Customer Reviews

The Complete Book of Magic and Witchcraft (Signet)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

After reading the negative reviews about this book I was really shocked by the shallowness of those wiccans who claim to know everything about anything. Come on! This book is a comprehensive guide, it's got loads of spells, incantations, charms, and it has a variety of purposes. Plus, you get a complete herb listing which no witchcraft book thought to include. Wiccans should keep silent about books that dont pertain to their so called religion. Witchcraft is the origin, and it doesnt have to twist according to their needs. Any negative review about such book is completely thoughtless. This book is an excellent guide.

This small book, which has been in print continuously since 1970, is a great resource for any mage or witch. Packed with hundreds of spells, incantations, talismans, and charms -- most of them gleaned from European, Middle-Eastern, and Indian books dating to the Middle Ages or earlier -- this volume can be used as a grimoire in its own right, especially by newbies. In addition, because the spells are annotatated by source and there is a lengthy bibliography, the book also functions as a pointer to the rare, scholarly, and out-of-print texts the author consulted and which the advanced student will wish to read. Don't let the small size and low price turn you off -- this is a valuable grimoire worth at least twice its cost.

It's nice to see works like this in print which aren't filled with fluffy bunny nonsense. This book is a nice, simple, compact collection of folk lore, recipes, spells, and incantations. I especialy liked the author's collection of herb and stone lore which touches on true folk remedies rather than new age fluff.

I think this was an excellent book for searching out the origins of magic. I used its extensive bibliography to find other books on the subject and bought many of them.

The book's text borrows heavily from Albertus Magnus, so many of the other reviewers who didn't like this book should really direct their distain to his writings.

Pages 1-15 give one of the most cogent explanations of the development of magic that I have read anywhere. The remainder of the book can for the most part be read in Albertus Magnus's book of stones... (Which, of course, I found in this book's bibliography.)

This book is not really all that bad as the reviews may imply. I do not currently own this revised edition, but I own the first edition, so they might of changed it or not but hear me out. NOT ALL MAGIC IS AIRY FAIRY. How many times do I have to yell that out? A good witch or magician knows and practices both aspects of light and dark magic. (Not with a friggin' K!)

The spells contained herein are from various grimoires and books. Some are for historical use and shows what magic was back in the day. It was not always light and fluffy. Also, sometimes a lot of lies were often written in grimores to confuse the non-magician.

Overall, this is not a bad read. Its interesting and would be a good book to read on historical witchcraft and magic. It may suprise you, read the words and look past what's written.

J.R.

First of all this is NOT a book relating to wicca or neo-modern witchcraft, it is a compilation of magick lore and spells from many parts of the world, mostly middle ages europe with bizzare and often brutal recipies such as one "to cause the hair to grow wherever you wish" " Take the milk of a slut, and saturate therewith the spot wherever the hair is desired to grow." or to keep from drunkenness "eat a sheeps lungs after fasting."
Good book for those intrested on folklore. The only gripe I have about the book is that it dose not always explain the origins of the particular spell.

I got this book because I was looking for something that wasn't a goody-goody wiccan book (no disrespect meant). I needed a book that had all those hookie, cat's tongue and newt's eye, recipes and I got what I wanted all right. This book wasn't meant to be a wiccan guide. it states that this is for black magic use (and sometimes I wonder if black magic users would use this) some of the recipes are funny, some are gross. but with anything in life you take it was a grain of salt and a sprinkling of sugar on the tongue. I liked it and I hope there are more books like this in the future.

This is NOT a book about the neo modern religion of wicca. Wicca is from gerald gardner and popularized by the idiot scott cunningham. This is a book of WITCHCRAFT which is seperate and apart from wicca. This book is not for fluffy bunnies who believe in karma, which is an eastern hindu concept. A witch is a witch,and witches have backbone. This book contains rituals and incantations along with spells and potions for a witch to add to her practice. I reccomend this book to those who favor Paul Huson's great work MASTERING WITCHCRAFT. Paul Huson's mastering witchcraft is an excelent place to get started and this book is an excelent continuation. I would strongly reccomend people stay away from anything and everything written by scott cunningham and as a general rule it is probably best to avoid any Llewyllyn Publication.

One of the 70's classics, this book is an excellent addition to a witch's library. Kathryn Paulsen gives a working system, not unlike Paul Huson, for the reader to either take or leave, without the dogma of religion getting involved. Witchery is witchery, and this small book is a great starting place for beginners, or a nice supplement for those who have been involved in witchery for some time. Read it with confidence knowing the author has given us a nice little book got under $10.00

If you are looking for white light fluffy bunny wicca, don't pick up this book. If you are looking for a concise guide to witchcraft this book will be a welcome addition to anyone's library.

This book contains some source material from ancient grimoires, so be warned some of the spells and incantations may not be to everyone's taste/style of practice.

However the later material on stones, herbs, and folk magick are quite useful and interesting. I also liked the info on talismans and planetary magick.

Since the book can be bought for a incrediably cheap price, pick up a copy and check it out.