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Tag Archives: weiser books

Unlocking the Secret Language of Tarot, by Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone

Unlocking the Secret Language of Tarot: 22 Keys to Understanding Its Symbolic Imagery, by Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone
Weiser Books, 1578638186, 304 pages, November 2023

As tarot pioneers in America, Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone founded The Tarot School in 1995 and first published this material in 2008. Unlocking the Secret Language of Tarot: 22 Keys to Understanding Its Symbolic Imagery combines the curriculum of many classes that they taught to thousands of students. This book presents a treatise on many of the symbols in the popular Rider-Waite-Smith deck. It is arranged in a series of seven chapters, each of which shares information on three or four of twenty-two symbols from the deck. You can learn more about the Amberstones and their school at www.tarotschool.com.

The Amberstones state the following about this material in this book:  

“We’ll be using the Rider-Waite-Smith imagery as our benchmark, but the information in this course should be transferable to any deck you care to use. We think it will also give your intuition a lot of additional material to work on.”1

The Rider-Waite-Smith deck was my first tarot deck, and I was excited to investigate this book by these master teachers. In addition to sharing imagery for the twenty-two symbols, they also share exercises and spreads throughout the book to make the most of the information. 

I decided to peruse the book, get myself familiar with the symbols, and then put it to the test.  I looked back at a three-card reading I did for myself to see how the enhanced symbology would inform or accentuate the message. I chose a reading I did a few months ago with the general question:  “What do I need to know today?”

I drew the King of Pentacles, Three of Swords, and Six of Wands.  My own guidance from the reading can be summarized as:  Although I may mourn losses, I use patience and determination to achieve my goals and meet victory and success.

After reviewing the Amberstones’ information for each card, I learned the following:

  1. King of Pentacles: “The armored foot of the king of pentacles is a hint of the full armor hidden from sight by his robes. It is a symbol of the public servant who guards the well-being of his Kingdom despite his apparent personal opulence.”2 Next, the authors take the reader on a “Contemplation of the Symbol of Armor.”3 This simple exercise invited me to ponder a question regarding how I might use armor to defend myself and was quite revealing.
  2. Three of Swords: For this card, I investigated the symbol of clouds. First, I had never noticed that there are three clouds on this card. Second, the authors share that clouds are “potent symbols of change.”4 Also, clouds can bring obscurity, depression and disaster, as well as divine support and potential.5
  3. Six of Wands: One of the cards that features a horse or horses, the Six of Wands has always represented success to me. Once again, the authors shared an exercise, “The Journey of the Horse.”6 This mythical meditation invited me to experience the world as a horse and it was truly magical!!! Then, the authors share the message of this card:

“Here again, we have the white terrestrial horse that carries his rider from the past into the present and toward the future in the world of human events. Because the intent of this card is to picture victory, the horse is white to symbolize nobility, triumph, and the mildness of perfect surrender to the rider’s will.”7

I have never seen the Six of Wands in quite this way!

With the additional symbology from the Amberstones, I now summarize the guidance from my previous reading as follows: Even though disaster might come, I have Divine support and take good care of myself as I transcend my past and travel to the sweet success of my future.

I really love the extra layer that the imagery provides! 

Next, I reviewed all of the information on my favorite card in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck: The Star. I learned that “the simple lesson of the eight-pointed star is the feeling of beauty and perfection that rewards the completion of an inner journey.”8 Did you know that the eight-pointed star is found on only two cards in the deck?  The Fool and The Star. The authors also share information on the pool, which in the case of The Star, represents “the great pool of spiritual awareness that we explore by meditation.”9

Throughout this chapter, the authors share information on the other types of stars on cards in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, as well as ideas for spreads and meditations. I will return to the spread called “The Pool, Moon, and Star”10 later for guidance.  

The book is very well constructed, with information on the symbols and then representative cards that feature the symbols. They worked with the original printing plates of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, and Ruth Ann highlighted a different part or parts of each card to call attention to the specific symbol being discussed. This technique is very helpful!

In the Appendix, the authors lay out exercises and spreads for each of the seven chapters.  This enables the reader to find a particular spread, meditation, or practice, without going page by page through the book. They also include an eight-page Index where you can find everything from every mention of angels (or archangels!) to every Major Arcana or Minor Arcana card mentioned in the book. These tools are very helpful for the novice and experienced tarot professional alike. For this reason, as well as the conversational style in which the authors share the information, I feel that this book would benefit any level of tarot reader. In fact, for the new reader, this book is a great textbook for learning more about the esoteric symbols of tarot.

I plan to use many of the spreads for work with my clients, as well as utilizing the information on imagery to add depth to my own daily readings.

