my womb, in fact. Here I can’t help thinking that Emma has fallen into the very patriarchal trap she has been at pains to avoid throughout the book, a mode often perpetuated in the Pagan community with its Maiden, Mother and Crone archetypes (invented by male poet Robert Graves in the mid 20th century): maiden as potential, mother as productive, fruitful woman, and crone as woman past menopause (whether it happens in her 20s or 60s) in decline, useless, with no purpose, waiting to die as though a viable womb is the only mark of validity in a woman. That kind of thinking disempowers women. I want to rage as I think about the vibrant, powerful and funny women I know in their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s and beyond, powerful movers and shakers, philosophers, scientists, doctors, politicians, priestesses, prominent artists and business women, still active and influential into old age.

There is much I loved about this book (notably the early chapters) and much I violently disagreed with. It is beautifully written and like most of Emma’s books, deliberately provocative and designed to promote reflection and debate.
Anna Franklin

IN SPIRIT AND IN FLESH, Witchblood Vol. 1, Daniel Bran Griffith,

Hearth of the Turning Wheel 2008, Hardback, The Moonstone Sanctuary, 28 Priorway Ave, Borrowash, Derbyshire, DE72 3HW
This beautifully produced hardback book is really a Book of Shadows, a collection of rituals as used by the Hearth of the Turning Wheel, an independent coven in Derbyshire. There are rituals for every occasion here, and often a choice of rituals for the same occasion. What I love about the book is that it demonstrates how the rituals were developed and woven together using apt chants, invocations and poems discovered by coven members. Many people are not honest about their ritual sources, but here they are all fully referenced and credited, and it demonstrates how you don’t have to be afraid of creating powerful rituals using the inspiration of both modern writers and great poets of the past. There are also beautiful pieces written by coven members, and all the rituals are workable and well thought out. You may like to try them just as they are, or it may give you the confidence to create your own rituals in the same way. It’s interesting to see how another coven works, and I suspect this may well become a collector’s item in the future.
Anna Franklin

The author tells us that while the the judgemental father-god religion demands blind obedience with harsh punishments for those who do not obey, that sees love of others as conditional and views the earth and its creatures as things to be subdued, leading to war, toture and environmental degradation. On the other hand, the Mother Goddess religion is about unconditional love, which also applies to the earth and its denizens, leading to happy, prosperous people with the earth in balance. Dystopia versus Utopia. 54% of the world worships these sky/father/war gods, and the author argues that if humanity is to survive and be happy, we must switch back to the Goddess.

The premise of this book is valid and plausible but I struggled with the language and found it repetitive, annoying and very, very patronising: “But darlings, I’m not done. Our ancestors weren’t just brave, peaceful, fun-loving and rich...If you could go back and visit the Minoans, Neolithics or Indus-Valley people, you’d see among them not one evil Queen Bavmorda. You wouldn’t even see a good Queen Alora Danan. Nuh-uh. Our Goddess ancestors would not have stood for it. The evidence is good that they governed themsleves, thank you very much, and to heck with bully-boy (or bully-girl) rule.” Yes, it really is all written like that, and I had to grit my teeth most of the way through the book. It makes it hard to read and hard to take it seriously, which is a shame.
Briony Robinson

MAGICFOLK CD by Magicfolk, £12.95 incl. p&p from www.magicfolk.co.uk

Haunting and lyrical, Magicfolk’s folk-rock debut CD has  definite Pagan and  magical themes, with tracks like ‘Green Man’, ‘Persephone’ and ‘Sea Priestess’, the latter with lyrics adapted from Dion Fortune. The female vocals are pure and harmonious, while there is some brilliant guitar which is reminiscent of Santana [I kid you not]. There are a range of instruments with bass, drums, acoustic and electric guitars, flute, bazouki, keyboard, darbuka etc.  Mellow and easy on the ear, this CD is well worth a listen.

Tabitha Mara

SUMMONING THE FATES, A Guide to Destiny and Sacred Transformation, by Zsuzanna E. Budapest, ISBN 0-7387-1083-0, $15.95, original trade paperback.

Budapest, a pioneer of the women’s spirituality movement, introduces us to the three Fates that rule our lives. Not even the gods and goddesses can escape these raw forces of nature presiding over the past,, present and future. The author uses fairy tales, historical lore and personal anecdotes to describe the three sacred sisters who are especially active during out thirty-year life cycles: Urdh [youth], Verdandi [adulthood] and Skuld [the crone years]. By using these three fates learn how to deal with things that still trouble you from the past so that they are put to bed once and for all, or use which ever fate to determine what lies ahead.  You obviously can’t change what will be, but it will enable you to prepare you for what is to come.  By using meditations, spells, visualisation’s and the zodiac’s planets to determine what the future holds in store for you. Z. is very knowledgeable, as it is all written from personal experience so has a good idea what she is talking about, and could surmise what the outcome might be.  The book is very well written and well worth a browse.

Julie

BURNING WOMEN, Past Tense Publications, 56a Infoshop, 56 Crampton St, London, SE17 3AE, £2.50 including postage, 26pp, A5 booklet with card covers

This small booklet sets out to uncover the underlying causes of the witch trials, suggesting that the demonisation of women helped foster gender divides within the working classes, hindering class resistance to the emerging capitalism of the age.  The author makes a good case for his [or her since no author is credited] point of view. This is by no means a new idea, and while I would argue that the witch trails have far more complex and manifold causes, it is certainly an issue that should be examined in any study  of the witch trial phenomenon. 

Raven

EXPLORE VAMPIRES by Bob Curran, Heart of Albion Press, ISBN 978 1 905646 03 6 £12.95, 160pp.

This is the latest in Heart of Albion Press’s excellent series of introductory books, the Explore series. When I say introductory, I don’t mean that they are fluffy and  don’t explore the subject in any depth, because they do.  Explore Vampires is written by Dr Bob Curran, an expert in Irish folklore and history, and author of many books.  Here he tells us that vampires have always been with us, the returning dead intent on drinking the blood of the living. While most of us get our concepts of what a vampire is from movies and TV, Bob Curran goes back into ancient history to trace the roots of the vampire myth., including Roman vampire witches and the vampiric fairies of the Borders, the Redcaps.  The evolution of the myth is traced throughout the centuries, and there are modern anecdotes collected in Ireland by the author. By the time Dracula was written, the vampire had passed into legend, but in the words of the author, fact became fiction. The vampire became an erotically charged, suave, well-dressed aristocrat. The book is illustrated throughout with wonderful line drawings by Ian Brown. This is a enthralling read, and one I would highly recommend.

