The Goodly Spellbook: Olde Spells for Modern Problems

by Lady Passion, Steve Rasmussen

This is not your average mystical tome—but a special spellbook by two practicing witches.
Here is the thoroughly comprehensive, absolutely definitive guide to spells—the basic handbook for anyone looking to practice some hands-on magic. Delightfully well written and practical, filled with atmospheric illustrations and diagrams throughout, it encompasses all the principles and philosophy of spell casting, and gives recipes for charms to solve common contemporary problems. This offers what most witchcraft and Wicca books an in-depth understanding of whats behind the spells and why they work. Its amazing how much magic is in Geomancy, Elemental Scrying, Tree Divination, Mystic Dance and Drumming, Kitchen Witchery, and lots more. From healing, protection, and attraction spells to spells for discernment, repulsion, and concealing, not a topic goes uncovered.

Genres: Witchcraft, Wicca, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Magic, Magick, Paganism

528 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[Sec · Rating 1 out of 5]

Due to the size and type of content that this book has, it was a pretty large struggle for me to get through it. I can tell that this book was made to be a textbook of magic, not just of spells. But like other textbooks, some of the content of the book is not appropriate nor accurate (either because it never was or recent discoveries have changed information).

Before I get into the review, there should be a warning here. I could not review some of the content of the book for accuracy or for practical knowledge. The book covers a vast array of things that I just have no experience with, so I cannot address them appropriately here. Others will have to address the content of those sections which include some of the sigil making practices and other assortments of general occult magic.

On another note, I want to make very clear, the authors consider their coven a Traditional Wiccan coven. So this book is very much written like an introduction to their coven and what they believe. There is a lot of associating the word “Witch” to be synonymous with Wiccan or Pagan. So there are parts of this book where the authors specifically refer to “Witches” in the plural form to mean all witches, and this is just wrong. Not everyone is a member of the author's coven (nor would they want to be). Likewise, this speaking for all witches is a common practice in the New Age section. Regardless it should be removed from the lexicon and dialogue. In my opinion, we should be celebrating the differences and varieties of witchcraft and those practicing it, rather than trying to lump us all together. But anyway, let me continue with this review.

I do want to cover some content about the spells themselves, since this is primarily a spellbook (at least half of it is). The written format of the spells makes it harder to follow along with the spellwork. In addition to the actual spell (which is written in a paragraph format) - there is a lot of content based on telling you different things about the spell itself. Examples of this extra content are where the spell was created or found, repeating the spell ingredients from the original spell, the ambiance, the timing, the deities to invoke, and different “variations” of the spell (usually completely different spells). While I personally do not mind a discussion about a spell, like the content about Magical Theory, I can see these little notes being content to take up space. It's not particularly useful to discuss in your previous sections all about the theory and practical ways of casting spells including types of spells, and then reiterating it with the content of the actual spells.

Likewise, some of the spells themselves are just... weird and inappropriate to me. For example, there is a spell that is used “to determine whether someone is a virgin or your mate is faithful” which is kind of weird if you think about that at length and the spell technique is actually just a divination. Another one is “to prevent your phone from being tapped,” which builds into the paranoia about talking on cellphones. Yet another is “to prevent drunkenness” which the spell variations have you drinking more water before you go to bed. “To bid brownies to do your housework” is another … interesting … spell that talks about manifesting Titania to help bring in brownies with “wet and dry” offerings. Some of the spells are just not practical or not useful for people to do. But I should say there are generally spells in here that I could see people using them with some degree of success, they are just buried in the myriad of other spells.



One other thing before I get into the review, the bulk of the beginning chapter is an extensive “magical history” that, to be frank, seems completely falsified and unfounded in fact. What is amusing to me is that sometimes the authors have citations which are literally “go read some name drops books,” which neither show me that the authors know and understand what the content of those books are, nor does it give me the ability to check up on the works they are relying on to build their material. “Read throughout the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch, Tacitus, and so on.” (p. 6) That is not a citation, it's hardly even a source at this point. Other times when they do use exact citations, it is often something or someone that has been found to be a hack or had been debunked recently.

Some of the material can be directly fact checked and sourced in these historical sections, and it's not pretty. In one case, the authors reference the “white salamander” as the originator of where Mormonism came from. However, this specifically has been debunked for a long time. More importantly though, the person who created this Hoax attempted to silence the people who had debunked this story by murder. Another is “To this day, geologists are hard put to explain the New Madrid fault line. It is an isolated anomaly in an otherwise stable zone of North American continental plate, and shows no evidence of activity before or since the 1811-12 earthquakes – the most powerful recorded in North America since the arrival of Europeans.” (p. 27) Wikipedia has a page on this fault line, and geologists are definitely able to explain why the earthquake happened.

