Customer Reviews

Practical Solitary Magic

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found this book easy to read, understand, and use for practice. It is well written and gives easy guidence especially for those just beginning to explore magic. It is not limiting to one group or practice. This is a good feature for those who define their god or goddess slightly different from any other they have read or heard or seen. The author encourages the user to develop their own skills beyond mimicing those of others. She starts simply and leaves lots of room for expansion into complex spells and rituals. This book will especially touch those who are more logical and practical and doubt the powers of the universe. I have had a whole new world of happiness, power, and possibilities open up to me after completing this text. Harming none do thy will. Good Luck.

Ms. Watson's book is a wonderful step by step guide to creating a ritual. There are plenty of annecdotes-always appreciated in occult books, where the author can come off as damn near godlike if they don't watch themselves. Watson's reasoning is easily understood, and the exercises constructed in a logical manner. Overall, this is an exxelent book. There are however, 3 flaws that stuck out at me when I read the book. One is relativley minor, the other two could cause major problems if the reader is not aware of them before hand. First, the minor one. Watson's footnotes are in chaos. There is no regular pattern to their placement, and in one case they repeat themselves. It really very distracting. One of the major flaws is that Watson references the Chakra system, in one case relying heavily on it, without giving the reader an overview of the subject. She just jumps right into them, with only the barest idea given as to how the system works. I would recomend Anodea Judtih's Wheels of Light as a good introduction to a very complex system. The other problem is the personality test that gets quite a lot of mileage in the book. THe test itself is slightly confusing, and I often ended up picking the respnse that was closest to what I actually thought, rather than the one that resonated with my spirit. Many of the answers seemed to be the same anwser, in my opninion. While I feel that the assesment given by the test is more or less accurate, I don't quite trust it. Certainly not enough to base work with elementals on. And Watson is pretty clear about the dangers of working with elementals that go against your nature. Other than these tow considerations, the book is excellent. Anyone interested in ritual magic should read it at least once.

When I picked up my nephew's vesion of Ms Watson's book (he is a novice and I wanted to check his reading list) I was pleasently suprised. While her instruction is too strongly influenced by a few sources (Golden Dawn, Murry Hope and Dion Fortune to be specific -- don't get me wrong, she could pick worse role models) creating a one-sided presentation of some ideas, her overall explaination of magic and ritual -- why/how it works and how to apply it to your personal life -- is very practical. The title says it all. While I do agree that she tosses chakra practice into her exercizes willy-nilly, she does preface the exercize by recommending further reading. Also, I hated the personality/elemental test. I found myself picking the answer that would lead to the element that I know myself aligned with. Some of the answers are too similer, some too dissimilar. If you don't know where to start, skip the easy to read books that have often been marked "full of fluff" in these reviews; grab a notebook and a pencil and Ms. Watson's book. This is a good study guide. You will have to think for yourself at times, reconsider the biases you grew up with, and face the disturbing images in your subconcious before you put this book aside. But isn't that what you got into witchcraft for? This IS a good book for beginners. It will set your mind to the task properly (an aspect which I have found disturbingly absent in most witchcraft tutorials). But even if you have been studying for a while (especially if your craft is unreliable) read this book. Watson takes a psychological approach that will change how you feel about yourself, your craft and your place in the universe. This book is very "sensible" and will make you say, "a-ha!"

This book is fantastic. Instead of just handing you some pre-written spells and rambling on about 80 different goddesses, Ms. Watson explains HOW magic works and WHY she recommends her particular methods. Watson explains the use of symbolism, elements, and magical application in an easy-to understand-manner. She doesn't put on airs (her name is Nancy, not Lady MoonRaven Skydreamer, or whatever), nor does she get bogged down in religiosity (though her book allows you to use your chosen deities). Get this book, especially if popular Wiccan books cause you to raise a skeptical eyebrow.

This is *the* book that got me started in magic. I had long been interested, but had never found a book that presented magic in a way that I could believe in. Watson does so.

Her method is to use an architectural metaphor for magic, dividing it into Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, and Physical planes; Spiritual magic deals with gods, Mental with thoughts, Emotional with feelings, and Physical with physically acting out ritual. One may work on one or many levels at once.

One of the best things about this book is that Watson fills it to the brim with autobiography. One gets far more about reading how a person discovered and used a technique in their life than from reading about the technique in the abstract.

Though Watson works out of a vaguely Golden Dawn-ish tradition, she is quite eclectic and encourages her readers to be. She makes the point that magic can be extremely simple -- nothing but writing down one's goal -- or extremely complex, and that a student of the occult should find for themselves what rituals, symbols, and gods they can work comfortably with.

