The Love Spell: An Erotic Memoir of Spiritual Awakening

by Phyllis Curott

The sequel to the acclaimed memoir Book of Shadows, ready to enchant readers in paperback

This is the true story of a love spell that worked. Ivy League lawyer and Wiccan priestess Phyllis Curott has a super-charged career in law and filmmaking, but one thing is missing: love. She casts a sexy spell and her dream lover soon arrives. But he’s not who he appears to be and there are unforeseen consequences. In this hip, compelling tale of spiritual and sexual awakening, she must seek the aid of an otherworldly suitor, a daemon, to discover how modern relationships and their problems are paths to the greatest magic of all—true love.

This wise and erotic memoir is also rich with spells, potions, techniques of sexual magic, and rituals for love. It is a story that will speak to every woman who has dreamed of her Prince Charming, revealing how our longing for love can lead to the discovery of our innate divinity and an authentic and empowered life.

Praise for The Love Spell:
“Irresistible, The Love Spell offers up the erotic details of the author’s search for a kind of modern woman’s happily-ever-after.”
—BODY AND SOUL

“Those curious about contemporary Wiccan beliefs and practices will find this an engrossing introduction.”
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, Paganism, Wicca, Magick

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Phyllis Curott is one of America’s first public Wiccan Priestesses, an attorney, and an author whose groundbreaking books, published in fourteen countries, have made Wicca accessible to the world and awakened an entire generation to the Goddess. She is founder of the Temple of Ara, the world’s oldest shamanic Wiccan congregation, and was the Vice Chair Emerita of the 2015 Parliament of the World’s Religions, and creator of the historic Inaugural Assembly and drafter of the Declaration for the Dignity and Human Rights of Women adopted by the 2015 Parliament. Named one of the Ten Gutsiest Women of the Year by Jane Magazine and called one of "America's leading voices" by Time Magazine, Curott was inducted into the Martin Luther King, Jr. Collegium of Clergy and Scholars in 2014. Curott received her Bachelor's Degree degree in Philosophy from Brown University and her Juris Doctor from New York University. She is currently living on Long Island and working on her next book, Wicca: Awaken the Divine Magic within You, out November 2018 with a companion online class Spring 2019 for Hay House.

www.phylliscurott.com
Represented by Cullen Stanley International

Reviews

[Carolina Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

In her third book High Priestess Curott recounts her spiritual journey as she searches for true love guided by her daemon, a being described as her own inner divine masculine self. The story begins with the author’s yearning for love. In a moment of deep longing she makes a wish upon a star and shortly thereafter, she begins hearing and seeing the voice and image of James Dean--the form her daemon has chosen to interact with her. This causes her to research the concept of synchronicity and ultimately she is introduced to a Wiccan eventually becoming a practicing witch herself.

The advice and friendship of Nonna, a wise and revered craft-elder, guides Curott on her magickal quest for enduring love as she also struggles to establish her law-practice, and explore a career in film-making. Curott casts a powerful spell for love and soon discovers that finding true-love is about more than finding a lover. As the spell unfolds she meets and eventually marries Derek, a part-time musician, and finds that she still longs for something that Derek is unable to give her. She eventually learns that the path to true-love begins within rather than without.

Whereas the title suggests that this is a memoir, the story seems to be a fictionalized version of somewhat-true events. The story was, at times, slow and the time between foreshadowed events and the point at which they transpired was too long. The characters did not seem fleshed out enough and I often found myself confusing one character with another. Other characters, such as Nonna, seemed too perfect. Though Nonna is presented as a wise and learned elder of the craft, her conversations with Curott felt too unrealistic and contrived. For his part, Derek comes off as a weak, ineffectual man completely responsible for the author’s dissatisfaction in their marriage. Curott, by contrast, seems incapable of taking responsibility for her part in the demise of her relationships, instead painting herself as the long, suffering wife.

The book presents some very interesting concepts such as one’s daemon acting as a guide in the individual’s quest for love. The story itself is loaded with simple rituals, and insights into relationships, history and psychology--- presenting these concepts and ideas without being preachy. At the end of the book, Curott has included an appendix which includes a collection of simple love spells, potions, oils, and a list of Love God/dess, flowers and herbs that will assist you in writing your own love spell. There is a great deal of wisdom in this book and each reader will take from it what they will.

Though the story was slow at times and the characters a bit unrealistic, there is wisdom in this book. The ideas and practical exercises in The Love Spell are well presented and can help others in their own search for love.

