The Veil's Edge: Exploring Bou [Paperback]

Willow Polson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2003

Witchcraft, especially Wicca, has reached the age of maturity. At a recent women’s festival in California, over 20 women declared themselves to be Crones at a special ceremony. Many Witches are now second or even third generation practitioners, and it has been over 20 years since many first generation Witches started out with Starhawk’s "The Spiral Dance" or Buckland’s "Complete Book of Witchcraft."

But where are the books for the experienced Witch? The shelves are flooded with "Wicca 101" books, and many readers are desperate for more advanced concepts beyond the basics of casting a circle and calling the quarters.

Not simply a "Wicca 201" book, The Veil’s Edge discusses more unfamiliar and abstract concepts of magic and Witchcraft, including:

- The Veil between the worlds and how it works
- Direct contact with the Divine and how to handle it, including direct possession experiences
- Ecstatic worship techniques and shamanism
- Fae magic techniques, including the use of glamourie
- Explorations into the illusiory nature of reality
- Group dynamics and working with different kinds of energy flows
- Scientific proof that magic works, backed up with case-by-case evidence
- Intuitive magic: Allowing yourself to sense and believe

Readers are introduced to these topics through the author’s personal experiences and interviews with other Witches that have been practicing for many years. Anyone who considers themselves an experienced magic worker will appreciate this essential book which fills a genuine need within the maturing Pagan community.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Several reviewers (both here and elsewhere) have mentioned that they wish the book was longer, and so do I! The reason for its brevity is that the final deadline was moved back 3 months unexpectedly, so some material had to be cut and/or left unexplored in order to meet the new date.

My sincere apologies... and thank you for your interest in The Veil's Edge. Perhaps an expanded edition can be published in the future if there's enough interest.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Citadel (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806523522
• ISBN-13: 978-0806523521
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #64 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Earth-Based Religions > Wicca

More About the Author

Willow Polson's major in college was Art, and was on the Education track at SFSU to get a secondary school teaching credential when two things happened: Her dad decided to stop paying for college, and she answered an ad for a full-time graphic artist for EGW Publishing, which produces consumer magazines. The job was interesting enough, but when an assistant editor position opened up, she gave writing samples to one of the editors and was virtually hired on the spot. From there she helped develop new titles, became a department editor, and eventually became managing editor of both a newsletter and related website.

Seeing the writing on the wall about certain properties she was working on, at about this time she started writing books and doing more freelance articles. Fortunately she identified a hole in the new age market you could drive a truck through, and successfully sold five books to Citadel, a Kensington imprint.

Willow's first love, however, was always fantasy novels. When she was five, she received The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe as a Christmas present from grandpa Steve, and received comic books from grandpa Albert. Add to this the fact that her mother produced a monthly magazine out of their home, complete with printing press in the basement, and you can see where her enthusiasm for writing and publishing began.

But something was missing. Non-fiction, while a perfectly valid market, wasn't entirely satisfying to write about. It was at this point that another two things happened: She read Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury, which gave her permission to write about what she loves, and she followed her late father's advice. "The world is your oyster," he used to say, and Willow applies that to everything in her life. She figures there's no reason, with a little determination and skill (and "luck"), that she can't achieve what she sets her mind to.

And that's exactly what she's doing now, and continuing to work towards.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ready to take a dive?, February 20, 2004

By 

Mistypaw (South Florida, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Veil's Edge: Exploring Bou (Paperback)

One of my first knee jerk reactions to reading this book was, "YES! I am not insane! I am not the only one who's been seeing/sensing these things!" Many wiccans talk about "fantasy witches" in which they refer to folks who really see and do things like battle demons, and physically shape-shift, and literally traveling to other worlds. It sounds pretty unbelievable. And it is very daring and amazing when you start perceiving such things for yourself. But where do you draw the line between fantasy and reality? How do you know your not wishfully magicking things into your perception? That's where the good judgment and willpower you've been theoretically been training for years comes in.

There is an excellent chapter on magic and science, most notably quantum physics. I will admit, I don't know much about quantum physics, so maybe someone will have another opinion on how she approaches it. However, for me it was a good simple easy to understand opener to the topic, and I plan on looking into the bibliography that is provided in the book.

