The Wiccan Handbook: A Practical Guide to Creating Magic and Mystery

Considering her informed background, Bowes keeps this book pretty brief. It should be called "Wicca for Beginners," as she tries to cover everything briefly, from witch history (and persecution), to tools of the trade, to actual spell casting. Like modern corporate-speak, it seems that Wicca is very much made up of self-empowering, visualization techniques that lead people on to develop their lives into what they desire. She points out that it is only useful to those who mean to use if for good, and I think corporate American ethics could learn something from that! As the original healers, it is sad that so many wiccans and others practicing the "healing arts" have been persecuted by men shamefully using Christianity as their means to acquire the power, fame, and fortune that could be derived from the church. Bowes does a good job of keeping this section brief, however. Useful to me were her charts on various inanimate objects - such as candles, scents, colors - and their corresponding benefits, but she left her readers on their own with regard to stones, crystals, metals, etc. I find it confusing when she says that one day of the week is best for a certain ritual or spell, but later says to do it on a different day; she needs to explain how it got so complicated. I would like to see her next book cover the last section - how to cast spells to make your dreams become reality - in more detail and with more clarity. But like I said, it's a pretty good introduction.