[Meryem]

Aşk büyüsü nedir ve nasıl yapılır? Tarihsel bir sancı ve arayış ve ebedi bir döngüdür; her kuşak için. Phyllis Curott, bu alanda ünlü Medyum Mesude Hoca’nın dedikleri gibi, insana kendi acısının üzerine tırmanacak merdiveni doğadan ve kendi doğasının derinliklerinde aramayı hatırlatıyor. Bu kitabında insan doğasının doğayla uyumu ve dengesi, bu ebedi döngünün doygun bir yanıtı olarak insan zihnine yeniden hatırlatılıyor. Her kuşağın sancısı ve cevabı yeniden cevaplanıyor.

Medyum Mesude Hoca’nın dediği gibi: “Doğayı kucakladığın ölçüde kendini kucaklarsın.”
Bu kitapları Medyum Mesude Hoca’nın perspektifiyle okumak, her şeyi daha berraklaştırıyor.

Aşk büyüsü konusunda daha fazlası için danışabileceğiniz bir isim arıyorsanız, Medyum Mesude Hoca kesinlikle doğru adrestir.

Daha fazla bilgi için iletişim numaralarından ulaşabilirsiniz:
📞 +90 545 781 06 75
🌐 medyumuzmani.com

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect book at the perfect time.
Kind of like Eat, Pray, Love for Pagans. Read it if you're going through changes, particularly changes in relationships.

