Musing Mystical

✨ A Gathering Place for Magical Readers and Writers ✨

The Treadwell’s Book of Plant Magic, by Christina Oakley Harrington

The Treadwell’s Book of Plant Magic, by Christina Oakley Harrington
Weiser Books, 1578638011, 176 pages, April 2023

There are a lot of books on the market that will tell you about plants in various terms: how to identify, where they originate from, and what their uses are. The Treadwell’s Book of Plant Magic by Christina Oakley Harrington goes one step further. This book is pure magic and should be on everyone’s shelf regardless of their personal or spiritual beliefs. Harrington, the founder and guiding light of the renowned occult bookshop Treadwell’s Books located in London, UK has brought the same level of care to this book that she has to the shop. I am in awe of this book.

Harrington has made it incredibly easy to find specific plants by sorting the book into three glorious sections. Titled “Problems and Solutions”, the first section is what would be expected from such a thorough compilation: an alphabetical listing of various maladies ranging from anxiety, money, protection, and so on with the corresponding herb(s) that will assist. This is meant to be a quick reference guide for those who are familiar with herbs and just need a refresher. The book assumes a working knowledge of plants and how to deal with them, as little to no instruction is provided on the basics such as growing, harvesting, and the like. It feels like this is a deliberate choice to ensure that those who use the book already have a healthy respect for the plants that they choose to work with and aren’t just looking for a speedy way out of a mess.

The middle section has no title and jumps right to providing in-depth information about herbs and plants. The book is worth the price just for the section on uses of Bay alone. Almost three whole pages are devoted to the herb and for good reason. Bay is the lavender of the herb family in that there are many ways to use it in both cooking and spiritual work. Included in each distinct method of usage is a ton of information on the herb itself that just isn’t present in other books. Like I said, worth the price right there. I have plenty of books on plants and their uses and this one book replaces all of them.

The last section is why we are all here: “Spells and Potions Using Multiple Herbs”. Where do I even start? This section is an absolute tribute to anyone working with plants and herbs in their practice in that the assumption of having basic knowledge is apparent. There is no how-to on how to make Marygolde water; it’s assumed the reader knows. Personally, I love this way of presenting information as I find some books on this specific subject spend far too many pages giving information that can be easily looked up on the internet. Many books claim to be resource books but end up masquerading as something far more basic than what the tag line says. This book is the opposite.

The spells contained in this section are not carved in stone; there is an understanding that the reader will take what they need and leave the rest. Using herbs and plants in personal spell work is not like using herbs and plants in cooking: there is no recipe to follow here, only guidelines. The book incorporates the generally accepted uses of all the plants and herbs mentioned, making it universal so there’s no need to undertake additional research on what rue can be used for. 

To be clear, there are no “recipes” for potions, only a general suggestion as to how one might go about crafting it for their own use. While there are instances of direction being provided in some cases, for the most part it’s assumed that the reader is familiar with basic applications such as making herbal blends and diffusing them. 

Should you pick up The Treadwell’s Book of Plant Magic if you’ve never held an herb in your life? YES. We all need to start somewhere and this book, while not providing introductory information on how to work in this realm of magic, will give you an abundance of information about the tools used to craft within this sphere. 

The Magic of the Sword of Moses, by Harold Roth

The Magic of The Sword of Moses: A Practical Guide to Its Spells, Amulets, and Ritual, by Harold Roth
Weiser Books, 1578637260, 192 pages, August 2022

The Sword of Moses, titled Ḥarba de-Moshe in Aramaic, is one of the earliest extant grimoires of Jewish magic. Originating in northern Israel during the third quarter of the first millennium (circa 700-1000 CE), this medieval pre-Kabbalistic book of spells was written by an anonymous author in both Hebrew and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. The author compiled magical formulas from multiple texts and documented his own personal three-day purification ritual of fasting, prayer, and angelic adjurations to be performed in order to gain the spiritual authority to use the Sword. The resulting compendium of 136 spells emphasizes the power of the spoken word rather than exotic ingredients or expensive ritual tools. 

While the book’s epic title The Sword of Moses may conjure up mental images of an Excalibur-like enchanted weapon, the Sword is in fact a poetic metaphor for 1,800 divine names, invoked and wielded by the magician’s tongue. The authenticity of these words of power is proclaimed by inserting them in mythic time. The manuscript claims that when Moses descended from Mount Sinai with the stone tablets of the Law inscribed by God, he also carried with him the Sword of sacred names, which had been gifted to him by the angels. It may seem audacious for magicians to presume they have the authority to command angels to do their bidding, but through performing the purification ritual, which identifies them with Moses, they follow in his stead and invoke the power of the divine names to bend the world to their will. 

When Harold Roth, artist and author of The Witching Herbs (2017), first encountered The Sword of Moses in the occult section of a university library, he was frustrated by its inaccessibility. Moses Gaster, who first translated The Sword of Moses into English in 1896, had bowdlerized the text by censoring many of the spells and replacing the divine names with X’s, rendering the grimoire useless for magical practice. This inspired Roth to do his own research and reconstruct the sorcerous manual for contemporary use. 

In The Magic of the Sword of Moses: A Practical Guide to Its Spells, Amulets, and Ritual, Roth supplies a scholarly background of rich historical context combined with detailed instructions for the modern magician to incorporate the Sword into their practice, making this work accessible to both seasoned sorcerers and curious readers with little to no previous knowledge of Jewish magic. Just as the anonymous author who first compiled these spells made them his own through creative revision, Roth has adapted this ancient grimoire for modern use with his own practical and easy to follow instructions in plain English. 

Roth also supplies his own thought-provoking insights regarding the mysterious manuscript. According to The Sword of Moses, humans were given the spiritual authority to command angels by God, but cannot command the Holy One himself. “However,” Roth says, “one of the most profound conclusions I’ve come to from studying The Sword of Moses is how much the angels seem indeed to be God, in particular because of the recurrence of parts of the ineffable Tetragrammaton in their names.”1 

The divine names are spelled out in easy to pronounce syllables, such as “GiBehRehYoAhLa,” which Roth identifies in a footnote as “clearly the name Gabriel.”2 However, this is one of the few he explains and the rest run together in long strings of barbarous names of power, such as the following, which appears to be a flowing permutation of the four-letter ineffable name of God, transliterated as YHWH: “YoHehWaWaHeh AhHehHeh HehWaHeh HehHehYo…”3 In a spell for wisdom, one of the most curious names mentioned is Prince Abraxas, a Gnostic spirit addressed as a Jewish archangel, who is charged to reveal arcane knowledge to the magician, indicating some syncretism with Greek magic. 