Tabitha Mara

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JEWISH MYTH, MAGIC AND MYSTICISM by Rabbi Geoffrey W. Davies, Llewellyn, ISBN 0-7387-0905-0, $24.95, 384pp, trade paperback

There are over 1000 entries in this encyclopaedia from amulets and angels to zodiac and zombies. This is a fascinating snapshot into Jewish occult teachings from the Bible to the Kabbalah and beyond.  The author describes mysticism as the quest for a personal encounter with God, and I think most of us would agree. The approaches we take  may be many and varied, but we all travel towards God, we hope. Jewish occult teaching has always been something secret and close guarded, but highly influential on western magic and thinking, and it is important for every western occultist to understand the origins of many of their magical systems and practices. This is a valuable reference book that should be on the shelf of any student of mysticism, magic or folklore.

Raven

ENTRANCED BY THE GODDESS, Folklore in North Indian Religion by Sudha Chandola, Heart of Albion Press,  ISBN: 978-1-905646-08-1,  £12.95, 194 pp, paperback

The book is a discussion/summary of goddess worship in northern India. The author makes the point that Hindus believe that, although they have different names in different avatars, essentially there is one Goddess who is mother of all things. The book is split into two parts. Part one deals with the cultural aspects of goddess worship in India. The first three chapters are a catalogue of instances of goddess worship in Indian literature and folklore, with many illustrations from songs and tales. The fourth chapter deals with the subject of mantras and the ways that they can be used to invoke and even control deities.  Chapter five deals with the attendant gods and goddesses of the Supreme Mother. Part two is mainly concerned with case studies of deity possession in Indian culture in the present day. I found it difficult to read the first part of the book because there was little structure and the author did not present their argument in a logical manner. I did find some of the stories were very interesting and informative however. The second half of the book was more appealing to me and I found the case studies very enlightening.  The book is useful as a general guide to Indian beliefs about Goddess worship but I would not recommend it to a beginner.

Sally

FOLK-LORE OF EAST ANGLIA and Adjoining Counties by Nigel Pennick, Spiritual Arts and Crafts Publishing 2006, 25 Partridge Drive, Bar Hill, Cambridge, ISBN 0-9551184-2-5, no price given

This is a fascinating round up of various aspects of folk- lore from East Anglia. It covers various aspects of working class culture from festivals and feast days, buildings of local character, beliefs and usages, amulets, talismans and charms, traditional crafts and occupations and the lore of the landscape, as well as the lore of roads and transport and even recipes for local food and drink.

Nigel uses the hyphenated folk-lore, to denote the ascertained knowledge of the folk, the common people, rather than the term folklore, which denotes the study of tradition, rather than the practice of it, a study which overwhelmingly adopts the Marxist view that there is no transmitted working class wisdom and culture, but rather it is imposed from above. He takes the academically unfashionable view that there is continuity to be found here, that ancient beliefs and customs are practiced today, including new interpretations of old forms: “So long as the abilities of people to practise traditional techniques are not lost, then there are many new possibilities to be explored. Tradition need not involve slavishly copying the past. When the past is taken as the model for the present, it leads only to stagnation and the final demise of tradition itself. So long as the essence of tradition is maintained, the forms can go on evolving, producing dynamic new examples that nevertheless are recognizable as part of the tradition.”

Practices described in the oldest records tend to be accepted as traditional and assumed to have been practiced continuously since their archaic beginnings, even though these performances would, in actuality, have evolved and changed with time, with various and many influences, often untraceable and uncountable, not frozen from the moment of inception to the moment when the practice was recorded as ‘the definitive text’. There will have been many changes over the years, moving festivals and events to new places, the addition of new elements and the loss of old ones; continuity does not mean the fossilized maintenance of a practice, but the persistence of its character and spirit; ‘a dynamic continuance by the living in remembrance of those who went before and those who will come after we are gone’ Those practices that have lapsed and been reinstated are dismissed by scholars as ersatz ‘revivals’, dogmatic replication of something old, no longer relevant to modern life, invariably the spurious inventions of the middle classes.  Even when a new form of the tradition emerges, it is called a ‘revival’, implying that the event is less authentic than the earlier event which can have no cultural or spiritual meaning. Nigel sees this as an attempt to denigrate practitioners of folk traditions in pursuit of a political agenda. Participants in traditional crafts and festivals will attest that, instead, it is a joyous and meaningful expression of identity; that the mastering of a craft and its expression is a timeless reality. These elements give a true spiritual meaning to the participants.

Highly Recommended.

Anna Franklin

PRIMAL SIGNS Traditional Glyphs and Symbols

By Nigel Pennick, Spiritual Arts and Crafts Publishing, 25 Partridge Drive, Bar Hill, Cambridge, CB23 8EN, £8.95 plus £1.75 p&p, paperback, 186 pp

This major new work by Nigel Pennick is a very heavily illustrated book looking at the origins and use of glyphs, sigils, signs and symbols throughout history. As the author points out, in an age where we are used to TV images and advertising logos, we tend to take symbols literally, whereas in the past, any symbol stood for a many layered reality. Ancient religion was aniconic, with the indefinable gods represented by symbols. Hera, for example, was represented by a rough hewn plank of wood, and Aphrodite by a stone.  It was only later that the gods were depicted in human form. When the Celtic general Brennos entered a Greek temple, he laughed at seeing the gods represented as people. However, a symbol does not have a fixed meaning, this depends entirely on the context in which they were made and used, and this is what the book sets out to explore, from crosses, runes, sun, moon and stars, the Cosmic Egg, the Omphalos, hearts, swastikas, serpents, craftsmen’s marks and too many more to list here. This is an essential and fascinating book. I’ll leave the final works with Nigel:  “Symbols do not exist to be interpreted or decoded: they draw the observer inward to participate in the world of spirit.”

Tabitha Mara

SONGS OF WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC music CD available from The Museum of Witchcraft, £14 cheques payable to ‘The Museum of Witchcraft’, The Harbour, Boscastle, Cornwall, PL35 0HD or www.theoccultartcompany.co.uk

This collection of traditional folk songs, the fruit of many years research on the part of Graham King and Joyce Froome, features such folk luminaries as Martin Carthy and Alva. The fifteen songs all reflect themes of magic and witchcraft, from the shapeshifting transformations of The Two Magicians to the Otherworldy journey of Thomas the Rhymer. Included with the CD is an illustrated 32 page booklet explaining the mysteries of each song.  All in all, this is a beautiful and haunting compilation whose demonstrates the importance of magic in the British folk tradition. Highly recommended.