The authors attempt to build one long standing chain of magic in history. Specifically that magic has been hidden or transferred throughout the ages without breaking or having different subsets of magic. I need to say that it is not one long chain of history, but rather a series of different events that could be happening at the same time. Likewise, the authors take some liberties with discussing anything that they associate with spellwork as being part of that history, regardless of whether or not that society or culture that they are taking from associated it with spellwork.

Racism

From my view of this book, I believe the authors skim off of other cultural and ethnic groups in order to fill their pages. A lot of the content in this book takes from specific cultural groups which are closed to the uninitiated or closed to people who are not of that ethnic group. In fact, the authors directly say this, “(t)he worldwide history of spellcraft fills thousands of books and ranges across hundreds of magical cultures and religions, from the Chinese Taoists to the Tibetan Bon and from the African Yoruba to Meso-American Maya. It's useful and enlightening to study the magical history of somebody's cultures; it's also relatively easy and non-threatening.” (p. 4-5) The authors have no problems with appropriating other cultures because it is “easy” and “non-threatening” for them to do so.

I have a pet peeve about talking about the access that people have to different cultures using some generic term like “our ancestors.” The main reason is that not everyone has the same ancestors, therefore they do not have the same access to some of the trials and tribulations, and in some cases out right racism, genocide, and other attacks against a culture. By including yourself with a particular ancestral group, even generically, you are attempting to gain access to the things this ancestral group created without having to take on the burden of what happened to them. The authors constantly refer collectively to “our ancestors” throughout the book when discussing whatever the “ancestors” were doing or whatever the “ancestors” believe. Especially when the authors are specifically white and clearly doing European magic (I'd even argue specifically Anglo-Saxon Magic because Wicca does borrow heavily on that), it is not okay to try to lump everyone into that category by saying “our.” It is also not okay to try to gain access to other ancestral belief systems.

Jumping off of that topic, there is one spell in specific that I'd like to address here, because I think it is extremely important. The authors refer to a slave spell – as in Black people who were slaves, created this spell. “Perform a spell that Plantation Slaves in the American South often used to protect a forbidden party or religious rite from detection by their masters.” (p. 410 – 411) This is an EXTREMELY casual reference to Slavery and the slave trade in the USA. It is way too casual for me to think that the authors actually understand the gravity of why that spell was made or what the purpose of the spell was.

Both of the two authors live in North Carolina, USA, where Slavery was one of the major contributing factors to the history of that state. Why did the thought never cross the minds of the authors that this was an inappropriate spell to put in the book? Why did the thought about whether or not it was ethical for two white authors who emphasize the British and European nature of their heritage and magical casting who live in a state that has been definitely a part of the slave trade to even have access to this particular type of spell? I can't say it louder for people, sometimes magic which is specifically racially derived is not for you to have. I don't understand why there wasn't a thought of “maybe we shouldn't have this particular one in our book.” I guess it's because it was easy and non-threatening to do so.

On a final note, there is one particular slur that is constantly used despite the authors specifically referring to the Rroma/Romani groups in other sections of the book. It is probably used over twenty different times, that I can count here. But I feel as though I have missed some of the times they used this slur as both a description of the group in question, or as a general descriptor synonym for “freeflowing” or “exotic.” It is not okay to use a slur in magical books, we need to address that in our community as a whole.

Christian and Judaism is Evil

What is clear is that the authors have a particular understanding of Christianity and Judaism as a whole. According to the authors specifically Pagans were and are better than Christians and Jews. Furthermore that Jews and Christians are hypocritical because “they do the same things as pagans” with relationship to 'miracles' and equating that to spellwork - while turning around and attacking pagans for doing these things themselves. Likewise the authors spend a lot of time bickering between demonizing Christianity and Judaism, and backhandedly trying to pity them for their religious expectations. Though this demonization/pity party is done through a very strange lens of understanding of the behavior of Christians and Jews with their relationship to their deity.

“The stern patriarchs of the Old Testament condemned the spellcrafter's spiritual activism as contradicting the will of God. If a drought afflicted the people, it was a sign of the Lord's anger at the Israelites' backsliding ways or one of the tribulations that the chosen people needed to undergo to purify them. Casting a spell to counteract Jehovah's will (especially if it included propitiating some other, less harshly inclined divinity, as polytheists were wont to do) could incite their jealous God to rain down divine vengeance upon the people. Like abused children, they were expected to implore their Father to spare his rod of punishment, promise to repent and mend their sinful ways, and find a scapegoat in their midst to blame and persecute for their troubles.” (p.9)

They even go as far as to claim, “(n)umerically, far more pagans were martyred in the years of Constantine's conversion to monotheism than Christians had ever been under any of the polytheistic emperors.” Of course, this claim is not cited.

