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The Sea Witch: A Grimoire of Ocean Magick Hardcover
The Sea Witch: A Grimoire of Ocean Magick is a compendium of sea based witchcraft for those who feel drawn to the element of water, in particular the great ocean.
The Sea Witch provides an overview of the folklore of the sea, oceanic deity and the spirit archetypes of the marine dwelling creatures that inhabit the waters. In addition to the multitude of spells from binding, blessing, prosperity and love drawing, an explanation of seashell divination, known as conchomancy, is also included. Learn to cast the sea shells, or even discover the magick of mermaid runes, a unique divination system that introduces a runic system for sea witches.
A type of book of shadows for sea witches, this grimoire is a resource that you can draw from to create your own 'book of tides' (a sea witch equivalent to a book of shadows).
This eclectic curated offering of knowledge of sea magick is ideal for beginner witches, or those who wish to explore sea witchcraft.
Excerpt from Sea Witch: A Grimoire of Ocean Magick-
"The Ocean, with its vast, unknowable beauty is alluring and mysterious. Wide horizons beckon adventurers with the promise of freedom, whilst merely dipping your toes into the foamy, shallow shore is deeply restorative. The steady ebb and flow of the waves keeps the rhythm of a heartbeat; comforting in its assurance that you are not alone. The sea has captivated mankind since antiquity, and it's no wonder we are drawn to this marvelous beauty, a liminal space where earth meets water. To merely behold the ocean is to be awestruck by its magnitude as it is a tangible representation of the universe as a living, energetic thing. We are able to receive a rich, sensory encounter when we spend time by the water; the ocean shifts continuously, waves break upon the sand, as the tides move in and out. We see the effect of the wind on the water, causing ripples and tumultuous waves. Inhaling deeply provides an olfactory experience like no other as salt and sea mingle to create a distinctive, marine aroma. Burying our feet in the sand can help us feel rooted in the earthly element of the beach, whilst the white noise of crashing waves is soothing to the psyche
The Sea Witch provides an overview of the folklore of the sea, oceanic deity and the spirit archetypes of the marine dwelling creatures that inhabit the waters. In addition to the multitude of spells from binding, blessing, prosperity and love drawing, an explanation of seashell divination, known as conchomancy, is also included. Learn to cast the sea shells, or even discover the magick of mermaid runes, a unique divination system that introduces a runic system for sea witches.
A type of book of shadows for sea witches, this grimoire is a resource that you can draw from to create your own 'book of tides' (a sea witch equivalent to a book of shadows).
This eclectic curated offering of knowledge of sea magick is ideal for beginner witches, or those who wish to explore sea witchcraft.
Excerpt from Sea Witch: A Grimoire of Ocean Magick-
"The Ocean, with its vast, unknowable beauty is alluring and mysterious. Wide horizons beckon adventurers with the promise of freedom, whilst merely dipping your toes into the foamy, shallow shore is deeply restorative. The steady ebb and flow of the waves keeps the rhythm of a heartbeat; comforting in its assurance that you are not alone. The sea has captivated mankind since antiquity, and it's no wonder we are drawn to this marvelous beauty, a liminal space where earth meets water. To merely behold the ocean is to be awestruck by its magnitude as it is a tangible representation of the universe as a living, energetic thing. We are able to receive a rich, sensory encounter when we spend time by the water; the ocean shifts continuously, waves break upon the sand, as the tides move in and out. We see the effect of the wind on the water, causing ripples and tumultuous waves. Inhaling deeply provides an olfactory experience like no other as salt and sea mingle to create a distinctive, marine aroma. Burying our feet in the sand can help us feel rooted in the earthly element of the beach, whilst the white noise of crashing waves is soothing to the psyche
201 pages, Paperback
Published August 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 16, 2025
I really wanted to like this. I was surprised at how many problems it had because from what I understand this is a pretty recommended book by people who do sea witchcraft.
Let's start with the good:
*I really liked the little mini spell ideas Heather gave for some of the different 'rarer' types of spell ingredients that come from the sea. These were inspiring.