Perhaps Tarot Master Rachel Pollack said it best on the back cover of Unlocking the Secret Language of Tarot:

“For years, Wald and Ruth Ann Amberstone’s deep work on the symbols and esoteric traditions of the Rider-Waite-Smith cards has been a legend, the learning and inspiration available only to their students. This book is useful in the deepest possible sense.”11

The Language of Lenormand, by Erika Robinson

The Language of Lenormand: A Practical Guide for Everyday Divination, by Erika Robinson
Weiser Books, 1578638054, 208 pages, October 2023

As both a book lover and a collector of Lenormand oracles, I was very excited to have the opportunity to review The Language of Lenormand: A Practical Guide for Everyday Divination by Erika Robinson.

Robinson’s skills as a seasoned card reader and a highly trained educator shine brightly throughout this delightful guide – her Harvard education and years of teaching English evidenced on every page.

The book’s beautiful cover caught my eye, and I was somewhat surprised and a bit disappointed that there was no deck accompanying this book (more on that later though because there is good news after all for us deck collectors).

Rightly named a “Practical Guide”, Robinson is actively teaching from the start. Set up like a workbook with questions and brainstorming activities winding up each chapter, the student has an opportunity to be fully engaged, helping make the learning process even smoother.

The Lenormand Oracle is comprised of 36 cards, with some decks having a few extra cards so that the sibyl and/or sitter may choose between different representations of specific cards. The cards are always read in combination with each other (no single card pulls as is often done with Tarot and other oracles). Memorizing the meanings of the cards is first and foremost to learning to read with them in combinations.

Chapter One begins by introducing the first three cards to us, explaining the images and their meanings as you might expect, but the chapter continues with something fresh by immediately teaching us how to read those three cards in several different combinations. Robinson also asks us to come up with some meanings on our own, and right away we are learning, thinking, and reading the cards ourselves. Brilliant!

The next six cards are described and added to our repertoire in Chapters Two and Three, and then for the following chapter we take a little break from learning new cards to talk about significators and different ways of using them. We learn this easily by playing with the cards we’ve studied so far. Then, we move on to learning a few more new cards in Chapter Five.  

I really enjoyed Robinson’s take on significators, so I was excited when she returned with more ideas about them in chapter six along with a technique called “mirroring” and our first “spreads” – using configurations of five cards and seven cards. 

The book continues in this fashion, teaching three cards per chapter and then layering our newfound learning with actual card reading in combinations along with additional techniques for determining what the cards are saying to us by using more cards in combination. These layers and combinations provide more and more clarity and detail. 

Robinson teaches a range of traditional spreads (also called “vignettes” in Lenormand parlance) using the Nine Box (a spread using 9 cards) for multiple examples as we work our way through learning the entire deck. Her use of the Nine Box reminded me of just how much information you can find using just nine cards. 

By the time we reach Chapter Eighteen we know the meanings of each card and how they work together in combinations. And now we are ready to take a crack at the biggest spread of all – the one that uses the entire deck – a giant spread famously known as The Grand Tableau.

When I was first learning to use the Lenormand oracle, I remember feeling equal amounts of excitement and dread about approaching such a huge spread. You may feel the same way, but fear not! Robinson provides us with lovely instructions on how to navigate the Grand Tableau walking us step-by-step through her entire process. The Grand Tableau can be quite an undertaking but with such clear instruction you can be sure to fully enjoy it!

Moving forward, we learn some new and original spreads including a twenty-three-card spread called Erika’s Reading that I used immediately and loved, and happily it was much appreciated by my sitter as well, as it validated quite a few details for them. Among the original ideas in this book, this is my favorite and one I plan on using a lot. It’s quicker than the Grand Tableau while still giving a wealth of information.  

I mentioned earlier that I was a bit disappointed that this book was not the guidebook for a new deck, but my disappointment vanished once I discovered that Robinson does have her own deck coming out. I peeked on Instagram and the cards are gorgeous. Unfortunately, the deck was a Kickstarter project that had closed by the time I went to investigate it. 

Hopefully, the deck will be available to those of us who were late to the party and missed the backer deadline. The deck is called Erika’s Lenormand of Hope and as thoughtful as her book is, I can only imagine that the same care went into producing her beautiful deck.

As someone who has been reading the Lenormand for almost a decade, I learned quite a few new things from The Language of Lenormand, and with personal stories and lots of reading examples it was fun and easy to read. This book is for anyone wanting to learn about the Lenormand oracle whether a beginner or a seasoned reader. There are new and original ideas here along with traditional Lenormand teachings and they are all presented in a very comprehensive way. A beautiful addition to any cartomancy library, highly recommended.

