Writing about witchcraft is easy. Finding the right theme isn’t. Any fool can pass themselves off as a witch but finding an informative and entertaining approach for a new book is a whole different cauldron of knowledge. And since there’s a distinction between information and instruction, the author has to decide whether they are going to overload the readers’ senses with a compilation of facts, or whether magical enlightenment is the point of the exercise. Personally, I feel there should be a magical purpose behind any book on Craft – otherwise it’s all been said before – and usually better …
When I was contracted to write my first book for Moon Books – Traditional Witchcraft for Urban Living – there wasn’t anything similar when it came down to aid magical practice in the steamy metropolis. Originally it was called Mean Street Witchcraft but then John Hunt thought it could be developed into a series, which it subsequently was and so the title was changed. I wanted to produce something that was short, sharp and easy to follow because urban witchcraft does have all sorts of unique magical pitfalls that rural witches don’t usually need to think about. And having lived in London for twenty years I reckoned I’d come across most permutations of them. Considering that most witches are urban dwellers, there was obviously a need for such advice and so the first book in the Traditional Witchcraft series was written.
The second book needed to address another aspect of witchcraft that is rarely dealt with and that was the importance of linking with the different ‘tides’ that effect or enhance magical workings. And what better environment in which to talk about the subject than in Traditional Witchcraft for the Seashore? Needless to say that since the entire planet is governed by the various natural tides - oceanic, atmospheric, lunar and solar – the seashore was the focus for this title, even if we didn’t need to live anywhere near the coast to draw upon it. Again there was nothing similar in print at the time, so there was a gap in the market for a book that took working with moon phases one step further.
The sea is a metaphor for life: it is vast and empty and infinite. The poet Walt Whitman, used the sea as a metaphor for immortality, while Henry David Thoreau used the sea as a metaphor for the enrichment of man’s mind and the limitlessness of his abilities. The two oceans that are a common theme in Thoreau’s work is the ocean which is found on earth and the ocean in the sky which consists of the moon, stars and air. Conceptually, to Thoreau both oceans represented the accessible vastness of the human psyche which man should aspire to engage until he dies. Magical practice is, however, one big metaphor and therefore this was seen as another exercise on the path of traditional witchcraft.
Tradition Witchcraft for Urban Living and Traditional Witchcraft for the Seashore by Melusine Draco are both published by Moon Books. www.mon-books-net
When I was contracted to write my first book for Moon Books – Traditional Witchcraft for Urban Living – there wasn’t anything similar when it came down to aid magical practice in the steamy metropolis. Originally it was called Mean Street Witchcraft but then John Hunt thought it could be developed into a series, which it subsequently was and so the title was changed. I wanted to produce something that was short, sharp and easy to follow because urban witchcraft does have all sorts of unique magical pitfalls that rural witches don’t usually need to think about. And having lived in London for twenty years I reckoned I’d come across most permutations of them. Considering that most witches are urban dwellers, there was obviously a need for such advice and so the first book in the Traditional Witchcraft series was written.
The second book needed to address another aspect of witchcraft that is rarely dealt with and that was the importance of linking with the different ‘tides’ that effect or enhance magical workings. And what better environment in which to talk about the subject than in Traditional Witchcraft for the Seashore? Needless to say that since the entire planet is governed by the various natural tides - oceanic, atmospheric, lunar and solar – the seashore was the focus for this title, even if we didn’t need to live anywhere near the coast to draw upon it. Again there was nothing similar in print at the time, so there was a gap in the market for a book that took working with moon phases one step further.
The sea is a metaphor for life: it is vast and empty and infinite. The poet Walt Whitman, used the sea as a metaphor for immortality, while Henry David Thoreau used the sea as a metaphor for the enrichment of man’s mind and the limitlessness of his abilities. The two oceans that are a common theme in Thoreau’s work is the ocean which is found on earth and the ocean in the sky which consists of the moon, stars and air. Conceptually, to Thoreau both oceans represented the accessible vastness of the human psyche which man should aspire to engage until he dies. Magical practice is, however, one big metaphor and therefore this was seen as another exercise on the path of traditional witchcraft.
Tradition Witchcraft for Urban Living and Traditional Witchcraft for the Seashore by Melusine Draco are both published by Moon Books. www.mon-books-net
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