In this volume I have followed one line only of anthropological enquiry, the survival of an indigenous European cult and the interaction between it and the exotic religion which finally overwhelmed it. I have traced the worship of the Horned God onwards through the centuries from the Paleolithic prototypes, and I have shown that the survival of the cult was due to the survival of the races who adored that god, for this belief could not have held its own against the invasions of other peoples and religions unless a stratum of the population were strong enough to keep it alive...Dr Margaret Alice Murray

    Women's rights and rites merge in this complete guide to the principles and practices of matriarchal religion.

     For most Pagans of any denomination, Yule is a high holy season. The ancient festival was a 12 daylong celebration beginning on the eve of the Winter Solstice (known to most Pagans as Yule) and ending at the new calendar year. This celebration was so important in ancient times that it was converted by the Christians to the 12 Days of Christmas. Many Pagans, especially those devoted to the Norse and Anglo Saxon Gods and Goddesses try to find some way to keep these 12 days, yet many are unsure exactly how to celebrate. Social media blows up in the weeks leading up to the Solstice with questions like: How do you celebrate? What do you do exactly? What activities, what rituals, what prayers and celebrations? For the past several years I have been working on this guide in an attempt to answer some of those questions for my own family and for others. This guide is a result of creating family traditions for this special and most sacred (not to mention FUN!) time of year. I put it all together into one little, handy and easy to follow guide, so that you and your family can celebrate the 12 Days of Yule together, with a little inspiration from what our family has been doing. Please enjoy!

    It is a preventative measure that uses your skill as a witch to tap into wild and ancient forces in order to take very ordinary objects and render them powerful wards. In this book, you’ll explore the theory behind warding with an in-depth look at the three things generally warded against, those things that cannot be warded against, and the surprising benefits warding affords to your witchcraft practice. You'll then put that information into practice with simple yet powerful wards you can easily make to guard your home, as well as techniques for warding your home when you don’t have access to tools but need immediate magickal protection. You will learn: • Why blanket protection spells are generally ineffective at providing the protection you need • How to make your magick stronger by identifying what you can and cannot ward against • How to transform your home into a spiritual safe-haven with a powerful hands-on approach to witchcraft • To simply yet effectively protect yourself from curses and unwanted energy • How to quickly ward your home without any tools in the event of a spiritual threat • To rely more strongly on yourself and make fewer excuses about why you can’t do the witchcraft With an emphasis on common sense, practicality, and a no-excuses approach to witchcraft, this book will help you to look at your spiritual protection needs for your home more objectively and to devise an immediate plan of action using materials you already have on hand.

    The author assumes no previous knowledge, only a willingness to explore what magick offers, yet its apparent to anyone with a background in the subject that Alan Chapman is drawing on a wide range of experience, from classical Crowleyean Magick, to eastern metaphysics, and back again to Discordianism and Chaos Magick. Chapmans writing-style is humorous, direct, seductively logical, and his enthusiasm for the benefits of magick is both tangible and infectious. The novice magician will indeed find themselves equipped to commence all sorts of magickal operations: trance work, enchantment, divination, and even some of the higher forms of spiritual development. To experienced magicians, Chapman offers a subtler challenge: he revitalises magick by cutting it free from the extreme relativism Chaos Magick bequeathed, provocatively redefining it as: the art, science and culture of experiencing truth.

    Written by a practicing witch who conducts classes and seminars on witchcraft--the oldest Western religion, a means of power and enlightenment, and a healing art. "Laurie Cabot has written a fascinating account of a beautiful and sadly misunderstood religion, witchcraft. She has with her life and work done a great deal to legitimize this ancient pagan form of worship. I am among the ecumenical Christians who have discovered the truth about witchcraft, that it is neither demonic nor evil. Power of the Witch is a marvelous introduction to the magical and highly ethical world of wicca."--Whitley Strieber

    There are full instructions for each spell, as well as blessings and directions for using incense in rituals.

    If you can think of a purpose for a spell, it's probably in this book. Need a spell to summon a ghost? Or perhaps you want the opposite: a spell to free a house from being haunted. They're both in this book. Do you need something to help you lose weight or have longevity? You'll find them here. Or perhaps you want to pass through a locked door. It's all in this book.Even if you don't know a thing about magic, you can use this book. The spells are easy, poetic, and evocative. For example, to cure a wart the instructions are: "Stamp within a silver cup mullein and houseleek together. Stir them with a sparrow's feather. Let it draw the juices up; Twenty times upon one day, brush them over the excrescence; Under sunlight dry the essence--Soon the wart must shrink away."The range in this book is phenomenal. You'll find a simple fertility charm and a way to conjure with smoke. You'll read about how to bring rain and how to stop rain from falling. You'll learn how to tell fortunes with sand or with tea leaves. This is more than just a book about magic, it is a folklorist's bonanza.If you're ready to win another's love or to sweeten someone's disposition, if you want to turn hair long and golden or discover tree spirits, this is the book you must have. Whether you have been doing magic for a long time or are a beginner, this book is a must.