The authors have persecuted themselves into a corner, as a lot of authors do in the New Age section. That fact that Judaism is even brought into this discussion as a means by which pagans are persecuted is laughable and strange. There is still a lot of antisemitism both in the US (where the authors live) and abroad. It seems like the authors wanted an evil antagonist to their poor delicate and loving pagans throughout that book.

Science and Doctors are Evil

After Christians and Jews “persecuted” pagans and other occultists, what followed was Scientists who “persecuted” them as well. “[the philosophers of the new science …] aggressively rejected the reality of magic and denied that the soul or spirit exists. The new materialist regime became just as virulent fundamentalist as the old spiritual regime it opposed. For orthodox followers of science, attacking magic was – and still is – a roundabout way of attacking their chief rival paradigm, religion. For science, magic is merely a more pernicious form of the same superstition of spirituality on which religion is based.” (p. 23)

“As the Scientific Revolution paved the way for the Industrial Age, natural magic was reduced to laboratory science. Alchemy, stripped of its metaphors for the transmutation of the soul, became chemistry; and metaphysics, merely physics. Herbs were distilled into pharmaceuticals, stones milled into minerals, and the body of Nature, in a metaphor that recurs in writings of the early scientist, racked and tortured to make her confess her secrets.” (p. 24)

The authors spend a lot of time doing these mental exercises to justify their amount of hatred towards this particular group of individuals. In fact, they go though a complete tirade on doctors explicitly: “Modern medicine can be great – when you can get it. However, between unaffordable insurance, expensive synthetic drugs, indifferent doctors, infection-ridden hospitals, and many medical industries' priority of profit over patients, you're lucky to get an illness even treated much less cured. It's only prudent, then, to rely as much as possible on nature's effective remedies – including the traditional magical medicine of spellcraft.” (p. 267)

The authors are encouraging people to stay away from doctors and alone, stick with spells to heal. This is not appropriate for any magical author to discuss, let alone to encourage in our community. Make no mistake, there are definitely times when the medical industry FAILS many people for a variety of reasons. This is no defense of the medical industry because the medical industry needs to fix up there multitudes of problems. In comparison though, the doctors have more experience as doctors to potentially handle and potentially diagnose a problem with more accuracy than people who have no medical knowledge what so ever or very limited medical knowledge.

But let us not get confused that spells are 100% always going to fix a problem. There are any number of ways that the spell could go wrong or could not work – from not knowing exactly what is causing your problems to fixing the symptoms of the problem but not dealing with the underlying issues that's still there. Let alone the spell outright failing (and remember, the God/desses decided that for you or you didn't do it in a “goodly” way).

The entire section of Healing Spells has a ton of things that are unsafe for people to practice, and could potentially kill someone because they are relying on the spells listed there instead of seeking medical attention. It is so abhorrent that the authors would write this particular section because of their anti-science and anti-doctors stances. Especially with much of the section being dedicated to doing spells that have the potential for worsening the problem. Let us not even get into the “to cure mental problems” spell that is listed in this section.

This is absolutely unacceptable.

Sexism, Binary Gender Normativity, Transphobia, and Heteronormativity

“Spells are inclusive by nature; anyone who finds one can work it. Both females and males of any age can do magic because it doesn't depend on such factors to work.” (p.45)

The idea that magic or spells, by their nature, are inclusive is a really good one. However, the fact the authors needed to specify a particular gender spectrum is much less inclusive. In fact, the authors actually spend some time on establishing the idea that there can only be “Two Polarities” (the authors, of course, appropriate and misinform what yin and yang are and what they represent as a multitude of things. But the primary example is Male and Female. Again on page 89 they phrase the labels in the table “Yang or Male” and “Yin or Female.” Which is a large misconception about Yin and Yang and reinforces that they are static and never changing states.). They include random genderization of objects based on their “linear” or “spherical” shapes as well. Like in the part of their description of the “Tree Divination Using Three Nutshell halves.”

The authors do equate gender and sex to be the same throughout the book. From planet physical descriptions, to cherry picking certain deities to “fit” into classic gender stereotypes, to other associations with the “Two Polarities.”