Tabitha Mara

Therion: Gothic Kabbalah. Music CD, Nuclear Blast, Germany 2007.

Heavy metal as a musical genre originated under the blood-red skies of the (then) industrial conurbation around Birmingham. Subsequently it has developed far beyond its native shores, but the shamanic spirit of Woden that the area of Wednesbury still carries remains there deep within it. Almost naturally, Northern Tradition imagery is a sub-genre of heavy metal music. In Scandinavia, categories such as Viking Metal have emerged from the early practitioners of the musical form such as the Tony Martin era Black Sabbath’s Tyr of 1990, with songs making reference to the eponymous god, references to Odin’s Court, Valhalla etc., but also Jerusalem. The flirtation of Norwegian Black and Death Metal bands with anti-Christianity around that time led some to church-burnings and murder that were justified at the time by apologists who claimed that they were only destroying churches built on sites of Pagan antiquity. Ironically, the oldest timber stave church burnt by the “Satanic Terrorists” had actually been moved to a new site in the 19^th century and was not on a Pagan hallowed place.

This tragic episode that fell into the trap of equating Paganism with Satanism was a dead end in terms of music and disastrous PR. But in more recent years, the Swedish metal band Therion have taken a more serious approach to the spiritual nature of the runes and the northern understanding of the nonmaterial world.

In 2001, Therion produced The Secret of the Runes, a song-cycle that dealt with the Northern Tradition coming-into being of the nine worlds, manifested through the runes. Combining classic metal musical forms with operatic singing. This is not the place to discuss Christofer Jonsson’s runic interpretations, derived from the eighteen spells of Havamál as interpreted by Johannes Bureus, Guido List and Sigurd Agrell. The latest offering from Therion is a double-CD that takes the themes of Swedish occultist Johannes Bureus (1568-1652), teacher and friend of two kings of Sweden, Carl IX and Gustavus Adolphus. Bureus wrote of a cubical stone that fell from heaven. It bore fifteen adalrunor – “noble runes” that serve as a mediating force between the heaven and earth. Therion takes Bureus’s mythos and, just as with The Secret of the Runes weaves invocations to the divine forces within the framework of operatic metal, taking up the various themes of Bureus’s Gothic Kabbalah in masterful ways. Runic creativity will always find news ways of manifesting. .

Nigel Pennick

A History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics & Pagans, by Jeffrey B. Russell & Brooks Alexander (Second Edition), Thames & Hudson, 2007.

J.B. Russell is Prof. of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara; and this present edition comprises a 1980 text that served as one of Ronald Hutton's primary sources while writing his polemics The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy [Blackwell, 1996] and The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft [Oxford University Press, 1999]. In this new publication-- almost 30 years since its initial inception-- Mr. Russell offers 2 new chapters concerned with current Paganism written by his present collaborator and Witch (Brooks Alexander), as well as a new Introduction and concluding-chapter.

Russell habitually behaves throughout each controversial treatise of his recent edition almost like a verbally and emotionally abusive loved one who tenderly says, after the fact, "I love you." For example, when writing of Charles Leland's investigation into an Italian witchcraft cult (Aradia, or The Gospel of the Witches), he pejoratively regards his methodology by denoting it as "research" within quotation marks replete with sarcasm. However, in the same breath he states that Leland's practices were the scholastic norm of his day.

Some other minor, although no less misleading, errors are peppered throughout this text, including a caption for a late 15th-century woodcutting depicting perceived "witches" shape-shifting in an effort to transvex towards a Sabbat. However, he apparently conflates the generic term of "shape-shifting" with the specific denotation, "lycanthropy", which refers to the transmogriphication of an individual into a wolf, hence the lycan- root. While, further on, he relates that throughout Europe, by the 12th-century, the entire continent had been converted to Christianity. This polemic is severely questionable, although, more worrying, it's extremist and simplistic to a fault; it has been advanced that antiquated paganism survived throughout large swaths of Europe until the 15th-century, and easily as late as the 17th- and 18th-centuries-- though the 19th-century is not entirely off the radar, due to suggestions from other scholars. As a new edition to an antedated text it is simply, and woefully, behind the times-- at least behind the last 8 years of subsequent, and ground-breaking, research. Modern Pagans, and lay-readers of polemics by historians need to be taught how to use their critical thinking skills to spot clearly unsubstantiated claims when they empirically appear. While, scholars that make them (and misrepresent the writings of other scholars for purely pedantic and sorely political means) need to be censured for it, rather than given a green light, "just because it's popular and endorsed"! Moreover, some scholars, because they tend to ignore a lot of evidence, actually make a habit of blatantly mischaracterizing other works and scholars, as though they really state something contrary to what it does.

Missing, also, is the ground-breaking work of Professors Carlo Ginzburg (Italy), Eva Pocs (Hungary), Emma Wilby (Britain), Phillipe Walter (France), Giuseppe Bonomo (Italy), Bengt Ankarloo (Swedan), Gustav Henningsen (Swedan), Tekla Dömötor (Hungary), Gabor Klaniczay (Hungary) and Claude Lecauteux (France), et al.-- the latter, for what it's worth, is Prof. of Medieval Society, Civilisation and Literature at the world famous academic institution, The Sorbonne, at Paris, France. Most scholars throughout continental Europe have reached the general conclusion that at the heart of medieval witchcraft belief is endemic "shamanistic" beliefs or antecedents to one extent or another that would certainly support certain variants of the Murray thesis-- a thesis that needs up-dating for she lacked a shamanic language with which to refine her arguments. Anything less, in the words of Emma Wilby, "is untenable". But Russell follows in the foot-steps of Ronald Hutton throughout this present edition by failing to acknowledge this growing (near-unequivocal) body of European scholarship. This failure appears during Russell's historiographic account of the four most prominent "interpretations of European witchcraft [that] are current".

I can only describe the constant absence of these major contending-theories from continental Europe throughout works by American and British scholars on the subject of witchcraft as "a conspiracy of silence", perhaps even as a desire for "academic subjugation"-- a monopoly, if you will! While, Prof. Carlo Ginzburg, at the same time, is generally under-rated by academia for his contributions; in fact, in a polemic by both Russell and one Norman Cohn (according to Ginzburg), these historians blatantly mischaracterized his work! I might argue that such a blatant absence as these presently discussed "values" is a form of "thought reformation" on behalf of the academic institution.

