GOOD WITCH'S GUIDE: A Modern-Day Wiccapedia

Two leading Wiccans combine to provide different perspectives on Wicca in this volume of practical aspects of the craft. Shawn Robbins contributes her psychic gifts and her experiences as a practitioner of magic directed towards the healing of the mind and soul, while Charity Bedell is a student of the Feri tradition of witchcraft and has particular interests in trolldom, runes, druidism, kabbalah, shamanism, ceremonial magic and Egyptian magic. To complement this she runs an online store of herbs that she uses spiritually in her practice. The book's chief focus is on the power of holistic healing. An introduction on the differences between traditional and modern witchcraft explains that the inflexibility of traditional spellcasting is now being widely replaced by a more flexible approach. Although some witches work with negative energy, others with positive, the rule of thumb is never to perform magick to change a person's free will, not only because it is wrong in itself but also because spells always bounce back on their creators in some way. Common herbal remedies are listed, for instance the power of mugwort, chamomile or nettle, with a chapter on aromatherapy, crystal alignment and chakra balancing. A final section on a range of potions is accompanied by Wiccan recipes, including Imbolc Cake and Muffins for Beltane. 307pp, drawings.