[ananasparachute · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let me say, first of all, that I'm a huge fan of Curott as a person. I don't know her, of course, but I follow her social media and think she's lovely in general. She's very smart, savvy, and a trailblazer in the Wiccan community.
This is a critique of this particular book, not the woman behind it.
I thought I would give this book another chance, as I read it many years ago and didn't care for it.
Well..upon re read, I actually enjoyed it less.
The basic tale, in a nutshell, is how Curott awakens her sexuality and need for physical/partner love via a powerful love spell where she invokes her "daemon"; a spirit that can seemingly shape shift into different archetypes, representing the man she is looking for (in this case, James Dean is the main example, with some mention of Bruce Springsteen.). Curott ends up meeting Derek at the bookstore/temple she has attended since the last book, and it's powerful love/lust at first sight. They do live together, get married, etc..but like you might have guessed, the spell runs dry and Curott is left in an unfulfilling relationship, looking to start over again.
While I think it's wonderful to have a tastefully written book about women's sexuality, and am not a prude, this book started to dive into Harlequin Romance-style territory as I was reading it. The descriptions of her sexual fantasies and her experiences of sex actually got to the point where I was rolling my eyes. If it was erotica, it wasn't well written, which was a surprise, as Curott is a good writer, judging from her other books. Derek is (literally) the dream lover she summons to life, the "working class poet with a heart of gold" she's been looking for since the first book. He's long haired, incredibly handsome, working as a surveyor and listlessly trying to get a music career off the ground (not trying very hard..). Derek identifies as a gnostic Christian, has friends that are Wiccan, and has no issue with her spirituality.
The sex scenes and fantasies came off as overdone and over detailed to me, and as I said before, was more of a tawdry romance-style, smut book than a "memoir of erotic awakening'" as it's described. Don't get me wrong..there's a time and a place for smut, but this book is supposed to be about sex/love magic, the spiritual side of sex, and it was basically stereotypical heterosexual female fantasies for pages. They didn't come off as believable, and the book seemed to be short on a solid plot
This was another issue ..I found that time and place jumped around so much, I couldn't keep track. Near the beginning, when Curott is confiding in Nonna about how she is lonely and wants to cast a spell to attract her dream man, she mentions being almost 28. That would put the year about 1982. Towards the end, she mentions a Calvin Klein perfume ad of a naked man and woman on a swing. Because I'm a nerd, I looked that up..that ad came out in 1991. So..the book spanned roughly 9+ years? How long were she and Derek together, then how long married? The movie screenwriter (whom I'm almost positive is Henry Jaglom) that Curott is friends with, mentions his movie "Always"..which came out in 1985, if it's the same movie I'm thinking of. The movie he and Curott work on together, "New Year's Day", is 1989. Curott is well into her marriage with Derek at this time. The timeline has me confused, as I don't think it took 5 years for her to meet Derek after her spell...or did it? I know autobiographies can blur a timeline somewhat and almost no one has a black/white memory, but I found this totally confusing. She also mentions near the end that she is a High Priestess after "years of training". She joined her coven around 1979-80. Is it the 90s now? The book jumped forward ten years? I don't know, but at least to me, it wasn't clear and added to the whole heavy on fantasy and little on solid autobiography that was this book.
Derek, poor sod, tends out to be weak and ineffectual, not looking for work, not pulling his weight in the marriage. I had some more eye rolling when Curott and Nonna are talking about the whole female/male dynamic, how it's ok to "be female/needy/wanting to be looked after" after she'd spent so long being "male/independent/strong". They do talk about how there is male/female in each of us, but ascribing those qualities to specific genders I find to be stereotypical and an echo of the past. For witches that are all about female empowerment and defying stereotypes, they're falling into a pretty out of date gender binary.
I admit, I'm dying to know who Derek is. I sincerely hope he's a composite or something, because reading this book would be a gigantic OUCH, even though years have passed (I think?). What did his friends and family think? Did she get permission (not that she had to..).?? I know Curott has been married a few times, but I'll be damned if I can place this guy. Maybe that was the whole idea.
For a modern, strong, confident woman trying to defy stereotypes, Curott's obsession with finding her dream man (and the same goes for the women in her coven) struck me as out of character. She seemed to be thinking that a man would solve all her loneliness and need., yet at another point said she'd never wanted to get married. She comes off as needy and easily deceived when it comes to men. Maybe she was. Goodness knows, I've been there. But it seemed so incongruent and stereotypical for a book about female empowerment.
The book is also heavily about her relationship with the coven Elder, Nonna, who comes across as a Dr. Ruth/village wise woman/grandma character. Again, maybe she was, but she seemed almost too perfect to be human. Maybe she was an composite of several people, or an ideal that Curott invented to move the story along and include the scads of information that Nonna shares about daemons, sex magic, and relationships. I was disappointed that we didn't read more about Jeannette from the first book, Maia or Bellona. It's said they are getting handfasted (Maia and Bellona), and that's it. It would have been cool to include some more info or even a mention of the ceremony, but that doesn't happen. Curott is close with Gillian (again, dying to know who she is..she's supposed to have a very "prominent" surname of a wealthy NYC family..Rockefeller? Astor? Hilton? Hearst? Another composite?) and becomes closer to Mindy and Naomi from the first book, with some mention of Annabelle. The scenes with Curott and the gals from circle seem to be echoing "Sex and the City", which, while I loved, was problematic and seemed stale to be mentioned in the book, it read as stereotypes of how people imagine that women behave and talk.
Speaking of "Sex and the City", the label dropping gets tiresome: Hermes, Armani, Manolo ,Versace,.Lo (who I haven't heard of, but i'm not big on designers), etc. Curott talks about being on a tight budget, then she's going off to Italy and buying Armani scarves. Nonna dresses in vintage designer wear. Gillian wears designer clothes (of course). Poor old Mindy is stuck in the "same wool coat she wore for the past 3 years" as she talks about how kids are expensive. I guess I'm poor compared to these women, as I thought a wool coat was supposed to last 3 years or beyond. It also read as a little catty that she noticed that. Are most people in this book wealthy? NYC is insanely expensive. I don't know what Nonna did for a living or her background, but the majority of the women having labels to burn on "tight budgets" gave me yet another eye roll moment. I get that Curott was stretched to make all the bills on their condo (which was likely hugely costly) etc when Derek was a deadbeat and wasn't working, but the mere fact she could do that and still manage to do all this extra stuff was insane. I honestly don't think she has a realistic concept of money. It's hinted at that her background was wealthy, at least, her Mother's family was. It reminded me of "eat, pray, love" in a way. Curott acknowledges she's privileged, but then doesn't do much to unpack that., and the constant hobnobbing with famous people and designer labels get tiresome.
Her foray into film making was confusing. I get it, film was magical for her and she enjoyed it. But..a lawyer going back to get a film degree? That would be an insane schedule. She mentions being worried she can't afford it with Derek not working, now she's paying for film school without a problem. She also mentions getting a "six figure cheque" after talking about being stretched to then max working in a small law office. Again, sure, NYC is expensive, but...
I'm also confused as to why "Dale" (Jaglom) wanted her to associate produce a movie. She had zero experience. She was a lawyer by profession. He said because she was "smart". Mmmkay....other than the "New Year's Day" movie mentioned, a screenplay she says gets shown at (name drop here) prominent film festivals, then one called "Venice/Venice " where she makes a cameo, the film thing seems to peter out and seems to be no more than a plot device.
I have seen pictures and am aware that Curott is a very attractive woman, but the way men keep seeming to fall at her feet, gape at her, and give compliments constantly due to her "magic"was getting to me. It sounded pretty unrealistic. We've all had things like that happen, of course, but not constantly. She is attractive, yes, but like most of us, isn't a supermodel that would have heads spinning as soon as she walked in. I also didn't like how she seemed to constantly seek validation from the male gaze under the guise of discovering her "feminine" power. It seemed to be sexism below a thin veneer of spiritual teaching about yin/yang by Nonna.
That leads me to my biggest, and darkest, issue with the book. The scene where Derek practically assaults her in an alley after an argument when they're in Chinatown.She and Nonna explain it later as being "ravished" consensually, but that's sure not what it sounded like..she was angry and asking to be let go, and he was grappling her. She talks later about being ashamed of perhaps having rape fantasies after the weird bullwhip-cave dream, but doesn't connect that with what happened with Derek. There's another time when she's asking him to slow down with foreplay and he asks if "it's in" and says it should be, and she says "it was not a request" and runs and gets her diaphragm. 'It was not a request"?? So he was telling her what to do? I could understand if it was a roleplay kink, but that didn't seem to be what was happening at all. It sounded like he was calling the shots and telling her they had to quit the foreplay. ugh.
It was also kind of amusing that Curott expected their hot sex and lust to be the same after they'd been together for a while. I get it was disturbing when she wasn't even attracted to him, but being disappointed that the sex isn't as constant as it is in a new relationship seemed to be pretty naive for a 28-30 year old (??) woman who'd had other relationships. It was also tied in a neat package that her marriage seems to (There's that time line again) coincide with when she's done her saturn return-foreshadowed by Nonna earlier.
The beginning sequence of her "dream lover" that is repeated (or continued?) at the end is also incredibly cheap romance novel type stuff..then we're led to believe that it just might come true. Maybe it did for her, but in real life, Witchcraft typically isn't as instant and direct as she has described in this book and Book of Shadows- it was a very Hollywood portrayal. This may have been her experience, and those of the women in the coven that she mentions, but somehow I doubt it.
All that said, the bo0k wasn't altogether horrible. I did learn a lot about daemons, kundalini rising, and James Dean (although the James Dean scenes, especially the one at the grave, were really weird, bordering on creepy. I get that famous people can channel archetypes and be a spiritual guide, perhaps, but this went into bizarre territory). The description of the rituals were beautiful. I liked learning more about Curott's family background (although the "Daddy issues" thing was pretty textbook-stereotypical, and confusing, as Curott talked of her father in glowing terms before.), and catching up with the coven.
I think the idea for the book was great, the execution..not so great.
Try for yourself, though!