Another quibble is that he endorses, without qualification, the work of Norman Cohn, who has been debunked... The late Prof. Cohn, for what it's worth, is laughable and extreme in his mendacious pedantry In his polemic, Europe's Inner Demons, it has been proven that Cohn deliberately lied about Margaret Murray by simply comparing his allegations to what she actually wrote.

However, it is important to point out that Mr. Russell diverges from Hutton on some seemingly key issues. For example, while Mr. Russell (in the present work, and his earlier monograph The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity [Cornell University Press, 1977]) fervently acknowledges that the medieval iconography of the Devil directly stems from known images of pagan gods, such as Pan; Ronald Hutton, on the other hand (in Triumph of the Moon), rejects such conclusions as rubbish for which there is no evidence, or otherwise no academic literature on the topic has been sufficiently published. If one has only read Hutton's text on the topic, of course he would present an iron-clad case; but it must be taken into consideration that there is a relative corpus of academia that does-- and should-- disagree with his assumptions.

As a new edition (even lavishly illustrated with re-prints and photographs), I found it to be inadequate-- lacking in current revelations and leading research; essentially it was a drastically missed opportunity to present an up-dated historiograph concerning the present revelations regarding the history of Gardnerianism and medieval witchcraft belief. Sadly, and in summation, there is a double-standard enshrined within academia with which I am phenomenally uncomfortable. Be that as it may, this book still remains a text every witch ought to posses on his or her personal library shelf, not least for his fascinating presentation regarding the etymology of the word "witch"-- it bears distinctly magico-religious denotations, despite the pleas of some academics!

Wade MacMorrighan

WINDSMITH by Kevan Manwaring, Awen Publications, The Cauldron, 7 Dunsford Place, Bath, Somerset, BA2 6HF email awen@tallyessin.com

World War 1 fighter pilot Isambard Kerne is caught up in the famous Angel of Mons incident, and is catapulted into the Otherworld. He spends what seems like aeons in the Glass Castle of Arianrhod, before emerging and meeting Merlin and learning the meaning of his name ‘I am a bard’. Thus begins his quest to become a true bard.This is the first fantast novel by bard Kevan Manwaring, better known as Tallyessin the bard. It is an adventure and spiritual quest, full of Celtic mythology and big questions. I really don’t want to give too much more away- just read it!

MIND LIGHT, Secrets of Energy, Magick & Manifestation. Silver Ravenwolf ISBN 0-7387-0985-9, Price $14.95, Llewellyn

“Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just sit down, think about what you want, and then have your desire miraculously occur?  Could it be really as simple as all that. Meditation say’s the magick is in the moment. Quantum Physics say’s this – and more – is quite possible! If you agree, then it will be" Firstly don’t be put off by the words Quantum Physics; the author really does put it in the simplest terms. She uses the principles of both quantum physics and meditation to show you how you can make your desires manifest themselves.  Impossible I hear you say, but she does give you case studies of people she has used in experiments. Once past the first three chapters, detailing how you can teach yourself to do this, the book has detailed meditations and their tools (candles, crystals and oils etc.), that you might find useful, in, I would say, most situations. A very interesting book, and with a lot of practice could open the door to endless possibilities.

Julie

KABBALAH MAGIC And the Great Work of Self Transformation- a complete course by Lyam Thomas Christopher, Llewellyn $17.95

This book addresses high levels of ritual magic which need a sense of purpose and exalted consciousness, in other words, a spiritual transformation which the author sees as an antidote to the futility of modern life. It is a self initiation manual, based on the Hermetic Tradition of the Golden Dawn and its predecessors. It is a step by step programme aimed at providing a lucid gateway to a more awakened state: “Magic is the science and art of expressing silence within the medium of sound, of showing stillness in the midst of gesture, of drawing forth light from darkness, and transforming a mortal into a god.”

It explains myth and the ritual approach, as well as containing meditations and exercises, ceremonies of ritual magic, invocations, correspondences, ritual tools and so on. “The world of the adept is completely different…the god-like self that emerges from the pyramid of the four elements has motives that arise from some other world. “

 MOTHER NATURE’S HERBAL

By Judith Griffin Ph.D.

Llewellyn Worldwide, $24.95, 432pp

This is a revised edition of a previously published book by Judith Griffin, who holds a Ph.D. in nutrition and is a master herbalist who teaches herbal studies at the University of Texas.

            Part one is divided into sections on herbalism from different cultures- Native American, Mayan, Colonial America, Mediaeval herbalism, western folk medicine, Mediterranean herbalism, Ayurvedic medicine and Chinese herbalism. These are very practical and full of recipes and methods of using the herbs, as well as listing and describing the principle herbs used.

            Section two is about growing your own herbs organically, companion planting, harvesting and using Mother Nature’s bounty, using essential oils and flower essences and so on.

            I love the extremely practical and accessible take of this book, and I can see myself using it a lot. Highly recommended.

Briony Robinson

LIVING WITH HONOUR

A Pagan Ethics

By Emma Restall-Orr

O Books, £11.95, 344pp

Emma Restall Orr (aka Bobcat) is one of Britain’s best known Druids. Living with Honour is her brave and ambitious attempt to define Pagan ethics and place them within an historical and philosophical context. I can only applaud O Books for having the courage to do what most publishers would not, and bring out a work of this depth. It is a mature and scholarly counterpoint to all the fluffy and exploitative books on Paganism out there, and we haven’t really seen anything like it before.

Modern Paganism is often at odds with western materialism, representing a ground swell of belief that we must have a different approach to the world we live in; one that recognises the need to approach the manifest world with respect. For the Pagan, there is no separation between creation and creator, between spirit and matter. We know that experience of the divine comes through a deep and meaningful communion with the natural world, directly experiencing the spirit that is tree, stream, animal or place. Most of us turn to Paganism because we sense and desire this connection, spirit to spirit, soul to soul. Though we are human individuals we know that we are connected to what is non-human, to spirits outside ourselves that are worthy of honour and respect.

This book addresses the big questions –what it is to be Pagan and how that means we should act in the world. We Pagans claim an animistic perspective, but do we live accordingly?  Can we countenance animals’ exploitation and suffering just because we like sausages? Can we defend driving around in a swish 4 x 4 when we know it pollutes the environment? Or do we only put our ethics into practice when they don’t inconvenience us, impinge on our transient desires or require personal sacrifice?  Is our relationship with non-human spirits truly sacred, truly one of honour, or only when it suits us?  In other words, do we really walk our talk or just pay it lip-service?

