Amber K, True Magick: A Beginner's Guide Most useful for: | Beginning and intermediate students | Content: | Discusses ways to find an instructor and to evaluate whether s/he is right for you; describes a number of magical traditions; briefly discusses magical theory; discusses preparing yourself to do magic, including caring for your physical health; describes the particulars of magical ritual, including tools, altar setup, and format; provides several spells, for use or as examples; discusses ethics. | Commentary: | There's a lot of information in this small, inexpensive book; although information is given on various magical traditions, the instruction is for performing magic in the Wiccan tradition (so if you're looking for the details of any other style, this is not the best resource)--and if you're going to be practicing magic in this tradition, you will probably want to consult other books about the more spiritual aspects of Wicca. Overall I'd say this is an excellent supplementary text, but not a good first book; however, since some Wiccan books mention magic only briefly or incompletely, this is a wonderful companion to any of the "standard" Wiccan texts. If you're intention is to practice magic wholly outside of a religious context (or within the framework of a religion other than Wicca) the forms discussed here may not be useful to you. | | Strongly recommended | |