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Holland's Grimoire of Magickal Correspondences: A Ritual Handbook

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"It would be a selfish waste to accumulate knowledge and keep it all to oneself, so I have written this book. Different practitioners work magick differently. Some have no need for correspondences, but those who work as I do will find Holland's Grimoire indispensable." - From the book

For individuals who use spells, rituals, charms, and recipes as part of their spiritual path, correspondences are often an important part of magick. Author Eileen Holland, a Wiccan priestess and solitary eclectic witch, began noting correspondences when researching the ancient names of plants while living in Egypt. The information she included in her Book of Shadows was vast and she spent a decade transferring correspondences to her computer-all the while continuing research and adding more.

In Holland's Grimoire of Magickal Correspondences, Ms. Holland shares her extensive knowledge with the world, believing that the "best way to guard the Mysteries is to reveal them." Spanning 305 pages, this book is intended for experienced practitioners of magick and organized alphabetically according to intent. Some intentions have basic correspondences such as Planets, Elements, Seasons, and Astrological Signs. Other intentions have extensive correspondences including:

* Tool - Something used to accomplish a task (e.g. athames, candles, cords, rattles, wands, pendulums, etc.)
* Method - Technique or procedure for achieving a desired result (e.g. anointing, chanting, smudging, gestures, affirmations, etc.)
* Charm - Something that adds to the magick of a spell or ritual (e.g. feathers, shells, necklaces, magick powders, coins, etc.)
* Animals - Birds, reptiles, insects, fish, mammals, and mythological creatures
* Potion - Something you can drink
* Incense - Plants that can be burned
* Stone - Minerals and metallic elements
* Oil - Food, essential, and fragrance
* Plants - Toxic and non-toxic
* Gods and Goddesses - Also including Afro-Carribean loas and orishas as well as the bodhisattvas of Buddhism
* Evocation - Non-divinities such as angels, heroes, nature spirits, and demigods
* Protection - Amulets and Talismans

Other correspondences that may be included are colors, numbers, days of the week, moon phase, direction, time, and months.

Under each intention are appropriate sub-headings that are often cross-referenced. For example, under Alertness, you'll find the general correspondences but also information for and Alert Mind, Alertness to Danger and Alertness to Opportunities. When looking under Home, again there are general correspondences but a myriad of sub-categories such as Happy Home, New Home, Calm Home, Prosperous Home, Home Improvements, Attracting a New Home, Protecting a Home, and much more.

Holland's Grimoire of Magickal Correspondences is chock full of information for Craft working. Unfortunately, it doesn't include correspondences for runes, chakras, or tarot cards-which is information I'd be especially interested in. Also omitted are Sabbat correlations. The author says there was no room to include these correspondences, so she may have been forced by the publisher to limit her inclusions. This is unfortunate, because some practitioners consider chakra and Tarot correlations as very important parts of their spiritual path.

Still, there's no other book out there (that I know of) which provides such thorough cataloguing of intentions and correspondences. It's obvious that Ms. Holland is an excellent researcher who aims at making esoteric information accessible to those ready and able to use it. If correspondences are an important part of your spiritual practice, you'll benefit from the wealth of information found in Holland's Grimoire of Magickal Correspondences.

You are considering a ritual to work on a particular topic, say for example protection on a trip. You have some basic questions like what phase of the moon should I work this ritual at, what tools should I use, what color candle, what herbs, what plant, what stones? You could spend days researching through many books to find all these answers.

The idea of this book is to put all this information in one place. This book is put together alphabetically, so all you need do is thumb through the book. For instance: "protection". Look for the subheading in bold lettering that says "protection while: on a trip". Listed under the main heading of "protection" is a cross reference to other associated topics (in this instance, amulets or safety to name a few) moon/planet associations, tools, method (in this instance "common sense"), colors, charms, animals, oils, stones, plants, herbs and Deities. Under this is specific protections, such as "Divine Protection" or "protective energy" and there are specific correspondences for each of these. And, by the way, these correspondences work just as well in a spell working as they do for a ritual.

Each topic is covered in pretty much the same way. Ms. Holland covers more than 500 topics.

If you are familiar with these correspondences this book is a blessing. Rather than racking your brain for "I know what I want but I just can't remember it right now" this book is an index at your fingertips.