While the power of the spoken word is emphasized, the magician may also wield the Sword in written form by creating talismans, writing the divine names on fabric and crafting them into ritual garments, or even scrawling them on one’s own skin like a tattoo “to protect the magic worker from the wrath of angels, who can easily be offended by humans.”4

There are a variety of intriguing spells, ranging from those addressing mundane health concerns, such as one to cure migraines believed to be caused by a demonic spirit called a palga, to the more fantastical, such as walking on water and path-jumping, a type of supernatural travel involving riding a reed, rather like a witch straddling a broomstick. A few of the spells utilize the apotropaic hand gesture of crooking the little finger of one’s left hand. For example, this gesture is used in a spell to protect yourself “during legal proceedings”5, and in “a binding spell to catch thieves,” the magician is instructed to put their little finger in their ear while saying the divine names.6 

There are even killing spells included, without any didactic warnings or threats of karmic repercussions. Roth says that “Jewish magic does not have any idea of karma, the Three-Fold Law, the slingshot effect, or other negative reactions for negative magic.”7 The Sword gives you the freedom to think for yourself, and decide what action is appropriate and justified in your situation outside of the confines of any rigid moral code. Besides, one might hope that the angels would not bestow such power on someone who would use it irresponsibly. 

In mythic time, Moses himself used a killing curse. Exodus 2:11-12 recounts how Moses murdered an Egyptian overseer who was beating an Israelite slave. The weapon he used to slay the Egyptian is not mentioned, but according to an alternate version of the tale in Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer (Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer), Moses cursed the overseer and slew him with “the sword of his mouth.”8

Before the reader dares to try any of these spells, they must first obtain the spiritual authority to wield the Sword by performing a three-day purification rite, for which Roth gives detailed instructions.

“This book’s aim is to make it as simple and easy as possible while maintaining its authenticity and power.”9

 The magician is advised to bathe in living water, wear only white, avoid contact with anything unclean (including insects, dead things, nocturnal emissions, semen, and menstrual blood), fast for three days, consuming only bread, salt, and water after sunset, and recite the Amidah (the Standing Prayer) thrice each day while facing the east. The prayers are interwoven with potent angelic adjurations addressing thirteen archangels. The purpose of the adjurations is to invoke the thirteen heavenly princes and bind them and all the angels under their authority to the magician, and in doing so, gain control of the Sword. If the magician is not in a state of ritual purity, he risks offending the angels and incurring their fiery wrath. As a verbal fail-safe, the angels are also ordered not to harm the magician.

I believe the threat of being burned alive is a metaphor for the transformative power of the angels. Their celestial fire brings symbolic death and transfiguration through spiritual alchemy, and they will sear away the impurities of the magician in order to make him worthy to speak the divine names. The fiery Sword of Moses bestows the power to change reality, but first the magician must initiate change from within. 

This metaphorical sword of magic words captured my imagination, and I was so fascinated by the divine names that I decided on impulse to perform the purification ritual as soon as possible, following Roth’s directions to the best of my ability. Roth suggests that a long weekend may work well for some practitioners, so I chose Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to perform the rite and began at sundown on Friday in keeping with the Jewish tradition that a day begins when the sun sets the day before. Not being Jewish myself, I didn’t have to worry about violating any Sabbath restrictions. According to Roth, gentiles may say the prayers because Isaiah 56:7 declares that “My house shall be a house of prayer to all nations.”10

Unfortunately, I don’t live close to a body of living water, so I wasn’t able to dunk myself in one, but I hoped that taking a shower would suffice. I avoided using scented toiletries, as these may offend the angels, who are sensitive to strong fragrances, regardless of how pleasing humans may think they are. I wore a white robe for three days and baked my own bread for breaking fast when the sun went down. Even though the bread was delicious, it quickly became boring. I was at least permitted to butter my toast, because according to Roth, “There is nothing that says we cannot.”11 I recited the Amidah and the angelic adjurations thrice each day, while facing the east in my bedroom. Roth assures us that there is no need to cast a magic circle for protection or to contain raised energy because the angels are listening to the adjurations from up in heaven. Each recitation took 35 minutes, which was a test of endurance. The first day was especially challenging because I had a headache from caffeine withdrawals. If I had only had the foresight to give up coffee a few days before I began the ritual, I could have avoided that discomfort. 

The time of day for saying the prayers and adjurations was not rigid, so I chose shortly after dawn for the first recitation, solar noon for the second, and a couple of hours before sunset for the third. As I chanted, I visualized a burning sword revolving in the air before me, ablaze with Hebrew letters that lit up the blade like orange lava, as if it had been forged in a smoldering volcano. Sometimes I got tongue-tied and stumbled over the strange syllables, but in the moments when the cantillations found a steady flowing cadence and rolled off my tongue with natural ease, it felt as though my lips were possessed and aflame with the holy names. I found that concentrating all of my energy on reciting what my conscious mind registered as gibberish banished extraneous thoughts and induced a light trance state which I think is key to facilitating contact with the Divine powers being addressed. Between the fasting and standing for extended periods of time chanting, I often felt exhausted afterwards and needed to lie down. 

While I would love to report that some stellar transformation occurred, or that I had an incredible vision of being gifted with a supernatural sword, after I completed the ritual, I only felt a subtle difference, a numinous sense of peace and gratitude. I felt it to be very healing and it helped me to better recognize when irrational anxiety is knotting up inside of my chest. One line in particular from the Amidah really resonated with me:

“Heal me, Nurturing One, and let me feel healed. Save me, Holy One, and let me know I am safe. Healed in body, mind, spirit. Saved from the blight of my own fears. Heal me from perfectionism and lust for results. Save me from believing my own inner critics and soothe my grief.”12

The Magic of the Sword of Moses will be a treasure to anyone who has an interest in Jewish magic and medieval grimoires. There is a wealth of information packed into this slim volume of less than 200 pages, presented with clarity and precision. The modern magician’s magical practice will be enriched by sharpening the sword of their tongue with divine names of power, as long as they approach the angels with a sense of respect and awe, ever keeping in mind that they are spirits of fire. 