There is specifically a vein of heteronormativity that I cannot particularly ignore in this bit because it is mentioned a few times in the book. It first is mentioned while talking about the number 2, “In Wicca, the Perfect Couple,[22] who work magic together.” (p. 138) What the footnote reads: [22] “The perfect Couple, usually a Priestess who represent the Goddess and a Priest who represent the God, expresses the Wiccan cosmologies of balanced Polarities.” (p. 138) The God and The Goddess in Wicca are a sexual couple. They are not just “friends” or people that work together. There is very much a sexual aspect to the deities in Wicca. This cannot be ignored. The authors say as much “The Sublime and Ultimate Third Degree Elevation involves the Great Rite, or the spiritual and sexual union of the Perfect Couple.” (p. 151)

Let us not ignore that the phrasing here is very specific, the “Perfect” couple. Meaning any other configuration is not perfect, and therefore not wanted and not even looked at. Sex is very much a part of the conversation with these authors, “Flags, flax, fodder, and frigg” is an olde Witches' blessing that wishes one the basic essentials of life: shelter (flagstones), clothing (flax yields linen), food (fodder), and sex (Frigga is an Anglo-Saxon Goddess of fertility). “ (p. 157) Even in examples, it's always a woman paired with a man, such as the example of a relationship gone bad on page 163-164.

This continues in their section about dancing, “For instance, because a feminine Moontime ceremony involves recognizing a young woman's ability to conceive like other women, it traditionally includes a Circle dance that symbolizes the womb, or a hand to hand spiral dance that symbolizes unity with generations of mothers. When a woman is amorously active, she may attract a mate by performing a proactive fascination dance. Primal, tribal, or masculine dances feature angular, linear movement, as in hand to hand line and labyrinthine dances.” (p. 234-235) The authors are in the mind set that women are very much their “uteruses” and what they can do which is baby making, which reinforces gender binary standards, gender stereotypes, and is sexist. This doesn't stop even on the way through Glamoury, which includes a discussion on how 'sexy' a witch can be. Sex is very much a part of this book, and it is in a lot of places that there is a conversation about sex in a heterosexual fashion, or implied to be a heterosexual coupling.

Final Thoughts

In general there are a lot of things in this book that are problematic. One of them is the indirect denial of secular witchcraft or secular spellwork, which the authors define spellwork ...

(Review In full on my blog separately)

[Amor D'alesandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my introductory book to witchcraft, and I think it served very well for that purpose. Its a good survey course for gardnerian-wicca and Stregheria tradition craft, and helps keep a novice reader/practitioner's mind open to interpretating and tailoring the spells to fit their own style of craft. Would give (and did give, actually,) to a beginner witch!

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have known Lady Passion and *Diuvei for 8 years and I can say with all honesty that they are two of the most kind and generous people I have ever met. They wrote this book together and it is an outstanding book that they poured their hearts and souls into. I have bought multiple copies of this book for myself and as gifts for friends and family. The spells are easy to read and understand and I especially liked the barbarous words of power section. There is no left hand aspects to this book, so if that is your bend, you may need to find another book. That being said, I highly recommend this book and I gave it 5 stars!

[Athena Macmillan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very clear and concisely written book about the history and practice of a much misunderstood spiritual tradition. Excellent as an introductory read, though does contain some historical inaccuracies, a dash of cultural appropriation and heavy on personal opinion being thrown about. Should be approached with an open mind.

[Dawn Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing study and one that I will refer to again and again. It is organized well and gives a good basis of magical theory and options for each spell. TONS of uses! I rarely give five stars...but I gladly give them to this one!

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Non-fiction book mostly meant for reference. I haven't read through the readable parts completely, but I feel I've read enough to get an idea and feel for this book.

Much like others have said, the authors seem very determined to prove a "them or us" point of view. One of the reviewers above said they know the couple and that they are kind and gentle people, but that does NOT come across in this book. They seem very, very bitter about, well, everyone who doesn't do or believe exactly as they do.

I am fairly new to occult literature; perhaps this was the trend when this was first published in 2005, I don't know. That being said, I think I may be close to the same gen as them if not the same generation, and am also a born and bred Southerner, but was taught very differently in regards to respecting others. I. E., I was taught to respect others.

That being said, it has some interesting reference material in here. Not being Wiccan or interested in Wicca at all (I'm currently a Christian witch), I have no desire to call on every deity mankind has ever conceived of, and find this approach very, very odd. As someone else said, it seems very much like cultural appropriation, just a complete disregard, understanding, and disrespect for individual belief systems that have little to nothing to do with each other. Native American beliefs getting mixed in with ancient Chinese beliefs and Celtic mythology is....not great. Not unless all of those are directly one's heritage (and what an interesting heritage that would be!) Or, at the very least, to have lived with or studied under someone who taught one these beliefs. It's great to know about different religions and be interested in them, but I feel like the author's kind of just shrugged and said to themselves "None of the differences matter; it's all the same junk", and just threw it all together under that opinion.