    The ethics outlined by Bobcat have little to do with thou shalt nots. Her view of Pagan ethics requires us to become whole and honourable, to lift ourselves up out of fear and separation, and acknowledge beauty, honour and connection. This is an ethic achieved through soul searching, self knowledge and maturity, not a handed down list of rules. It requires us to live our Paganism on a daily basis in every choice we make. It requires that we each evolve our own ethical standpoint, based on our core beliefs of sacredness and sanctity. It challenges our complacency and our smugness in saying ‘I am a Pagan, I honour the Earth’ and asks us how we manifest that honour, how we put it into practice.

    Accepting responsibility for our own actions and the impact they have on others is the principle step we each take to become an adult. If Paganism is to survive and become a grown up religion, we need to ask ourselves these difficult questions. Whether or not you agree with everything Bobcat has written, these are topics that need to be discussed. Debate can only begin if there is an initial starting point, and I believe this book is just such a starting point. Every Pagan should read it.

Anna Franklin

THE SACRED WHEEL
Touch the Earth double CD
Available from www.myspace.com/touchtheearth

This is a double CD from Touch the Earth based in the Wheel of the Year. Touch the Earth are a tribal folk band who gain their inspiration from the natural world around them. At the heart of the band is Lynn Gosney who provides vocals as well as native American flute, drums and didge. Her son Lee Gosney plays guitar, flute, hand drum, didge and banjo and contributes vocals, while Gillian Hunt and Pete Maxey provide fiddle, bodhran, vocals, rattle and vocals. There are some 32 tracks on the CD with some pieces that can be used as pathworkings, songs, and gentle ballads to tribal drums. Every track has been recorded live at concerts over the course of a year. This gives the songs an immediacy and intimacy, and the live experience must have been fantastic. The only downside is that the polished finesse of a studio recording is missing and sometimes this is very apparent. I would love to hear a studio set from this band and I hope they will bring out another CD. The CDs comes in a beautiful slip case with a drawing of the Wheel of the Year.

THE GOLDEN THREAD OF TIME

By Crichton Miller

Crichton Miller is a man on a mission. His mission is, in my humble opinion, far more important than the Victorian search for the source of the Nile or the 60's race for space. It is more extravagant than the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb and in my mind of more archaeological, scientific and historical importance than just about anything else you care to mention.

To comprehend why I say this we need to just consider a few points. Firstly, how many of us agree that our Mother Earth is warming? How many of us are aware over the short lifetimes that we have had so far that the climate has been altering year after year? I know for myself, living in middle England that we no longer have the snowstorms I knew as a child; that autumn is moving into winter; spring is coming sooner and summer is stretching itself out like a lazy lion in the Sahara. In other parts of the globe huge waves crash onto idyllic shores and destroy the lives of thousands of humans; whirling tornadoes break and batter whole States in America and ice mountains the size of Ben Nevis collapse and crumble into the warming waters. There is one thing that is sure - the world is changing around us as we live and breathe. Whether you believe this change is man-made or by the power of the solar Father in the sky; whether you think the leaders of political parties and corporate empires are making the destruction of the world a reality or it is simply a cycle of nature - one thing overrides the argument - we cannot escape it now.

And so, what to do, where to go, to whom do we turn? What will you hide away in your secure dug-out? Will you hoard tinned food and a tin opener? Or bottled water? And when they run out, what then? How will you hunt for food then? Should you carry a gun? And where will you get the bullets when all the shops have been removed by that passing ice-flow?

You will need to travel. You will need to move fast and over long distances. You will need to know the weather cycles and the times of year and you will need to know your way around. How are you going to do this?

You see what Crichton has stumbled upon may seem on first viewing to be fairly mundane. But, the closer you look and the more you find out, the more you become consumed in the intricacies, both exoteric and esoteric, of the workings of the artefact and the universe in general. This incredible discovery will one day change the world and help mankind to grow strong again. When we find ourselves in the stark reality of a nuclear winter; a solar consumed desert; a frozen wasteland - then and probably only then, will mankind remember this fight of Crichton Miller's to make known the secret tool of the ancients. The reason is quite simple. Only by using this device, which requires no electricity, gas, petrol or any power at all will we then, be able to discover where and when we are. This may seem incredibly trivial to us now, but imagine standing in the middle of a barren landscape of brilliant snow or sand and needing to find your way home. How will you do this without your GPS? A compass only points north and there are two issues with this. Firstly north may move magnetically, and this will cause chaos as we are already discovering with our modern electromagnetic systems. And secondly the compass cannot tell you the time of day, month or year. The wonderful Celtic Cross that Crichton re-discovered is all any future survivor will need.

Read this book, keep it close to your heart; understand the workings of this cross, because one day, it may save your life. If you value your children's or grandchildren's lives then pass on the information and knowledge of the stars, let it be locked in their young minds and hearts. The future of humanity may again depend upon the wisdom of the ancients, who kept this knowledge for us locked subtly away. Crichton has re-discovered the incredible science and simplicity of our ancestors who too needed to escape the oncoming deluge over 12000 years ago. Did mankind recover again because he had the cross?

I thought I would never hear myself say this to anybody - but take up the cross, it may very well be your saviour.

Philip Gardiner

THE CRYSTAL BIBLE by Judy Hall, A Godsfield book.   I.S.B.N 1-84181-175-0, Price £12.99.

There are a wide range of crystal books available to buy; however, The Crystal Bible is a well-illustrated book that covers all of the major crystals and many unusual rare ones as well.  With an easy to read reference guide the reader can check a crystals colour, appearance, rarity and source.  I especially liked the information about each crystal’s healing properties and attributes.  For example the Onyx crystal which can give us strength and support in difficult circumstances, imparting self confidence helping the individual to be at ease in different surroundings;  for healing it can be used on the teeth, bones, bone marrow and feet, and to treat blood disorders. 

The quick reference guide at the back of the book explains about placing crystals on the different charkas, crystals and the aura and crystal correspondence. There is also information about cleansing crystals and using them for meditation.  Judy Hall, the author, has over thirty years of experience of working with crystals and therefore encompasses traditional and contemporary crystal lore within the book.