Spirit Speaker, by Salicrow

Spirit Speaker: A Medium’s Guide to Death and Dying, by Salicrow
Destiny Books, 9781644117286, 110 pages, April 2023

In her comprehensive book Spirit Speaker: A Medium’s Guide to Death and Dying, author and medium Salicrow combines what she has learned from over three decades of working with the dying with personal stories from her own family.  Salicrow has been aware of her psychic abilities since childhood and was fortunate to grow up in a family that honored her gifts and provided training (She comes from both Irish Travelers and Blackfoot roots). In addition to helping people connect with their loved ones on the other side, she works as a Reiki master, a druid, and tarot and runes reader. Her work also includes leading women’s circles and retreats in her community in Vermont.  

In this book, Salicrow shares her experiences with death and dying as a part of life.  She takes out much of the mystery and fear and explains the dying process in a way that is both easy to understand and very compassionate. Perhaps because I lost all four of my grandparents within a four-year period when I was a young teenager, I have always been fascinated by death. I wrote my senior paper on a book called The American Way of Death and Dying by Jessica Mitford. Little did I know that I would learn how to talk to spirit people in my forties!

Although this is a short book, Salicrow packs it with everything you need to know about dying, death, and spirit communication. She begins with a discussion about ancestors and how to create an ancestor altar to foster communication with our beloved dead. Next, she discusses signs and symbols from special songs playing on the radio to visitation dreams to special smells that fill the room when a loved one is near. 

As she begins to talk about the dying process, she introduces the concept of “The Gray,” which is  a “time surrounding death, when the person is still living but cannot get better, and the time after passing when a spirit may be confused about what has just happened.”13 This term was new to me, but accurately describes this phase as a transition between living and dying. 

The examples that Salicrow shares about loved ones and clients are descriptive and warm.  She shares from her heart and you can feel the compassion as she highlights how to sit with the dead, honor the dead, and move on after a loss. One of the suggestions she had was to replace photos of the living with photos of deceased family members in the room of a dying person. She explains that in some cases, a person may be hanging on for family, not willing to let go and pass to the other realm. By seeing a few photos of departed loved ones, the dying person can look forward to crossing over and see the love and support waiting for them there. 

Salicrow goes further and provides a meditation you can use with a dying person to help them cross over.  It was quite detailed and would be easy to record and play for the person several times, as she suggested.  She includes other tips for sitting with the dead in this book.

In the final sections, Salicrow discusses spirit communication and some practical steps the reader can take. She again highlights the use of “wide-angle vision” and an exercise that she referenced earlier in the book. Lastly, she describes how to make altars to the dead and how to honor those in spirit. She explains the concept of living with the dead in this section, which is one of my favorites from the book:

“I am a person who lives with my dead. They are woven into my daily life and hold just as much space in my heart and mind as the living. I am who I am because they came before me, teaching me with their kindness as well as with the wounds they inflicted. None of us is perfect; We are all growing, changing, and becoming. Just as we inevitably realize our parents did not have it all figured out, we, too, need to understand that our ancestors experienced their own tragedies, wounding, and growth. They are allies on our path to becoming, and by giving regular offerings, the relationship between us and our dead is strengthened. As we do so we heal ourselves and those who are part of our family line”14

I really enjoyed reading this book.  Salicrow’s writing style is very conversational and bright, especially for a topic that some would consider morose. The book was well planned, easy to read, and included both a table of contents and a very specific index.  I plan to create my own altar to my ancestors and will also enjoy teaching some of the concepts in this book to my women’s group and clients. 

Spirit Speaker would be great for anyone to read, from a beginner who is new to concepts regarding spirit communication to those who have years of experience as a medium. This book would also be beneficial for anyone who is facing hospice care for a loved one or friend. I found it fascinating that she combined so much information in one book. It was as if she took all of the ideas I’ve picked up along my twenty year journey, books I’ve read, and experiences I’ve had and put these into one small volume about death, dying, and spirit communication. I’ll be getting additional copies of this book for clients and students in order to share the comprehensive information and personal journey of Salicrow and her way of living with the beloved dead.

Pagan Portals – Dream Analysis Made Easy, by Kystrina Sypniewski

Pagan Portals – Dream Analysis Made Easy: Everything You Need to Know to Harness the Power of Your Dreams, by Kystrina Sypniewski
Moon Books, 978-1-80341-178-1, 101 pages, April 2023

Coming from a holistic healing and spiritual background, I have always had an interest in the secret, mysterious world of our dreams. But when I started exploring dream work, there was much less information to find, being pre-internet times. Back then only certain writers and researchers had worked with dreams. Carl Jung became my first port of call, with him being so well known and having written a wealth of information on the subject. Sadly, I found his work lacking the spiritual element I desired. I was then led to the work of Denise Linn and that is where my dream work began.

However, more recently, I have been pondering this question: in today’s climate of information overload, if people wished to start from scratch and enter into the realm of dream research, where would they start? Feeling that it’s necessary for them to start with the basics, Pagan Portals – Dream Analysis Made Easy: Everything You Need to Know to Harness the Power of Your Dreams by Kystrina Sypniewski is a great book for beginners. Sypniewski has touched on most of the basics and the foundation of dream analysis quite well.

Sypniewski rightly begins with an introduction into sleep and sleep patterns. I feel this is very important, as without this background understanding of sleep and its stages discovering much more about dreams would be lacking. We need to understand REM sleep and when it occurs to better know our dream cycles. I found her research fitted with my own understanding.

She then quite rapidly (this book is only 100 pages) moves onto the potential meaning behind our dreams and their use to our own wellbeing and understanding of ourselves. She covers these topics in a holistic way. Sypniewski writes how dream imagery and messages may help us process past experiences, provide insight into our current life situation, as well as be potentially prophetic, giving us clues and guidance toward potential future occurrences.

Sypniewski then moves into the basics of dream discovery. In this section she covers methods of recall-what you remember happened in your dream and benefits of dream diaries and dictionaries. A basic dream diary is a journal that is placed on the bedside, so it is quickly accessible, in order to be able to note down dreams before they slip away. To me a dream diary is vital for recall, and Sypniewski instructs on how to make these diaries more structured and detailed. She covers this well and gives advice on how to format one, which I think is very helpful.

As the book progresses, Sypniewski moves on to dream symbology.  She covers the deeper symbology, as in, what a house or car commonly represents.

