The Real Witches’ Craft: Magical Techniques and Guidance for a Full Year of Practising the Craft

by Kate West

A follow-up to the best selling The Real Witches' Handbook. The book includes more practical advice on becoming a Wiccan and teaches the skills and techniques necessary for celebrating this craft.

This book enables you to take your magic on to the next level and provides the further skills and techniques for powerful magic making. It provides the sort of guidance and development usually found in the first year of Coven life.

The Real Witches’ Craft moves on from the simple spells and rituals of The Real Witches’ Handbook to more advanced magic, teaching the skills and techniques of practising magic.

This book will teach you how to:
- Balance the elements to create effective magic.
- Raise, focus and direct magical energy to powerful effect.
- Strengthen the five senses in order to help towards developing the 6th sense.
- Use divination and scrying – tarot, runes, fire, etc.
- Design your own spells.
- Use the Moon's phases for magic.

Genres: Witchcraft, Wicca, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Witches, Paganism, Occult

306 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2008

About the author

The author of over a dozen books, Kate West (United Kingdom), has become the U.K.'s most successful author on Witchcraft. She is the recipient of a Lifetime Contribution to Witchcraft award and has been recognized as the most popular factual writer on Witchcraft by Children of Artemis, the fastest growing Witchcraft organization in the U.K. and Europe. Formerly the Vice President of the Pagan Federation, West remains active in the Wiccan community, speaking at international Witchfests and contributing to magazines. She is High Priestess of the Hearth of Hecate and lives in North Norfolk.

Reviews

[Margarita Rodríguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Acabé leyendo este libro por casualidad y por pura curiosidad, todo hay que decirlo, y me alegro de haberlo hecho.
Se supone que es una guía sobre magia y misticismo. Sin embargo, es mucho más que eso. Ahonda en la historia de las brujas desde una perspectiva feminista y no se mete en credos explícitos como la wicca (que ni me interesan lo más mínimo ni sigo). Quizá lo que más me ha gustado de este libro es la manera de entender la "espiritualidad" como una forma de estar en consonancia con la naturaleza, de alinearte con los elementos y una herramienta de autocuidado. Mención especial a los ejercicios que vienen en cada apartado del libro, sobretodo a las ténicas de meditación.

[Sherry]

I bought this book for my daughter when she was in grade 4...She wanted to become Wiccan, but didn't read the whole book, now I am loving it and thinking of converting my pool-less back yard into a sacred circle! Life takes you places...:)

[E.B. Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book, especially the meditation and visualization work. Worth a read for more than just Wiccans. Great, positive information.

[Arancha Ch. Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Para el uso que lo he leído, es perfecto. Explica con claridad y sencillez las bases de este tema para los neófitos.

[Christine Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I do happen to enjoy Kate West's book anyway but this one has become one of my favorites. It's not a Wiccan 101 book or a drain on the same odd ideas and techniques, it's a book overflowing with techniques to advance skills. If you take the time to do the exercise in the book, this book can truly advance your skills. Admittedly it's probably not a good read for newbies but for those that know the basics and are searching for a book to advance to deeper and more powerful skill set, this is a great book for that.

[Conure Hermary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good book with excellent ideas on how to meditate, introduce yourself to the elements and how to go about writing in a witchy journal. While not quite what I expected, it is a good book for the advanced student. A book well worth the read :)

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an easy 'dip in and out' book to read and truthfully I had it for many years before I actually sat down and read the whole thing. I think I would have given this book a higher rating when I was younger, but now that I'm a bit more experienced in my path I find myself a bit more critical.

Let's start with the good things:
- Can I just say, wow does Kate West create pretty books! Yes it's superficial, but I love the overall look and cover design of her 'real witch' series. They just make you want to read them and I love having them displayed on my shelf

- Her explanation of what a 'real witch' is, her 'real witch' is someone who has a full life and is not only a witch. We all have our own lives, jobs, families etc. that are just as important as our spirituality

- The dozens and dozens of practical exercises in each chapter. I love that the book is not just theory but shows you many ways to put the theory into practice, and each exercise can be used either in a solitary or group setting

- Nice, 12 chapter structure. You could use each chapter as a month of study on a specific topic.

- I really enjoyed her Gods and Goddess chapter and how she encouraged you to expand on common myths and legends, to find the different versions of the same story and value the ones that show the feminine as autonomous and show the female as maiden, mother and crone.

