Customer Reviews

The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Spells & Magic

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

For the most part, this book was quite humorous. I've been using magick for a little over 10 years now and this book tells of some unique spells to try. Read the other review about the invisibility spell. I don't want to repeat it here.

This book may have disgusted some people, but through other research I've done, those were actual recipes from the 15th-16th (more or less) centuries. The spells that include dead animals and other things considered taboo today were concocted by people who were hunted during the burning times.

The other part of this book was actually very informative. I do recommend this book if you are down to earth enough. 50% of this book are old spells and they tell you the ingredients which should be taken with a grain of salt if you are closedminded. The last 50% of this book is interesting and some of it works (such as the magick squares). I've yet to try summoning one of the 72 Spirits of Solomon.....so I'll leave that to a master pagan.

Overall, this book was interesting, captivating, humorous at times, and full of information not easy to come by.

this book is a disgrace to witches, they claimed that we ate babies which we dont and that we make a compact to satan, which we dont since satan is CHRISTIAN CONCEPT, so save your money and dont buy this book, and my the god and goddess have mercy on these writers' lives

I bought this book, without looking through it. Big mistake. Do NOT waste your money. I looked at a few spells, and almost threw up. One of the invisibility spells calls for you to boil a cat for 24 hours, throw the meat over your left shoulder, put the bones in the left side of your mouth, and look in the mirror, to see if you're invisible. That disgusted me. The entire book disgusted me. I'm thinking of writing a letter to the editor/writer(s), telling them exactly what I think. It's things like these, that give us a bad name. It made some comment about how people with the evil eye are more likely left-handed, members of the clergy, and some animals, including dogs, cats, wolves and peacocks. I only flipped through it, but I plan to look at the rest, just to see what else they have in there.

People who think Pagans are bad, pick up this book and see what it says, thinking it will have the write information. We have a bad enough name as it is, because of other people, there's no need to give us a worse one, with this.

this book for me was an impulse buy. I was looking for some random info that would lead me to more indepth things later and this is exactly what this book did. It sparked my interest. I knew from the first few pages that some of it was probably info ripped straight from a inquistor's handbook but other things were interesting.
Like the charms against evil eye and such. Where I live in Appalachia some of these are still in use, I even surprised my papaw with my new knowledge of some of the older myths.
Some of this book like the ways of become a witch were down right ridluious and in this part it could be more clear that those were foolish assumations of ignorant Burning Times Inqusitors.
But other things like Solomon's demons come straight from the Bible(which weather non-christians like it or not is still a pretty valid piece of historical reference). To really read this book I think you need to already have a bit of background in such things if only to be able to decern between fact and once believed ficiton

*breathes in, breathes out* I will try and calm myself before giving thsi reveiw but, I must tell you it isn't easy! I am a 16 year old Wiccan...I have been practicing for almost 2 years now...in my opinion, this "product" doesn't even deserve the title of "book"....nor do it's writters even know what they are talking about! "The most common demons"??? Hello! As if things aren't hard enough without a book like this on market! We don't worship SATAN...Goddess, have these poeple lost their minds? I found the entire thing completely disrespectful and all around rediculous! I spent ten bucks and i wouldn't be caught dead using it as a paper weight! WHAT A WASTE OF TREES AND THEIR PAPER! If you are looking for information on Wicca or Witchcraft, might I suggest Scott Cunningham, Dorreen Valiente, or Raymon Buckland... please,burn your money before you purchase this "book". thank you. BB

Well, well...what do we have here? A little squarish tablet cast in recycled material no doubt.

When I scanned through the pages of this 512 paged "encyclopedia", I knew that some of its contents will be no more than commercial folklore hogwash. Why then did I buy it? Simply because despite being extremely true on what our 2 learned reviewers observed that the book portrays wiccans as ambassadors of Satan, this book does provide a varied spread of general information worthy of a quick reference guide for the novice. However, a more experienced practitioner will dissect the book to its bone and extract only the necessary information that are generally welcomed. Some of these include the sigils for invocation, the hierarchy of demons and angels and spells. The biggest weakness of this book is the misguided stereotype portrayal of the wiccan community found only in Halloween late nite reruns. It's plausible strength lies in compiling some practical rituals and forms found in the likes of the late AE Crowley; some useable self help white magic spells, and of course the black magic stuff,(ie, if you are into such stuff), sources probably dug up from some Satanic literature for shock value-God knows from where,....judging from the ingredients required...since who uses bat's blood and wings anymore- do you?..:E~~

A fair read if you want to have a quick guide on most wiccan categories of practice (please discount the yawn...history and self styled documentary on witches and their likes). The 512 highly flammeable pages should come in very handy in the living room fireplace during the energy crisis winter months!..how's that for functional magick?>>>>>.zap!

I was a little disappointed with this book. When I bought it I thought it would be more of a collection of spells and charms. The most useful part of the book were a number of quick cure type charms which would only be helpful to a novice. Most of which, I now use other spells in place of. Many facts I even found false, and others were only half truths. Frankly, I learned more about true magick from talking to friends than from this book. It was only good for an entertaining read.

This is ridiculous. Don't get this book, its all unsubstantiated, falsified crap. Sorry, but this was made to get a quick buck.

As a non-Pagan, not even a neo-pagan, but a writer, I found this to be an invaluable resource. "True believers" may not actually do most of these things, but the information regarding historical superstions is certainly accurate, if succinct. Certainly the information regarding King Solomon's Spirits was dead on, and nicely summarized.
If you're looking for information to make a piece of historical fiction more "real", this is a fine place to start. Also, if someone is looking to add flavor to an RPG, this is a decent and economical reference.

I'm sure this review will draw attacks from the practitioners, but, if one takes the book for what it is and not what one wishes it to be, it's a fine reference.