*The spells themselves are not overcomplicated and are also quite inspiring, while generally staying on the theme of ocean magick.
*The small section on Janarric Runes was interesting--I wish it was far longer, though. Ok I actually looked up the sources she "cites" in this part and they're all full of shit. Gee I wonder why she didn't give a page number. IT'S BECAUSE THERE ISN'T EVEN ONE IN THE INDEX. Stop spreading false informationnnnnn bro ancient witches in Italy were NOT using a pentacle as a symbol of protection. Why TF you lying? Did you get the fame? Did you get the recognition? Do you feel like a real witch now? I'm gonna hex this damn liar if I'm still mad about it in the morning.
*The section on sacred bathing was educational to me--I enjoy taking baths when the moon is full and it gave me some ideas to incorporate into my practice.
The bad:
*I'm sorry to say it, but Heather writes like one of my undergraduates, and they do not write well. Her syntax is extremely clunky and rather sterile. She basically describes everything she wants to invoke ~majesty~ around in the exact same way, because she lacks an extensive vocabulary with which she can describe things more precisely. Basically everything in the ocean is described with some vague sense of ~woooooahhhhh, prettyyyyyy~ that doesn't ring true, because it doesn't communicate what specific traits of the body of water/plant/animal/whatever she finds compelling. I'm sorry to say but you can really tell that she neither reads nor writes very much, or if she does, she just needs a lot more practice. There is a ton of the exact same clunky use of the first person plural without reference to a specific group, in an attempt to sound more "literary" and compensate for her lack of writing experience. I wish she had just written with more blatant informality to match her experience instead of trying to sound like a poet. Her incantations are also very "mirror mirror on the wall" types of things that children might chant when playing at witchcraft--they do not read as powerful to me, I'm sorry. I think the book would have been just fine if she had not shared them. The absolutely mammoth number of typos and formatting problems in this really makes me wish I could have edited this for her into being a better book. They are everywhere and they are distracting, and it really, really makes it hard to take her seriously. I hope that next time she hires a mean editor. There also are several stretches where multiple sentences in a row begin in the same way, which if she had just read her work back to herself out loud she would have been able to catch and fix. It comes across as very low effort that it was left in the finished product.
*What makes it even harder to take Heather seriously is the rather disturbing amount of misinformation in this book. For example, she states that Poseidon’s association with horses is due to His previous role, in earlier societies, as a God of the Earth and fertility. Anyone with even a basic knowledge of Greek mythology knows that the reason Poseidon is associated with horses is because the Greeks thought the white foam at the tips of waves rolling in looked like running white horses. There are also tons of moments where Heather gives information that is very “trust me bro.” Now, she does acknowledge that a lot of this information is based on her personal experience from her own Book of Tides, and there isn’t anything wrong with that, but I would still expect at least some sort of grounding in research or tradition to be at the root of anything invented (or at least a good explanation of her thought process). However, she does not do this, and some of her associations come across as quite lazy. For example, she states that because seaweed exists in the sea, which has a lot of salt in it, seaweed essentially has the same properties as salt in the craft. What?? Does everything in the sea then just have the properties of salt? I actually don’t have an issue with “trust me bro” information if it’s coming from an experienced witch, but I really think Heather’s approach could have been improved by simply…waiting for longer to publish this. I would have loved to see what an additional twenty years of experience could have given this book. Honestly witches who are barely out of undergrad should really not be publishing private grimoires yet. The trust me bro stuff needs to wait until you’re into your crone years, imho. That is an amount of experience that justifies forgoing outside sources.
*Heather attempts to make up for the lack of citations for her work on the craft by including very awkward, often-irrelevant citations in-text. For example, she at one point cites a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald making some random aphorism about human nature. These asides are made to make her seem well read and educated without actually having to do the work in relation to her craft. The in-text citations are also, unfortunately, done in the manner of some of my B and C undergraduates. Here is an example of how she cites in-text. “As Jha (2015) says…” Who is Jha?? Where was this published? End notes at the conclusion of each chapter would have been far less awkward and intrusive. “Jha (2015)” is not a name. The first time you are bringing up a source, you need to introduce the scholar by their full name, not just last name and date. Her bibliography at the end of the book is an absolute mess, too. It adheres to no formal style of citation, and the entries aren’t even indented properly. There are no italics to be seen. How can I take you seriously and presume you’ve done your research if you’re too lazy to even format your citations properly? It’s clear that she just copy and pasted from EasyBib and didn’t bother to realize that she also pasted “text only” so all the italicization got removed. Again, even a cheap editor would have caught this.
