Hexes, curses and other unsavory notions. Most magical practitioners won't even discuss them. Why? Because they'd much rather find a positive solution that benefits all concerned. And, there's nothing wrong with that. Occasionally, though, our problems are such that nothing in the positive solution arena will handle them. It's time to make a decision to stand tough, be strong, and take definitive action to defend ourselves. And, if you're ready to do that-if you're ready to own that action and take responsibility for it-then Utterly Wicked is the book for you! Jam-packed with more than one hundred rituals, incantations, hexes and curses, this book is the quintessential primer for learning all those magical tricks that no one wants to talk about. Do you know the proper way to enter a cemetery? Utterly Wicked tells you how, as well as the proper methods for collecting and using graveyard dirt. Explore the little known secrets of the 11" fashion doll and see why it's become such a valuable magical tool. Then learn to prepare Hot Foot Powder, Four Thieves Vinegar, Goofer Dust, and other magical components specifically designed to obliterate your toughest problems. Most important, though, you'll also find the tools to protect yourself, your family, and your home from ever being bothered with these sorts of difficulties again. A must have for any Witch's bookshelf!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
145 of 149 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read through this book rather quickly, as it is not all that difficult to read or understand. That is one of the signatures of works by Dorothy Morrison, easy to read and understand.
I also found myself nodding my head as I went through her basics for what she offers in this book. Yes, there is an ethics discussion.
And if you are under the impression that Ms. Morrison should have gone further into ethics, this book is not for you. Personally, I feel if you need a dose of ethics with a witch's book on hexes and curses, then you should do as she suggests in the opening of the book: Close this book now and put it back on the shelf.
Ms. Morrison does an excellent job covering the basics of our practices involving curses and hexes. And while she does explain that we should use this as last resort, she also points out that many times we have good reason and we should not ignore it.
So, moving on, the book is typical Morrison material. We are presented with the hows, the whys, and all the recipes to do. I love the "11" doll" material. Damn, I never thought of that! I also notice that much of the material is adapted from hoodoo basics and this is good. Hoodoo is a working tradition; working because it is effective. To adapt this material from a working practice is smarter than trying to make up your own. Why waste the efforts to create something that is already in place. I also think this is a great education in the workings of our native magical traditions.
This book contains the now famous "Swifting of Energy" working that everyone wants. It's a great spellworking! Just right for the beginner or the experienced witch.
There is a section on reversing hexes and curses as well. You never know when you may change your mind, or if someone else will whap you with some of this wonderful stuff.
If you've got the guts, if you know that it's now time for you to drop the fluffy ball and move into the real realm of witchcraft, this is an excellent primer. The recipes are wonderful and I recognized many of them. Others are great Morrison improvisations utilizing time honored traditions and sure fire workings. This is another one of Dorothy Morrison's instructional manuals that adapts tried and true magic and brings it up to date and into the real world. boudica
I also found myself nodding my head as I went through her basics for what she offers in this book. Yes, there is an ethics discussion.
And if you are under the impression that Ms. Morrison should have gone further into ethics, this book is not for you. Personally, I feel if you need a dose of ethics with a witch's book on hexes and curses, then you should do as she suggests in the opening of the book: Close this book now and put it back on the shelf.
Ms. Morrison does an excellent job covering the basics of our practices involving curses and hexes. And while she does explain that we should use this as last resort, she also points out that many times we have good reason and we should not ignore it.
So, moving on, the book is typical Morrison material. We are presented with the hows, the whys, and all the recipes to do. I love the "11" doll" material. Damn, I never thought of that! I also notice that much of the material is adapted from hoodoo basics and this is good. Hoodoo is a working tradition; working because it is effective. To adapt this material from a working practice is smarter than trying to make up your own. Why waste the efforts to create something that is already in place. I also think this is a great education in the workings of our native magical traditions.
This book contains the now famous "Swifting of Energy" working that everyone wants. It's a great spellworking! Just right for the beginner or the experienced witch.
There is a section on reversing hexes and curses as well. You never know when you may change your mind, or if someone else will whap you with some of this wonderful stuff.
