Tarot Shadow Work: Using the Dark Symbols to Heal Christine Jette

Review by Bonnie Cehovet Even if one had no clue what shadow work was, the entrancing cover of this book would certainly draw attention. It embodies a combined sense of mystery, elegance and ancient knowing. It makes me feel protected and supported, and is comforting simply to sit and look at. The work within this book is of the same high quality - supportive, well researched, and well written. This is a professional offering in all respects, addressing a subject that concerns all of us. Within these pages is a journey that we will all take, each of us in our own ways, using whatever resources we have at hand. Working with the archetypes of the Tarot is an excellent venue for doing person work, whether the nature of the work is spiritual growth or personal growth. The Tarot is a tool that is easily accessible by all who choose to work with it. As Jette points out, each of the archetypes has two points of focus - the upright interpretation, which in general shows light side, the forces that are working in our favor; and the reversed, or inverted interpretation, which deals with the dark side of the archetype, where the energies are expressed in a blocked, or unacknowledged or fashion. The emphasis here is on shadow work as a journey of discovery, not shadow work as a destination in itself. Jette warns that this is a long journey - a journey that perhaps covers a lifetime. Jette has done an excellent job of researching her material, as well as presenting it. She works with multiple modalities that not only act to support each other, but that give the reader a choice of how to work through their personal shadow issues. Her choice of using one basic spread, and reworking it to grow with each step on the journey to me shows a highly enlightened approach. At the end of the book, she includes a section on the gifts and the shadows for each card; a wide range of resources that support people working through their issues; and an in-depth recommended reading list. Tarot Shadow Work has a place in the library of anyone who wants to work on their own shadows, or who includes shadow work in their services to their clients.

 

 

 

Totem Magic: Dance of the Shapeshifter

Yasmine Galenorn

 

The magic of reaching out and sensing the primal, feral part of the self is unlike any other journey of self discovery, " writes Shamanic witch and priestess Yasmine Galenorn. In this intimate guide, Galenorn shows how to invoke the transformative energy of creatures wild and mythical for protection, guidance, and empowerment.

 

This excellent book is a description of the famous Kali Temple in Calcutta, India known as Dakshineswar, and how Kali is worshipped there -- her festivals, her daily rituals. An excellent primer for the Westener, I read this book while in Calcutta and I can attest that Elizabeth Harding makes the often complicated Indian society very understandable and accessable. Not just an academic study either, but truly gives insight into the love people have for that amazing black Goddess known as Kali.
Most major religions -- Christianity, Judaism, Islam - do not acknowledge the feminine power of God. Nevertheless, this passionate and mysterious feminine power of God strikes a special chord in most people's hearts. The concept of the Mother Goddess in the West -- the meek, everloving, patiently suffering female -- is very different than the image of Kali in the Hindu pantheon.
This devotional work gives insight into mystics who attained enlightenment by worshipping Kali, such as the Godman Sri Ramakrishna, who lived and worshipped the live image of Kali at the Dakshineswar temple. This is a living story and one of inspiration.
A fascinating pilgrimage to one of the world's most active temples of the great Goddess. Required reading for all of those interested in Goddess traditions.
320 page trade paperback.

excerpt:
"After the pujari has purified everything -- the flowers, fruits, vessels, himself -- he prepares a paste by grinding bel leaves, hibiscus, and red and white sandalwood, rice, and durva grass in a sparkling copper pot in front of him. First, he worships the Guru and then Ganesh, the God of success. "May my worship be successful," he prays. Then the pujari bathes an egg-shaped black stone. This is Banalinga, a name of a particular Shiva linga. After Shiva has received his bath, the pujari bathes two round black stones. These are sacred shalagrams and the priest refers to them as Vishnu and Narayan. When the linga and shalagrams are not being worshipped, they are kept in a decorative golden box on Ma Kali's altar."

 

Living Paganism

 

First Shandarramon led seekers down a path to attaining higher spirituality in his book Self-Initiation for the Solitary Witch.  Now, with Living Paganism, he gives readers the opportunity to not only advance in their self-initiated training, but to literally live Paganism.

You have studied books on Paganism. You do rituals at home or in a group. You search for information about Pagan thought and practice but, somehow, it doesn’t seem enough. You want your life to reflect your Pagan values. You don’t just want to do Pagan things; you want to live your Paganism everyday and through everything you do. That is what a truly spiritual person does and, as a deeply committed practicing Pagan, you can learn to let your spiritual practice become more a part of your life. It can be the essence of who you are.

Living Paganism picks up where Shanddaramon’s last book left off and leads the practitioner to determine how to be more fulfilled through connecting spiritual practice to the many sacred cycles of life. In this book, you will learn how to develop Pagan spiritual goals that are balanced and meaningful. Then you will learn to observe and become an active participant in the cosmic cycles of the universe so that you may learn to honor and use those cycles to live your Pagan values. Every day we experience the cycles of Earth, the moon, the sun, and the changes in life. By connecting your practice to these sacred cycles you will learn to create a meaningful and magical life.

