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Entering Hekate’s Cave, by Cyndi Brannen, Ph.D.

Entering Hekate’s Cave: The Journey Through Darkness to Wholeness, by Cyndi Brannen, Ph.D.
Weiser Books, 1578637910, 256 pages, January 2023

From the artificial lights in our homes to the hypnotic glares of our televisions and smartphones, all the bright, glowing baubles of consumerism keep us overstimulated and distracted, diverting our attention away from the true healing power of closing our eyes, turning within, and facing our inner darkness. Even for those of us who are avidly seeking enlightenment, the false teachings of “love and light” spirituality can be perilous, reinforcing our collective denial of the shadow. When we focus on “positive vibes only,” we are operating from a place of fear, because we have become afraid that we will manifest our fears if we acknowledge them. The truth is that turning a blind eye to our darkness only further disempowers us, because the buried shadow content of our psyches has a magnetic quality, and we are more likely to manifest the things we don’t want in our lives if we continue to repress and deny them. 

In Entering Hekate’s Cave: The Journey Through Darkness to Wholeness, author and Hekatean witch Cyndi Brannen, Ph.D., is a psychopomp and healer, wielding her shamanic training and extensive experience as a professional psychologist like a blazing torch that guides readers through the labyrinthine tunnels of the Underworld to find the goddess within.

“Only by healing the shadow will we ever become whole,” Dr. Brannen says. “That is work accomplished in Hekate’s cave,”1 which is “a place of sacred darkness, a place where we awaken to our own souls.”2

Dr. Brannen is a leading authority on contemporary Hekatean witchcraft, and her previous works include Keeping Her Keys: An Introduction to Hekate’s Modern Witchcraft (2019) and Entering Hekate’s Garden: The Magick, Medicine & Mystery of Plant Spirit Witchcraft (2020). She also founded the Covina Institute, a Mystery School and Coven of Hekate, in which she is the executive director and lead instructor.

“Our journey is that of Persephone,” Dr. Brannen says, and “the journey of the cave is one of self-acceptance.”3 This resonated to my core because, when I first initiated myself, I devoted myself to Persephone, but it was Hekate who appeared to me in dreams, and in the first initiatory dream, she named me Persephone. I was already living my own unique version of Persephone’s myth in waking life, and through self-initiation, I was consciously acknowledging my archetypal identification with her. 

Based on my personal experiences and what Dr. Brannen writes, I believe that Persephone is the archetype of the witch who is initiated by Hekate and called into her service. Like Persephone, the witch has the shamanistic ability to move between the realms of the living and the dead, and communicate with spirits. She becomes queen of the liminal spaces, like Hekate.

There are fifteen chapters in this book, each one bearing an epithet of Hekate, accompanied by a unique sigil. I love working with her plethora of names because it’s like having a whole pantheon of Hekatean spirits who are each unique emanations of her multifaceted energetic current. The World Soul that is Hekate fragments like moonlight passing through a prism, bending into a rainbow of vibrant deific masks.

Dr. Brannen recommends gemstones for working with each epithet, such as “fluorite for learning and expanding awareness”4 when connecting with Hekate Triformis, the triple goddess of transformation. She also enlists one of my favorite stones, amethyst, “for awakening the soul,” “encouraging meditation,”5 and connecting with Drakaina, the ancient dragoness, or snake goddess, who “teaches us that we can shed our false skin.”6 I plan on focusing on the Drakaina epithet this year, since 2024 is the Year of the Dragon in Chinese astrology.

I have always felt an affinity with stones, and I have been fond of collecting them since childhood, but it had been a while since I meditated with them, so this was a great reminder to reincorporate them into my daily spiritual practice. I have a heart-shaped green and purple rainbow fluorite that I decided to use to connect with Hekate Triformis. In numerology, my life path number is three, and I deeply resonate with the imagery of the triple goddess. The sigil also spoke to me, and came alive, like an opening eye, as I gazed upon it.

Working with Triformis, I imagined a trio of voices, saying, “We are Hekate.” This triple-voiced Hekate reminds me to think of myself as my past, present, and future selves, and what it feels like to be all three at once, living in the present moment. Through this conscious alignment, I am a multidimensional being, present in all three realms at once, seeing my past, present, and future simultaneously. The fluorite amplified my self-awareness and surprised me with memory flashbacks. I am going to continue working with fluorite to connect with Triformis and enhance my clairvoyance.