Real Sorcery, by Jason Miller

Real Sorcery: Strategies for Powerful Magick, by Jason Miller
Weiser Books, 1578638003, 256 pages, July 2023

Sorcery, the wielding mystical powers and tapping into otherworldly energies has captivated human imagination since the dawn of time. It is no wonder that sorcery has been a popular subject in literature, movies, and even video games. But what exactly is sorcery? How does it work? And can it really be practiced in the real world? These answers and more can be found in Real Sorcery: Strategies for Powerful Magick by Jason Miller, who assures readers that magic is real and with consistency and dedication everyone has the ability to become a sorcerer.

I was drawn to Real Sorcery because I knew that Jason Miller had lived in southern New Jersey, where I currently live, and connected with the “spirit of place”; he’s well known in the magical communities around here. I’ve always enjoyed his “keep it real” style of writing and the frank way he shares his magical insight. While I’ve been on his email list for quite some time now, which I highly recommend as an introduction to Miller’s work since he leads group spellwork and offers live classes throughout the year, the only book of his I have read previously is Financial Sorcery. Given that Financial Sorcery absolutely shifted my mindset in regard to wealth, aiding me in finding more lucrative jobs and creating a better financial situation overall, you would think I’d have picked up his other titles, such as Protection & Reversal Magick and Consorting with Spirits.

Luckily, like the titles just mentioned, Real Sorcery was recently republished with new commentary on Miller’s original text; in this case, Real Sorcery is the updated version of The Sorcerer’s Secrets: Strategies in Practical Magick (2009). The additional text from Miller adds a new layer of depth to the previous work, inviting readers old and new to see how his thoughts have changed (or not) over the past decade.

The content itself is rich as ever, filled to the brim with practical advice for readers wishing to learn more about how to take their magic practice to the next level. What I like most about Miller as a teacher is that he expects something from his students. He writes:

“If magick is a fantasy for you, then of course you want it all to just jump to life because of how magickal you are, but if we accept that Sorcery is real, with everything that implies, then that expectation should dissipate like fairy dust, revealing the truth that it takes work to get good at things, and that discipline and persistence will outperform natural talent at every turn.”1

Miller reminds the readers that magic is real, but so are certain conditions of our reality. Therefore, instead of relying on magic alone, his strategy is to work with the conditions in play rather than against them. And it goes without saying, this often takes a heap of self-awareness, willingness to learn from one’s mistakes, and resilience in the face of disappointments. For some, this might feel like a stripping of enchantment from their practice, but for many it’s a reassurance that with time and practice, one can improve their sorcery.

“Part One: Basic Training” is dedicated to teaching readers the basic magical foundation he operates from as a sorcerer, and it’s certainly eclectic! What stands out about Miller’s imparted wisdom is that he isn’t afraid to learn and work with various magical systems, as he recognizes the universal similarities that underlie different traditional systems. I want to frame it as a distillation of many great truths into a workable system for readers, but I say this without implying it’s reductive in any sense. In fact, I find his approach extremely liberating, and it helped me to see how the magical working of different paths and traditions are all working with the same planes and principles.

“Part Two: Strategic Sorcery” has chapters focused on various types of magical workings: divination, influence/persuasion, finance, protection, love/lust, and more! All the sections have information that is both magic and mundane, making it easy for readers to employ Miller’s wisdom in their practice at their current skill level. While sharing spells, chants, and other general “how-to” guidance, such as gesture and vocal commands and creating altars, Miller imparts so much first-hand knowledge of his own experience. I find this invaluable as a reader; I want to hear the stories of magical workings gone right and wrong to have a more well-rounded idea of what the heck I’m doing and the myriad of potential consequences.

While there’s plenty I’ve learned from this book, the current takeaways that are still churning in my mind are the reminder that I can determine my own magical ethics – Miller absolutely works in the gray area, leaving room for readers to decide what workings they’re comfortable with – and the concept that I don’t have to obsessively protect myself. For all I’ve learned about protection magic, Miller was the first person to acknowledge that too much protection and defense can actually hinder other types of magical working, such as spirit communication. These two insights overall seem to be pointing to a rebalancing of my current workings, giving me the confidence to venture into a new magical landscape.

For those of you ready to delve into the secrets of sorcery and explore the fascinating world of magic, Real Sorcery is a wonderful place to begin. Miller provides a wonderful foundation to begin your sorcery path or enhance your current level of skill. From the different types of spells and rituals to the potential benefits and risks of practicing magic, Miller cuts through the fluff to provide clear guidance. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is serious about starting or furthering their magical practice.