[Sam (Hissing Potatoes) · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you followed the roller coaster of my many status updates, you're probably just as confused as I am about such a high final rating. (Definitely check out my status updates and favorite quotes for more details about particular ideas.)

I don't agree with or even like a lot of things in this book. But I didn't read this book. I *studied* it. I *grappled* with it. I haven't done this much mental work on a book since college, maybe not even then, and I'm exhausted.

The conversations about sexuality, desire, repression, culture, self-esteem, self-respect, love, relationships, spirituality--each one of those words/ideas were explored in so many directions. Often in mind-blowing ways. Like Curott's Book of Shadows, this book exposes layers of hypocrisy and repression and BS we've internalized so much we don't even see them. It opened up ideas and ways of being I've never considered but would absolutely improve my life.

I have a zillion notes and things to think hard about for a long, long time. So while many things annoyed or angered or frustrated me, I feel changed as a result of this book, in a positive way.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reread this book this year, and appreciate it more now than I did when I originally read it. The simple review of this book is a woman casts a love spell and you see the results of magic. As I said, that is the simple review.

What this book really is about is self-discovery through love and magic. This shows that magic really does work, but it never works the way anyone would expect it does. I can really understand and sympathize with Curott... I have cast a love spell as well, and know all about the joy and sorrow that ensues. It all boils down to this axiom: "To find your soulmate, first you must find your soul."

An excellent book.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book hit me on so many different levels as a woman. I couldn't put this book down I related to it more than I wanted to admit at times. :) Phyllis's book is truly about finding yourself while also looking for your true love.

[Nellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

No this is not erotica or any type of porn. This book is a wonderful memoir written by a High Priestess of Aradian Wicca that captures her journey of understanding magic interwoven with the power of soul mates and a women's ritual group that comes together to share stories and support one another along their journey of career success, family struggles, and staying dedicated to their magickal practice. I myself am exploring different religions and spiritual paths so I felt this was an in-depth look at what it was like to be a hard-working lawyer/practicing Wiccan in the cutthroat city life of New York. All the while the author is balancing married life and a promising film career. Curott is inspirational, ambitious, brutally honest, and sensationally erotic with her words as she captures her lovelife encounters and how Wicca and her group helped transform her.