The stones are powerful allies on Persephone’s journey, because Entering Hekate’s Cave initiates a heart-wrenching Underworld descent. Maybe it’s the sigils, or the magical power of the epithets themselves, but just reading this book is shadow work, and it triggered cathartic emotional reactions within me.

“This book is also part memoir,” Dr. Brannen says, “recounting my own journey through a difficult upbringing, sexual trauma, addiction, disease, and more.”7

Brannen’s raw vulnerability and transparency is part of the healing magic. By being open and confiding with her audience, she creates a safe space for readers to do the same, and I felt prompted to journal about my own experiences. The goddess Hekate walks through fire with us. She knows our darkest secrets and feels our hidden pain. 

I read this book during Mercury retrograde in Capricorn, which, in my natal chart, is the Underworld of my 8th House, and it was an intense experience. The most poignant insight I had was that I still suffer from a childhood abandonment wound that I never fully processed because I didn’t give myself permission to grieve.

When I was eleven years old, my mother left me and my father for a man ten years her junior. I’m now almost 40 years old, and in the dark womb of Hekate’s cave, I realized that I still haven’t healed from this wound because I have refused to acknowledge it. When my mother left, I was glad she was gone. My dad and I decided we were “better off,” and he acted like he was celebrating. He stumbled through life drunk, partying and blasting music. Both of us were in denial about how painful the abandonment had been. Soon after, he moved another woman into our house and proposed to her, but they didn’t stay together long because she couldn’t tolerate his alcoholism. That was left for me to deal with alone.

I was supposed to embrace the narrative of being better off, and side with my alcoholic father (it was us against her). Yet on some level, he probably resented me for looking like her, and he was abandoning me too. He was never present because of his addiction, and through his example, I learned to escape my own problems through alcohol. I never grieved when my mother left, because acknowledging how deeply it hurt would have conflicted with the affirmation that I was “better off without her.” I now realize that, as an adult, this abandonment wound has had a long-term negative impact on my self-esteem, my romantic relationships, and my attachment style.

Societal conditioning doesn’t permit us to properly grieve and process our wounds. We are discouraged from dwelling on our pain and validating our emotions by experiencing them. We are taught to bury our pain and pretend to let things go, to forgive and forget. The very thing we need to do to heal, we are denied, because of our own shame for being wounded, and because seeing our pain inconveniences others.

Up until she left, my mother had indoctrinated me with Christian values. I was taught to love my parents unconditionally, to turn the other cheek when people wronged me, and forgive them for their trespasses. If I showed any sign of anger or defiance, she condemned me for being resentful, and told me that I should forgive her, for my own sake. But it was really for hers.

In Chapter 9, Dr. Brannen illuminates the cathartic powers of Borborophorba, an epithet that comes from the Greek Magical Papyri and means “Filth Eater.”8 This is one of my favorite epithets because it reminds me of earthworms, the tiny chthonic serpents that eat decaying organic matter and animal waste and transform it into nutrient-rich soil. “The Aztec goddess Tlazolteotl also ate the waste of humans, then defecated it as flowers, symbolizing the transformative power of the goddess to turn filth into gold,”9 Dr. Brannen says. Borborophorba assists us in the process of eliminating the spiritual toxins that burden us and finding the hidden treasures buried within them.

In the myth of Persephone’s abduction, picking a narcissus flower initiated her kidnapping and Underworld descent. “Narcissism is yet another pitfall for some Persephone women,”10 Brannen writes. Both the personality disorder of narcissism and the flower were named after Narcissus, “who was fated to stare longingly at his own reflection but never see his own interior depths.”11 Women who embody the Persephone archetype often worry over their image and have people-pleasing tendencies, because they want to be liked and their sense of self is based on what others think of them. They may also be more vulnerable to narcissistic abuse. 

I grew up with a poor sense of boundaries due to the toxic enmeshment of my narcissistic mother. When I was little, I was sheltered and overprotected by her, so the abandonment was a relief in the sense that it gave me the breathing room I needed in order to individuate. Being abandoned by my mortal mother was also a blessing in disguise because it led me to my divine mother, Hekate, the goddess of witches. Up until that point, my strict Christian upbringing had been stifling, and in her absence, I was free to explore other spiritual paths. Ironically, after my mother left, she decided she was a witch too, and stole the thunder of my spiritual rebellion, but it was only a passing phase for her, and she ended up returning to monotheism.