- Her chapter on binding and protection from negative energies had some good ideas and practical rituals

Now onto the not so good things....
- Sweeping generalisation and 'rules' without much of an explanation as to why. You can work with gods across different pantheons, but apparently you can't 'work with two gods from different pantheons at the same time or the energy will mix badly.' Why? She seems to contradict herself in this chapter when she explains that she sees God and Goddess as a disco ball, all the mirrors are different facets of the same object, but it's all the same thing essentially. So why should it matter if I invoke Brigid and Aphrodite in the same ritual? If those two deities fit my purpose?

- Rules of 'when' you can do magick - don't do magick when you're angry, don't do magick when you're sick. She writes that all of your emotions must be in 'balance' otherwise if you have too much fire or air it will all go wrong. With all due respect Kate - rubbish! It's as if she believes the old medieval philosophy of human beings being divided into four quarters and needing to balance them. I actually believe strong emotions like anger and love, can help power your rituals. For me, all magick comes from within - it is your intention and will that will also be the most powerful part of a ritual. Also, what about people who are diagnosed with an illness or disease? Can they never practice witchcraft? This argument really fell flat for me.

- At times, I felt she was a bit disconnected from reality. She writes in her astral projection chapter that I could send my soul to the astral plane, then a woman in my coven could do the same thing, and then we could 'meet' on the astral plane together in an astral room we created. Then we can apparently 'talk' to each other and do work together, even if we were hours away from each other. What the hell? This isn't Harry Potter! I was starting to feel Kate West may be a bit nuts when I was reading this chapter. Yes witchcraft works with the esoteric, but it does not (in my opinion) work outside of the constraints of reality. In fact, as a nature-based spirituality it is about working WITH the real world - the seasons, the moon and the sun. Our path is grounded in the real world and we need to understand and respect the limitations of the real world.

[Jessica Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Al fin pude terminar este libro, lo estoy leyendo desde comienzos del año. Y al verdad es que me tarde, no por qué el libro sea tedioso, más bien por qué es un libro de estudio. A prendi mucho sobre la brujería con este libro y es que te desglosan toda la información de manera que puedas comprenderla. Es un libro muy completo que si duda ayuda en el arte de ser bruja. Toca temas muy importantes como lo son la protección, como utilizar y honrar los elementos y a las deidades. Otro punto que me gusta es que vine con prácticas, entonces de esta manera puedes aprender y poner en práctica los temas que se pone en el libro. Literalmente este libro en una bomba de información y eso me gusta, ya que puede guiar a las personas que nos estamos involucrando en el mundo de la brujería. Si te interesan estos temas es una super buena opción.

[Kelley Midgett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Used the word Whilst in almost every other sentence. Very annoying. Seems as though she was writing from a mish-mash of different sources she neglected to cite. Most of what she was writing was nonsense and she totally ignored very important Wiccan and the Craft tenents like the Wiccan Rede. She quoted it several times throughout the book but then she also had an entire chapter on negative spells being directed at the witch but also sending negative spells right back at the person. This does not follow what most every Wiccan and Witch know to be true about the Wiccan Rede which is followed by almost every witch and Wiccan. Her book was really a joke.

[Juan Ignacio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es increíble! Es un libro súper explicativo pero lo que más me gusta es que es RESPONSABLE en su enseñanza, no hace que te creas Harry Potter ni una de las hermanas Halliwell si no que te enseña a conectar con tu sabiduría interior y de a poco ir conectando a niveles más profundos. Útil, didáctico y muy responsable sin duda lo recomiendo mucho.

[Loly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buen libro para iniciarte en el tema de la Magia y Brujería Wicca Explica muy bien la importancia de meditar, cómo hacerlo y los beneficios. También habla de los elementos, herramientas de adivinación, las energías...

Libro que trabaja la iniciación al mundo espiritual de manera muy práctica y sencilla pero sobre todo, de manera muy responsable.

[Ariel Pritchard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book as a teenager, and while it is full of practices and information useful to a new person on the path, it is one of the books which use "Witchcraft" and "Wicca" interchangeably, and much of it will only resonate with those who identify as a Wiccan.

[Cinty Herrejón · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good information

Very informative! Really good and explaining things and making it easy to read. Enjoyed it very much. Recommend for me who are starting out.

[The Raven · Rating 2 out of 5]

se puede resumir como: Guía básica de cómo ser una wicca en tres simples pasos

😑

[GabyUfita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mucho más básico de lo que yo buscaba

[Kara Rowley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

[Ashley (Red-Haired Ash Reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Crystal Ayasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The exercises in this book really did help me become more in tune with my body and mind. I always come back to it to refresh my memory and it always sparks new ideas for me.

[Zaira S. Luna · Rating 3 out of 5]

En algunas partes fue difícil de entender pero creo que da una información general al libro Wiccano. 3,5 ⭐️