(Readers: this is Part Three of a 3-part article. Click on these links for Part One and Part Two.)

Fall 2012

This brings us up to books that have just released this month or the last couple months. Hot off the presses. Go find them in your local bookstores!

Faery Craft – the ultimate gift for anyone who loves faery art, faery fiction, and of course, faery reality. This book offers everything from a wealth of tips to communicating with faeries to a full treatment of the faery-loving lifestyle, including festivals, magazines, and more. There are great interviews with writers like Charles de Lint, artists like Brian and Wendy Froud, musicians like S.J. Tucker, and the book is crammed full of art and photographs. Written by artist Emily Carding. Super sparkly spiritual fun!

Spellcasting for Beginners – just what every beginner needs! Talks about how, when, why and whether to cast spells, and gives you more than 70 spells to start with. The book includes full chapters on candle spells, crystal and gem magic, witch bottles, poppet magic, cord and knot magic, and much more. Raymond Buckland writes, “Michael Furie brings fantastical stories about magic and spells back to reality with this dedicated work aimed at those embarking on the long journey into magical practice.”

New Paths to Animal Totems – the totem book that goes above and beyond all other totem books. You don’t need to ascribe to some hijacked New Age conception of “ancient Native American” practices – you can connect with your totem animals while being yourself, in the modern day, with reason and respect for other cultures, the biosphere, and yourself. This is not a dictionary of meanings for a list of animals, but a way to approach your relationship with totem animals in three very different styles: correspondences, bioregional, or archetypal. Explore and be enriched! Written by the incomparable Lupa.

Demystifying the Out-of-Body Experience – a book written by a director of the International Academy of Consciousness (IAC) on all the amazing benefits of leaving the body. Rather than using a lot of nebulous New Age lingo, Luis Minero uses scientific terms and dozens of studies the IAC has done in order to present you the very best and most cutting-edge techniques in achieving OBEs. You can have contact with spirit guides, loved ones, other OBE travelers, or learn more about your soul’s evolution.

Everyday Witch Book of Rituals – the third in Deborah Blake’s charming series (co-authored by Magic the Cat), this book has every ritual you will ever need, as well as ideas for tweaking and tailoring them to get the most out them. Here you’ll find new moon rituals, full moon rituals, Sabbat rituals, and of course a range of rituals for major life events as well. Since we couldn’t fit another set of 13 rituals on things like love, health, luck, and prosperity that she had written into this book, we released a bonus mini e-book at the same time that costs just $1.99 – A Witch’s Dozen. (This link will take you to Good Reads, where they have a very handy button for “online stores” that will bring up all the places you might wish to download it from – Google ebooks, Amazon, iBookstore, etc.)

Initiate – the second book in Thuri Calafia’s series of Wiccan instruction, following Dedicant. This is for the serious student who has already initiated into witchcraft. There are actually two series of lessons in this book – a solar wheel and a lunar wheel – that the student can follow concurrently or one at a time (taking either one year or two). This book will allow students to become priests or priestesses who know what they’re focused on, who have the energetic grounding that will enable them to serve their communities without sacrificing their personal health or burning out in doing so, who take their spirituality to the next level. If you have been stuck at the “what next?” phase after becoming a Witch, you won’t want to miss this book. Also great to work through with a group. (Buy one for everyone!)

Witches Tarot – OK, technically I didn’t work on this so much as I listened to my author and friend Ellen Dugan talk about it when she needed a sympathetic ear. This is the tarot deck that was two years in the making, but completely worth it for the amazing product that took shape. Beautifully vivid cards especially geared to the Wiccan ethos, full of herbal imagery and magic, no Witch should be without this deck! It was our great pleasure to see Ellen and her whole family up here in October for a Witches Tarot release party at a local metaphysical store. Here is a picture of the two of us at the event:

Aren’t we just witchy? : )

From the Cauldron Born – another book that I didn’t work on myself, but I’m including anyway because Kristoffer Hughes is such a good guy, his editor is no longer here, and he came to visit us all the way from Wales this year! This book is about the Taliesen and Cerridwen mythos and includes a full-year ritual, written by a Druid priest and scholar whose mother tongue is actually Welsh…you can feel the poetry flowing through this book. You can also read an article about the documentary piece filmed about him during his trip to the US.

That’s it! So, dear reader, does it seem like I’ve been busy this year? Wait till you see what 2013 has in store…! But in the meantime, Happy Yule!