When I was a teenager, my mother used to tell me how funny it was that I’m a Gemini, because “we’re just like twin sisters!” (I have a Gemini Sun and Moon and she is a Scorpio Sun with a Gemini Moon). She told me we looked alike, and that our lives mirrored each other’s. Since she saw me as her “twin sister” and best friend, she confided in me about all of her problems and traumatic experiences, and the combination of over-identification and trauma-dumping created a toxic empathic bond, which Dr. Brannen identifies as “secondary traumatic stress.”12

Now I realize that she was a narcissist who saw me as an extension of herself, and she didn’t want me to have a separate identity of my own. If I got angry at her for her behavior, she would gaslight me and say that I was the one doing whatever it was that she was doing. This confused me and conditioned me to question my perception of reality, to blame myself for any problems I encountered in relationships, and to tolerate boundary violations made by romantic partners. 

My mother abandoned me and my father to be with her “true love” because she was a selfish narcissist. Even when she was around, she wasn’t present, mentally or emotionally. When I reached adulthood, she continued to abandon me by obsessing over that “true love” who in turn had cheated on her and abandoned her. Throughout my life, we went through cycles of her smothering and abandoning me, which gave me an anxious-avoidant attachment style.

Shadow work involves deep soul searching and self-reflection, which is sometimes shamed in our society as narcissistic navel-gazing, but this is a healthy form of narcissism that dives deep into the well of the soul, bringing us into alignment with our true selves.

The irony of narcissistic abuse is that the narcissist manipulates their victim into believing that they are the selfish one. Any attempt made by the victim to break free and assert their independence is perceived as narcissistic by the narcissist. Persephone’s narcissism is actually a natural part of her individuation process and represents her quest for personal autonomy. The narcissus flower symbolizes her blossoming self-awareness, but because her identity is still so wrapped up in her mother’s, it becomes an Underworld journey expressed through her forced marriage. It’s like she traded one narcissist for another. Or at least, that’s how it manifested in my life, because I found myself in relationships with narcissistic, abusive partners who reminded me of my mother.

Chapter 7, titled “Chthonia: The Descent,”13 focuses on protecting your boundaries and honoring the sacredness of your personal space. This chapter was the most triggering for me because of my personal struggles. I grew up with a poor sense of boundaries as a result of the toxic enmeshment of my narcissistic mother, as well as bullying I experienced at school, and the cumulative abuse groomed me for intimate partner violence. 

While reading this chapter, I felt a lot of repressed rage surfacing as I reflected on the multiple instances of betrayal, abuse, and trauma I have experienced throughout my life. I felt enraged by the initial bullying and abuse that crippled my sense of personal boundaries and made me vulnerable to repetitive boundary violations. I found myself yelling and cursing all the people who have disrespected me and violated my boundaries in the past (I was alone in my home at the time), and it was a primal scream, like the roar of triple-voiced Hekate. I felt an immense sense of cathartic relief afterwards.

Beneath all the rage is the heartbreak of giving someone unconditional love and forgiveness and being punished for it with repeated disrespect and gaslighting until you are forced to cut them off for good. The last time I saw my mother, which was a few years ago, I had a vision of her as a zombie, grabbing me by the ankle and trying to drag me down to hell with her. That’s when I knew I had to make a choice: it was either her or me. I’ve been catering to her emotional needs and ignoring my own for most of my life. I felt toxic levels of empathy for her personal pain and traumas while neglecting my own. It’s time to choose me.

“As you move deeper into Hekate’s cave, your ability to discern between truly toxic people and those who are nourishing you amplifies,” Brannen says. “This may result in a cutting away of relationships with those who offer nothing but a steady diet of toxicity.”14

I have realized that, deep down, I’m terrified that if I love myself, it will make me a narcissist. I’m scared people will think I’m selfish and mean, because any time I have tried to set boundaries or stand up for myself, I’ve been accused of that, or the person offending me lashed out in anger and I felt that my physical safety was threatened. I’ve always identified as an empath, and concerned myself with the feelings of others, while disregarding my own. I was selfless, meaning I had no sense of self, because other people’s feelings were more important. I always tried to be caring and considerate of others, and I too easily forgave people who mistreated or disrespected me. 