This book assumes that you either know what you are doing and using this book instead of your own Book of Shadows, or you will be looking up these items to see WHY you would be using them. The book even starts with this in the opening Using this Book: " ... is intended for the experienced practitioners of magick. "

The book does not contain any "why". The beginner will not find those answers here. This book will send the student to further research the topics and entries.

Reference back to the "protection" entries I mentioned above. While some entries are small, and easy to sort out, some, like the protection entry, are huge. Running through the list, it was difficult to figure out where the entry on tools ended and method began. The list runs on into itself, with no line breaks or changes in the text to let you know where one part ends and another begins. I found myself running through the whole list to find a plant, when it would have been helpful to, say, italicize the topic word (like tools, methods, animals or plant) so you can quickly spot the reference you are looking for. This was done with bolding to the subtopics later in the entry to make it easier to reference the type of protection you may be looking for. While it may not be an issue in the smaller entries, the larger ones are harder to sort through. That was my biggest issue with the book, but one that could be easily rectified.

I liked the concept of the book. For the experienced practitioner this is a really good book to have around. And if your Book of Shadows is anything like mine, even though it is alphabetical, it is still not as organized as this book is.

This is a great idea by Ms. Holland, and if the new student realizes that this book is meant not to teach but to provide a basis from which the student can further reference, the book performs as expected. boudica

Rev. Marie of Rebeccasreads highly recommends HOLLAND'S GRIMOIRE OF MAGICKAL CORRESPONDENCES as an important edition for anyone serious about working with ritual magic & the energies of nature, especially if you're interested in other cultures & their religious traditions such as the Mayan, Egyptian, Norse, Afro-Caribbean, Celtic & Native American.

Holland presents an intriguing collection of over 500 separate topics that literally catalog what colors, actions, rituals, symbols, planets, elements, days of the week & even animals are associated with a variety of subjects from Achievement to Zeal.

Lots of information but this book is very messy and disorganized. It needs an index. The table of contents is useless as it only contains chapter numbers with no descriptions. The correspondences are listed alphabetically so you need to know what you want to and then look it up like you are looking up a word in a dictionary.
Again good information but lacks index.

I began to use this book at my job at a metaphysical store, and I fell in love with it then. It contains correspondences for topics that can be very difficult to find anything for, because they don't fall under the titles of love, prosperity, healing, etc. It is an excellent reference book for someone who wants a quick way of looking up correspondences for anything on the fly. Just look alphabetically. She will even refer you to other subheadings in the book if the information is contained elsewhere, like going from "careers" to "employment."

My one issue is that it is a little hard to read. The sections do not have bold subtitles to separate herbs or stones (for example) so you have to be a little careful. But the usefulness of the book more than makes up for this problem.

Halland's Grimoire of Magickal Correspondences: A Ritual Handbook is a reference book for magickal correspondences. It is wonderful to go to one book, instead of searching through many books or online, to locate what correspondences go with what. Great for spellwork and ritual writing. Well written and informative and should be on the book shelf of every serious witch and even the no-so serious.

Eileen Holland's Grimoire Of Magickal Correspondences: A Ritual Handbook provides practicing witches, magicians, shamans and Santerians - virtually anyone working in new age spirituality - with one of the finest books of magickal correspondences ever written. Over five hundred topics are arranged alphabetically by intent and range from Zodiac and Yang to speed, invisibility, intelligence and more. References include numbers, plants, sun, medical conditions, ancestral memories and more.

This book surprised Me with how much information it had and how easy it was to use to look up things quickly. It would be of use to any witches, whether wiccan or not (I am not) for finding out all one needs to know and I totally recommend it.

This is a must have reference for anyone who indulges in spellcraft or for anyone who just has an interest in what wiccans or witches include in their crafting also an excellent proof that the witchcraft of today is not bound to the movies or the durrogatory implications in the religions of yesterday that are still present in the world today.

too many correspondences (topics), some of which so similar they hardly needed two entries.
plus, the information is not too well presented. it just looks so messy! if amazon let you ever see anything other than table of contents (i.e. if you could see just one page of it) you would know what i mean!
i haven't used it yet, and i don't see that i will. i am THAT much put off by the way information is presented :((