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The Complete Book of Spells, Curses, and Magical Recipes
Do you want to cast a spell on a suitor, banish a ghost, cure a toothache, or harvest protective herbs? If so, this is the book for you. The Complete Book of Spells, Curses, and Magical Recipes explains how men and women throughout history have invoked the supernatural for specific uses and provides information about the history of witchcraft, magical recipes, and occult practices from ancient to modern times. Here is a comprehensive and enlightening guide to the rites, rituals, and magic of cultures throughout time.
- GenresWitchcraft
384 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2010
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116 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 29, 2012
I have many opinions about this book, few of which can come together as a whole to call it good or bad.
"The Complete Book of Spells, Curses, and Magical Recipes" is a book I've wanted to read for a long time. It was very promising and even the title was engaging for a reader like me. The reality, however, turned out to be a little different and geared toward a different kind of reader. The ideal reader is one who wants to have something to pick up, flip through, and read an excerpt or two before rushing off to other things. Reading this book cover-to-cover (as I did) was a little weird. Though the topics were generally related within each chapter, the era, location, and focus of each topic was so varied as to be jarring when reading one after another. It leaves the reader wondering how they will ever find this information again once the book is finished. There is an index, but it may not be specific enough to complete a search for exact information. And, of course, if you're just looking for, say, spoken charms, you may end up doing a lot of page flipping. In short, this book is for the curious, not the researcher. Practicing witches should take copious notes and not rely on the book itself.
Another conflict I had with the book is between its mounds of information and the way that information is presented. Snarky commentary, scoffing, repeated referral to the author's other books, and personal opinions about other authors (some glowing, most catty and mean) abound. This makes the author *very* unlikable in my opinion. If you're the kind of person who wants to be able to relate to a writer and their views, beware. Here you will have the kind of mustache-twisting, brandy-swirling elitist that often just comes off as an a**hole. Who knows, maybe you like that sort of confidence. I don't care for it.
Finally, there's bits in this book that sound like they come from your grandfather. Dr. Ashley must be either really out of touch or this book is older than it's 2010 copyright admits. For example, in discussing drumming and recordings aimed specifically at the Neo-Pagan community, he says "There are inevitably Satanist and Wicca and Neo-Pagan and New Age jazz bands, blues bands, folk groups, garage bands...It's all part of the Age of Walkman Wicca." Now, not only are Pagan and New Age music groups easily discovered (and, therefore, this statement is not much of a realization these days), but also, "Walkman Wicca"? Is he serious? In 2011 I read an article who's author challenged his teenage son to even understand the function of a cassette tape. Yeah, I know, that's a stretch. But, still, in the age of digital music statements likes these really stick out.
As a second example, Ashely discusses psychic readings and healing by mail and phone, then questions "Maybe we have magic on the Internet or World Wide Web." Evidently, that's a place (or is it *two* places? Is Ashley confused or am I?) that he's never been.
As far as I have seen, though, the information is solid. Some I wouldn't think important in a book like this (such as a 20 page retelling of a published story under "Literature and Folklore") but that was the author's choice.
Here's a few snippets of the good *and* the bad:
For no particular reason, Ashley puts quotes around David Conway's name when discussing his book "Ritual Magic" as though it were a pen name or, perhaps, false name. This is never explained. He quotes names the reader will most likely be so familiar with as to be unnecessary to distinguish from "birth names," such as Starhawk.
He harshly judges certain branches of magical practice, especially the newer ones, with statements like these: "They publish their made-up chants and circle jerks, often as sweetly homebred and half-baked as the marriage vows and commitment rituals we used to see in the summers of love in the sixties."
Information is given on removing the spells of others, something not often discussed with specifics. For example, to remove a candle spell, light two black candles at sunset on a Friday, saying: "Beelzebub, and all ye evil spirits, in the name of Astaroth and the Light and the Dark and the gods of the Netherworld, remove thy curse and thy sting from my heart and mine, and against whomsoever casts a curse at me let it be reversed upon them. Let these candles be their candles, this burning their burning, this curse a curse upon them. Let the pain they direct at me and mine fall upon them."
Instructions for a magical item I've never seen before is given as "A Morning Wishcraft Jar"--to bring luck to a new day. The jar is filled with lucky herbs (rosemary, thyme, nutmeg, star anise, or mojo beans, High John, frankincense, and myrrh) and alcohol or oil and shaken every morning while performing some daily task like brushing your teeth or making coffee. Though he calls it "self-fulfilling optimism," it is firmly rooted in actual magic.
Lots of forms of magical protection are given in detail, which is handy if the reader is getting their feet wet in magic and want something that is positive, easy, and traditional.