If you've got the guts, if you know that it's now time for you to drop the fluffy ball and move into the real realm of witchcraft, this is an excellent primer. The recipes are wonderful and I recognized many of them. Others are great Morrison improvisations utilizing time honored traditions and sure fire workings. This is another one of Dorothy Morrison's instructional manuals that adapts tried and true magic and brings it up to date and into the real world. boudica
67 of 68 people found the following review helpful
By James Bush
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is an absolute treasure! I was delighted when I saw this book. After reading it, my initial delight was justified. This book has been a long time coming for many of us. I have been a part of The Craft for over 20 years and in that time a lot has changed. Witchcraft books are now available everywhere, not just from specialty shops like they were back in the day. As a backlash to Witchcraft being perceived as "dark" and "evil" by the public at large, an entire movement began which portrayed the strongly ethical, "good" and "benevolent" side of The Craft that exists. The Problem was this caused a great lack of balance for new people coming into The Craft. Witchcraft became(to many), "airy-fairy",whitesy-litesy" and "fluffy-bunny" (among other terms). Many new, modern Witches were scared to act to protect themselves or others as a result of others interpretations of the Wiccan Rede and Three-fold law. Dorothy Morrison has blown all that away with this truly ground-breaking book for our time. She has really put herself on the line with the Wiccan community as a whole and I applaude her for it! This book is not about doing evil to others for selfish, self-serving purposes. This book (to me at least), is about arming yourself with the proper tools to fight when and if you need to. This book is about balance. There are times when it may be called for to defend yourself when attacked or provoked, or to defend others who are innocent and are not strong enough to defend themselves. We are Witches, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard as Priestesses and Priests and part of our responsibility is to help those in need and sometimes that means taking the appropriate action when neccesary. Weighing both sides of a situation and coming to a balanced, correct outcome for us to take. This book gives you the tools to help you when that outcome means for you to defend yourself or others. She fills her book with spells, curses and hexes from a variety of different occult and magickal societies. From good old fashioned Witchcraft to straight-up Voodoo and Hoodoo practices, they are all here. Her writing style is simple and easy to follow. She writes with homour and experience making this book a pleasure to read. Each chapter deals with a different type of circumstance, making it easy to find the right spell needed for the right situation. The back of the book has a list of supply houses where some of the items listed in her book can be obtained for those in need. I cannot stress enough what a valuable book this is. Everyone in my Coven is getting a copy! I encourage you to do the same if this is your path.
120 of 136 people found the following review helpful
By D. Marshall
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I ordered this book out of curiosity more than anything else as I am both a Wiccan HPS and a practitioner of Hoodoo/Conjure. During my years of practicing this tradition I've come to prefer it over witchcraft because it is rooted in long standing tradition, which helps to guide the practitioner, and was born in the US. I have found, over the years, that what is available in most books on witchcraft is rather generic as it as been cut-off from the cultures and traditions that first gave birth to it.
In this book, Morrison has taken elements of Hoodoo practice and Wiccanized them to make them more palatable to her Neo-Pagan/Wiccan audience, much along the same lines as Stephanie Rose Bird and Ray Malbrough did. Tapping Hoodoo seems to be a growing trend amongst Neo-Pagan authors when they are trying to write a book dealing with the darker aspects of magical practice. I can only surmised that this is happening because the darker aspects of witchcraft practice have been feared and ignored by Neo-Pagans/Wiccans for so long that they have become forgotten and Hoodoo is being used to fill the gap. Below I've included a few examples of what Morrison has included in her book, and how it differs from traditional, authentic Hoodoo.
* A discussion for those concerned with the Wiccan Rede and Three-fold Law, in the first chapter. While it is an intelligent discussion neither of these are of concern to those who practice this tradition as they don't exist within Hoodoo. Hoodoo doesn't come with a built-in set of ethics so they are going to vary greatly from one practitioner to the next, and a person's ethics are their own business.
*Using terminology from European witchcraft to describe Conjure practices. For instance, what she calls a poppet is more commonly called a "doll-baby" or a "dollie". She also seems to prefer the word "hexing" to "crossing" or "crossing up" someone, terms that are commonly found in Hoodoo/Conjure.
*Wiccan-style spells created with Hoodoo parts. This is all over this book, and is the main reason why it is another generic form of magic and does not reflect the tradition Morrison is pulling from. For instance, in none of the cleansing spells is the practitioner's first morning's urine included as part of the bath when doing so is almost a universal practice within the tradition. Nor does she advise the reader that a magical/spiritual bath should be taken at a certain time of the day depending on the purpose of the spell and the water disposed of ritually.