I was leading an inauthentic life. The harder I worked, the more impoverished I became. The more I tried to please people, the more they shamed and abused me. I reached a breaking point in 2019, and completely withdrew from society. I became a ghost, hiding in the shadows. I have been in Hekate’s cave ever since, feeling like I’ve completely lost my mind, despairing over my inability to function like a normal person, and only receiving the repeated message from my oracles that I need to heal. I hated myself for no longer being able to find a place in society. This passage revealed to me the reason why I’ve had such a lengthy stay in my personal Underworld: 

“In the tales of Persephone, there is little told of the time between her entry into the Underworld and her ascension. We can imagine that Hekate pulled her into the cave so that she could adapt to her calling. During this period, she transformed from the naïve maiden to the sovereign queen.”15

Like Persephone, I need to remove the societal mask I have outgrown and embrace my soul’s true essence. I need to shed the false skin of familial and societal expectations that were projected upon me so I can be my authentic self. Just as flowers return from the Underworld in the spring, I will be able to step back into the light when I am ready to blossom into the wholeness of my personal sovereignty. 

I can’t praise Entering Hekate’s Cave enough. This book came to me because I needed it. It also validated some of my personal revelations about the relationship between Persephone and Hekate, and blessed me with new insights as well. Dr. Brannen is a gifted healer and her work is a boon for all of those who have been called to serve Hekate and illuminate the darkness.

Healing Pluto Problems, by Donna Cunningham

Healing Pluto Problems: An Astrological Guide (Weiser Classics Series), by Donna Cunningham
Weiser Books, 1578638151, 256 pages, December 2023

Ever since Pluto was first discovered in 1930, our perception of this celestial body has been growing and evolving. While Pluto was initially recognized as the ninth planet in our solar system, it was demoted to dwarf planet in 2006, and a lot of people who grew up knowing Pluto as a planet are still bitter about this demotion (myself included!). Despite astronomers minimizing its significance, modern astrologers acknowledge the Underworld power of Pluto by assigning it as the modern ruler of Scorpio and the Eighth House.

Native Scorpio Suns pride themselves on being Plutonians, and they can be quite possessive of that identity (all Scorpios believe they were born under the best sign in the zodiac!), but they don’t own Pluto. Everyone has Pluto somewhere in their natal chart, and significant Pluto transits can have profound and lasting effects on our lives.

In Healing Pluto Problems: An Astrological Guide, astrologer Donna Cunningham (1942-2017) explores the immense impact Pluto has on the soul’s evolution. Originally published in 1986, this Weiser Classics edition includes a foreword written by astrologer Lisa Stardust. This book has been on my wish list for a while now, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to review it.

Cunningham defines a Pluto person as anyone who has Scorpio placements in their natal chart or a prominent Pluto connected to their Sun, Moon, Ascendant, or Midheaven.5 According to her definition, I’m a Plutonian, despite my Gemini Rising and Gemini stellium (Sun, Moon, and Venus in Gemini), because my natal Mars and Saturn are cozied up together in my Scorpio Sixth House. I was very close to having Pluto in Scorpio as well, but right before I was born, Pluto backpedaled into Libra due to retrograde motion, so I’m a member of the Pluto in Libra generation.

In Healing Pluto Problems, Cunningham addresses a wide range of taboo emotions and traumatic experiences Plutonians may experience with compassion and sensitivity, such as grief, resentment, alcoholism, domestic violence, incest, abuse, and suicidal thoughts. She gives guidance on how Plutonians can process the intense and complex emotions that arise from their life challenges, and she also coaches professional astrologers on how to counsel the Plutonian people who confide in them.

“One reason Plutonians keep their secrets is that so often the people they go to for help wind up making them feel worse—more ashamed, more angry, and more betrayed,”6 Cunningham says.

Being forced to keep their taboo emotions secret in order to avoid negative reactions from others often makes Plutonians feel isolated and alone, as if they are “from another planet.”9 I’ve observed this as spiritual bypassing in religious and New Age communities, in which people are often shamed for feeling angry or resentful about past victimization, and chastised for not being more forgiving of their abusers. Talking about Plutonian emotions can be a healthy way to release the pressure of them, but it can be difficult to find safe spaces with trustworthy people to confide in. For example, Plutonians who have suicidal thoughts must keep quiet about them when talking to a therapist, even if they have no intention of acting upon them, because that therapist may perceive the Plutonian as a danger to themselves and feel legally obligated to have them committed, which would be a traumatizing experience that would compound those negative feelings with more layers of shame and betrayal. 