Living Paganism enables you to experience more advanced and fulfilling training in your quest for adeptness.

Shanddaramon is He is the author of Self Initiation for the Solitary Witch (New Page Books) and is a regular contributing writer for PagaNet news.  He is a writer and artist living in Durham, North Carolina where he teaches art and music, does pastoral and divinatory advising and listening, and teaches Pagan studies classes. He is a founding member, brother, and ordained minister of the Sacred Order of Living Paganism—a fellowship of brothers and sisters dedicated to deep Pagan learning, practice, and service.
(Beyond 101 Series)

 

 

 

This groundbreaking book blazes the Kabbalistic trail through the uncharted terrain of birth, death, and life after death. Kabbalist Rav Berg guides us from our familiar world of human suffering to a startling new view of the laws of reincarnation, leading us to a deeper, more intuitive awareness of problem solving. Wheels of the Soul reveals where the causes of our physical, emotional and mental afflictions are buried and gives us a wealth of detail on the cosmic process and the evolution of global incarnation. By discover a spiritual process of transformation we can give profound and lasting meaning to our lives.

Contributor Bio: Philip S Berg:
Berg is Dean of the Research Centre of Kabbalah. He is an ordained Orthodox Rabbi from the rabbinical seminary Torat VaDaat. He met his Kabbalistic master while traveling to Israel in 1962.

 

 "Jam packed with more than sixty spells, invocations, and rituals, Yule guides you through the magic of the season. Traveling its realm will bring back the joy you felt as a child -- the spirit of warmth and good will that lit the long winter nights. Discover the origin of the eight tiny reindeer, brew up some Yuletide coffee, and learn ways to create your own holiday traditions and crafts based on celebrations from a variety of countries and beliefs. "

 

 

 

 

In Magdalene’s Lost Legacy, author Margaret Starbird decodes the symbolic numbers embedded in the original Greek phrases of the New Testament—revealing the powerful presence of the feminine divine. The New Testament contains wide use of gematria, a literary device that allows the sums of certain phrases to produce sacred numbers. Exploring the hidden meanings behind these numbers, Starbird reveals that the union between Jesus and his bride, Mary Magdalene, formed a sacred partnership that was the cornerstone of the earliest Christian community. Magdalene’s Lost Legacy demonstrates how the crucial teaching of the sacred marriage that unites masculine and feminine principles the heiros gamos is the partnership model for life on our planet and the ultimate blueprint for civilization. Starbird’s research challenges the concept that Christ was celibate and establishes Mary Magdalene as the human incarnation of the sacred bride. The author also explains the true meaning of the 666 prophesied in the Book of Revelation. Through this potent reclaiming of the lost legacy of Mary Magdalene, Margaret Starbird offers the opportunity to restore the divine feminine to her rightful role as bride, beloved, and sacred partner. Magdalene's Lost Legacy: Symbolic Numbers and the Sacred Union in Christianity by Margaret Starbird. 176 pages, 6 x 9 Tradepaperback

A must have for anyone interested in the Celtic path. An excellent and visual book.

 

 

Instant Magick

Christopher Penczak

 

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What if you could practice magick anytime, without the use of ceremonial spells, altars, or magickal tools? Items such as candles, special ingredients, and exotic symbols are necessary to perform many types of magick, but these items aren't always feasible, attainable, or even available. The purest form of magick-tapping into your own energetic awareness to create change-is accessible simply through the power of your will.

Popular author Christopher Penczak explains how to weave natural energies into every facet of life by inspiring readers to explore their own individual willpower. This book features personalized techniques used to weed out any unwanted, unhealthy, or unnecessary desires to find a true, balanced magickal being. Penczak's innovative, modern spellcasting techniques utilize meditation, visualization, words, and intent in any situation, at any time. The results can seem instantaneous, and the potential limitless.

 

• 
• Written by Ly de Angeles
• Published by Llewellyn Worldwide
• Softcover, 215 pages
• ISBN: 0-7387-0576-4

Guide Review - When I See the Wild God

The title implies that the topic is the Wild God, but it's really more a book on Celtic Witchcraft as a whole. The writing style was interesting and contemporary. If your path leans towards the Celtic, this is a good introductory book for you. It covers many basic Wiccan concepts, such as magickal tools, the elements, and Sabbat rituals. The information on Deities does focus on the male Gods. There are several great chapters on more advanced topics such as shapeshifting, and the nature of magick. I did find too much Gaelic terminology. Though there was a handy glossary in the back, the words still caused me to stumble as I read. Many of the words weren't uniquely Gaelic and could have been left in their English states.

Review by Terri Paajanen.

Personal note: This is an excellent book for anyone that is interested or studying Celtic traditions and Druidry. I just finished reading it andI'm on my way to reading it a second time lol!! Here is an excerpt taken from Ms. Freeman's book (ty belief.net).

 

Introduction: Buried Treasure 

“The old people had runes which they sang to the spirits dwelling in the sea and in the mountain, in the wind and in the whirlwind, in the lightning and in the thunder, in the sea and in the moon and in the stars of heaven. I was naught but a toddling child at the time, but I remember well the ways of the old people.” -- Carmina Gadelica<O:P></O:P>

In September 1868, young Jimmy Quin was digging potatoes in a ring-fort near the village of Ardagh in County Limerick. When he reached the bank close to a thorn tree he found the surface soft, and when he drove his spade down between the roots of the thorn, it struck something hard and metallic. He cleared away the earth and found a beautiful gold and silver cup now known as the Ardagh Chalice, considered by many to be the finest specimen of Celtic art ever found.<O:P></O:P>

Like the Ardagh Chalice, the treasury of Celtic wisdom and lore lies not too far beneath the topsoil of memory. Digging through layers only a few generations deep, we can still uncover battered caskets of ancient customs and rituals that may reveal a shining hoard of story, prayer and song. For the amazing thing is that despite a relentless tide of invasions, persecutions, and immigrations, there was enough gold in the storehouse of Celtic wisdom to survive the centuries of plunder. Over 2,000 years ago, the first people that we call the Celts were a large group of tribal communities who inhabited much of the European continent. They were an energetic, intelligent, flamboyant people, whose passionate natures expressed themselves in heroic warfare, brilliant craftsmanship, and the worship of many gods and goddesses who dwelt in the earth below them and the sky above them. By the 1^st century AD, the Roman army had pushed them far into the northwestern hinterlands. Only Ireland and the most northern reaches of Scotland escaped being crushed by the military might of Rome.

In the 5^th century, Christian missionaries arrived in Ireland, and the old polytheistic religion gave way to the creed of the One God. Ireland became one of the greatest seats of the new religion in Europe, and host to a golden age of learning and art, centered around the monastic settlements. In their turn, the monasteries were sacked by Viking invaders at the end of the 8^th century, the monks were slaughtered, and most of the magnificent books and holy treasures destroyed. But the flower of this new manifestation of the Celtic spirit was bitten by the frost of successive invasions, first the Normans and then the English, and almost withered and died completely in the 19^th century when systematic oppression drove thousands to the immigrant ships or to death by starvation in the Potato Famine. A similar story of almost total cultural annihilation played itself out in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall, while, on the continent, Brittany was engulfed by France. <O:P></O:P>

Yet in the past thirty or so years, many willing minds and hands have undertaken the task of rekindling the guttering flame of the Celtic Spirit. Even as the languages began to die on the lips of a people forbidden to speak in their own tongue, a new generation has sprung up to reclaim their spiritual and cultural birthright. As we enter a new millennium, musicians are playing traditional melodies and songs; poets are writing and reciting in their mother tongue; while thousands of the descendants of the Celtic diaspora, chiefly from North America and Australia, are making pilgrimages to the homes of their great-grandparents and visiting the once-neglected sacred sites of their ancestral homes in Ireland, Scotland, or Wales.

 

An excellent source for beginning witch's. Includes easy ritual construction and explains the meanings behind each element in their relation to symbolism and ritual construction to the Divine. This is a good place to start for people that want to formulate their own rituals and don't know how to begin. Descriptive and eloquently written but not boring with many examples.

 

Books A Million, Barnes and Noble, any store that carries New Age or Pagan literature.

The Voice of Knowledge

 

"We are born in truth but we grow up believing in lies...One of the biggest lies in the story of humanity is the lie of our imperfection."

 

Margo Anand

 

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The Art of Sexual Ecstasy: The Path of Sacred Sexuality for Western Lovers.

One of our greatest sources of pleasure and greatest sources of disappointment is sexual intimacy. Margot Anand has helped thousands of people who are disenchanted with sexuality learn to connect deeply with their natural energies, and to discover the spiritual experience that connection brings. As a result of her seminars, participants have been able to break new ground and transform their sexual lives from a routine behavior for reducing tensions to a truly intimate and sacred experience.

In this step-by-step, elegantly illustrated book, Anand presents the training she has completed worldwide, based on ancient Tantric and Taoist practices that have been fully adapted to Western lovers. She guides the reader through creating a special environment for lovemaking, removing psychological fears, increasing arousal and improving compatibility. Anand employs a wide range of methods to enhance pleasure and deepen intimacy, from visualization, breathing and massage to ritual, movement and fantasy.
This landmark, elegantly illustrated book on human sexuality makes the sacred lovemaking techniques of the East fully understandable to Western readers. Margo Anand offers liberating practices that can immeasurably extend sensual experience for everyone. She teaches a wide range of methods: massage, visualization, breathing, ritual, movement, and fantasy to enhance pleasure and deepen intimacy. (450 pages).