Ritual Tools
If you think magic and the casting of spells is Serious Business then do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT read the rest of this review, and on pain of the death of your supercilious ego, avoid Diana Rajchel’s The Spell-Casting Picture Book.
“This isn't a teaching spellbook or a beginner's book. If I wanted to spend forever hacking at the same basic crap other Wiccan writers get stuck with, I'd have done it. I decided to skip that part and go straight to the spells. There are a couple basics - grounding and centering - but for the rest, a search on USENET under FAQs on energy work will do you just fine.”
In one sense, that sums up what this Spellbook is about – no nonsense, no mucking around, no moralizing, and totally direct. In another, it completely belies the absolute FUN that the reader will find herein. A spellbook, fun? Absolutely.
Moreover, this is an exploration in creativity, pushing boundaries and finding fresh perspectives. I found the sheer delight and fun on every page to be nearly as wonderful as the spells themselves. (Which are, by the way, lucid, focused and powerful – much better than most spellwork I’ve reviewed over the years.)
The colors are rich and fluid, the spells themselves rhymes, often accompanied by gestures (pictures of Diana’s hands are included). This is crude by most people’s standard’s but they do not lack power for all of that. If you want complicated, look elsewhere. If you want polished, it ain’t here. If, on the other hand, you want to read what a REAL witch has in her Book of Shadows (well, kind of: my pages aren’t nearly so colorful, but I’m a frustrated and frustrating artist) then get this one.
Highly, highly, HIGHLY recommended.
~review by Lisa Mc Sherry
Artist/Author: Diana Rajchel
Diana Rajchel, 2008
pp. 21, $5.00, PDF
