Book Review

Kind of cheating a wee bit on this week's PagBloPro post.  We're still working with the letter B.  There are a myriad of things I could post about, but I'm going for B for Book Review as I haven't done a book review in a while.


Last year, a friend had a big duffle bag filled with books she was looking to give away so I trawled through and helped myself to a whole big stash of books.  One of them was The Complete Guide to Magic and Ritual by Cassandra Eason.  


Cassandra is extremely well known in the UK.  I presume that fame spreads throughout the world, but I don't rightly know.  For those not familiar with her work, she's a witch and probably a whole host of other things (psychic, healer, occultist, take your pick, there are many!) who has written loads of books on various subjects from angels, divination techniques and crystals to magic, spells and Paganism.  Probably her most well known book (or one of her most well known books) is Every Woman is a Witch, a book I remember being recommended over and over when it came out in the 90's.  


So it was that I was quite happy to find one of Cassandra's books in my hands and I immediately skimmed through it when I first got it.  It was only recently though that I sat down to have a more thorough read of it.  


For the amateur magician who wishes to learn magic, this is a terrific book.  It covers all the basics and then some to get one started.  Noticeably absent is what one might term the "spiritual side" of things.  She touches a bit on varying traditions, mostly Wicca/Witchcraft.  However, the book itself is bare bones, right to the core magic and ritual.  The rituals are in the familiar Wiccan style, but one could argue that the Wiccan style of ritual draws upon magical traditions far older.  I leave it for the arm chair historians to debate.  The fact is, the point I'm trying to make is it's a fabulous book for beginner's of magic and spellwork.


For the seasoned practitioner, this is a terrific resource for ideas and reminders of how to do things without having to scan through pages and pages of text.  Everything is laid out very clearly so that one can easily find what she's looking for by simply looking in the Table of Contents.  If not, the index at the back helps too, but so far, I've yet to need to look there.  


If you're one for magic and ritual, then this is a book you'll want permanently on your bookshelf as you will likely find yourself referring back to it regularly.  Unfortunately, I think it's out of print, but used copies can be found via Amazon (link below).   And if any of the topics in the book pique your interest and you want to know more, Cassandra has a load of different online courses (her site linked above), some which cover the things in this book, and they're all pleasantly priced for the budget conscious witch (sorry to sound like an advert - but they really are!).


Next week, I believe we move on to the C's....wonder what I'll cook up for that one....