It is, as I said, hard to say whether I like this book or hate it, but it will stay on my shelf all the same. Maybe I will have use of its varied and well-researched information, and I will use it while overlooking the author's attitude about it.
"The Complete Book of Spells, Curses, and Magical Recipes" is a book I've wanted to read for a long time. It was very promising and even the title was engaging for a reader like me. The reality, however, turned out to be a little different and geared toward a different kind of reader. The ideal reader is one who wants to have something to pick up, flip through, and read an excerpt or two before rushing off to other things. Reading this book cover-to-cover (as I did) was a little weird. Though the topics were generally related within each chapter, the era, location, and focus of each topic was so varied as to be jarring when reading one after another. It leaves the reader wondering how they will ever find this information again once the book is finished. There is an index, but it may not be specific enough to complete a search for exact information. And, of course, if you're just looking for, say, spoken charms, you may end up doing a lot of page flipping. In short, this book is for the curious, not the researcher. Practicing witches should take copious notes and not rely on the book itself.
Another conflict I had with the book is between its mounds of information and the way that information is presented. Snarky commentary, scoffing, repeated referral to the author's other books, and personal opinions about other authors (some glowing, most catty and mean) abound. This makes the author *very* unlikable in my opinion. If you're the kind of person who wants to be able to relate to a writer and their views, beware. Here you will have the kind of mustache-twisting, brandy-swirling elitist that often just comes off as an a**hole. Who knows, maybe you like that sort of confidence. I don't care for it.
Finally, there's bits in this book that sound like they come from your grandfather. Dr. Ashley must be either really out of touch or this book is older than it's 2010 copyright admits. For example, in discussing drumming and recordings aimed specifically at the Neo-Pagan community, he says "There are inevitably Satanist and Wicca and Neo-Pagan and New Age jazz bands, blues bands, folk groups, garage bands...It's all part of the Age of Walkman Wicca." Now, not only are Pagan and New Age music groups easily discovered (and, therefore, this statement is not much of a realization these days), but also, "Walkman Wicca"? Is he serious? In 2011 I read an article who's author challenged his teenage son to even understand the function of a cassette tape. Yeah, I know, that's a stretch. But, still, in the age of digital music statements likes these really stick out.
As a second example, Ashely discusses psychic readings and healing by mail and phone, then questions "Maybe we have magic on the Internet or World Wide Web." Evidently, that's a place (or is it *two* places? Is Ashley confused or am I?) that he's never been.
As far as I have seen, though, the information is solid. Some I wouldn't think important in a book like this (such as a 20 page retelling of a published story under "Literature and Folklore") but that was the author's choice.
Here's a few snippets of the good *and* the bad:
For no particular reason, Ashley puts quotes around David Conway's name when discussing his book "Ritual Magic" as though it were a pen name or, perhaps, false name. This is never explained. He quotes names the reader will most likely be so familiar with as to be unnecessary to distinguish from "birth names," such as Starhawk.
He harshly judges certain branches of magical practice, especially the newer ones, with statements like these: "They publish their made-up chants and circle jerks, often as sweetly homebred and half-baked as the marriage vows and commitment rituals we used to see in the summers of love in the sixties."
Information is given on removing the spells of others, something not often discussed with specifics. For example, to remove a candle spell, light two black candles at sunset on a Friday, saying: "Beelzebub, and all ye evil spirits, in the name of Astaroth and the Light and the Dark and the gods of the Netherworld, remove thy curse and thy sting from my heart and mine, and against whomsoever casts a curse at me let it be reversed upon them. Let these candles be their candles, this burning their burning, this curse a curse upon them. Let the pain they direct at me and mine fall upon them."
Instructions for a magical item I've never seen before is given as "A Morning Wishcraft Jar"--to bring luck to a new day. The jar is filled with lucky herbs (rosemary, thyme, nutmeg, star anise, or mojo beans, High John, frankincense, and myrrh) and alcohol or oil and shaken every morning while performing some daily task like brushing your teeth or making coffee. Though he calls it "self-fulfilling optimism," it is firmly rooted in actual magic.
Lots of forms of magical protection are given in detail, which is handy if the reader is getting their feet wet in magic and want something that is positive, easy, and traditional.
It is, as I said, hard to say whether I like this book or hate it, but it will stay on my shelf all the same. Maybe I will have use of its varied and well-researched information, and I will use it while overlooking the author's attitude about it.
March 19, 2013
Found in private schools collection. Pretty cool, but incomplete.
March 5, 2022
A weaker entry in Leonard R.N. Ashley’s complete book series, The Complete Book of Spells, Curses, and Magical Recipes is dense and (perhaps ironically) less charming than most of the other entries in the series.
June 5, 2021
It was interesting not what I was expecting
March 9, 2015
Good book just yet again not complete.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews