This is a comprehensive grimoire of southern US folk magic, thorough, nothing startlingly original but pleasantly written and an excellent introduction to this mixed tradition of folk magic. A bit more general and more approachable for a complete beginner.
Mystic Dylan begins by providing a brief history of the wide assortment of influences and peoples whose traditions came together into this gumbo of a magical approach. The Indigenous foundations, European folk magic, Caribbean African-Catholic fusion, Catholic influences into Creole voodoo in New Orleans and Santeria in Florida, and unique elements like pirate traditions. He makes a valuable distinction between the variety of secular folk magic traditions of the area: Conjure, Esperitismo, Hoodoo, Rootwork, and the religions which overlap with them like Haitian Vodou, New Orleans Voodoo, Santeria / Lucumi. He encourages thoughtful and respectful engagement with the religious elements while making the point that “you cannot appropriate a multicultural practice” (7).
He outlines the foundations of swamp witchery as: 1. Talking with the dead, 2. Interacting with spirits, 3. Finding omens in everyday, 4. Living by one’s own rules, 5. Hex as well as heal, 6. Trusting nature and spirit over dogma, 7. Finding wisdom in folklore and fable, 8. Thrive in the wild, and 8. “Ain’t afraid of the dark.” And he proceeds to explore each of these aspects through the rest of the book.
After setting the scene in the first two introductory chapters there are chapters dealing with magical practices and materia magica which are thorough with very helpful and detailed lists of supplies, associations and uses. Signs, omens and superstitions, types of spirits and how to deal with them (with instructions on making a bottle tree), a very good chapter on folk saints, their origins and interests (with an excellent etiquette section of does and don’ts), herbalism, animal magic, altar and basic tools and supplies. In each chapter he gives some history, offerings and uses of different materials, cautions in some cases, more than just a list.
He provides numerous spells and spell-crafting tips dealing with divination, protection and warding, banishing and hex-breaking, love and lust, curses and hexes and justice, healing and cleansing, liminal spaces (in-between places like crossroads and graveyards), travel and business. The two short pieces from Denise Alvarado on alligator lore and Col. Welburn Hiram Kemp on the folk St. Expedite were also interesting.
A bit contradictory by calling on the particular powers of the land – the wet and fertile swamps, and on the spirits particular to that area – the escaped enslaved peoples, the indigenous peoples, and the mixed influences that makes it powerful and unique and then encouraging people who live far away to just transfer this swampy power into their homes. Here in Edmonton, on the high plains where it is winter half the year, I can’t really see it!
I also found some of the self-consciously folksy language annoying, considering the wealth of knowledge and wider reading the author is drawing from. But these are very minor quibbles. This is a useful grimoire with some very good spell-crafting, a short bibliography for follow-up research.
~ review by Samuel Wagar
Author: Mystic Dylan
Llewellyn Publications, 2026
293 pg. Paperback, $26.40 Canadian / $19 US