However, Cunningham points out that there are potential benefits to Plutonian solitude. “Isolation may be a condition which some require in order to develop their abilities to the fullest or to achieve an agreed-upon life purpose,” Cunningham says. “It may be necessary to focus on some singular activity, rather than being immersed in the daily needs of family or other relationships.”11 Isolation can also be therapeutic, especially when one is processing grief or trauma.

“When we do not give ourselves time to regenerate and to process new stages of life,” Cunningham says, “resentment and grief can build up to toxic levels.”16 

Plutonian transits can generate healing crises, during which the Pluto problems seem to intensify, as if resisting one’s efforts to heal them. Repressed emotions are at the core of all Pluto issues, and they will flare up, demanding recognition. “The feelings don’t get worse,” Cunningham says, “you are just more aware of them and of the thought patterns behind them. Heightened awareness is part of the process.”17 The cathartic release of repressed emotions is like an acne breakout after a skin treatment. It seems like things are getting worse because all the dirt and grime that was clogging the pores is coming to the surface, but it’s all a necessary part of the purging and cleansing process. 

Cunningham offers healing methods to assist the process, such as affirmations, chants, flower essences, chakra cleansing visualizations, and color therapy. In the section on healing with color, I was fascinated to learn that purple, my favorite color, assists in “releasing and processing old resentments,”18 and that purple’s popularity increased when Pluto entered Scorpio. For almost a decade, I have preferred purple sheets on my bed, so perhaps my gravitation towards this color has been an unconscious impulse to help myself heal with the higher vibrational energies of purple while I sleep.

Cunningham supplies sample charts of a few famous Plutonians, including Amelia Earhart, Marie Curie, and Sigmund Freud. Building upon her examples, I thought I would explore the chart of a prominent celebrity whose Plutonian struggles have attracted a lot of media attention. I read pop star Britney Spears’s memoir The Woman in Me (2023) alongside Healing Pluto Problems, which is quite fitting because Britney has Pluto Rising in Libra [natal chart], and her life struggles illustrate the unfair power dynamics that tend to manifest in the relationships of the Pluto in Libra generation.

Many of Cunningham’s insights about Plutonians apply to Britney. According to Cunningham, Plutonians tend to be the children of alcoholics, and, as a child, Britney was afraid of her alcoholic father, who would go on benders and disappear for days, which she said “was a kindness” because she “preferred it when he wasn’t there.”19 She also reveals in her memoir that her mother started giving her alcohol when she was in eighth grade. “By thirteen,” she says, “I was drinking with my mom and smoking with my friends.”20

As Britney rose to stardom, her Pluto Rising gave her a sexual magnetism that was perceived as threatening by the media, and she was criticized for being a corrupting influence on youth because of the way she dressed. During interviews, she was subjected to a lot of uncomfortable and inappropriate questions about her body and sex life, and she was shamed for her sexuality throughout her career. “I was a teenage girl from the South,” Britney writes in her memoir. “I signed my name with a heart. I liked looking cute. Why did everyone treat me, even when I was a teenager, like I was dangerous?”21

In her memoir, Britney describes herself as empathic and felt that she was absorbing all the negativity that was being projected onto her. She even believed her misfortune was due to bad karma catching up with her. It’s heartbreaking to read, in her own words, how this vivacious, free-spirited, and talented young woman was eviscerated by the media and financially exploited by her own family. After reading Britney’s memoir, I suspect it was ancestral trauma seeking expression and healing through her, not “bad karma” she had personally accrued (this is exactly why I have taken the word karma out of my spiritual vocabulary; it can guilt trip people into taking blame for things beyond their control!) 

“Tragedy runs in my family,” Britney says. “My middle name comes from my father’s mother, Emma Jean Spears, who went by Jean.”22 Britney was the spitting image of her paternal grandmother Jean, who took her own life in 1966, at the age of 31. Jean had lost a baby eight years prior, and shot herself over her infant son’s grave. Jean had also been abused by her husband June, Britney’s grandfather, and he had kept her institutionalized in an asylum where she was given lithium.