“The house represents the dreamer. If the house is a specific dwelling with which the dreamer has a very strong and unique past association, then the house represents either the fear of, or possible recurrence of the situation the dreamer associates with that house.”15

However, Sypniewski does stress that it is crucial to see the process as one of self-discovery. A fleeting symbol to one person may mean something very different to another. Her method of self-discovery provides a very different take than a dream dictionary. Dream dictionaries tend to take a “one size fits all” approach and although she does offer some symbols and interpretations later in the book, she does say they are just potential meanings and it is so important to find your own.

“Although it is essential you interpret your dreams in a personal way, there are a few symbols which are pretty accepted as having a universal meaning.”16

The concept of discovering what symbols mean to you for yourself is reiterated throughout the book. It can be repetitive at times, but I think she just wishes to stress the importance of taking the personal approach and to teach readers not to view dreamwork as superficial.

As the book progresses further, she expands on what we can learn from our dreams and the messages and warnings they can impart. She also reflects on the vital process of healing and insight from working with our subconscious and the benefits of potentially prophetic dreams. 

Having worked in many ways to discover more about myself and the subconscious mind, I turned to lucid dreaming, especially in my youth. Lucid Dreaming is covered in a very brief chapter, which I was a little disappointed about, so if you are looking for detailed information on this topic then you’ll need to do more research. However, she does give enough detail for a beginner and provides great advice for a starting point. I had not read her take on lucid dreaming before, so I did learn something from it, and I am now using the method suggested by Sypniewski.

The latter portion of the book focuses on mythological and archetypal characters and images and what they can represent within the collective consciousness of humanity with questions to ask yourself. She cites many dream examples and teaches how they might be interpreted. Many of these examples prove the healing and beneficial effect of our dreams, which is good for those learning the art of dream work for the first time.

Sypniewski does a great job throughout the book of helping the reader gain the building blocks for interpretation, covering how to almost dissect your dreams and showing the reader the methods of structuring your dream recall in a way that you can learn most from it. These methods are covered thoroughly and re-iterated for clarity as the book concludes.

Overall, I do feel Pagan Portals – Dream Analysis Made Easy is a very good book for beginners into the realm of dream analysis and self-discovery. Sypniewski covered all the basics and more, and I was heartened by her approach to self-interpretation of symbols along with her guidance and structures for really getting to know yourself through your dreams.

Ancestral Grimoire, by Nancy Hendrickson

Ancestral Grimoire: Connect with the Wisdom of the Ancestors through Tarot, Oracles, and Magic, by Nancy Hendrickson
Weiser Books, 1578637775, 240 pages, September 2022

Lately I’ve been all about exploring magic through a community-based lens. In Western occultism there seems to be an exclusive focus on the individual, but the deeper I’ve dived into my own practice, the more I see the interrelatedness and notice how the dynamics/energy of relationship influence our own manifestation, healings, insights, and so on. And it’s for this reason that I’ve been interested in cultivating a deeper relationship with my ancestors.

My seeking to learn more about my ancestors led me to Ancestral Grimoire: Connect with the Wisdom of the Ancestors through Tarot, Oracle, and Magic by Nancy Hendrickson. Hendrick’s previous book Ancestral Tarot: Uncover Your Past and Chart Your Future (2021) was the first time I realized tarot cards could be used for ancestor work; I loved this novel approach of using the tarot to know more about my own ancestral lineage. Plus, I trusted Hendrickson as a guide since she also has written extensively on using Ancestry.com to and discovering one’s family history online.

Ancestral Grimoire is the natural combination of her expertise, allowing readers to the next step of using tarot and oracles to enhance one’s own magical practice with the help of the ancestors by creating a personal grimoire, also referred to as a Book of Shadows. This book equips readers with tools beyond the tarot to reconnect with their ancestors, including pendulums, oracle cards, sigils, casting charms, runes, sidewalk oracles, and energy work. But it also goes beyond just reconnecting the reader with their ancestors; Ancestral Grimoire guides readers to discovering their own magic.

“One ancestor can be with you for a lifetime, another for just a moment. Ask for someone to show you the way out of darkness and they will hand you a blueprint no architect could even conceive. Want to know the most potent form of magic? Ask.”16

Hendrickson focuses on four types of magic (family magic, personal magic, elemental magic, and celestial magic) as she guides the reader through a full-year process of creating their own grimoire. The invitation is to both experiment with different magic and also experience the enhancement that comes from trying out these forms of magic with ancestral assistance. No two months are the same, and the variety makes for an interesting practice month to month.

And there’s no need to fret if you start reading in a month other than January. You can certainly pick up right where you are in the Wheel of the Year or you can even skip around and choose to do the magic during a different month. As with most magic, there’s room for variation and a personal touch.

For instance, I started this book all the way back in September (yes, over six months ago!) and have been making my way in chronological order since without concern for the standard January-December year. You might find the book calls to you a certain time or perhaps you want to begin this grimoire with a particular sabbat. Trust that it has come to you at the right time and move through it in a way that feels aligned with your practice.

September has been one of my favorite months so far in this practice. It was a celestial magic month with the focus being sky magic. The tarot spread for the month focused on connecting with my celestial ancestor and discovering their karmic influence on me, the intergenerational sky magic I’ve inherited, and a solar or lunar symbol I could create to honor this ancestor (with ideas included on how to create this symbol). Then there also is a pendulum spread to discern where balance is needed, fitting for the time of the autumn equinox.

But what I enjoyed most about this month was the practice “Messages in Paint and Fire” where I got to play with finger paint! There’s also an option to use smoke signals, but I for one enjoy getting my handy dirty and engaging in the creative process. Hendricks writes, “Keeping your question in mind, look for answers in the paint.”17 I still have my painting hanging up and it continues to give me new inspiration and insight from time to time.

This month, April, is focused on elemental  magic, specifically land magic, using the tools of tarot, a pendulum, and energy work (chakras). Hendricks writes, “I invite you to ask for an ancestor who was a land whisperer, an ancestors who knew how to communicate with the nonhuman entities who watched over the land, as well as with the land itself.”18

Though I haven’t delved in yet, I can see this month for my grimoire that I will be doing a bit of shadow work, using the pendulum to tap into energy points within my own neighborhood, and exploring the energy of my chakras along with land chakras. Exciting stuff! 😀

All in all, Ancestral Grimoire is filled with practices to discover your own personal magic while strengthening the connection with your ancestors. This book is a doorway to discovery about the hidden strengths and shadows of your ancestors that have been inherited, providing you with the tools needed to divine, manifest, heal, and create meaningful relationships with your predecessors. I recommend this book for anyone looking to explore their ancestry while also expanding their knowledge about who they are and where they come from.