*There are no rules in Hoodoo concerning numbers; however, 3,7,9, 13 and 21 are very favored by those who count the number of ingredients, recite prayer/spell a specific number of times, tie a certain number of knots, etc. There is a belief that even numbers (2,4,6) are stable and stagnant.
* The complete removal of all traces of Christianity from the tradition, and the inclusion of things like the Norse Runes and curios related to the spirits of Regla de Ocha (Santeria), among other things. None of this has any place in Hoodoo, which is deeply rooted in Christian symbolism and belief. I will say that, Morrison is completely correct when she states that Hoodoo isn't a religion, but she fails to acknowledge that it is still a very spiritual tradition that is deeply connected with Christianity to the point they are inseparable. Spells are often closed with "In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" or "In Jesus Name" Likewise, in Latin-based areas of the country the Catholic saints are often worked with.
*I haven't completely analyzed all the spells given in this book, but I have seen several that have me scratching my head. For instance, her recipe for War Water contains no iron!!! Nobody would make War Water without iron because it's the inclusion of iron,along with two other important ingredients, that makes it War Water. Many of her recipes also disregard herbs/roots that are very well-known and within the tradition and commonly used for a particular spell. Also, no practitioner would include Myrrh in any of this type of work because, according to tradition, it doesn't have any uses in "bad" work. She also seems to place zero emphasis on personal concerns, especially, those of the target. For instance, her "Condom Spell" to stop sexual harassment should be reworked completely if the condom doesn't contain the sexual fluid of the target.
My last criticism is for the bibliography itself. Out of the 32 works cited there is only one book, "Hoodoo and Voodoo" by Jim Haskins, that is decent and relates directly to Hoodoo. The other books deal with Afro-Carribean religion, European witchcraft, Morrison's own works, or are other Neo-Paganized/Wiccanized Hoodoo books. Since this is not a book about Hoodoo it could be said that the more authentic books on Hoodoo/Conjure aren't really necessary, but it would have been nice to see them listed since Ms. Morrison is tapping the tradition.
In closing, I feel I have to cut Ms. Morrison some slack on this book. Clearly, she's not a practitioner of Hoodoo/Conjure and her target audience are not Conjurers either. I don't think it is possible for any Neo-Pagan author to write a book that included authentic Hoodoo practices and have any success in selling it to the Neo-Pagan community so books like this get published. It isn't a bad book, but please don't make the mistake of purchasing it thinking you will learn, or will be practicing, in the authentic Hoodoo tradition, you won't be. If you can accept it as another generic form of magic and use it as such you may have good results.
In this book, Morrison has taken elements of Hoodoo practice and Wiccanized them to make them more palatable to her Neo-Pagan/Wiccan audience, much along the same lines as Stephanie Rose Bird and Ray Malbrough did. Tapping Hoodoo seems to be a growing trend amongst Neo-Pagan authors when they are trying to write a book dealing with the darker aspects of magical practice. I can only surmised that this is happening because the darker aspects of witchcraft practice have been feared and ignored by Neo-Pagans/Wiccans for so long that they have become forgotten and Hoodoo is being used to fill the gap. Below I've included a few examples of what Morrison has included in her book, and how it differs from traditional, authentic Hoodoo.
* A discussion for those concerned with the Wiccan Rede and Three-fold Law, in the first chapter. While it is an intelligent discussion neither of these are of concern to those who practice this tradition as they don't exist within Hoodoo. Hoodoo doesn't come with a built-in set of ethics so they are going to vary greatly from one practitioner to the next, and a person's ethics are their own business.
*Using terminology from European witchcraft to describe Conjure practices. For instance, what she calls a poppet is more commonly called a "doll-baby" or a "dollie". She also seems to prefer the word "hexing" to "crossing" or "crossing up" someone, terms that are commonly found in Hoodoo/Conjure.
*Wiccan-style spells created with Hoodoo parts. This is all over this book, and is the main reason why it is another generic form of magic and does not reflect the tradition Morrison is pulling from. For instance, in none of the cleansing spells is the practitioner's first morning's urine included as part of the bath when doing so is almost a universal practice within the tradition. Nor does she advise the reader that a magical/spiritual bath should be taken at a certain time of the day depending on the purpose of the spell and the water disposed of ritually.