Another reaction was realizing how much trouble a book like this on the market could be. This is not a simple starting book. This is not something for a casual wiccan. This is not even necessarily about religion. It's witchcraft. There are no clear cookie cutter instructions for a reason. She does describe how to do some things, and if your really up to working with that kind of stuff then it's more than enough. This is only for once you know a wide variety of techniques very well and have done lots and lots and lots of energy work. Otherwise messing with such stuff can be downright dangerous possibly to yourself and others. Ripping holes in reality and guiding the dead are not things to poo poo at. I'm not even sure I would have the balls to play with some of this yet. And I know all the cautionary stuff sounds redundant, but there is reason for it.

There are some more topics I can think of along these lines she didn't cover. But it's, as far as I know, the only book so far to seriously dare to publish some of this kind of magic. To let people know what's possible, and what's out there. So if your interested, check it out. And don't be afraid to agree or disagree with how stuff works. You may learn something different from your triggered intuition.

Her introductions and style of making examples and analogies also made it a very fast fun read. She has interviewed and gotten advice from several other authors I respect and enjoyed reading in the past. Oh, and the small fact that she's a Bast person didn't sway me at all. :grin/wink:

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great book, but I wish it went further, December 22, 2003

By 

WitchGrrl (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Veil's Edge: Exploring Bou (Paperback)

There is a sad dearth of books for advanced pagan audiences. This is the first book that I've heard of that addresses the topic of magick from a pagan perspective beyond the 101 level. I thought it was very well done. The theory of how magick works that Polson presents was interesting and believable, but the great strength of the book, in my opinion, lies in the step-by-step guides to exploring different advanced magical techniques.
I say advanced, but this is more of a 202 book than a seminar level work. I am very glad that it was published, and think it's a great first step (or next step?) but I wished that it went further. I am not a serious magician, and I did get some new ideas from the book, but I would've liked it to have been twice as long and covered two or three times as many topics. Sweat lodges, astral portals, and god-hosting are great, and they're definitely not beginner topics. Polson covers them in depth. But what about interacting with non-deity spirits, healing, and creating magickal objects? Most of those topics were mentioned in passing but could easily have gotten their own chapters, and these are just examples. An additional second-to-last chapter talking about further boundaries for the experienced and enterprising magician to push and expand would have been very welcome, at the least.
Nonetheless, this book is an important contribution to the body of accessible neo-pagan material, and I'm awfully glad to have read it. Thanks, Ms. Polson!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting book for intermediate to advanced Wiccans, December 13, 2004

By 

Ben Gruagach "Ben Gruagach, author of The Wic... (Eden Prairie, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Veil's Edge: Exploring Bou (Paperback)

I read "The Veil's Edge" by Willow Polson recently.

The book is very interesting but it is not one I'd recommend to beginners. You really need to have a solid grounding already in working magick to get much out of the book. Intermediate to advanced Wiccans in particular will likely find the book of interest as it goes into topics that are barely touched on in most other books.

The book is not difficult to understand; Willow does a really good job of explaining what could be a very complicated topic. Anyone who wants to use the information in the book needs to have a solid understanding of magick before they start reading this book as it doesn't rehash all the 101 info that readers should know.

The book is basically about other planes of existence, whether they are described as the astral realm, the world of spirit, the land of faery, or something similar. It's about the possibility of there being other dimensions of existence that are invisible to us normally in this physical realm. The book is about how these other realms might be explained, and how people who use magick might interact with those realms.

The book starts by trying to explain the possibility of these invisible realms by drawing on the ideas of quantum physics. It was very interesting to read (and admittedly these theories are presented in other books in a similar way) but the skeptical side of me wonders whether real-life quantum physicists would say their theories are being misrepresented. There were a number of ideas, like the concept of observer-influence on things observed, which I suspect might be misinterpreted and made into something they aren't really in order to validate paranormal claims.

Regardless whether the scientific claims made are valid or not, the book does provide some useful ways of thinking about working at least some types of magick. And even if the scientific claims are not 100% accurate, it's good to have books like this which will challenge us to reconsider what we think we know about the nature of reality -- the truth is often much stranger than what we can imagine. It would be nice if we'd see more books like this, ones which present new ideas or even old ideas presented with new understandings, instead of the many books that come out which are nothing more than old material rehashed and presented again for the hundredth time.

Wiccans and those who practice magick who already have some solid experience who are looking for some fresh ideas for their magickal practice would find this book refreshing. People new to Wicca or magick should probably wait until they're more experienced before picking up this book and checking it out.