Lessons from the Empress, by Cassandra Snow and Siri Vincent Plouff

Lessons from the Empress: A Tarot Workbook for Self-Care and Creative Growth, by Cassandra Snow and Siri Vincent Plouff
Weiser Books, 1578637937, 224 pages, October 2022

I’d been contemplating how I wanted to honor Venus retrograde from July 22nd to September 3rd of this year. Since the retrograde is happening in my first house of self, I settled on examining my relationships to self-care and creative pursuits, which admittedly have been low on my list of priorities after the past six months of postpartum life tending to a new baby. This retrograde feels like a sacred time to nourish myself and my creative pursuits, and luckily, I found the perfect book to guide me through: Lessons from the Empress: A Tarot Workbook for Self-Care and Creative Growth by Cassandra Snow and Siri Vincent Plouff.

“… we can recognize that creativity is not just for the chosen few but that it is our own birthright to create. In fact, creativity as the ultimate form of self-care is self-expression exalted.”1

This book opens news doors for self-care and magical practice with the tarot. The authors describe how the Empress teaches how to nurture ourselves through physical senses into our lives, working “in partnership with the materia” and through “taste, sight, smell, hearing, and touch”2. The prompts, tarot spreads, and rituals help to create the grounded life structure for our abundance, creativity, and self-care to flourish.

Divided into three parts, readers are led through preparation, journeying inward, and arriving at self-acceptance through the tarot. The slow and steady build anchors the reader in their own body as they open to receive the wisdom of the Empress. There’s no need to rush through. And being a workbook, Lessons from the Empress requires time and space for the reader to truly dive in and do the tarot readings, writing prompts, and integrate their reflections.

The journey begins with discovering one’s own inner empress. The authors offers creative ideas for self-care, a tarot spread to learn more about your current self-care practice, and a dedication opening ritual. Then she provides the tarot basics for readers who don’t know much about the tarot: picking out a deck, the general meaning of the suits, and how tarot reading is really a form of story-telling. Once the foundation is laid for generally understanding tarot, the focus switches to using tarot cards to create rituals, specifically self-care rituals.

“Some people struggle to create healthy routines for their self-care, but you are worth the time and effort it takes to establish them.”3

After some initiatory tarot spreads, the journey deepens as the reader enters the major arcana. The authors tells the full story of the major arcana from The Fool to The World to help readers understand the archetypal and spiritual journey of tarot, framing it in different ways for readers to see connections between the cards. Then there are major arcana spreads, self-care prompts, and creative prompts for the reader to do, along with a ritual to spark fresh ideas.

Finally, the third part of the book focuses on the minor arcana, and it is by far the longest section! Just as the readers were guided through the story of the major arcana, the authors now turn to telling the story of each suit (wands, cups, swords, and pentacles) from beginning to end with the court cards described separately. Following the same format, there’s a spread for each suit, self-care prompts, creative prompts, and a culminating ritual.

Throughout the book are tools for the readers to further their tarot knowledge and magical practice. For instance, there’s “get to know the cards“ charts for the major arcana, minor arcana cards by suit, and court cards by suit that have traditional associations for the cards along with a blank column for readers to fill in their own personal associations.

The authors also offers styles of witchcraft and styles of creativity for the different types of cards. For instance, the styles of witchcraft suggested for the wands include candle magic, sex magic, trusting the gut instinct. While styles of creativity for swords include automatic writing, journaling, reading, and blending scents.

As with any workbook, you get what you put in! While the content of the book is very interesting to read, especially the stories of the major arcana and each suit, truly undergoing the journey of the Empress involves creating the space and routine to do the spreads, practice intentional creativity, and tap into your own magic.

For me, the structure of the book has been good for keeping me organized and on task! When I feel my self-care routine slipping or am feeling low (a sign I’m out of touch with my creativity), I can go back and pick up where I left off, and usually I get right back into my flow. This being said, it has been weeks that I’ve been moving through the book, and I’m only through the major arcana and one suit. But that’s okay! If I’ve learned anything from the Empress so far it’s that I can indulge in my creativity, take my time, and let things happen at their own pace.

Overall, Lessons from the Empress is a fun way to cultivate a self-care practice. It’s unique in the way it invites the elemental magic of the tarot to inspire the readers and focuses on creativity as a source of self-care. Whether you’re new to tarot reading or have years of experience, embracing the tarot with the focus of self-care is a new experience, opening up yet another way the tarot can be used as a spiritual tool for personal growth.

