Basic Witches: How to Summon Success, Banish Drama, and Raise Hell with Your Coven PDF
Preview Basic Witches: How to Summon Success, Banish Drama, and Raise Hell with Your Coven
Cover Title Page Copyright CHAPTER 1 Self-Initiation: An Induction into Basic Witchery Who Are You? What We Mean by “Witchcraft” What We Mean by “Magic” Meet Your Local Witches Our Favorite Pop Culture Witches CHAPTER 2 Glamours: The Power to Change How You Look How to Clothe Yourself in Literal Darkness Dress to Sorceress Makeup for Witches A Spell to Find Your Colors Witch History: When Wearing Makeup Made You a Witch Nail Art to Terrify Men A Spell to Wear Bold Lipstick The Dark Magic of Unfeminine Haircuts A Spell for Haircut Confidence The Power of a Good Talisman The Secret Art of Smellomancy Dapper Magic A Spell to Reject Pressure to Be Feminine Lotions and Potions A Spell for Self-Care CHAPTER 3 Healing: The Power to Care for Yourself The Witch’s Pantry A Spell to Feel Comfortable Seeing a Doctor Witch History: Witches vs. Doctors A Spell to Accept Compliments A Spell to Make Peace with Your Body Kitchen Witchery Magical Exercise Witch Calisthenics A Ritual for a Relaxing Netflix Binge CHAPTER 4 Summoning: The Power to Care for Others (and Have Them Care for You) How to Build a Coven Witch History: The Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell A Tarot Ritual to Attract Friendship The Transformative Power of Vulnerability A Collaborative Ritual to Deepen Friendship Which Pet Should Be Your Familiar? Healing Friends for Fun and Profit A Spell for Establishing Boundaries Witch History: Why Witches Dance Naked in the Woods Worshipping the Moon with Shine Theory A Spell to Ditch Friend Envy A Spell to Let Go of a Friendship CHAPTER 5 Enchantment: The Power to Make Choices about Love and Sex Conjuring Your Perfect Mate A Spell to Focus on What You Want The Waxing and Waning of Desire Flirting with Runes The Magic Circle of Consent A Spell of Yes and No Choosing the “Broomstick” for You Witch History: The Origins of the Magic Broomstick Saying the Magic Words in Bed A Spell for Talking about Sex Witch History: Witches and Reproductive Freedom A Spell to Feel Sexually Powerful A Tarot Ritual for Accepting Singleness A Spell for Healing a Broken Heart CHAPTER 6 Banishment: The Power to Avoid What Brings You Down Expelling Social Toxicity A Ritual to Move through Loss The Dark Magic of Emotional Abuse The Joy of Hex The Different Types of Personal Demons A Personal Exorcism Spell Witch History: On Demons and Daemons A Spell to Break Negative Patterns A Spell to Counter Impostor Syndrome The Greatest One-Word Spell: “No” A Spell for Rejection Backfire! When Self-Care Spells Go Wrong A Spell to Break a Curse CHAPTER 7 Divination: The Power to Decide Your Destiny Channeling What Lies Beyond A Spell to Name Your Heart’s Desire A Ritual for When the Crystal Ball Is Dark The Alchemy of Failure How to Read Tea Leaves A Spell for Embracing Failure Witch History: The Myth of Mother Shipton Navigating Flawed Visions A Spell to Keep Going DIY Rituals A Spell for New Endeavors Acknowledgments About the Authors About the Illustrator Witches are everywhere these days. Fashion trends feature flowy black clothes and dark lipstick, magazines and websites run special witch-themed issues, and hipster covens are forming in Brooklyn. What’s so appealing about the witch? Partly, nostalgia. Women now in their twenties and thirties fondly remember growing up watching The Craft and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, reading Harry Potter, playing “light as a feather, stiff as a board” at slumber parties, or saving their allowance for a collectible light-up Hermione wand. But the witch isn’t kitsch. The modern witchy zeitgeist doesn’t only glance backward into childhood; it looks forward to the future of powerful, defiant women. Witchcraft appeals to the weird, the outcast, and the unconventional; it has long been a spiritual practice belonging to those on society’s fringes. And cultural images of witches, gleaned from history and movies and books and TV, resonate particularly with women who reject the strictures of expected female behavior, women who are trying to connect with something stronger and scarier. In the original Old English, witch was a word that could apply to women and men alike. In fact, wicca—from which we get the word witch—can be directly translated as “male witch” or “sorcerer.” But in the fifteenth century, witch- hunting guides like the Malleus Maleficarum argued that women were more inclined to witchcraft because they were inherently weak (physically, mentally, and spiritually) and susceptible to the devil’s machinations. This theory may sound ridiculous, but ideas like this have influenced notions of witchcraft—and, broadly, of women—for centuries. Witch quickly became a charge levied almost exclusively at women—particularly women who lived alone, outside the confines of the community. The witch was not beautiful, or she was (suspiciously) too beautiful; at any rate, she didn’t look the way others thought she should. She refused men when they didn’t appeal to her, pursued them when they did, and satisfied herself with that (wink, wink) “broomstick” she always “rode.” She had cats instead of children. Other women came to her for care and comfort, but also turned on her when associating with her threatened their social standing. The witch was intimidating, after all. Too strange. Too unruly. Too much. But in mainstream modern U.S. culture, we’ve largely defanged the witch. Our cultural image is sometimes evil but sometimes silly, as if to suggest that the
The list of books you might like