The parallels between Britney’s life and Jean’s are chilling. During Britney’s divorce from Keven Federline, the father of her children, she had a very public mental breakdown because she was grieving the loss of her two little boys since Kevin had full custody and would not allow her to see them. The breakdown landed her in a conservatorship, in which all her assets and every aspect of her life was placed under the control of the alcoholic father she had feared so much as a child. During Britney’s abusive conservatorship, her father, who apparently had learned from his own father to send defiant women to asylums, also had Britney institutionalized and put on lithium like her grandmother, in a disturbing reenactment of the Spears family’s intergenerational trauma. 

Pluto is a generational planet, and, after reading these two books together, I believe that the placement of Pluto reveals the intergenerational trauma that one is destined to transform into personal power. In other words, Pluto is your inheritance of unprocessed ancestral trauma. I feel like the Pluto in Libra generation in particular has quite a burden to bear because they are the intergenerational mediators, and the Libran desire to restore harmony may cause them to take on more than their fair share.

As a member of the Pluto in Libra generation, I sympathized with Britney’s relationship struggles and court battles because I also went through a nasty divorce around the same time she did. I’ve noticed that my own relationship issues are also rooted in ancestral trauma. I can only imagine how traumatic it was for her to go through all of that publically, especially compounded with the endless harassment by paparazzi. 

As a Libra Rising, Britney’s chart ruler is Venus, and her natal Venus at 25° Capricorn forms an exact square with her natal Pluto at 25° Libra. This emphasizes that her way of relating to people (Venus) needs to be transformed (Pluto) in this lifetime. Britney Jean’s Pluto is in the first house, and, by bearing her ancestor’s name, the trauma associated with her grandmother Jean’s memory expressed itself through Britney’s public persona. It’s also noteworthy that Britney’s Pluto is conjunct Saturn, the planet of incarceration, and she was locked under the conservatorship for almost the entire duration of Pluto’s transit of Capricorn (ruled by Saturn). Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008, the same year Britney’s conservatorship began. The conservatorship was terminated on November 12th, 2021, when Pluto was at 24° Capricorn, forming an almost exact square to her natal Pluto at 25° Libra.

In Healing Pluto Problems, Cunningham says that the square between Pluto and natal Pluto “is a major chance to heal your Pluto problems” and presents opportunities for “confronting and breaking down barriers.”23 Transiting Pluto squaring Britney’s natal Pluto liberated her from a thirteen year abusive conservatorship, so if anyone who is reading this is afraid of their own Pluto square Pluto transit (which is one of the so-called midlife crisis transits), this is proof positive that it can emancipate you from long-standing Plutonian difficulties. I’m experiencing mine right now and I find this to be quite comforting.

Healing Pluto Problems is an excellent resource that has given me a lot of insight into understanding Pluto’s power in a natal chart, and any student or practitioner of astrology should have it in their library. The therapeutic advice Cunningham provides also helps Plutonians work on reclaiming their personal power through self-healing. This work is indeed a classic, and as Pluto transitions into the sign of Aquarius, the guidance Cunningham gives is just as relevant now as it was when it was first published in 1986.

Magical Tarot, by Madame Pamita

Magical Tarot: Your Essential Guide to Reading the Cards, by Madame Pamita
Weiser Books, 1578638119, 272 pages, November 2023

As a tarot reader for over a decade, I admit that I take the cards face value. I no longer really see the imagery, rather I just notice the name of the card and immediately jump to my own interpretation of it. Reading Magical Tarot: Your Essential Guide to Reading the Cards by Madame Pamita has been an opportunity to slow down my readings and truly connect with what is being depicted in the artwork of each card, unlocking new perspectives about the spiritual messages being revealed.

“Much more than a device to see the future, the tarot is a powerful book of esoteric knowledge in the form of cards.”1

Madame Pamita is a Ukrainian-American witch and quite an accomplished occult practitioner. She runs an online spiritual apothecary called Parlour of Wonders, hosts workshops, teaches witchcraft, reads tarot for individuals and group events, and hosts podcasts Magic and the Law of Attraction and Baba Yaga’s Magic. Her previous publications include The Book of Candle Magic (the best book on candle magic I’ve ever read!) and Baba Yaga’s Book of Witchcraft.