The Eye Evil, by Antonio Pagliarulo

The Evil Eye: The History, Mystery, and Magic of the Quiet Curse, by Antonio Pagliarulo
Weiser Books,157863797X,  256 pages, May 2023

The mysterious power of eyes to psychically touch what they gaze upon is unmistakable to anyone who has felt the uncomfortable sensation of someone staring at them, or has been caught in the act of staring at someone else. Have you ever been paid an insincere compliment accompanied by a look that made your skin crawl because you sensed an undercurrent of jealousy and malice beneath it, and not long afterwards you seemed to have a run of bad luck? If so, you may have felt the sting of the magically weaponized gaze known in Italian as il malocchio, “the Evil Eye.”1

The Evil Eye: The History, Mystery, and Magic of the Quiet Curse by Italian folk magic practitioner Antonio Pagliarulo is a manual on psychic protection that teaches you how to detect, banish, and prevent the malison of the Evil Eye. If you are so inclined, there are even instructions on how to cast the curse yourself as a form of self-defense.2 The book itself, decorated with a radiant gilded eye on the front cover, is a protective amulet, and the author recommends keeping it on your desk or by your bedside.

Raised in the Bronx by southern Italian immigrants, Pagliarulo learned folk magic cures for the Evil Eye from his grandmother when he was a child. When he attended public high school in Manhattan and made friends with people from other cultures, he discovered that the concept of the Evil Eye is a universal belief with ancient roots. It is known as mal de ojo in Spanish, mati in Greek, and ayin hara in Hebrew.3 In ancient Rome, it was called the oculus malus, and phallic amulets were believed to deflect it.4 Belief in the Evil Eye is so ancient that archeological evidence for it dates as far back as the third millennium BCE, to Sumerian apotropaic spells recorded on cuneiform tablets. 5

The Evil Eye is so ubiquitous because anyone can cast this curse, regardless of whether they intend to or not. “The Eye’s point of origin is emotion,” explains Pagliarulo, “and we all experience feelings of envy, greed, and resentment at some point in life.”6 He advises that we watch out in particular for people who are harboring years of resentment, because they pack a lot of festering emotions behind their attacks. As an interesting side note, “Zoroastrians also believe that a menstruating woman can cast the strongest Evil Eye curse.”7 I’ll keep that in mind the next time my uterus is angry. 

So, what exactly is this malevolent Evil Eye, and how does one cast it?

“The Evil Eye is a baneful force transmitted through a stare or glance, and it can be delineated in three distinct ways,” Pagliarulo says.8

The first way is through a compliment, laced with envy. Regardless of how kind and sincere the words may sound, the eyes reveal the true underlying feelings of bitterness and jealousy. The second type of attack is obvious because the person won’t hide their contempt behind flattery, and they will often publicly vocalize their malice.9 The third way is unintentional, through being the recipient of excessive praise and adoration. Too much good fortune tempts the Eye to balance the scales by adding the weight of misfortune and sorrow. 10 

The way Pagliarulo describes the Eye in the third scenario, it sounds like a malicious and adversarial entity with a consciousness of its own, one that follows a distorted supernatural system of checks and balances. This gave me pause, because I feel that one should be grateful for the good things they experience in life and not hide their happiness out of fear that some invisible force will take it away, especially when success has been hard-earned and well-deserved. 

However, the more I think about it, it occurs to me that perhaps excessive praise, especially on the grandiose level that celebrities receive, can generate a malaise of jealousy in the common rabble that coalesces into a malicious entity, as multiple people envy the attention the target is receiving and feed the Eye with their collective negative energies. It’s not surprising that Meghan Markle, who has been vilified by the media and resentful family members ever since her so-called fairy tale wedding to Prince Harry, has been spotted wearing the blue-eyed nazar amulet, one of the most popular and easily recognizable wards against the Evil Eye.11 

Pagliarulo assures readers that he does not intend to frighten them into silence. “The key,” Pagliarulo says, “is to create a healthy balance of self-praise and discretion, which is accomplished by being mindful of your speech.”12

One interesting example of using speech to deter the Evil Eye comes from Egypt. An Egyptian man Pagliarulo interviewed said that he would deflect a compliment regarding his good health and thriving business by claiming he had tripped and almost broken his leg that morning, even though this wasn’t true. “What matters is the strategy—by minimizing the compliment, he minimized the potential envy brewing inside the person who offered the compliment,” Pagliarulo says.13

Some common amulets believed to protect one from the Evil Eye include the ancient Egyptian wedjat or udjat (the Eye of Horus), the hamsa, or Hand of Fatima, a hand-shaped amulet with an eye in the center of the palmthe Italian cornicello, or “little horn,” the Cimaruta (cima di ruta means “top of rue” in Italian), which depicts a sprig of rue decorated with a crescent moon, a key, a serpent, and other witchy symbols that ward the Evil Eye while doubling as a lucky charm, and the Turkish nazar, a beautiful pattern of blue and white concentric rings that looks like an eye, which is by far the most popular and seems to be everywhere these days. The nazar amulet is so trendy that many witches display the nazar emoji on their social media profiles.

