The Complete Book of Magic and Witchcraft: Revised Edition

It's nice to see works like this in print which aren't filled with fluffy bunny nonsense. This book is a nice, simple, compact collection of folk lore, recipes, spells, and incantations. I especialy liked the author's collection of herb and stone lore which touches on true folk remedies rather than new age fluff.

This small book, which has been in print continuously since 1970, is a great resource for any mage or witch. Packed with hundreds of spells, incantations, talismans, and charms -- most of them gleaned from European, Middle-Eastern, and Indian books dating to the Middle Ages or earlier -- this volume can be used as a grimoire in its own right, especially by newbies. In addition, because the spells are annotatated by source and there is a lengthy bibliography, the book also functions as a pointer to the rare, scholarly, and out-of-print texts the author consulted and which the advanced student will wish to read. Don't let the small size and low price turn you off -- this is a valuable grimoire worth at least twice its cost.

After reading the negative reviews about this book I was really shocked by the shallowness of those wiccans who claim to know everything about anything. Come on! This book is a comprehensive guide, it's got loads of spells, incantations, charms, and it has a variety of purposes. Plus, you get a complete herb listing which no witchcraft book thought to include. Wiccans should keep silent about books that dont pertain to their so called religion. Witchcraft is the origin, and it doesnt have to twist according to their needs. Any negative review about such book is completely thoughtless. This book is an excellent guide.

I think this was an excellent book for searching out the origins of magic. I used its extensive bibliography to find other books on the subject and bought many of them.The book's text borrows heavily from Albertus Magnus, so many of the other reviewers who didn't like this book should really direct their distain to his writings.Pages 1-15 give one of the most cogent explanations of the development of magic that I have read anywhere. The remainder of the book can for the most part be read in Albertus Magnus's book of stones... (Which, of course, I found in this book's bibliography.)

I got this book because I was looking for something that wasn't a goody-goody wiccan book (no disrespect meant). I needed a book that had all those hookie, cat's tongue and newt's eye, recipes and I got what I wanted all right. This book wasn't meant to be a wiccan guide. it states that this is for black magic use (and sometimes I wonder if black magic users would use this) some of the recipes are funny, some are gross. but with anything in life you take it was a grain of salt and a sprinkling of sugar on the tongue. I liked it and I hope there are more books like this in the future.