*There are no rules in Hoodoo concerning numbers; however, 3,7,9, 13 and 21 are very favored by those who count the number of ingredients, recite prayer/spell a specific number of times, tie a certain number of knots, etc. There is a belief that even numbers (2,4,6) are stable and stagnant.
* The complete removal of all traces of Christianity from the tradition, and the inclusion of things like the Norse Runes and curios related to the spirits of Regla de Ocha (Santeria), among other things. None of this has any place in Hoodoo, which is deeply rooted in Christian symbolism and belief. I will say that, Morrison is completely correct when she states that Hoodoo isn't a religion, but she fails to acknowledge that it is still a very spiritual tradition that is deeply connected with Christianity to the point they are inseparable. Spells are often closed with "In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" or "In Jesus Name" Likewise, in Latin-based areas of the country the Catholic saints are often worked with.
*I haven't completely analyzed all the spells given in this book, but I have seen several that have me scratching my head. For instance, her recipe for War Water contains no iron!!! Nobody would make War Water without iron because it's the inclusion of iron,along with two other important ingredients, that makes it War Water. Many of her recipes also disregard herbs/roots that are very well-known and within the tradition and commonly used for a particular spell. Also, no practitioner would include Myrrh in any of this type of work because, according to tradition, it doesn't have any uses in "bad" work. She also seems to place zero emphasis on personal concerns, especially, those of the target. For instance, her "Condom Spell" to stop sexual harassment should be reworked completely if the condom doesn't contain the sexual fluid of the target.
My last criticism is for the bibliography itself. Out of the 32 works cited there is only one book, "Hoodoo and Voodoo" by Jim Haskins, that is decent and relates directly to Hoodoo. The other books deal with Afro-Carribean religion, European witchcraft, Morrison's own works, or are other Neo-Paganized/Wiccanized Hoodoo books. Since this is not a book about Hoodoo it could be said that the more authentic books on Hoodoo/Conjure aren't really necessary, but it would have been nice to see them listed since Ms. Morrison is tapping the tradition.
In closing, I feel I have to cut Ms. Morrison some slack on this book. Clearly, she's not a practitioner of Hoodoo/Conjure and her target audience are not Conjurers either. I don't think it is possible for any Neo-Pagan author to write a book that included authentic Hoodoo practices and have any success in selling it to the Neo-Pagan community so books like this get published. It isn't a bad book, but please don't make the mistake of purchasing it thinking you will learn, or will be practicing, in the authentic Hoodoo tradition, you won't be. If you can accept it as another generic form of magic and use it as such you may have good results.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Utterly Awesome
Dorothy Morrison never disappoints on her instructional books. This is a book that's served up with Dorothy's wicked sense of humor. Read more
Published 9 days ago by S. J. Swan
4.0 out of 5 stars
Utterly Wicked Curese Hexes & Other Unsavory Notions
The book was good At some parts it made me smile and chuckle with hapinesss to know that there is something out there to hel which is different. Good Book
Published 15 days ago by Carol Boisjoly
5.0 out of 5 stars
wonderful insights!
This is a wonderful book! Dorothy Morrison definitely tells it like it is, with no holds barred! This one is definitely NOT for beginners in Wicca. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jo Branon
5.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT79!!!!!!!!!!!
Arrived on time! new, package good, Was not damaged, Same as picture, Eye love it.This is what my Ancienne Wise Ones have been telling me, on point, eye like this book especially... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Myshylshv79
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wicked & Filled with Info for the Practitioner
Very interesting and thorough read from Dorothy Morrison. I enjoyed this book and found myself laughing-out-loud often as I read it. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Emily the Vet
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love It!
She is really inventive and takes spell crafting to a whole new level. I never thought that that throwing a curse or removing an unwanted from my life could be so easy!
Published 2 months ago by Kimberly Seigle
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent book to level up
This book is very easy to read and enjoyable, too. It covers things that many people are too afraid to even whisper about, much less print in a book. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Susan P.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A MUST have for any Kitchen/Garden Witch
I have just finished reading Utterly Wicked and I am so excited to get to work with the ideas Dorothy provides. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Book Vampire
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exactly what I was looking for!
I read most of the reviews for this book before purchasing and felt it would suit my needs -- and it does! Read more
Published 4 months ago by Orpheus Ascending
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read
I chose this rating because the product has insightful information, is easy to comprehend & would recommend this to everyone
Published 4 months ago by bonnie milton