“Wearing one of these ancient symbols is an act of magic, for it creates a shield of protection around the individual,” Pagliarulo says.14 He encourages the reader to trust their intuition when choosing an amulet, rather than picking one based on religious affiliation or the popularity of use.

After an extensive list of amulets, this book contains methods for diagnosing the Evil Eye and several protection spells that require few supplies and are simple to perform. Most of the spell ingredients can be found in the kitchen, such as olive oil, garlic cloves, bay leaves, and other herbs. One of the easiest spells involves braiding long hair into a basic three-strand brand and securing it with a rubber band or hair tie while reciting an incantation for protection.

Other spells call upon various spirits from different faiths to assist in the removal of the Evil Eye. Many of the workings are derived from the author’s Italian Catholic background and invoke the power of saints, but Pagliarulo also presents rituals from Judaism, Islam, and paganism. 

I came to this book as a believer seeking psychic protection, but also with a certain degree of healthy skepticism. I think that when one is too superstitious and paranoid about psychic attack, there is a risk of giving your power away to others through your belief in that superstition. My concern is that a fearful and excessive focus on the potency of the Evil Eye can be a self-fulfilling prophecy and a kind of psychic hypochondria. More often than not, I think there are rational explanations for bad things happening, and not everything is a sign of a curse. However, I also feel that empaths and magically inclined people are more sensitive and susceptible to psychic attacks so it’s a good idea to take magical precautions. As Pagliarulo says: “You can never be too safe.”15

Pagliarulo’s The Evil Eye is a powerful amulet for anyone who wishes to enhance their psychic shields and improve their overall luck and well-being. Even if you have doubts about whether or not the Eye has been cast upon you, these spells are good all-purpose cleansing and protection rituals. While not every bad thing that happens should be blamed on the Evil Eye, one can never be too careful.

Heal the Witch Wound, by Celeste Larsen

Heal The Witch Wound: Reclaim Your Magic and Step Into Your Power, by Celeste Larsen
Weiser Books, 1578637988, 208 pages, April 2023

Personal safety is something that is of great concern in today’s society. From hate groups attacking those trying to live their lives to the “everyday” violence that is commonplace, we all just want to be safe to be who we are. While this book, Heal The Witch Wound: Reclaim Your Magic and Step Into Your Power, focuses on feeling safe with respect to magical practices, Celeste Larsen has also managed to weave in a broader spectrum of what personal safety means individually as well as on a greater scale.

The introduction begins with a simple explanation of the “witch wound”, and Larsen describes it as “a collective, intergenerational, psychic wound that is rooted in the Burning Times – an era of widespread persecution and violence against suspected witches.”1

Anyone with this wound will usually hide their spiritual beliefs and practices out of fear of being judged or shamed or rejected. Without taking away from the basis of this book, I find many parallels between this and the situation of other groups in current society. To be clear, this is a personal observation that I am making and not meant to take away from this book in any way.

Larsen has drawn on her experience as a pagan witch, writer, and ritualist to produce a work that is more of a how-to rather than a reference book. To me, this is excellent news as I need a guide and not just theory in this realm. The book is comprised of three parts that each deal with a specific aspect of the healing journey. The first section deals with the root of the wound and goes into detail around the creation of it as well as its legacy. Larsen’s writing is simple, straightforward and honest, and manages to put the reader at ease while imparting some tough information around the wound and its causes.

The second part of this spectacular book focuses on the symptoms of the witch wound, something I hadn’t even considered. In fact, as I read this section, I was struck by the number of things mentioned that I completely identified with. It didn’t even occur to me that it might be a result of the witch wound I carry.

I had a very visceral reaction to one part specifically where Larsen writes:

“Of all the ways the witch wound can show up, fear of being authentically heard and seen is undoubtedly the most pervasive. How often do you stifle your own voice out of fear of being too outspoken, too opinionated, too sensitive, too demanding, too honest, too much?”2

This specific part hit me really hard. I’ve been told my whole life to be quiet, sit down, keep my hands to myself, don’t talk so loud, “why are you laughing so loudly?”, and all that. I have never felt comfortable around people simply because I’m afraid that I will be too much of something and then I’ll be made to feel less-than as a result.

Reading this book made me realize that this wound I carry that presents in this way is something of a gift. Stay with me here. Knowing that I am holding back my awesomeness for the sake of other people’s comfort means that I am much more awesome than I think I am. And I think I’m pretty awesome.

Seriously though, reading about how this wound affects daily life if nothing is done to heal it opened my eyes to how important self-care is. Part three of the book delves deeply into this with a whole host of various ways to heal certain aspects of the wound. My personal favorite deals with moving into personal magic and power.

