Magick Matters

“The Mercury Retrograde Book: Turn Chaos into Creativity to Repair, Renew and Revamp Your Life” by Yasmin Boland and Kim Farnell

"How to use Mercury retrograde to attract new opportunities, by best-selling astrology author. Are you tired of hearing 'Mercury must be in retrograde' every time the slightest thing goes wrong? People blame their break-ups, missed flights and unexpected bills on Mercury retrograde, but often they have little understanding of this astrological phenomenon. The Mercury Retrograde Book is here to flip these beliefs on their head. Bestselling author of Moonology Yasmin Boland and astrology expert Kim Farnell explain: - that the retrograde is actually a chance to revisit, revise and revamp - if you can understand how the retrograde cycle works, you can harness it in your favour - how to place the retrogrades in your ...>>

“The Truth About Magic” by Richard Smoley

"Magic, the occult, the mystical—is there anything behind those words? If there is, is it anything beyond horror-movie clichés? People the world over have always known and interacted with these hidden forces. But in our culture, there are very few ways to sort out truth from nonsense. In this book, Richard Smoley, an expert on the occult, delves into the world of mind power, magic, suggestion, and the realms of the unseen. He speaks simply and clearly, in common-sense terms, about these mysterious forces, how they can work for you, and what you need to avoid. This trip through unseen worlds could be most exciting adventure of your life, and possibly the most important."...>>

“Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions” by James R. Lewis

"A clear, concise overview of the origins and history of the Wiccan and Neopagan movements, with A–Z coverage of concepts, rituals, practices, and practitioners. Witchcraft Today presents a concise survey of this fascinating movement, charts its development, and offers A–Z coverage of Neopagan concepts, rituals, practices, and practitioners ranging from African Religions and Celtic Tradition to Numerology and Theosophy. An excellent and thorough introduction that explains the origin and history of contemporary Wiccan and Neopagan beliefs and a chronology detail the development of these modern religions. A documents section reprints texts important to the central belief system of Wiccans and Neopagans, including the text of Charge of the Goddess, and a bibliography and index ...>>

“The Devil Within: Possession & Exorcism in the Christian West” by Brian P. Levack

"A fascinating, wide-ranging survey of the history of demon possession and exorcism through the ages. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the era of the Reformation, thousands of Europeans were thought to be possessed by demons. In response to their horrifying symptoms—violent convulsions, displays of preternatural strength, vomiting of foreign objects, displaying contempt for sacred objects, and others—exorcists were summoned to expel the evil spirits from victims’ bodies. This compelling book focuses on possession and exorcism in the Reformation period, but also reaches back to the fifteenth century and forward to our own times. Entire convents of nuns in French, Italian, and Spanish towns, thirty boys in an Amsterdam orphanage, a small group of young ...>>

“The Witchcraft Sourcebook” edited by Brian P. Levack (older 1st edition)

"This fascinating collection of documents illustrates the development of ideas about witchcraft from ancient times to the twentieth century. Many of the sources come from the period between 1400 and 1750, when more than 100,000 people – mainly women – were prosecuted for witchcraft in Europe and colonial America. Including trial records, demonological treatises and sermons, literary texts, narratives of demonic possession, and artistic depiction of witches, the documents reveal how contemporaries from various periods have perceived alleged witches and their activities. Brian P. Levack shows how notions of witchcraft have changed over time. He looks at the connection between gender and witchcraft and the nature of the witch's perceived power. This Sourcebook provides students ...>>