Helen

GEMATRIA THE NUMBERS OF INFINITY by Marke Pawson Green Magic, ISBN 0-9547230-0-7

This book’s back blurb has the claim “Gematria is the first book in modern times to investigate the mysterious Qabalistic interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures … these truths express nothing less than a startling knowledge of the physical Universe, a knowledge greater than that possessed by modern physicists ….” . The author is often not to blame for the exaggerated claims of publicists, but this reviewer immediately asked himself the question “how does this book explain that this ‘superior knowledge’ claimed here is (1) present in the Hebrew Scripture at all, (2) interpreted here as the original writers back in the Bronze Age meant it, and (3) verifiable according to any commonly-agreed independent standards?”.

The book begins with the premise that the Old Testament (so-called by believers) is the most important book in the English language (page v). Putting this unverifiable assertion aside, the author claims in this introduction that though modern physicists cannot answer fundamental questions about gravity that “whoever wrote the Bible knew all about gravity and how to manipulate if for both constructive and destructive purposes”.

The underlying theme of the book comes from gematria, that letters of words have equivalent numbers, and that when added together, these numbers have a meaning that links them with other words with the same numbers. The author follows the work of Frederick Bligh Bond and Thomas Simcox Lea early in the last century, who claimed they had recovered the early Gnostic teaching of the early Apostolic Church, which was taken from the Greek texts The Pistis Sophia and The Books of Ieou. Bond and Lea used the New Testament as their basis for this essentially esoteric Christian gnosis, later extended by John Michell in City of Revelation. Marke Pawson extends this essentially Greek Christian gnosis across into Hebrew mysticism, and mixes and matches willy-nilly Greek, Hebrew and, further on, ancient Egyptian, Vedic and Taoist traditions, not to mention Alexander Thom’s disputed “megalithic yard” and Gothic architecture. When Sir James Frazer did this in The Golden Bough, he intended to show the underlying themes found in mythology the world over, archetypes as Carl Jung later called them. The author of Gematria takes the essential forms of geometry, known to all ancient advanced cultures, and tortuously links them with particular aspects of Biblical themes.

An illustration on page 88 is a re-drawing (how accurate, we may ask?) of an ancient Greek scene. It is reproduced from Robert Temple’s The Sirius Mystery and shows a warrior pointing a spear at a snake coiled around a pillar of a temple portico. The warrior is accompanied by birds and a hare, and another snake is behind the temple’s cella. The origin of this picture is not offered to the reader, nor the interpretation given by experts in ancient Greek art, but the author takes as face value Temple’s idiosyncratic interpretation that this is an illustration of the constellation Orion. This picture illustrates a section on David and Goliath, linked to the fall of the image of Dagon, a supposed Sirius goddess (and her Egyptian hieroglyphic teeth), and the number 120, equal to 5 x 24 whose 5 is “the base note in the Philistine vibrational system”. Because Goliath says “I am a dog”, then he is Sirius and David is the orbital period of Sirius B, 49, 7x7. All of this (and more), we are told, is what the picture taken from Robert Temple’s book signifies. There is no explanation why or how these connections exist, and, even if they do, what it means.

I give the example above as a sample of the arbitrary connections made between things taken from different time periods and distant cultures that this book consists of. Unlike Frazer or Jung, who understood the archetypal connections within human religion and mythology, or the Surrealists, who saw them as artistic evidence of the human psyche in the dream state, it is clear that Pawson means the reader to have literal reading of these otherwise unconnected things, and, at the end of the book, the conclusion does not conclude anything that the reader is supposed to make of the complex mathematics. The cover blurb’s claim quoted at the beginning of this review that the Bible authors knew more than modern scientists is not proven.

Nicholas Dyer

WICCA FOR BEGINNERS, Fundamentals of Philosophy & Practice by Thea Sabin, Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd, ISBN: 0-7387-0751-1, $12.95, 262 pp

The author aims to set the record straight about what Wicca is and what it isn’t, and to give accurate and complete information providing facts not fiction about Wicca, to provide answers to those curious about Wicca but who are not sure what it is really about. Wicca for beginners examines some of modern Wicca’s most common issues and gives the reader the chance to explore Wicca which has been explained in an easy to understand manner. Over twelve chapters this book aims to provide a broad-based understanding of Wicca so that the reader can decide for themselves what Wicca is. It includes some history into Wicca along with some basic Wiccan principles and ethics, the first two chapters concentrate on the theory and philosophical side of what Wicca is and what a Wiccan believes. Information is given about energy, visualization, grounding and shielding and provides exercises to complement these explanations; this is followed by trance, meditation and pathworking explanations and exercises before moving onto detailing the circle. There is an excellent section dedicated to explaining the four elements and the four quarters and this explains how the elements are used, correspondences to the elements and what might be used to represent the elements in rituals, it also explains how to call the quarters and includes diagrams of invoking and banishing pentagrams and includes an explanation of ‘the witches pyramid’. Details of the God and the Goddess separately and then how they work together and includes a simple ritual for introducing oneself to the God and Goddess, there are details of the ‘other’ gods and of personal deities and a quite detailed section of etiquette when working with the gods, a thorough explanation into calling the gods into the circle provides details of a simple ritual. There is an excellent section on tools and altars and the Wiccan holidays and the wheel of the year. The explanation into tools and altars provides excellent knowledge to those new to witchcraft giving a rundown of the prime Wiccan tools and an explanation into each tool along with correct pronunciation. The altar section was great and included a diagram of a basic altar and an example of a tool consecration ritual this chapter really would be invaluable to those starting along the Wiccan path. The section of the wheel of the year provides a basic knowledge of the Sabbats and of the four seasons and provides a good explanation of these. The book then concentrates on putting together what has been learnt through the previous chapters and goes on to explain how to tie everything together and create a Wiccan ritual that is meaningful to the reader and it talks about, bells and whistles, cakes and ale, libations and ritual wear so it really expands the knowledge learnt throughout the book. Towards the end of the book it goes on to explain magic and spells and although it does not go into great detail it does provide a basic knowledge, this isn’t a book about spells it is a book about Wicca and is for beginners so in theory a beginner would only be attempting simple spells and this book covers that. The final chapter is called ‘Where do I go from here?’  It provides information on working alone and within covens and gives a partial list of Wiccan traditions and what to look for in a teacher should the reader require one. I would recommend this book and I would recommend it to those new to Wicca or those that have read numerous books and have not found the basic guide they are looking for.

Jo

SPIRALS – THE PATTERN OF EXISTENCE by Geoff Ward Published by Green Magic ISBN 0954723090 186 Pages Paperback

Geoff Ward sets himself a large and wide ranging goal in this book: to explore the meaning of the spiral across many human cultures in many periods of history.  He also sets out to discuss its symbolism in all its aspects, from serpents, dragons, crops, megaliths and labyrinths to DNA, dark energy, galaxies, the Golden Section, the Tao and the Isle of Wight.