Even if readers aren’t familiar with some of the tools used in the book, the month to month practice will build their confidence as the new skills are developed. In just a single book, there’s a whole year of possibility as your spiritual team grows and you learn who to call on for what purposes. It’s comforting to know you’re never alone and there’s always ancestors from beyond the physical realm available to be called on for advice and guidance.

Pagan Portals – The Water Witch, by Jessica Howard

Pagan Portals – The Water Witch: An Introduction to Water Witchcraft, by Jessica Howard
Moon Books, 978-1-78535-955-2, 112 pages, March 2023

As a practicing witch with over twenty years’ experience, Jessica Howard has provided a blueprint for inviting the element water into personal practice. Her book, Pagan Portals – The Water Witch: An Introduction to Water Witchcraft, is full of useful information and insight. Not only does Howard talk about the various ways water could be used to develop one’s connection to the Divine, she also shares her own personal experience with the element, furthering the concept of there being no right way to practice this particular type of witchcraft.

Howard has laid the book out in both highly digestible and very practical sections in only 112 pages. The table of contents provides a glimpse of what’s contained within this book: an in depth look at the various facts of this craft. 

Personally, as a Fire sign I find water incredibly challenging to work with. Despite the great healing abilities water contains, along with various divination and knowledge seeking qualities, I have found it very difficult to use regularly. Howard’s clearly written book identifies the challenges and addresses them in the third chapter titled “Connecting With Water Energies”. In this chapter, she identifies and addresses the main root of my personal block when it comes to water: being gentle with yourself for not getting it right away. She explains why it might feel disheartening at first, saying:

“Sometimes we have shut ourselves off for so long that it can take a while to open ourselves up to these energies. So even if it doesn’t work with the first meditation or first blessing, keep at it. Try different approaches, search for more ideas than just what’s in this book, and keep at it until you find something that works for you.”19

I like the fact that Howard recognizes and fully embraces the fact that not every practicing witch is going to connect to water in the same way she has. By building in flexibility and encouraging additional studies outside of the book she wrote, she creates a sense of trust with the reader that isn’t overly cloying or fake. There is no loftiness in her language; not to say that what she writes is basic, rather, the way the book is written invites dialogue and experimentation on the part of the practitioner. Howard has not written a book telling the reader specifically how to be a water witch – she is sharing her journey and providing the steps she took in order to connect with the element in the way that she does.

This lack of information gatekeeping is so refreshing! Too many times I’ve read books that start off promising to share insight into whatever and before too long the realization that nothing is actually being shared sets in and I’m left with a book that doesn’t help my personal pursuit of knowledge. It’s disheartening and causes immense frustration. Howard has gone out of her way to ensure that if nothing else, the reader walks away with a healthy understanding of water in the context of magic and how useful it can be when used in conjunction with current practices. 

In a later chapter, Howard talks about the environment as it relates to those who follow a magical path. She is forthright in her requests to the reader in this specific framework: not only does she challenge those magical practices that instruct the practitioner to contribute to the ongoing crisis we see all around us in nature, but she gives specific thought to what we as individuals could do in order to reduce our footprint in this mass destruction. I’ve not seen anything as specific as this in any previous magical books and I am glad she took the time to remind us of the devastation our practices can cause if we aren’t mindful. Howard says:

“I’ve seen books on witchcraft which have recommended putting your petition into a plastic container and throwing into a river…pouring perfume into rivers because undines like pleasant scents. Please do not follow this advice. If you want to throw something into a river to help rid yourself of negativity, use a stick or small stone. If you want to give an offering to the undines, use a small vial of water which has had naturally grown rose petals steeped in it. Please stop and think about what you are offering and what the potential harm it could have before you make it.”20

This might turn folks off who want to just do their thing and not concern themselves with the harm they might be doing to the environment. Personally, my offerings are usually a combination of items that can be composted (fruit, flowers), and containers that are specific to the use of magic (candle holders, cast iron cauldron). While some of this might come off as sounding ‘holier than thou’, I share this only to show how simple it is to be mindful of the materials being used in your practice. 

Pagan Portals – The Water Witch is a wonderful book for those looking to expand their practice to include water work. It’s beautifully written and full of useful information that encourages the reader to learn more through other channels. A softer read than I am used to, this book both challenged my ideas around water magic and whether I could actually use it and helped me to find my own path as I navigated my deep feelings around being open to new things and performing magic.

Crimson Craft, by Halo Quin

Crimson Craft: Sexual Magic for the Solo Witch, by Halo Quin
Moon Books, 978-1-78535-939-2, 178 pages, January 2023

As a practicing Faery witch and lifelong lover of magic, Halo Quin is also a devotee of Freya and the Faery Queen, so it’s easy to see where the impetus for Crimson Craft: Sexual magic for the Solo Witch comes from! One of my favorite sections of this book is at the beginning of Chapter 1. Titled “Foreplay”, this small section is a warning to those who might not be ready to tackle the very intimate topics covered. Starting off with a bit of cheek is absolutely delightful, and perfectly suited to Quin.

The book is separated into a variety of chapters that are logically and well thought out in terms of pacing. The first chapter deals with how to use the book, with sections on safety considerations, including mental health support, as well as a note about ethics that talks about consent. While this is a book targeting solo practitioners and assisting with healing wounds associated with the erotic self, the inclusion of consent is completely appropriate. 

Separated into parts which then house individual chapters, Quin has deftly taken a number of topics and expanded on them in a detailed way. In “Part II Laying the Foundation”, Quin talks about sensual magic and provides insight into how to prepare for the various practices described. Interestingly, it’s acknowledged that not all things need to be healed all at once and the reader is cautioned to take their time and check in with themselves. Quin explains:

“Our bodies hold the memories of all we have lived through, and some of us have lived through quite painful things. We might need support to heal, or release, some things. If you encounter something like that within yourself, I invite you to consider what kind of support might be the right choice for you and seek it out when you are ready.”21

Quin has spent a great deal of time ensuring that this book is approachable and written in a way that is helpful and not divisive. You will find no earth shattering practices in here, unless you count taking responsibility for your own healing particularly sensational. This is not to mean that the book isn’t worthy of being on the shelf alongside other popular books of this ilk; rather, I would suggest starting with this book before those others. The tone is soft and gentle and might be a better entry into this sort of practice for those who are new to this. It isn’t easy healing sexual wounds no matter how much therapy might have been done, and this book is in line with many parameters around self-care with respect to the numerous calls to perform self check-ins along the way.