*I initially was going to say that the images in this were a good part of the book, but their quality and style varies a ton, and I realized after finishing reading that they are actually completely uncredited. So I think the author literally just took a bunch of clipart from Microsoft Office or Canva or whatever and pasted it in and called it a day. Hiring an artist to do some drawings would really, really have taken this book to the next level. So disappointing that Heather was more interested in getting this out as soon as possible.
*Overall, this book is just underdeveloped. If Heather had waited to put it out for another twenty or so years, really taking her time with it and spending more money on editing, images, etc, she could have had a 300 page masterpiece. Unfortunately, instead she chose to put out something rushed, poorly written, poorly researched, and overall illuminative of her relative inexperience in the craft. I hope that she’ll take her time on future projects and would be interested to see what she can do with more time, practice, and care, but right now I would not recommend anyone spend money on this book. It’s just not a polished product.
Let's start with the good:
*I really liked the little mini spell ideas Heather gave for some of the different 'rarer' types of spell ingredients that come from the sea. These were inspiring.
*The spells themselves are not overcomplicated and are also quite inspiring, while generally staying on the theme of ocean magick.
*The section on sacred bathing was educational to me--I enjoy taking baths when the moon is full and it gave me some ideas to incorporate into my practice.
The bad:
*I'm sorry to say it, but Heather writes like one of my undergraduates, and they do not write well. Her syntax is extremely clunky and rather sterile. She basically describes everything she wants to invoke ~majesty~ around in the exact same way, because she lacks an extensive vocabulary with which she can describe things more precisely. Basically everything in the ocean is described with some vague sense of ~woooooahhhhh, prettyyyyyy~ that doesn't ring true, because it doesn't communicate what specific traits of the body of water/plant/animal/whatever she finds compelling. I'm sorry to say but you can really tell that she neither reads nor writes very much, or if she does, she just needs a lot more practice. There is a ton of the exact same clunky use of the first person plural without reference to a specific group, in an attempt to sound more "literary" and compensate for her lack of writing experience. I wish she had just written with more blatant informality to match her experience instead of trying to sound like a poet. Her incantations are also very "mirror mirror on the wall" types of things that children might chant when playing at witchcraft--they do not read as powerful to me, I'm sorry. I think the book would have been just fine if she had not shared them. The absolutely mammoth number of typos and formatting problems in this really makes me wish I could have edited this for her into being a better book. They are everywhere and they are distracting, and it really, really makes it hard to take her seriously. I hope that next time she hires a mean editor. There also are several stretches where multiple sentences in a row begin in the same way, which if she had just read her work back to herself out loud she would have been able to catch and fix. It comes across as very low effort that it was left in the finished product.
*What makes it even harder to take Heather seriously is the rather disturbing amount of misinformation in this book. For example, she states that Poseidon’s association with horses is due to His previous role, in earlier societies, as a God of the Earth and fertility. Anyone with even a basic knowledge of Greek mythology knows that the reason Poseidon is associated with horses is because the Greeks thought the white foam at the tips of waves rolling in looked like running white horses. There are also tons of moments where Heather gives information that is very “trust me bro.” Now, she does acknowledge that a lot of this information is based on her personal experience from her own Book of Tides, and there isn’t anything wrong with that, but I would still expect at least some sort of grounding in research or tradition to be at the root of anything invented (or at least a good explanation of her thought process). However, she does not do this, and some of her associations come across as quite lazy. For example, she states that because seaweed exists in the sea, which has a lot of salt in it, seaweed essentially has the same properties as salt in the craft. What?? Does everything in the sea then just have the properties of salt? I actually don’t have an issue with “trust me bro” information if it’s coming from an experienced witch, but I really think Heather’s approach could have been improved by simply…waiting for longer to publish this. I would have loved to see what an additional twenty years of experience could have given this book. Honestly witches who are barely out of undergrad should really not be publishing private grimoires yet. The trust me bro stuff needs to wait until you’re into your crone years, imho. That is an amount of experience that justifies forgoing outside sources.