The first paragraph of the book states, “The spiral is the sign of the eternal, creative, unifying and organising force or principle at work in the universe, and especially of the ongoing creation of consciousness.  It is the divine mark in nature, what may be termed God’s personal signature on the cosmos, the Great Architect’s own autograph – from the cradles of stars and planets in the awesome spiral arms of the galaxies to the beautiful double helix structure of the DNA molecule, from the ‘dragon currents’ of earth energies to the vortices of whirlpools and weather systems, from the volutes of sea waves to the hair on our heads which grows in a spiral about the crown.”.  So here then is the main assertion of the book, that, from the macro to the micro, reality is spiraculate in nature and that our consciousness subliminally perceives this universal substrate and expresses it overtly in our art and culture, with discoveries in modern science only lending additional credence to that assertion.

The book contains chapters on Jungian archetypes, ritual art and nature, dragon magic, the universe, the coil of life and the vortex of time.  Mr Ward is very obviously a well versed occultist, because he demonstrates a grasp of many themes that the readers of this review will be familiar with.

The book is fairly sparsely illustrated with line drawings and the odd photograph. Although the illustrations are appropriately used in the places where they are needed, the book would stand just as well without most of them, because this is a book about ideas.

There is a lot to take in and think about in this book.  This is not one of those books light on detail and long on padding.  The style can be very dense at times, with virtually every paragraph and sentence loaded with something to think about.  The book doesn’t lend itself to skim reading or bedtime reading; it demands far more attention than that.  In fact, it demands a degree of study and thought. 

I certainly learnt an awful lot about the spiral from this book and it did provide a wide ranging insight into themes that I had not previously considered.  I’m not a huge fan of using the scientific method to illustrate proof of more metaphysical ideas; it’s used far too frequently and tediously by religious fundamentalists of all shades.  That said, the science in the book is sound and is offered as observation rather than a form of proof, deftly avoiding the trap so many other books fall into.  If the book whets your appetite, for those that want to explore the themes further, Geoff Ward provides and extensive bibliography. Would I recommend it?  Yes, I would, but be prepared to give it your full attention.

Tim Jones

THE BARDIC HANDBOOK by Kevin Manwaring, Gothic Image, £14.99

This book bills itself as ‘the Complete Manual for the Twentieth Century Bard’. It is a twelve monthly guide to becoming a modern bard as envisaged by Mr Manwaring, himself a professional bard who calls himself Tallyessin. In this book, he invites the reader to undergo a programme of self-study, so that by the end of the year that person will have created for themselves their own bardic persona and will be confident of performing effectively in public. They can also join the Silver Branch Bardic Network, a kind of bardic support group or guild, which Mr Manwaring encourages the new bard to do, and it is free to do so. The book contains a great deal of Celtic and Pagan information, exercises and tasks for the new bard to complete. A lot of this is based on the Celtic year of festivals and general modern Pagan beliefs with a modern druid slant. Indeed, the book has a foreword by a modern druid, Emma Restall Orr, author and practitioner of druidry. It is very well set out and illustrated and has examples of poetry, stories and mental and physical exercises. Most of the preparations for performances would be relevant and useful to any kind of public performer. He mentions everything from breathing exercises to the use of comedy and how to deal with disturbance and hecklers in a constructive manner. I do not think anyone else has ever attempted a book such as this, and as a ‘how to be a modern bard’ guide, this is probably unique. For those who perform storytelling and poetry to children and the Pagan-inclined adult, I would say without doubt this book would be very useful indeed. It tells you how to start, where to perform, who to ask for advice and if followed carefully and conscientiously would certainly change your life too, and probably for the better.

Keith Lawrence

DAUGHTERS OF THE EARTH by Cheryl Straffon,

O Books, £11.99 222pp

This is not a ‘how to’ book, but more of a reflection on the many ways we can connect with changing faces of the Goddess throughout the year. There is a brief look at the history and folklore of the Sabbats, and personal accounts of rituals, with a look at aspects of the Goddess associated with each who may be invoked for each. The themes and motifs of the festivals are then explored. It is written from the perspective of Goddess centred worship; there is no God here. This is not the way I work, but for many women, the Dianic approach is a way to personal power and engagement with the Divine.  If this is your path, or even if it isn’t, you will find much here to inspire you. The only minor quibble I have with the book is the typesetting. For some reason, the type is small and double spaced, which makes it harder to read.

Tabitha Mara

SACRED LAND by Clea Danaan

Llewellyn, $15.95, 233pp, ISBN978-0-7387-1146-1

This is the second book I’ve had this week with weird typesetting. What are publishers up to? It is a small book with pages divided into two columns with very wide margins, and an average of 3-4 words a line. This make is very difficult to read with any flow, which is a shame, because this is a charming book about sacred gardening. It explores the four elements in the garden, with chapters on Earth and the sacred soil and conscious co-creation, animal allies to help you in your work, such as worms and micro-organisms, where to plant and when, Air includes the weather, animal allies such as birds and bees. Fire includes the sun and finding your passion, while water explores the ethic of water, natural pest control and transmutation.  There are meditations and Goddesses connected with the elements and resources. If you want a magical garden, this is for you!

Tabitha Mara

WOMEN’S RITES, WOMEN’S MYSTERIES by Ruth Barrett, Llewellyn, $16.95, ISBN 0-7387-0924-7

As the author tells us, throughout history women have evolved and celebrated rites separately from men. Written from the perspective of Dianic witchcraft, this is not a book of set rituals or a spell ‘cookbook’, but a guide to formulating rituals to transform and empower women in a [still] patriarchal society. Every sacred milestone, from menstruation to marriage, can be marked with ritual brimming with meaning and fiery feminine spirit:  “This book was written to empower women by asserting that we, as the physical embodiment of the Goddess [She who is the life force present in all things], are sacred, and our rites of passage are sacred occasions worthy of ritualizing.”

Step by step, the book takes you though the basis of ritual, developing themes and purpose, invocation etc. and the various steps of ritual. Used with awareness, this book may become a tool for personal transformation.

