Book Review: Celebrating the Male Mysteries by RJ Stewart (affiliate link)
In Celebrating the Male Mysteries, RJ Stewart shares the importance of exploring the masculine mysteries and presents a healthy vision of what such mysteries can look like as well as how they can interface into mystery traditions in general. Practical exercises and theory are presented as well as specific visualizations that men can use for sacromagical work. I recommend reading through the book once and then going back through and doing the exercises. This book can be an excellent companion to other men’s work books and offers another valuable resource for creating healthy masculinity and relationships.
Book Review: Larva: the Book of Transformation by S. Connolly (Affiliate link)
This is a collection of spells with well-written instructions and component lists that you can easily perform without having to do a ton of work to get the materials together. There are a variety of spells for different purposes so you could easily be working with the content of this book for a variety of situations.
Book Review: Saturn in Transit by Erin Sullivan (affiliate link)
I bought this book on the recommendation of a friend and I’m glad I did because it provided some excellent insights into Saturn in transit and how Saturn as an astrological influence works. It also helped me plan some of my planetary magic in further depth so that I could use Saturnian influences more effectively. I highly recommend this book if you want to understand the astrological and magical potential of Saturn.
Book Review: Meditations on the Death Daemonic by J. C. Cesari (Affiliate link)
This is an interesting book that explores the concept of death in relationship to death as it pertains to loss in a variety of forms, including the loss of life, but also the loss of a job, relationship or other aspects we may not typically associate with death. The author has the reader go through some journaling exercises to explore their relationship with death and then presents a dictionary of spirits a person can work with. What I wish had also been included was an in-depth exploration of how a person might work with the spirits around death as it relates to the topics that the author focuses on in the book. It’s a good start on that exploration, but the book could be developed further.
Book Review: Dark Moon Mysteries by Timothy Roderick (Affiliate link)
If you want to work with the new/dark moon, this is an excellent resource to help you do that work. I used the various exercises in this book to help me do some deep shadow work as well as doing some releasing around various matters in my life. I highly recommend this book.
Book Review: The Male Mysteries by Nikki Dorakis (affiliate link)
In this book the author shares rites and rituals that can be used as coming of age or initiations for men’s mysteries in a Pagan context. This is a fascinating book which can really help men both in terms of using what’s in the book, but also designing their own male mysteries.
Book Review: Howlings from the Pit (affiliate link) by Joseph Lisiewski
In this series of essays the author makes some cantankerous arguments as to why grimoire magic works and why other systems of magic don’t work when it comes to spirit work. He shares some interesting perspectives, but I’m not convinced that his system of spirit work is superior to others, especially because it can be possible to get similar results without taking coercive methods for spirit work. The author’s own limitations also show in the theories he espouses, and demonstrate how subjective some of his arguments are, but the book is thought provoking and will challenge you to be more rigorous.
Book Review: Mating in Captivity (affiliate link) by Esther Perel
This is a really thought and emotion provoking book about sexuality in relationship. Reading it brought up a lot for me, as I sorted through some baggage around my sexual history, but it also provided some useful insights about relationships, the erotic and sexuality and what it can take to maintain the sexual components of a romantic relationship. It also brings up the very important point of not taking sex or anything else in the relationship for granted.
Book Review: Swamplands of the Soul (Affiliate link) by James Hollis
In this book the author explores how to deal with the inevitable realities of moments in our lives when we feel depression, sadness, loss, betrayal and other emotions. He shares that rather than trying to always be happy we should strive for meaning and provides some useful perspectives via Jungian psychology on how a person might do this. It’s another excellent book by this author.
Book Review: The Book of Pluto by Steven Forrest (Affiliate link)
Reading this book peeled back another layer of astrology in general, as well as helping me understand Pluto’s role in astrology. It helped me understand and fill in some additional information about astrology. I feel like my overall knowledge of astrology grew as a result of reading this book.
Book Review: Hex Twisting by Diana Rajchel (affiliate link)
This is a comprehensive spell compendium for counteracting hexes and curses that someone may be directing toward you. The author also shares methods for diagnosing whether you are experiencing a curse as well as how to purify and cleanse yourself. It’s both practical self care and defense and the author does a thorough job of providing resources for anyone who may need them.