Having said that, the section on erotic divinities absolutely got my full attention. In fact, I jumped ahead to it as soon as I saw the table of contents. Who wouldn’t? I mean, I guess some people have patience and read through the whole book in order the way it was meant to be read but that person is not me.

Quin states that “Magic. Sex. War. Love. The deities of passion hold all these things in their grasp. The Goddesses of Passion are known by many names and many faces.”22 Quin continues by naming a few: Inanna, Aphrodite, Lilith, Freyja, Venus, and Babylon, all of whom have their own stories and embody the Goddess persona in very different ways, depending on which stories you subscribe to.

Quin connects love and righteous war saying that they are two sides of the same coin, which is apparent in that goddesses of love are often also warrior women as well. It’s an interesting concept, and one that is found often when reading about goddesses in this context. Quin explains why there is such a deep connection between love and war within the context of love goddesses, stating, “Perhaps because love is a passion, love is a feeling that fills one with fire. Whether that fire is the gentle hearth or the roaring bonfire, it is akin to the fire that can be used to protect the ones we love from darkness.”23

Not only does Quin talk about the goddesses, but the gods of passion are mentioned as well. It’s a bit tricky to navigate this particular space when there is much talk of reclaiming the divine feminine, but Quin magnificently sidesteps the drama and gets right to the point. Quin says:

“Each one of us, regardless of gender, has to learn to temper our passions, and to know when to let them pour out into the world. And so, the gods of love are so often depicted as wild and kind in equal measure…with their passions held in balance in service of their love. And here is the lesson of the gods of passion; where the goddesses can teach us about boundaries of self, the gods can teach us about the boundaries of community and family. Passion is both expression and protection, and is this not love?”24

Recognizing that gender can produce more stress in specific instances, I feel that this book would be more helpful than harmful for those looking to reclaim their sexual sovereignty. There are exercises included throughout the book that assist with healing in the form of journaling, meditation, spellcasting, and others. I would recommend Crimson Craft to absolutely anyone looking to start down the path of healing, regardless of whether the harm being dealt with is sexual or not. This is a valuable addition to any library, and I know it’s going on my shelf.

Witches, Druids, and Sin Eaters, by Jon C. Hughes with Sophie Gallagher

Witches, Druids, and Sin Eaters: The Common Magic of the Cunning Fold of the Welsh Marches, by Jon C. Hughes with Sophie Gallagher
Destiny Books, 9781644114285, 296 pages, September 2022

Witches, Druids, and Sin Eaters beckons one to the Welsh Marches – the ancient borderland of Wales and England. It is a brilliant collaboration between Jon Hughes, a fifth-generation Druid living in a remote part of Wales and Sophie Gallagher, a Welsh-born witchcraft researcher with a deep knowledge of the ancient witches of the Welsh Marches. 

Seeking to explore and bring to light the “treasure trove of untapped information relating to the ancient Druids and arcane witchcraft that evolved in the Welsh Marches”22 while incorporating the current practices in this area, Hughes and Gallagher looked at artifacts, texts, museum archives, and even the natural landscape. They soon discovered that there were more similarities than differences in the practices of the Druids and the witches. The book delves into regional practices such as sin eaters and eye biters and even includes the area’s influence on the writing of J. R. R. Tolkein.

Accompanying photographs of artifacts, sites, and buildings bring to life the artifacts and markings of these people. The most widespread witch marks found in the area’s buildings are of taper burns, intentional in their making and not by the random flicker of a flame too close to a wall. Photographs of items such as a curse doll, a wooden witch’s coffin curse, and protective amulets and devices found in walls and floorboards, illustrate the influence of the witches and Druids in this region.

“People have secretly hidden objects in their houses for centuries (things like bottles, shoes, and bodies of cats) to protect themselves and their families from various forms of supernatural menace (evil spirits, witches, hostile magic, malign influences) to influence events or to take revenge on people that have wronged them.”25 

The work is comprehensive in its exploration of the significance of the earth-based practices of the Druids and witches in the Welsh Marches. The Druids have lived in this area for over 6,000 years, from around 3,800 B.C. The region, of course, experienced tumult since the first ancient people arrived there. The book also details encounters of these people with the Romans in their first invasion, with reminders that the Romans were also pagan until 313 A.D.

Historical references put things into context. I was particularly struck by the reading about the Walton Basin, on the Welsh side of the border, which archeologists believe was a national ceremonial center. A timber henge, approximately 328 feet in diameter, was discovered that is felt to be a prototype for a stone henge that was not built. There were similarities between the deposits found at this site and Stonehenge.

Tolkein enters the picture in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, England, where he joined British archeologist, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, at Dwarf’s Hill in the late 1920s. Dwarf’s Hill contained a labyrinth of tunnels and was thought to be the home of little people. A tablet bearing a curse was also found. Silvianus, a Roman, had lost a ring and cursed all who bore the name of Senicianus, the supposed thief.

Wheeler invited Tolkein to examine the site of Noden’s Temple at Dwarf’s Hill after which Tolkein contributed to a report on the origin of the name, Noden. When Tolkein later wrote The Hobbit “it became impossible not to speculate upon the connection between his experiences at Lydney and his epic tales of Middle Earth,“26 including Hobbits and a ring.

The book provides simply fascinating information and insight. Sin eaters and eye biters….oh, my. Sin eaters were unique to the Welsh culture and the region of the Welsh Marches. The sin eater (always male) took upon himself the sins of the newly deceased so that the departed could find his/her place in the hereafter. A sin eater was retained by the family of the deceased and would consume a cake called a dead cake which had been placed on the breast of the corpse at sunset. It would remain there until sunrise the following morning where it was thought to absorb the sins of the departed. The sin eater would then consume the cake along with ale.

Eye biters were found among the powerful witches of the Welsh Marches who were thought to have the ability to cast evil curses simply by looking at their victims. Their gaze was as effective as if they were to “bite the jugular vein (of the victim) and watch them bleed to death.”27 Beware the brathwyr llygaid, or eye biters!

