The Little Giant(r) Encyclopedia of Spells & Magic

this book for me was an impulse buy. I was looking for some random info that would lead me to more indepth things later and this is exactly what this book did. It sparked my interest. I knew from the first few pages that some of it was probably info ripped straight from a inquistor's handbook but other things were interesting. Like the charms against evil eye and such. Where I live in Appalachia some of these are still in use, I even surprised my papaw with my new knowledge of some of the older myths. Some of this book like the ways of become a witch were down right ridluious and in this part it could be more clear that those were foolish assumations of ignorant Burning Times Inqusitors. But other things like Solomon's demons come straight from the Bible(which weather non-christians like it or not is still a pretty valid piece of historical reference). To really read this book I think you need to already have a bit of background in such things if only to be able to decern between fact and once believed ficiton

For the most part, this book was quite humorous. I've been using magick for a little over 10 years now and this book tells of some unique spells to try. Read the other review about the invisibility spell. I don't want to repeat it here. This book may have disgusted some people, but through other research I've done, those were actual recipes from the 15th-16th (more or less) centuries. The spells that include dead animals and other things considered taboo today were concocted by people who were hunted during the burning times.The other part of this book was actually very informative. I do recommend this book if you are down to earth enough. 50% of this book are old spells and they tell you the ingredients which should be taken with a grain of salt if you are closedminded. The last 50% of this book is interesting and some of it works (such as the magick squares). I've yet to try summoning one of the 72 Spirits of Solomon.....so I'll leave that to a master pagan. Overall, this book was interesting, captivating, humorous at times, and full of information not easy to come by.

As a non-Pagan, not even a neo-pagan, but a writer, I found this to be an invaluable resource. "True believers" may not actually do most of these things, but the information regarding historical superstions is certainly accurate, if succinct. Certainly the information regarding King Solomon's Spirits was dead on, and nicely summarized.If you're looking for information to make a piece of historical fiction more "real", this is a fine place to start. Also, if someone is looking to add flavor to an RPG, this is a decent and economical reference.I'm sure this review will draw attacks from the practitioners, but, if one takes the book for what it is and not what one wishes it to be, it's a fine reference.