Nancy B. Watson, Practical Solitary Magic Most useful for: | Beginning and intermediate students | Content: | Describes how magic works; discusses magical ethics; discusses prayer, deities/archetypes, visualization, elementals, ritual. | Commentary: | As the title implies, a very practical, useful book. It isn't for Pagans only; and is a reminder that although the methods (casting a circle, calling elementals) are familiar to anyone who knows Wicca, they aren't unique to Wiccan practice. The discussion of working with deities emphasizes the interpretation of these entities as archetypes, and the treatment of the deities is a little simple (for example, she states that Greek deities appeal to intellectual people, Celtic ones to more emotional sorts), but this is certainly not a great problem given the scope of the book. The visualization and other exercises are some of the best I've seen, and I particularly liked the extensive discussion of working with elementals--something I feel is given far less emphasis than it deserves in most texts. Overall I'd say that this is one of the books I'd recommend first to someone starting out in spellcraft, although it is only about magic and you will need to get your religious/spiritual information elsewhere. | | Strongly recommended | |