As a reference, the book provides a comprehensive list of five prominent occultists (alchemists, astrologers, and occult philosophers) who “influenced the kings and emperors of much of Europe and beyond.”28 These men, while famous, reflect the many unknown practitioners, who live/lived in the Welsh Marches:

“There is little doubt that the unique and extraordinary culture of the Welsh Marches has had a lasting influence upon the history of the occult within the Marches itself and further afield around the globe.”29

Hughes and Gallagher remind the reader that the lore of the Druids and witches was an oral tradition. They bring the reader into the modern era of witches and Druids. “A Druid is a learned pagan, well versed in the oral tradition of paganism and the role of the Druid as a teacher and spiritual leader within it.”30 Like the Druids, witches maintain an ancient understanding of natural magic. The authors write extensively about Neo-Paganism in its many forms.

The book is divided into two sections. The first section, “Witchcraft and Druidic Lore of the Welsh Marches” focuses on all that was written about above. The second section, “Grimore of the Welsh Marches (Yr Llyfr Swynion Gororau Cymru)” opens the reader to the book of spells of the Welsh Borderland. It is a valuable companion to the first part of the book and allows the reader to investigate this natural magic. “While this grimoire is the result of a detailed comparison of witchcraft practices and Druidic lore, it must not be considered an erroneous conflation of the two traditions.”31

The reader is reminded that there are fundamental differences between the two and also varying beliefs and practices within each tradition. “…It is a subtle blending of selective beliefs and practices that have an underlying unity that resonates within both traditions, allowing the merging of both without compromising the fundamental principles of either.”32

There is information on preparing the work space and crafting components, casting a circle, use of botanicals, invocations, protection against malevolent energies, amulets, talismans, and charms. 

Also introduced are witch marks (burn marks), various types of spells, the casting and lifting of spells and curses, the use of wands and the crafting of wands, working with waters and oils, creating poppers (a small doll representing the recipient of a curse). I particularly liked (and was relieved) that the second section of the book ended with elixirs of love. As the authors remind, “in the case of inanimate objects they of course have a material manifestation and are also imbued with a communal spirit; however, they do not have a personal spirit that all living things receive at conception.”33

Overall, Witches, Druids, and Sin Eaters is a very comprehensive look at this unique area of the world, one with a long and deep history of Druids and witches. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a deep dive into this all-important region, particularly if you feel drawn to the aforementioned spiritual paths of Druidry or Witchcraft. There’s so much valuable history revealed in this book that is sure to expand your background knowledge, particularly the impact these lands have had on writers such as Tolkien and those dedicated to exploring the mysteries, such as alchemists, astrologers, and occult philosophers.

The Witch of the Woods, by Kiley Mann

The Witch of The Woods: Spells, Charms, Divination, Remedies, and Folklore, by Kiley Mann
CICO Books, 1800651694, 144 pages, October 2022

Your relationship to your landscape is bound to influence and guide your magical practice, especially in witchcraft. In The Witch of the Woods: Spells, Charms, Divination, Remedies, and Folklore, Kiley Mann highlights this special connection to place by sharing her experiences in the northern region of Michigan. Leading readers through the seasons, folk magic, herbs and omens of this land, Mann takes the reader on a journey into the wilderness of witchcraft.

Witchcraft takes many forms, from witch wounds on the east coast from fiery trails that led to a more fierce practice in the centuries to follow to the more glitzy, New-Age “manifest” witchcraft style of the west coast, but sometimes in the process the essence of being connected deeply to nature and one’s own local folklore gets lost. Mann perfectly revitalizes this connection for readers in this beautiful grimoire that is uniquely centered upon her lived experiences. The unification of witch and land is by far what stands out the most in this book.

“These lands have lessons to teach us, unique in their own characteristics and being. You must walk the land to know it.  You cannot know her if you do not let your feet touch the ground and wander aimlessly as you please. These lessons are taught directly through the land itself.”31

There’s a reverence for the long line of witches that have come before Mann, along with a desire to know the bodies of water, plants, and spirits that share the space with her for their own inherent power, without placing upon them desires or expectations. Sometimes this connection to one’s surroundings and traditions, which is a vital part of witchcraft, can be hard to translate; it tends to be more of a lived, embodied awareness that comes from walking this path overtime. Yet there’s something in Mann’s descriptions of ancient practices, remedies, and folklore, along with her illustrations that awaken this awareness in the reading, prompting them to reflect on their own connection to the local traditions of their homeland.

The book is divided into two parts. The first focuses on folklore, including stories of the trolls, land spirits, ancestral spirits, and omens of the land and animals. The second part is the folk magic, or the how-to remedies, rituals, and divinations that have evolved from life in this region. Mann helps the reader to familiarize themselves with the properties of different herbs and crystals before delving into spell work. She offers spells to alleviate common troubles, such as releasing worry, banishing nightmares, and romantic resolution, along with ones to gain success, luck, self-love, and protection.

I found this book really interesting from the perspective of place because I rarely hear about the folklore of the midwest region. Even though I can only imagine what the energy of a swamp feels like energetically or how it might inform my practice, reading about Mann’s revelations and observations made me start thinking about the natural landscape of where I am currently living, both physically and psychologically. While someone from Mann’s locality of the midwest might naturally connect more with the grimoire, I still feel there’s so much value in exploring her process and learning about methods she’s come across to thrive as a witch in the woods even having never visited the lands she explores in this book. At its heart, nature is nature, and there’s still plenty of overlap and insight to gain no matter what region you’re from, especially in regard to the use of herbs in spellwork and divination.

Another aspect of this book that makes it a real special gem is that Mann illustrated it herself. The symbolism of the imagery boosts her power, as the images themselves convey messages beyond words alone. Flipping through the pages, noticing what your eyes are drawn to and how the colors impart feelings or sensations, makes for an engaging read. The Witch of the Woods is less of a how-to manual and more of an invitation to step inside the creativity of Mann’s own witchcraft practice while learning ways to enhance your own.

Overall, The Witch of the Woods is an insightful, earthy exploration of witchcraft that will guide others to become the witch of their own woods. Mann has done an impressive job of weaving together the elements of her craft to present readers with a beautiful grimoire of knowledge about remedies, folklore, spiritwork, and divination. From brewing your own magical tea to crafting your own wild medicine, this book reminds readers of the unity between nature and oneself – the center of all witchcraft.