*Heather attempts to make up for the lack of citations for her work on the craft by including very awkward, often-irrelevant citations in-text. For example, she at one point cites a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald making some random aphorism about human nature. These asides are made to make her seem well read and educated without actually having to do the work in relation to her craft. The in-text citations are also, unfortunately, done in the manner of some of my B and C undergraduates. Here is an example of how she cites in-text. “As Jha (2015) says…” Who is Jha?? Where was this published? End notes at the conclusion of each chapter would have been far less awkward and intrusive. “Jha (2015)” is not a name. The first time you are bringing up a source, you need to introduce the scholar by their full name, not just last name and date. Her bibliography at the end of the book is an absolute mess, too. It adheres to no formal style of citation, and the entries aren’t even indented properly. There are no italics to be seen. How can I take you seriously and presume you’ve done your research if you’re too lazy to even format your citations properly? It’s clear that she just copy and pasted from EasyBib and didn’t bother to realize that she also pasted “text only” so all the italicization got removed. Again, even a cheap editor would have caught this.
*I initially was going to say that the images in this were a good part of the book, but their quality and style varies a ton, and I realized after finishing reading that they are actually completely uncredited. So I think the author literally just took a bunch of clipart from Microsoft Office or Canva or whatever and pasted it in and called it a day. Hiring an artist to do some drawings would really, really have taken this book to the next level. So disappointing that Heather was more interested in getting this out as soon as possible.
*Overall, this book is just underdeveloped. If Heather had waited to put it out for another twenty or so years, really taking her time with it and spending more money on editing, images, etc, she could have had a 300 page masterpiece. Unfortunately, instead she chose to put out something rushed, poorly written, poorly researched, and overall illuminative of her relative inexperience in the craft. I hope that she’ll take her time on future projects and would be interested to see what she can do with more time, practice, and care, but right now I would not recommend anyone spend money on this book. It’s just not a polished product.
August 31, 2022
An interesting read on sea based witchcraft, probably aimed more at beginners. The information about sea shells and the meanings was helpful and the ways you can use them like in divination and spells. I would have liked to see some more information about the moon and sea connection but overall I enjoyed this book and the spells are simple too. You can do them even if you don't live near the sea!
September 18, 2023
Helpful and intriguing
I enjoyed this book in its ability to keep the intro to sea magic simple and easy to understand, but also because it talked about history of common entities and items associated with the sea.
I enjoyed this book in its ability to keep the intro to sea magic simple and easy to understand, but also because it talked about history of common entities and items associated with the sea.
October 6, 2023
This book was so good I started it on KU and ordered a physical copy before I even finished it. It's so well researched and detailed. I've already downloaded one of the author's other books.
October 22, 2023
Very cute book about how to make sea your life with information about it’s creatures, making bath salts, saving the oceans etc. This would not have been my normal read but I really enjoyed it.
December 10, 2024
highly recommended
I really like it and love the parts that talk about the origins of the sea magic , highly recommended
I really like it and love the parts that talk about the origins of the sea magic , highly recommended
February 16, 2024
This was very interesting. I've read a few lunar magick books before, and this one included moon phases in the scope of the moons effects on tides. There is context in historical references and lunar pull on the tides. It was very interesting. The author includes their own symbols and meanings attributed to shells and sea magick scrying with detailed examples of their readings and spells for reference. I think it's refreshing to find a bit of someones personal craft for example as a hedge witch to be able to compare and begin creating their own craft as well. There is also a few workbook prompts to help begin on your own Grimoire or Book of Tides (or journal). I really appreciated this introduction to sea witchcraft.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews