Best of
Witches

2008

Sweep: Volume 5


Cate Tiernan - 2008
    Though her magick is strong and she has done things that others could never dream of, even she cannot begin to explain how different she truly is. And though her soulmate - her one true love - Hunter supports her, he can never understand what it is like. But there is another who knows, more than anyone else, just what Morgan is going through . . .

Night World, No. 2


L.J. Smith - 2008
    Night World is their secret society, a secret society with very strict rules. And falling in love breaks all the laws of the Night World.In Dark Angel, Gillian is saved from drowning by her guardian angel. Only visible to Gillian, Angel will fulfill her heart's every desire. But when Angel starts making strange and sinister requests, Gillian must question who he truly is and where he came from.Armed with a wooden stake, martial arts, and the will to resist a vampire's mind control, Rashel struggles to avenge her mother's death in The Chosen. Then she meets Quinn, her soulmate, who is part of the world she has vowed to destroy.Hannah receives notes warning her of incredible danger in Soulmate. But if death is her destiny, is the Lord of the Night World's love strong enough to save her?

Book of Shadows / The Coven


Cate Tiernan - 2008
    Something is happening to Morgan. She sees things, feels things in a new way. She has discovered a power inside her that normal people don't posses. A dark magical power. And it scares her. She never chose to learn witchcraft but now witchcraft is choosing her. Her power is seductive.

The Visions of Isobel Gowdie: Magic, Witchcraft and Dark Shamanism in Seventeenth-Century Scotland


Emma Wilby - 2008
    Their descriptive power, vivid imagery and contentious subject-matter have attracted considerable interest on both academic and popular levels. This book provides the first full-length examination of the confessions and the life and character of the woman behind them.The author's discovery of the original trial records, deemed lost for nearly 200 years, provides a starting point for an interdisciplinary endeavour to separate Isobel's voice from that of her interrogators, identify the beliefs and experiences that informed her testimony and analyze why her confessions differ so markedly from those of other witchcraft suspects from the period. In the course of these enquiries, the author develops wider hypotheses relevant to the study of early modern witchcraft as a whole, with recent research into Amazonian 'dark' shamanism, false-memory generation and mutual-dream experience, along with literature on marriage-covenant mysticism and protection-charm traditions, all being brought to the investigation of early modern witch-records for the first time.Emma Wilby concludes that close analysis of Isobel's confessions supports the still-controversial hypothesis that in seventeenth-century Scotland, as in other parts of Europe in this period, popular spirituality was shaped through a deep interaction between church teachings and shamanistic traditions of pre-Christian origin. She also extends this thesis beyond its normal association with beneficent magic and overtly folkloric themes to speculate that some of Europe's more malevolent and demonological witch-narratives may also have emerged out of visionary rites underpinned by cogent shamanistic rationales.

Witches Almanac: Spring 2009-Spring 2010


Andrew Theitic - 2008
    This delightful and indispensable guide contains:* herbal secrets* advice about animals* guidance on the weather* the lunar year's moon cycles* astrological forecasts* profiles of some of history's notable occult practitioners* mystic spells and incantations* useful inspirational quotations* sacred rituals throughout the yearOrganized around the Wiccan year, the book also contains monthly spring-to-spring astrological calendars--complete with notable sacred pagan events, moon phases, horoscopes, weather, and advice. This year's theme is Plants and Healing Herbs and includes material on saffron for robes of virtue, roses (the goddess flower), chocolate (the food of pleasure), absinthe (the green fairy), papyrus (the plant of civilization), and the language of flowers.Delightfully illustrated with black-and-white line drawings throughout, The Witches' Almanac also offers a wide variety of amusing and informative essays and tales from around the world that highlight the various facets of the Craft and the occult to enrich readers' practice year round.

Night's Black Agents: Witches, Wizards and the Dead in the Ancient World


Daniel Ogden - 2008
    This book covers the literature of both Greek and Roman cultures over a period of more than a thousand years, through the advent of Christianity. Although classical culture was conservative, especially in regards to ghosts and witches which were strongly bound up in folklore, such tales preserve and conserve ideas about ghosts and witchcraft, and they survive to achieve this effect precisely because they are wonderfully engaging. Consequently, and also because they have directly and indirectly shaped our own culture's lore of magic and ghosts, these tales speak to us today still with a great directness and immediacy. In Night's Black Agents, Ogden uncovers the ancient foundations of the supernatural stories that have endured for generations.

Scaredy Cats


Jennifer Leczkowski - 2008
    There are some new kitties on the block, just in time for Halloween!This terrorific collection is a menagerie of fearful fun. The full-color photographs of frightening—and frightened-looking—felines are accompanied by playful text that will at once delight and give a fright with the scary spirit of the season.Coupling the holiday theme with these irresistible images, this book is sure to be a hit with the millions of cat owners who buy anything and everything featuring the object of their obsession.

Attack of the Two-Headed Poetry Monster


Mark McLaughlin - 2008
    It even includes two long collaborative poems by the diabolical duo. The styles of the poems range from light-hearted to dead-serious from whimsical to Gothic to midnight-horrific. The collection includes an Introduction by Bram Stoker Award-winning poet Rain Graves, an Afterword by prominent poet, editor and artist Sandy DeLuca, and cover art and interior illustrations by Mark McLaughlin. Attack Of The Two-Headed Poetry Monster if these poems don't make you laugh or scream, check your pulse. You're probably dead!The book is out of print.