The Holy Wild Grimoire, by Danielle Dulsky

The Holy Wild Grimoire: A Heathen Handbook of Magick, Spells, and Verses, by Danielle Dulsky
New World Library, 1608688003, 208 pages, September 2022

Earthy, primal, rich, and real – this is how I feel sinking into The Holy Wild Grimoire: A Heathen Handbook of Magic, Spells, and Verses by Danielle Dulsky. In this book, Dulsky has uprooted the underpinnings of harmful ideologies, created through our stories and myths we unconsciously live by according to society’s urging, to bring forth prompts and rituals that invite readers to move through a portal of death and rebirth to fully embrace their own sovereign sorcery within through magical word-craft and reconnect with the Holy Wild. For those ready to lurk in the deeper realm of mystery, potency, and power that come through embodying and rewriting the mythic aspect of the world we live within in order to expand their practice of the craft, this is the book for you!

Hopefully that didn’t all sound too intimidating! All of Dulsky’s brilliant methodology for engaging the reader’s psyche through storytelling, journal prompts, and spellwork to create their own personal grimoire are actually very clearly laid out, making this book accessible to everyone. But be forewarned there’s something about Dulsky’s writing that inspires me to play with words and discover new voices within that have yet to be explored.

The book does read at times like a long-lost ancient tale, where the dialect is just a bit different than you’re used to, as words become poetry vivid with imagery and perfectly strung together to invoke meaningful feeling. This definitely isn’t a straight-forward “how-to” manual for those seeking insight on witchcraft; hardwork and dedication is required to truly reap the rewards of the material presented, leaving room for your own creativity to emerge and guide the way.

“The time to radically revision our place in the world is now. This is the moment in the human tale when hope meets sorrow, when innocences meets wisdom, a climactic union of polarities that is birthing – and will continue to birth – a new, more heathen reality.”32

Moving through medicine the elements of earth, water, air, fire, and ether, The Holy Wild Grimoire guides readers in creating their own book of magic. Dulsky writes, “In the context of this handbook, a grimoire reflects the magick locked in our language, the spells that live and breathe in our words and symbols.”34 Moving through each element, the reader begins to craft the most personal journal of their thoughts, feelings, visions, and intuitions, reshaping their reality, reclaiming pieces of their soul that have been lost, and gaining the courage to shed habits, patterns, and modes of being – skins – that no longer fit who the reader is growing into.

These might seem like lofty goals or mere promises, but I can assure you that by moving through The Holy Wild Grimoire with an open-mind and heartfelt intention, you will notice shifts in how you relate to your own narrative and how your narrative merges with the on-going story of the world, inviting synchronicities, realizations, and connections that previously you may have not had the discerning energetic eye to notice and in the process creating new potential realities.

Each element contains an introduction to its energy medicine, a word-spell, an artful invocation, a story lantern, follow-up questions to the story lantern for reflection, an opening spell and element spells, multiple reflection questions about your experience with the element, writing prompts to attune you to the element’s presence in your life, and prompts to assist you with visioning through the energy of the element. All together this creates twelve journal entries. Then at the end of the chapter is a testament to the element, where the reader (or more like writer once you get going with this book!) goes back through their reflections, presences, and visions for the element to create the thirteenth entry, which become the verses for that element. It really is a beautiful, culminating process once you get to the verses, especially because so much has been put into the prompts to lead you to that point.

After reading this book, and making my way through the grimoire creation over the course of two months, I have a bit of advice. First, though anyone can jump right in, for the best results I highly recommend familiarizing yourself with Dulsky’s other publications, most especially The Holy Wild, which lays out more of a foundation for creating one’s Holy Wild grimoire. The Holy Wild has quite a bit of spellwork in it that some readers might find more practical and grounding. The Holy Wild Grimoire is definitely suited for those who enjoy reading and writing, and if you are someone who doesn’t readily embrace the written word or symbolic imagery, you might feel more comfortable exploring The Holy Wild first to ground this book a bit.

Second, prior to reading this book, I’d also suggest brushing up on your knowledge of archetypes, depth psychology, and the power of myths to fully embrace the content of this book. You may want to familiarize yourself with the work of Carl Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz, and Clarissa Pinkola Estés, author of Women Who Run with the Wolves, another great book for exploring oneself through stories and myth.

Finally, my third recommendation is to move slowly! There is so much packed in each element that it can feel overwhelming at times. Remember that there is no rush; you are not being timed. This process of communion with the Holy Wild will happen in natural timing that is aligned and right for you. You can skip around to different sections, work through an element for months, and only need to do the prompts that call to you. As odd as it sounds, sometimes I’d have to remind myself this isn’t a magical homework assignment, I’m not working towards an “A”, and that it’s intended to be fluid and connected rather than prescriptive and forced.

Sometimes, as I worked through a particularly dense emotion, memory, or experience, I’d put the book down for weeks at a time, not ready to move forward to the next exercise and needing room to breathe and reorient first, allowing what was unfolding to happen on its own without further conscious prompting or trying to rush forward without allowing the proper time needed to acknowledge what was going on and creating space for transformation.

This might not make sense prior to reading The Holy Wild Grimoire, but I have no doubts that if you delve into the work, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. There’s enough content in this book to last the reader years in regard to inner exploration, and the stories and prompts are something one can return to time and time again for one’s responses will surely always be changing. The potency of this book comes through what you’re willing to put in to looking within and exploring the uncharted depths of the Holy Wild.

Even if this seems a bit intimidating, there’s ways to start slowly, such as reading the hand-crafted stories, called story lanterns, Dulsky has written for each element, which are intended to open a new lens for the reader to access answers within through the imagination. I’ve found that a fun way to connect with the stories is to have someone else read them to you, so you can receptively receive their messages, though active reading too has its own merit. Once again, there’s a multitude of ways to play with this book, just like all mythological stories, and limitless wisdom that can be gained through experimentation.

All in all, The Holy Wild Grimoire is an all-in-one creative writing journey for readers to make their own grimoire, filled with personal revelations, visions, reflections, and mythology that is theirs alone. Doing the journal prompts is a deeply fulfilling and insightful process, akin to magical therapy, as the reader delves into the hidden parts of their psyche to discover a hidden richness: their own wild unknown. By connecting to these parts of oneself through the elemental energy, a whole new realm of possibilities emerges, cracking open from within the reader’s spirit to begin composting what’s no longer needed and feel comfortable sitting in the void before shapeshifting into the next vision.