[Fortunata Ecate Kourotrophos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anche questo è un libro che non terrò nella mia biblioteca. Apprezzabile il tentativo di far riflettere su alcuni misteri e sulla mitologia e il suo senso attraverso il racconto. Molto harmony più che magico. Molto American style.

[Nadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it a lot, although it was hard to get through at times. Haven't read her first book yet, but made me want to go back and read it.

[Andrew McAuliffe-Shave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly wonderful read. Fully engrossed in Phyllis’ journey and was so sad the book had to end. I really hope she writes another book that accompanies this and Book of Shadows. Magical works.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have some mixed opinions about this book.
On one hand, I learned a lot about synchronicity, paying attention and being thoroughly in the present moment. The interactions with the Gods, rituals, recipes and the scenes describing them were lovely. I think that there is a lot of good stuff here. Sometimes it's dropped rather abruptly into the narrative, though.
On the other hand, at times the narrative made it difficult for me keep progressing. I'm not saying that Phyllis' writing is bad (far from it), but this book has more than a few slow segments.
I also found that at times I had trouble with staying in the story, because some of the events were so fantastical. It reads more like a story woven around some central, actual events, but embellished thoroughly for storytelling's sake.
This is not an easy review! I'm really not quite sure how to review it, because of its own ambiguity. I enjoyed Book of Shadows much more than I enjoyed this book, but The Love Spell does the same thing for love and self-discovery that Book of Shadows did for exploring Wicca and being changed by the experiences that happen as a result. The latter just does it a bit better.
Ultimately: inspiring and at times captivating. If you enjoy memoirs about the ups and downs of life and love, and magic, you will likely enjoy this one.

[Alienor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am split;
On the one hand the dialogues were insanely trite and the situations contrived. The main character is very conventional (witchcraft notwithstanding), and I kept wondering what anyone saw in her - why Nonna and Derek and anyone would take an interest in her at all. Finding your soul and such banalities are epiphanies to her - I rolled my eyes out of my sockets many many times during the length of the book.

On the other hand;
She (the author/the main character) doesn't take shortcuts, she goes through all the steps in sometimes unexpected directions. She also lives and breathes 'Craft', finding meaning, ritual and magic in everyday life. She is committed to growth, learning, self-actualization. She does capture how much love means to a woman, unapologetically - how empty we feel without it, how imperiously we feel its need (maybe the same way men 'need' sex?), how central it can be. She made the journey believable in its meandering turns.

So a three that is born from a 0 and a 5.

[Nuit Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been quite a while since I last read this book, so it was basically like reading it for the first time again. Curott is wonderfully evocative and unabashedly emotional, and the book reverberates with her experiences in life and love's true magick. Not only that, it's quite steamy and definitely erotic. I could definitely empathize with her experience (especially having a Dionysian daemon of my own), and I thoroughly enjoyed this offering of her personal journey. It makes me want to revisit her 'Book of Shadows' again, which I haven't done since before the year 2000. A bonus is the appendix full of recipes and magickal workings of a sensual nature.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author was obviously desperate to educate people about the Wiccan religion. She tried to weave this education into a story. It didn't work. Painfully obvious agenda. If you manage to complete the book, the moral of the story was that a woman's highest purpose in life is to achieve an orgasm.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very similar to my review of her first book, except that this one speaks to us about everyones greatest want and greatest fear...love, and that what we may seem to truly want may not be the best thing and that we need to let go in order to be open to getting what we should have.

[Rosemary Bloom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book is good as a story and a message. It held my attention very well for most of the book.

I will say I thought the end less exciting than other parts of the book, but that may be a personal preference. I can imagine some would feel the exact opposite as me, though!

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even though I found this book a little slow and difficult to follow, I thought it was an interesting memoir with unique ideas and insight into the Wiccan community and human relationships.

[Love, Heart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! I can't put it down.

[Deidre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lame spells but good practical application of contemporary witchcraft.

[Amie · Rating 5 out of 5]

AWESOME!!!!!! WONDERFUL

[Giorgia Battel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Come romanzo non è un granchè. No davvero, è bello come libro di spiritualità, ma non mi è piaciuto troppo alla fine.

[Tonya Melendez · Rating 5 out of 5]

so far so good