The Morrigan: Celtic Goddess of Magick and Might


Courtney Weber - 2019
    "She is warrior, queen, death omen, mother, murderer, lover, spy, conspirator, faery, shape-shifter, healer, and sometimes the living earth itself. A captivating contradiction: a demonic female who both haunts and heals; benevolent in one moment, ghastly the next, and kind the moment after that.”The Morrigan is one of Pagan Ireland’s most famous—and notorious—goddesses. Her name translated as “phantom queen” or “great queen,” the Morrigan is famous for being a goddess of war, witchcraft and death, protection and retribution. This book also explores her patronage of motherhood, healing, shapeshifting, and the land. Classified among the Sidhe (fairies), the Morrigan dates back at least to Ireland’s Iron Age, but she is as modern as she is ancient―enjoying a growing contemporary and global following.Author Courtney Weber provides a guide for the modern devotee of this complex, mysterious goddess that encompasses practical veneration with modern devotionals, entwined with traditional lore and Irish-Celtic history.

The Complete Grimoire: Magickal Practices and Spells for Awakening Your Inner Witch


Lidia Pradas - 2020
    Written by Lidia Pradas, the creator of the beloved Instagram handle Wiccan Tips, The Complete Grimoire is a magickal beginner's guide to witchcraft practices and knowledge. Elegantly designed, featuring a gold foil–embossed cover and beautiful illustrations, and written in Wiccan Tips' trademark concise and practical style, The Complete Grimoire presents the key pillars of witchcraft, including:Procuring the proper tools and setting up an altarHarnessing your spells and magickSabbats and the Wheel of the YearHow to safely work with deities and spiritsYou'll also learn fundamental spells and rituals, such as casting a circle, creating a sigil, and making moon water. Lidia is a reassuring and trusted guide on your witchcraft journey, addressing key questions and debunking common misconceptions. The Complete Grimoire is an informative, accurate resource the newly initiated and experienced witch alike can use in their daily craft.

Grimoires: A History of Magic Books


Owen Davies - 2009
    In Grimoires: A History of Magic Books, Owen Davies illuminates the many fascinating forms these recondite books have taken and exactly what these books held. At their most benign, these repositories of forbidden knowledge revealed how to make powerful talismans and protective amulets, and provided charms and conjurations for healing illness, finding love, and warding off evil. But other books promised the power to control innocent victims, even to call up the devil. Davies traces the history of this remarkably resilient and adaptable genre, from the ancient Middle East to modern America, offering a new perspective on the fundamental developments of western civilization over the past two thousand years. Grimoires shows the influence magic and magical writing has had on the cultures of the world, richly demonstrating the role they have played in the spread of Christianity, the growth of literacy, and the influence of western traditions from colonial times to the present.

Witches


Erica Jong - 1981
    Best-selling author Erica Jong here turns her attention to the fantastical and factual world of witchcraft. In beguiling poetry and prose, she looks at the figure of the witch both as historical reality and as archetype - as evil crone and full-breasted seductress, as a lingering vestige of a primeval religion and a projection of fear of the unknown. Joseph A. Smith's powerful, haunting illustrations enliven each page, as Jong investigates the witch as a survivor of the age of sorcery, as a scapegoat for male-dominated church-state politics, as a remarkable natural healer, and as a hexer without peer. Real recipes for love potions and flying lotions, along with formulas for spells and incantations, make this book a rich journey of mystery and delight. Available in paperback for the first time, Witches has been a favorite since it was published more than 20 years ago - a testament to the enduring fascination with the myths and truths about these intriguing figures.

Bonewits's Essential Guide to Witchcraft and Wicca


Isaac Bonewits - 2006
    This is a encyclopedia of witchraft and Wicca, providing a history of belief and ritual practices of Neopagan Witches, an overview of the evolution and central tenets of modern Paganism and advice on rituals, poetry and magical ethics.

Fire in the Head: Shamanism and the Celtic Spirit


Tom Cowan - 1993
    Tom Cowan has pursued this theme in a lyrical cross-cultural exploration of shamanism and the Celtic imagination that examines the myths and tales of the ancient Celtic poets and storytellers, and outlines techniques used to access the shaman's world.Tom Cowan is the author of 'How to Top Into Your Own Genius' and coauthor of 'Power of the Witch and Love Magic'."An engrossing, intelligent, and shamanically well-informed work that is an important gift to all those Westerners seeking a knowledge of Celtic shamanism"MICHAEL HARNER, PH. D., author of 'The Way of the Shaman'"An important and fascinating work on Celtic shamanism. Highly recommended"SERGE KAHILI KING, author of 'Urban Shaman'"A fascinating and entertaining study…(illuminating) glimpses of an original Celtic shamanism that appears in British and Irish folklore and literary remains. 'Fire in the Head' also offers an account of Celtic supernaturalism in general, and unveils the mysterious background of certain folk heroes, such as Robin Hood"AKE HULTKRANTZ, author of 'Native Religions of North America'"A remarkable exploration of shamanism (using) cross-cultural myths to explain the history and roots of the Celtic spirit"SANDRA INGERMAN, author of 'Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self'

Trance-Portation Learning to Navigate the Inner World


Diana L. Paxson - 2008
    From the ceremonial magician to the shaman, using trance work to explore inner realms is essential to the magical process of healing, transcendence, and wisdom desired throughout diverse occult and spiritual traditions. TrancePortation offers a comprehensive and multispirited way to enter the inner realm. Blending the modern world with the ancient arts, TrancePortation's first three chapters, Travel Planning, Crossing the Threshold, and Getting Started, offer preparatory suggestions including meditations and relaxations, breathing, warding, shifting gears, and returning. Drawing on examples from varied traditions, from Western Mystery to Native American, Ancient Celtic to Eastern Mysticism, and peppered with folk lore and tales from popular science fiction stories, TrancePortation explores spiritual journey work extensively, offering readers the chance to find their own ways into the inner realm, encounter their own guides and fellow travelers, and create divine relationships with the deities and gods and goddesses that they meet.

The Goodly Spellbook: Olde Spells for Modern Problems


Dixie Deerman - 2005
    Delightfully well-written and practical, filled with atmospheric illustrations and diagrams throughout, it encompasses all the principles and philosophy of spell casting, and gives recipes for charms to solve common contemporary problems. This offers what witchcraft and Wicca books don’t: an in-depth understanding of what’s behind the spells and why they work. It’s amazing how much magic is in here: Geomancy, Elemental Scrying, Tree Divination, Mystic Dance and Drumming, Kitchen Witchery, and lots more. From healing, protection, and attraction spells to spells for discernment, repulsion, and concealing, not a topic goes uncovered.