Here, Larsen talks about the ways in which practitioners can talk about individual magic and specific practices in a way that honors them while also maintaining a certain level of privacy. There is an acknowledgement that no two practitioners will refer to themselves in the same way, nor does their individual practices align. In this way, Larsen states that personal comfort comes before any sort of declaration that might be made concerning someone’s personal craft.

Larsen writes honestly with an authentic voice and the situations presented in the book by way of confirming the various suggestions presented feel like they have been actually lived by the author. I felt many echoes as I read and aligned with many of the situations that Larsen describes throughout the book by way of sharing her personal story. 

Heal the Witch Wound is an excellent book for those who feel they cannot ‘come out’ as a practitioner of magic and who feel they need to stifle themselves in order to fit it. You don’t have to dim your own light in order for other people to shine, and you don’t have to stay small for other people’s comfort. This isn’t to say that there shouldn’t be consideration for others: depending on what your situation is you might feel it’s in your best interest to be silent about what you do. This book is meant to reframe the way in which we look at how we express ourselves in the world we live in and helps us see where we can make positive changes to bring us into more alignment.

A Walk Through the Forest of Souls, by Rachel Pollack

A Walk Through the Forest of Souls: A Tarot Journey to Spiritual Awakening, by Rachel Pollack
Weiser Books, 1578637708, 288 pages, May 2023

Award-winning science fiction author, comic book writer, tarot expert, and trans activist Rachel Grace Pollack passed away on April 7th, 2023, at the age of 77. Born Richard A. Pollack on August 17th, 1945, in Brooklyn, New York, Rachel came out as a transgender woman in 1971, at the age of 26. During this time, Pollack discovered tarot and broke into publishing with a science fiction short story titled “Pandora’s Bust,” which appeared in New Worlds Quarterly.1

Pollack had an impressive literary career, publishing four short story collections and seven novels, three of which received awards. Unquenchable Fire won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1989, Temporary Agency (1994) won the Nebula Award, and Godmother Night (1996) won the World Fantasy Award. Pollack also blazed a trail through the DC Universe by creating Coagula, aka Kate Godwin, the first transgender superhero, while writing issues 64-87 of the rebooted DC Comics series Doom Patrol (1993-1995). However, it was the classic tarot tome Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom (1980) that was the most influential work in Pollack’s oeuvre, and established Pollack as a leading authority on tarot.2

A Walk through the Forest of Souls: A Tarot Journey of Spiritual Awakening is a revised version of the out of print book titled The Forest of Souls: A Walk through the Tarot, first published in 2002. In this updated work, Pollack’s approach to reading the cards is innovative, intuitive, and imaginative. Rather than a cookbook of interpretive meanings, A Walk Through the Forest of Souls is a guide to using the tarot as a spiritual tool to expand consciousness and open one’s mind to new possibilities. 

“This book contains some outrageous ideas and questions,” Pollack says. “We will play with the idea that the Tarot images existed before the creation of the universe, that God somehow consulted the cards to make the world, and even that we can use the cards to find the very reading that God received.”3

Pollack is Jewish, but mischievously identifies as a heretic. The idea of God making a card game of creation is not meant to be taken as literal truth, but to be regarded as serious play. “God in these pages becomes a way to express our universal desire to know and comprehend the sacred,” says Pollack.4

Unlike an ordinary book, “the pages of the Tarot are not bound in any real order.”5 Through the act of shuffling, a new deck is created, and we are given the opportunity to turn over a new leaf, so to speak.

“In this book readings do not reveal a fixed future,” Pollack says. “They become a means to gain new perspectives and explore possibilities outside our normal ways of thought.”6

Pollack’s science fiction background shines through this book’s non-linear approach to the concept of time. “The future can ‘cause’ the past as much as the past causes the future,” Pollack says. “In fact, neither one causes the other, they exist in a relationship that goes in many directions at once. Imagine a web with a vast number of points, all connected to each other, with no single point as the origin or primary cause of the others. Our consciousness places us in one point, convincing us that a single line from the past has caused our current situation to come into being. But this may be an illusion.”7

Tarot reveals possibilities, not an immutable fate, and Pollack even goes so far as to say that since “divination creates new possibilities, it liberates the Creator from a universe where everything is planned and known ahead of time.”8

I recently rewatched the original Star Trek movies, and Pollack’s concept of nonlinear time being an elastic web in which the future can influence the past brings to mind a particular scene in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986). In this film, Admiral Kirk and his crew time travel to late 20th century San Francisco on a mission to bring two humpback whales back to the future in order to repopulate a 23rd century Earth where they are extinct.