Once again: an excellent work; I recommend it highly. Read it and it will give you a context for all the rest of the reading on magic you do.

P.S. Watson spells it correctly: "Magic," not "Magick."

This is one of my favorite and one of the most instructive books on magic that I've read in a long time. After years of reading many, many of the more "new age" centered books out there, they all start to become the same and offer little that is new or inspirational. It becomes more and more difficult to find something educational. Which is why I've found this book so refreshing.

This is a book on how to practice magic - not about religion. Many other books make this same claim, while they are just the opposite. So if you want religion, don't read this. Nor do I feel this is a good book for beginners (especially those just looking into Wicca, though all of this would depend on the person). Although this is written in a step by step manner and focuses on many basics, I really feel many beginners would be lacking in enough self-knowledge (when it comes to magic) to adequately digest what is presented here. Plus the instructions here are to help one create one's own rituals and spells, instead of laying out specific spells themselves. And, as another reviewer here mentioned, it would help to already have a grounding in the pantheon and/or tradition of your choice before starting here.

Nevertheless, as a relatively experienced witch, I'm so glad I found this book. I look forward to putting it into use, as I feel it will dramatically advance my skills. Also, Nancy Watson really makes me want go out and research many more sources, in new directions other than where I was going, and gets me excited again about performing magic. And I think that is the ultimate point of this book.

Out of all of the handbooks and guides to magic I've read in the past 6 years, this book is my favorite by far. The tone of the author is so so frank and sensible that she doesn't come off as pretentious like so many other occult writers tend to. Instead of making magic out to be something so ethereal, you don't feel enlightened enough to be able to do it successfully, Watson breaks down the mysteries of ritual step by step in language anyone can understand. I was really impressed by her practical outlook on how magic works and *why* it works. This book is a real resource for practitioners interested in creating their own rituals but feel intimidated by the process or not sure where to start.

I really wish this author would write more books. Her style appealed to me more than any author on this topic I've read to date!

Most books on magic suffer from being either far too esoteric and almost arrogantly mysterious for a person to make any good sense of or so watered down and too user friendly that they are completely devoid of any inspiration. I found Ms. Watson's style to be quite out of the norm. This is not the first book on magic I read but it is one of my favorites. On a practical level, I loved both this book's take on the four magical planes and also on the elements. On an aesthetic level I loved her conversational and anectdotal style. I think this book is a good read for both pagans and ceremonial magicians and while it's not the be-all end-all of magic it has become the cornerstone of my practice.

I absolutely loved this book. She provides very detailed descriptions of each step of magical work, without involving any specific religion into the practice of the ritual. Although this book would be a great resource for those following a magical religion and wanting more information on magic, I liked the aspect that I was able to use it being without interests in the religious aspect.
This book also links psychology and magic, which I find to be very important. I think this book is great for starters more than any. It gives you the basic info you need and excellent references as to where to get more detailed information. This book is quite a bit more advanced than say Cunninghams 'Wicca: Guide for the Solitary Practicioner', but in more of a way of intelligence and letting the reader folumate his/her own ritual and style, instead of telling you exactly what to do and how to do it.

I think that I can add to those that had reviewed this book, one person said that it wasn't for beginners or someone of youth because it was an advanced book, while two others blatently said it was a great place to begin. I think the first review that I mentioned said that it was not a book to begin with because this book is not strictly wiccan, and does not go into any religious background. Thus said this book is as advertised a beginning to magick using mostly the four realm division of Fire/Spirit/Salamander, Air/Mental/slyphs, Water/emotion/undines, Earth/physical/gnomes... in this sense she simplifies activating (I am using a simplistic aproach) the inner child/unconsiousness through exercises and use of elementals. This book is written excellently because it gives not only a simple and uncomplicated and throughly understandable place to begin with out pressure, she also writes it in a way for only spiritual growth of the reader and also writes this with deep moral considerations without beating you over the head constantly of dogma. If you are looking at understanding yourself better while becoming aquanted with elementals this would this book is a great place to begin, but it is somewhat limited in scope. This book is written so it does not rehash or go into any religion so it would be a perfect book for the dedicated of a earth religion as an "intermediate book" if you don't already understand the elemental realm then it would still be perfect since I have not found any other book to relate the elements so wonderfully close to a personal level. I could rant on and on... so I will leave off to also say that this book has a "quiz" or "questionaire" so that you can find the element you are most affinitied to. This to me was more fun then a deep personal exersize and I think should be taken as much.. but if it helps just the better. Blessed be. Now buy this book, since I have bought three over the last three years