In the introduction, Pamita describes how she wrote this book for her students to ”guide them as to the meanings of the cards from the truly positive perspective that the cards contain, but also show them how they can expand far beyond traditional readings and use the cards as tools for manifesting and attracting the best life experiences ever.”24

To achieve this goal of manifesting greatness, Pamita starts with the basics for readers, explaining the law of attraction and how magic can be used to focus one’s intention. After a quick esoteric history lesson on the tarot, she shares suggestions for how readers can build their own relationship with the cards. Pamita then describes the art of affirmations to the readers and teaches readers how to get quick, magical manifestation results using the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot cards. 

The bulk of the book though is her description of each tarot card, leading the readers through the whole deck suit by suit, starting with the numerical minor arcana cards (Ace-ten), then covering the court cards, and finally moving onto the major arcana cards. I appreciated this approach of beginning with the minor arcana and slowly going suit by suit, rather than immediately diving into the major arcana, which is the approach of many other tarot books.

For every card, Pamita goes into depth about the imagery on the card and what the different symbolism means in regard to its overall meaning. Then Pamita supplies a list of the key symbols in the card and what they represent, a list of what the card signifies in a reading, a journal question to explore the card more deeply, and an affirmation.

Her analysis draws attention to aspects of the cards one might normally overlook or simply might not have the background knowledge to see in the way she’s explaining. She sometimes refers to the numerology of the card or brings up unique ways of how to view the card, such as seeing the Knight of Cups’ relationship to Hermes due to his shoes. For the Three of Pentacles, Pamita writes about the way triangles being pointed upward and downward represent the different elements alchemically. All these little tid-bits of information come together to open the reader’s perception of what’s really going on in the card beyond just the surface level visuals. I found her explanations to be very grounding, as in they make you think from within the card’s settings. 

While the general meaning of each tarot card is easily found online, the more nuanced mystical symbolism of the cards is not as readily accessible. Pamita does a good job of turning the cards on their head for readers to gain new insight to the essence of energy of the card. For instance, the Seven of Swords has always been a card that I associate with deceit or theft with a negative connotation, but in her analysis of the card, Pamita writes:

“What if the guys he’s stealing from are some really bad dudes and he’s one of the good guys stopping them from slaughtering innocent people with those swords? What if he’s just taking back what rightfully belongs to him? What if he’s not stealing the swords from an enemy but playing a prank on some friends? Maybe he’s not taking the swords at all, but merely rearranging them. One of the things that this card always awakens in the savvy reader is the idea that there may be more than one side to the story and that the way of the Trickster is to show us that are not always what they appear to be.”25

This insight was really impactful and helped me to shake out of the habits I have when reading the cards. For those like me who are often looking for concrete meanings, Pamita helps to widen this perspective to encompass the “what if” and see the energy of the card in a new light.

I also really appreciated the journal questions and affirmations included. All questions were meaningful and prompted me to explore inwardly for a few minutes to come up with an answer. I also have been enjoying using the affirmations daily when I have a moment to reflect. My next step is going to be intentionally using the affirmations magically, choosing the cards whose energy I want to work with rather than just being more passive right now and exploring what card comes up in my daily pull.

Overall, I highly recommend Magical Tarot for those looking to bring a bit more perspective into their readings. This book would be perfect for beginners, but it also can be immensely beneficial to skilled readers that feel their practice has grown a little stale. Discovering the esoteric secrets of the tarot symbolism is quite illuminating, opening new psychic doorways through visual engagement. You might even find yourself, like I am, starting to doodle the symbolism, deepening my connection with imagery on the cards. There are new worlds waiting to be explored and Pamita has done a wonderful job of guiding us over the threshold into magical terrain.

A Tea Witch’s Grimoire, by S.M. Harlow

A Tea Witch’s Grimoire: Magickal Recipes for Your Tea Time, by S.M. Harlow
Weiser Books, 1578638216, 208 pages, October 2023

I read the most delightful book recently: Afternoon Tea Is the New Happy Hour by Gail Greco. This book gave me plenty of tantalizing ideas for teas, small plates, and other sweet treats to enjoy, BUT it didn’t venture into the magical aspects of tea, which is what I’m always looking to include in my daily routine. Luckily, A Tea Witch’s Grimoire: Magickal Recipes for Your Tea Time by S.M. Harlow has amply provided the mystical wisdom of tea that I’ve been craving.