Mary Orchard

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SECRET SOCIETIES by David V. Barrett, Robinson, £8.99, paperback, ISBN 978-1-84529-615-5

Throughout the centuries, arcane wisdom has been held sacred by a number of secret societies. This book explores the roots of such knowledge and the historical links between secret societies and esoteric religious organisations throughout the centuries, as well as the continuance of such ideas and ideals to the present day. Some groups have fired the popular imagination, such as the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians and the Illuminati. Ideas such as the search for the Holy Grail and the mysteries of alchemy continue to fascinate us. The very idea that there is some secret knowledge possessed by a select few is seductive, but there is a dark side to covert sects, with organisations like the Klu Klux Klan and the Mafia, and the Nazi occult societies.  The very idea of clandestine associations and unorthodox thinking is an outrage to some, and this of course, is the very reason that many such societies have pursued concealment.  As the author points out, even now there is a call for tightening the blasphemy laws, and the spread of religious fundamentalism and intolerance. Highly recommended.

Raven

CURES AND CURSES, Ritual and Cult at Holy Wells by Janet Bord (2006), The Heart of Albion Press ISBN 1 872883 95 8, price £14.95.

Cures and curses is the latest book from the author Janet Bord, who also published “Sacred Waters” with Colin Bord in 1985. However, this most recent book contains new research and insights into folklore and customs surrounding this subject.  It also gives an interesting account of the traditions linked with holy wells and the pre-Christian practices that were associated with them. One well-known sacred shrine located at Bath was linked with the Celts and Romans.  It was discovered at this ancient site that the Celts were amongst the earliest pilgrims to visit the hot springs leaving offerings of coins to the goddess Sulis, these coins were found in the causeway and the mud of the spring many years later during excavation. Wells have been used throughout history for a variety of reasons and purposes.  They were believed to promote fertility, aid healing, used in divination, ritual and sometimes cursing.  The well was believed to have many magical powers and was visited at night time to whisper wishes into.  Another custom involved walking round the well clockwise, which was believed to be lucky, however, the witch would deliberately dance clockwise in order to cast spells!  This is an interesting book covering a number of diverse topics and showing many illustrations including historic photographs of wells and rituals. There is also a list of 25 recommended wells to visit.  For anyone interested in the subject this book would provide a good source of reference.

Helen King

THE WAY OF FOUR SPELLBOOK Working Magic With the Elements, By Deborah Lipp, Llewellyn 2006, ISBN 978-0-7387-0858-5, $16.95, 258 pp

This book is intended as a companion volume to Deborah Lipp’s Way of Four [which I haven’t seen] and offers magic constructed around the four elements, earth, air, fire and water for self empowerment, balancing your life and so on. It concentrates on spells and even includes shopping lists for getting the ingredients to perform them! It is useful for understanding the basic properties and attributes of each of the elements and the areas of magic they cover: earth for fertility, prosperity and so on; air for understanding, knowledge, exams, etc; fire for libido and passion, stamina, water for dreams, emotions, romance, to ease pain and so forth. The approach is straight forward and simple enough for a beginner, and I imagine Craft newbies would find it very useful.

Morgana

GREENFIRE Magical Verse for the Wheel of the Year by Tallyessin Silverwolf, Awen Publications, 7 Dunsford Place, Bath, BA2 6HF £10

This book, complete with an audio CD, contains poems for all the festivals, like the lovely Winning of Spring for Beltane, and The Wheel of the Rose for Ostara. Or how about this from The Ancestral Mariner for Lughnasadh:

When night and day are one

He travels the silver road-

The moon’s shattered mirror-

Riding his white-crested stallion.

That’s all you’re getting for now, if you want any more you will have to get the book and I highly recommend it. If you tell seasonal stories and poems at the festivals like we do, it will be very useful, or just to read for inspiration and insight into the season. The CD is great too!

Tanith Nuin

DANCING THE GODDESS INCARNATE

Living the Magic of Maiden, Mother & Crone by Dorothy Morrison and Kristen Madden, Llewellyn, $14.95 ISBN 0-7387-0636-1, 214 pp.

This is actually a Pagan self-help guide with beauty tips, exercises for relaxation, magical spells to attract money [well, this is a Llewellyn book], self-healing and mapping goals. The title comes from the fact that the authors describe life as a dance, and living life as like dancing with a partner- to do it successfully we have to know when to move and when to keep still, when to lead and when to hang on, when to be spontaneous and when to follow the rules; “When we master the steps, we create a dance that is ours alone.” So far, so good: a Pagan twist on the self-help genre. The dancing with the Goddess element comes in by viewing life as the three stages of the Maiden, Mother and Crone [leaving aside the fact that not all Pagan traditions follow this mythical invention by Robert Graves]. The book seems to follow the peculiarly American practice of ‘using’ deities for personal gain, and mixing traditions to boot, so that we are told to use Titania [not even a goddess, but a literary fairy probably evolved from the myths of Diana] for play, Athena for career, Artemis for personal adventure, Venus for romance, Cybele for creative endeavours, Tara for family/nurturing and so on. Now we can learn from working with deities, if they are willing to work with us [and we have to earn this], and we can learn a lot from the attributes and myths of the gods- tales of courage, strength, passion and so on- but the approach  in this book makes me extremely uncomfortable. In ‘Living the Venus Life’ we are told ‘if you want to work out, lose weight,  or change something about yourself, She will help you….play and love and enjoy everything you encounter. Relax darling and have some chocolate.’ This book seems to treat goddesses as nothing more than imaginary, if inspirational, female archetypes, and not the awesome divine beings I know them to be. I wonder what the gods, powerful consciousnesses who follow their own courses and purposes, make of this attitude, and what will be the consequences for people who belittle them this way?

Tabitha Mara

OVER NINE FORESTS Folk Beliefs and Practices from Lithiania to the Urals by K.M.Koppana, Heart of Albion Press [www.hoap.co.uk] 2006, ISBN 1 872883 97, 119 pp, £9.95

By the author of Snake Fat and Knotted Threads, this is a survey of the folk beliefs and practices of the Baltic states, Finland, Karelia and Western Russia, based on her own extensive research and practical experience. This vast area, until recently a place with no frontiers and occupied by nomadic tribes, shares many beliefs in common, with regional variations. It begins with a cosmological look at the Way of Souls, or the Milky Way, and covers such things as stones, like the ones that represent Zemes Mater, the Earth Mother, the spirits of the trees, the rainbow woven by the sky maiden, symbols in knitting, the importance of bread and beer, maypoles and whirling wheels, traditions concerning the dead and so on. This is a fascinating read, especially if, like me, you know little about the Pagan traditions of this amazing place. Recommended.

Tanith Nuin