    Because of this, historian Ronald Hutton shows, succeeding British generations have been free to reimagine, reinterpret, and reinvent the Druids. Hutton’s captivating book is the first to encompass two thousand years of Druid history and to explore the evolution of English, Scottish, and Welsh attitudes toward the forever ambiguous figures of the ancient Celtic world.Druids have been remembered at different times as patriots, scientists, philosophers, or priests; sometimes portrayed as corrupt, bloodthirsty, or ignorant, they were also seen as fomenters of rebellion. Hutton charts how the Druids have been written in and out of history, archaeology, and the public consciousness for some 500 years, with particular focus on the romantic period, when Druids completely dominated notions of British prehistory. Sparkling with legends and images, filled with new perspectives on ancient and modern times, this book is a fascinating cultural study of Druids as catalysts in British history.

    Now, through the magick of Moon Spells, you can learn how to use its energies to achieve your desire--whether it's a joyful romance, a successful career, or superb physical and emotional health.Magickal practitioner Diane Ahlquist guides you on a journey to attuning your spirit with the moon. You'll be amazed at how much more you can achieve in life when you synchronize your activities with the moon's phases. With the proper use of candles, gemstones, and incense, spells can be conducted at exactly the right lunar moment to enhance the flow of power and make your wishes come true.By practicing the spells in this book, you can be more successful, more often, when you want to get a pay raise, release your fears, attract a lover, receive divine messages, begin a new life, or move on after a loss. The moon, our closest celestial neighbor, continues to offer you her power. Moon Spells shows you how to embrace it.

     This booklet is for you if you are a Polytheist and: You want to honor your Gods outside of high tides and Sabbats, but you don't know where to start. You aren't sure what a daily devotional practice actually looks like, or how to incorporate one into your lifestyle. You need help forming reasonable goals in this area. You have a good idea of what you'd like to accomplish in your devotional life, but you could use some solid suggestions of how to get there. You've tried to build a daily devotional practice before, but you burned out, gave up, or became overwhelmed. You're a veteran to devotional Polytheism, but darned if you've ever figured out what to do with those prayer beads sitting on your shrine! You should skip this one if: You're looking for The One Right Way of Doing Devotion. This ain't it, and the author is allergic to that approach. You believe ideas from other spiritual paths are useless in your own. This booklet draws on ideas from multiple traditions. You're looking for a comprehensive, in-depth guide to Polytheism. This is a brief introduction for beginners with a very specific focus.

    Motherpeace recovers the positive, nurturing peace-oriented values of prepatriarchal times, and brilliantly combines art, history, mythology, folklore, philosophy, and comparative religion with an informed spiritual and feminist perspective.Vicki Noble challenges us to celebrate our ancient peaceful heritage and to reclaim our right as a people to a life without war. The book is a vision of hope and transformation, made even more powerful by the vibrant pictorial images of the seventy-eight Motherpeace tarot cards.Motherpeace shows how traditional myths and symbols can provide ideas and images for understanding the meaning and power of the Goddess for women and men today.

    • Numerous new and rare color photographs complement the completely revised and updated text. • Explores the uses of hallucinogenic plants in shamanic rituals throughout the world. • Cross-referenced by plant, illness, preparation, season of collection, and chemical constituents. Three scientific titans join forces to completely revise the classic text on the ritual uses of psychoactive plants. They provide a fascinating testimony of these "plants of the gods," tracing their uses throughout the world and their significance in shaping culture and history. In the traditions of every culture, plants have been highly valued for their nourishing, healing, and transformative properties. The most powerful of those plants, which are known to transport the human mind into other dimensions of consciousness, have always been regarded as sacred. The authors detail the uses of hallucinogens in sacred shamanic rites while providing lucid explanations of the biochemistry of these plants and the cultural prayers, songs, and dances associated with them. The text is lavishly illustrated with 400 rare photographs of plants, people, ceremonies, and art related to the ritual use of the world's sacred psychoactive flora.

    Through creative and unique journal prompts, introspection, rituals, and spells, Snow achieves this beautifully, and herein lays the perfect guide for the queer witch to stand in their power and stand beside others; truly queering our craft with compassion and pride.” --Mat Auryn, author of Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick, and Manifestation Witchcraft has always belonged to the outsiders and outcasts in society, yet so much of the practice enforces and adheres to the same hierarchy we face in the world at large—a hierarchy that isolates and hurts those living beyond society’s binaries and boundaries. While there are books that address magick for resistance and queer myth, until now there has not been one that specifically addresses the practice of queer magick from an LGBTQ+ standpoint. Queering Your Craft combines queer aesthetic and culture (like DIY culture and an emphasis on chosen family over formal covens) with pagan and metaphysical spiritual practice in a way that is commonplace but has not been written about until now. This book covers the personal, the collective, and the political, and how deeply intertwined all three are in a magickal practice for those who are LGBTQ+.In this introduction to witchcraft, Snow presents why/how each concept is important to a queer craft, or how to approach it from a queer mindset. For example, conventional prayer, words, and symbols have always been problematic in a queer universe: How to make them work and still be true to yourself? The bulk of the book is about learning the craft. The latter portion is a grimoire of spells.While accessible to beginning witches, Queering Your Craft provides new and inspiring information for longtime practitioners interested in a pure and personal approach that avoids the baggage of history and stereotype.

    Illustrated throughout, it teaches you which herbs and spices, oils and aromatherapy, brews, potions, spells, and more, can help you live life to the fullest. And with spells, remedies, and recipes from a roundtable of noted witches, healers, and mystical practitioners, this “spell”-binding book is a must-read for anyone who wishes to celebrate both good health and spirituality.