Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Finally, a book that's not only aimed at Wiccans but witches as well! (If you don't know the difference, you might be part of the problem.) It's so nice to read a book that actually equates witchcraft to a *craft* and not a religion. Anyway, now that that's out of the way, I'll talk about the actual content of the book. This book is exactly what it says it is: a defense manual. While it doesn't go into full-blown cursing, it does present some very interesting techniques of counter-magic. I'll do a chapter by chapter summary now. There are nine chapters in this book, but I'll ignore chapter nine since it's just an epilogue and does not really present any info. Chapter one is titled "Recognizing Attack" and talks about possible sources and symptoms of psychic/magical attack. Chapter two, "Daily Practices," discusses some practices that the author considers to be important, like: meditation, banishing rituals, and offerings (to spirits, etc.). There are techniques offered for each of these if the reader is interested. Chapter three "Personal Protection" and chapter four "Protection for the Home" go hand in hand. The first discusses things such as personal shields and cleansing baths while the latter focuses on protecting the home via wards, amulets, and spirit traps. Chapter five, "Exorcism," talks about "possession" and "obsession" and how to deal with each. It also discusses the dangers of inexperienced (and even experienced) practitioners performing such rituals. Chapter six, "Spirit Guardians and Servitors" talks about working with various spirits and even creating your own (my favorite magical topic!). Chapter seven, "Reversals and Counter-Magick," is the chapter with the most "meat." It shows you what to do when everything else fails. And lastly, chapter eight ("Healing and Recovery") shows you what to do *after* the attack has been successfully averted and how to repair any damage that might have been done. Another interesting thing about this book is that the focus of its rituals is the goddess Hekate. I've been interested in this goddess for a couple of years now and it was nice to finally see a book with practices focused around her. "Appendix B: Hekate" is excellent and it dispels the myth that Hekate is always viewed as a "crone" goddess. Besides its focus on Hekate, I also like how the book used different traditions/practices throughout, including the always fascinating practice of hoodoo (baths, washes, powders, etc.). Overall, I think that this might be the most interesting meta/magic book I've read so far (and believe me, I've read *A LOT*!). It's obvious throughout the book that the author actually practices what he preaches, unlike many books on the market today that just repeat the same old info over and over again. I'm looking forward to this author's next work. Even if you're not very interested in the topic of protection magic (I wasn't) you will still find this book of great interest and value. A breath of fresh air, indeed! Recommended. -Ater