Chief engineer Montgomery Scott and Dr. “Bones” McCoy visit a Plexiglas factory seeking construction materials for a whale tank. In exchange for the glass, Scotty gives the proprietor Dr. Nichols the formula for transparent aluminum, a futuristic construction material that is lighter and stronger than the Plexiglas he is currently manufacturing.

“You uh, realize of course if we give him the formula, we’re altering the future,” Bones says. “Why, how do we know he didn’t invent the thing?” says Scotty. His response implies that their need for Plexiglas is part of a predestination paradox, or causal loop, in which the invention of transparent aluminum depends on the necessity of their time travel in the first place.9

I’m a fan of non-linear thinking, and it’s mind-blowing to apply the predestination paradox to tarot reading. Perhaps the guidance we receive from the cards comes from our future selves, who, like Scotty, plant ideas in our minds that may not otherwise have come to us10

Pollack suggests using the cards for “Wisdom readings,”11 which transcend personal concerns by seeking deeper meaning with universal questions like “What is the soul?”12 According to Pollack, the tarot is an instrument we can use to communicate directly with Sophia, the divine personification of wisdom, and we limit its vast potential when we only focus on personal questions.13

The title of this book, A Walk through the Forest of Souls, was inspired by Pollack’s first Wisdom readings, using the Shining Tribe Tarot, a deck created by Pollack. When Pollack asked, “What is the soul?” the Ace of Birds (Ace of Swords) appeared, depicting an owl, the animal familiar of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom.14

Pollack then asked the cards, “What is Tarot?”15 The answer was the Six of Trees (Six of Wands), which depicts trees with owl eyes. “If the soul is an owl,” Pollack says, “then these woods become a forest of souls, and the Tarot, as the title of this book says, is ‘a walk through the forest of souls.’”16

In my own readings, I have found that lately, I tend to ask fewer personal questions and more cosmic ones, such as, “What will be the influence of the Full Moon in Cancer?” or some other upcoming astrological transit. Inspired by Pollack’s “Wisdom reading” method, I decided to ask questions about the symbolic language of mythology.

The first question that entered my mind was: “Why does the goddess Demeter carry two torches when searching for her daughter Persephone, when one would provide sufficient light and a free hand?” I knew that the twin torches symbolized some sort of celestial light, perhaps the horns of the night-wandering moon, but I wondered specifically why there were two of them. The answer I received surprised me, yet made so much sense. 

I drew three cards from the Crow Tarot: The Star, The Empress, and the Four of Wands. Venus, as the Morning and Evening Star, immediately came to mind. In her dual forms as herald of dawn and dusk, she represents two lights, or two heavenly torches. The astrological association for The Empress is the planet Venus, and the Four of Wands is associated with Venus in Aries.

Reading the cards like a sentence, I was moved by the heartwarming message I received: She is the Mother Star (Empress + Star), guiding her children back home (the Four of Wands represents the home and is a card of celebration, and the astrological association of Venus in Aries reminds me of Demeter and Persephone’s springtime reunion).

In retrospect, I used to be confused by The Empress being associated with both Venus, the goddess of love, and Demeter, the goddess of the harvest. I didn’t think of Demeter as being Venusian, since she is so often depicted as wandering in grief, searching for her lost daughter. After contemplating these cards, I now link Venus, the Heavenly Mother, and Demeter, the Earthly Mother, in the following way: When we are born, we descend into matter, like Inanna, the Sumerian Venus, descending into the Underworld.

When we get lost in the trappings of materialism, we can lose touch with our divine mother, and without her guidance, we may feel as though we are wandering alone in the dark. But she also descends with us, as chthonic Demeter, an earthly manifestation of Venusian energy. When we realize that the Goddess is simultaneously here with us on earth, as well as in heaven, we are reunited with her, just as Venus, the Morning Star, (or in the case of Demeter, a star of mourning) is reborn and emerges from the Underworld, and Persephone is reunited with Demeter. When we see and feel the presence of the Earth Mother made manifest in the physical realm, we are blessed by her with fertility, wealth, and abundance. When we are depressed and feel separated from her, the world in turn feels cold and barren. 

The leaves of tarot whisper to us all in unique ways, and the possibilities for interpretation are limitless. Pollack’s work encourages us to tap into our intuitive creativity and experience the tarot like we never have before. Experimenting with Wisdom readings has shifted my perspective on how to use tarot, and I plan on exploring Pollack’s techniques further in my personal practice.

Beginners may get lost trying to follow Pollack’s twists and turns through the Forest of Souls, but this thought-provoking guide will be a breath of fresh air for intermediate to advanced tarot enthusiasts, opening them up to expansive new ideas regarding what tarot is and how to use it. This final work will no doubt be a classic in Pollack’s enduring tarot legacy.

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. 

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.”1

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.”2 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.”3

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.