It most definitely is NOT the same junk. But, I digress.

Others here have done better and more in-depth analyses of this book, but I wanted to give my two cents. I give it at least two stars because it *does* have a great deal of info, and every once in a while, I find myself picking it up to find something to help with a particular situation....but then am immediately disappointed. (Frayed nerves?! Use some smell-goods and take a bath! Oh, but be sure to ask this random deity you know nothing about and have no connection to for help, or we can't call it a 'magic' spell. I don't need to be told to take a bath. I was hoping for something deeper and more meaningful.)

Two more things before I wrap this up:

*Use of Alcohol*

I know that it's a common thing, but it's weird that they didn't offer any alternatives for those who either don't want to or can't drink alcohol due to personal convictions or overcoming an addiction. Not too happy with that, but it may be the age of the book.

*Christian Bashing*

Just....soooo much purposeful and just incorrect information. For example, crucifixion was a form of punishment used by PAGAN ROMANS for the punishment of criminals; it wasn't invented by Christians! And any church leader worth their salt today will straight-up tell you that crosses for crucifixions looked a great deal different than the modern-day crosses folks wear, which weren't a thing until about the 1800s, I believe. (I could be wrong on the exact century, but it definitely wasn't the first!)

It's weird to me that a book absolutely STACKED with telling folks to invoke every deity under the sun would be so virulently hateful against the God of Abrahamic religions. It's really, really bizarre to me. I get they probably got some persecution from folks in their area due to their beliefs clashing, but this is NOT the way to handle it. :/

Anyroad, I'm sure there's comparable tomes to this one. I'm really tired of looking at it, so I think I may give it to Goodwill. Or maybe burn it, so others won't be bombarded by false info who don't know better. Y'know, like teen kids.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This comprehensive look at the subject of magic and spellcraft is a good read. The author gives an overview of how magic works and what constitutes a spell. There’s a wide variety of topics that include everything from divination to magical letters, signs, sounds, and gestures, which I’ve not often seen elsewhere. The latter half of the book describes many types of spells and includes the necessary ingredients along with the best time of the day or week to perform the spell.

Written in a casual, intelligent style, the book’s well organized so that one can easily go back to refer to specific topics. I really liked the sprinkling of personal anecdotes and examples that illustrate certain points. The glossary of herbs and the common craft terms will also be useful to aspiring practitioners. For those interested in a subject that’s been around for thousands of years and is making a solid resurgence the world over, this book is a useful addition to your research.

[Deborah Wilson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sadly I was disappointed in the one sided history. But glad they keep tradition a live. But if you're looking for a none hate peaceful book, this is not that.

This book is really a view of one occult who hates Christianity, and anything else not them.

A Propaganda book. Wicca is about the focus of peace and good humanity. This is not that. The author often times points out faults of others on a regular basis meaning she isn't a true wicca practicing Wicca ways.

The book has misprint pages, and is full of errors. It was a disappointment...

[Emily Macfarlane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tbh I was really excited about this book, unfortunately I was only able to get through half of it before putting it down. There’s a lot of information that isn’t easily digestible and some of it seems very judgemental at times. I’ll keep it on my bookshelf for referencing as there are some good points in it, but I won’t be reading it straight through.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good, progressive and well-researched text. While it doesn't make its Wiccan alignment obvious from the start, it quickly becomes so. However, the links to practices from other faiths shows it is an adaptable text for other Pagans.

[Jonathan Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best volumes ever written on the art, science and application of magick in a variety of forms and functions throughout the ages of old to modern day. A charming essential for every witch's shelf.

[Ruby Hollyberry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very comprehensive, well-thought-out system that really hangs together. Of somewhat limited use to me because of its "more Gardnerian than the Gardnerians" style and symbolism. Useful, certainly, but not inspirational. Probably if you are strongly Wiccan, it would be a treasure trove. My witchcraft is definitely a different brand, so I have to heavily change around anything I use from here.

[Ruby Hollyberry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is impressive and thorough. However, I have not found it of a great deal of use because the approach to witchcraft is very explicitly Gardnerian and anti-Robert Cochrane. I am very much the Robert&assortedNigels type of shamanic witch today, and almost none of the Wicca I studied as a teenager has stuck with me.

[Amaya Okazaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually found this book at an old used bookstore and fell in love with it.
Over the years I have gone back and re-read it several times, I do love some of the recipes and still use them frequently.

[Thu Lam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give up at 1/3 of the book. It just too ong and bit of bore. But most of the time it is useful. Some spell work fine.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's some very good reference here.