“In the daily practice of the magical arts, the spirit desires enlightenment but also seeks nourishment and comfort. By our hands, we create earthly substances of vast power, and by our hearts, we tend to the fires of our soul.”26

Tea witch Harlow infuses this whole book with love for her craft. She shares how her grandmother, “a true Wise Woman”27, was constantly healing family and friends with her unique conceptions, seeming to just know what remedy was needed. In the same spirit of generosity and warmth, Harlow carries on the tradition of passing along knowledge by sharing what she’s learned in her on-going journey of mastering tea magic with readers.

The book starts right at square one, providing a description of tea, guidance on how to prepare and store herbs, covering the tea tools needed for this practice. I remember when I first got into drinking loose-leaf tea that I didn’t have the right items to steep it in, nor did I have a proper tea cup. So it’s worth reviewing the basics just to make sure you’re ready for the endeavor, especially if you’ll be preparing your own herbs too.

As for the teas Harlow shares, where do I start?! Well, she beings with remedies, which includes things such as happiness tea and purification tea, but also psychic protection and astral travel tea. I see this section as having all the tea rituals for what people would usually cast a spell for (binding, courage, friendship are just a few more teas covered!). She then covers teas for the moon phases and esbats (full moon each month), tea for every zodiac energy, and sabbat teas (Imbolc, Mabon, and so on). There’s even a section on creating blossoming tea, where the leaves unfurl when put in water.

For all of these teas, not only does Harlow provide the exact recipe, she also leads readers through the entire ritual, from what items are needed, how and when to prepare the tea, and what to focus on when drinking the tea. Some tea rituals are a bit more elaborate than others. It can vary from Harlow simply recommends a certain color mug to drink it from to  a long list of specific items such as crystals, candles, salts, honey, and more.

For instance the items called for November’s Yarrow Moon Tea Esbat include “a black altar cloth, 1 white candle, heat-safe plate, 8 snowflake obsidians, an oil burner, Wisteria and lilac with a base oil, 1 bay leaf, a black and white mug, strainer.”28 I have no doubt all of these items blend together to truly create magic, but I certainly wouldn’t have these things lying around! Therefore it’s important to plan ahead and make sure you have time to gather all the ingredients and items needed for your tea ritual.

As for the ritual, Harlow guides readers to do a variety of things to enhance their spells. There’s the usual visualizations and chants, but at times she encourages readers to spit into their tea (break hexes), salute the energies around you, or speak aloud your intentions. Harlow also provides an entire section on reading tea leaves for divination, known as tasseography, where a list of symbols helps readers to know the messages coming through.

Beyond the specific rituals, Harlow provides a plethora of information about tea magic in general, including tea sigils, properties of various crystals, and uses of tea remnants in spellwork. Additionally, there’s an entire chapter on potions, as well as guidance for creating aromatic oils and vinegar, alcohol and milk tinctures, and moon water.

Finally, the chapter “Tables and Correspondences” is worth its weight in reference gold. It includes a table of brewing times based on tea type and a table of measurement conversions. There’s also a list of intentions/goals and the herbal correspondences, along with a sections on the elemental attributes of herbs and herbal substitutions  o further help readers learn how to successfully create their own tea blends or alter the recipes she’s provided based on what one has available.

The book itself is a sturdy hardcover, which makes me feel it will be resistant to the spills that will ultimately happen as I am trying to turn a page while brewing my tea! There’s a whimsical quality to the illustrations, and they really provide an aesthetically pleasing browse through the text.

For those just learning about the magical aspects of tea, A Tea Witch’s Grimoire is a great place to start, though experienced tea witches certainly will also appreciate the compendium of recipes and rituals. Readers can reference this book year-round to trying out the different tea rituals as the seasons change, establishing their own relationship with the herbs. Or they can use the guidance of Harlow to manifest their will through the tea rituals, attracting or banishing what they want from their worlds, while also looking to the leaves for messages about the future. Harlow has created a true treasure trove of tea wisdom, and I for one am excited to start crafting my next brew!

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.”29

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.”30 Next, the authors take the reader on a “Contemplation of the Symbol of Armor.”31 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.”32 Also, clouds can bring obscurity, depression and disaster, as well as divine support and potential.33
  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.”34 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.”35

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.”36 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.”37

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”38 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.”39

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.”36

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”40. 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.”41

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.”42

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.43 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.44 In ancient Rome, it was called the oculus malus, and phallic amulets were believed to deflect it.45 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. 46

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.”47 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.”48 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.49

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.50 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. 51 

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.52 

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.”53

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.54

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.55 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.”56

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.”47

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?”49

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.