Altars: Bringing sacred shrines into your everyday life
by Denise Linn

ISBN: 0-345-43446-3
LCCN: 99-28074
Dewey Decimal: 291.37
Publisher: Ballantine Wellspring Books
Subject: Altars
Subject: Household Shrines
Subject: Spiritual Life

This book is purely beautiful. It awakened feelings in me about my surroundings and my perspective on things, making me think about everything in my possession and the way I lay out my house.

The book is not about one religion's way of laying out altars. Nor is it specifically about religions themselves. Denise shows the ways others and we ourselves worship things. It shows spirituality in what others may have simply thought of as generic acts of life.

The book shows altars as forms of spirituality, of serenity, of change, of passage, of general passages and rites of life. The photography in the book adds more to the substance of the writing than the text would have given on its own. I'm not sure if they book would have been worthwhile to read without the imagery.

Perhaps you may finish this book and suddenly come up with a new altar. More likely you will finish reading this book, and see more in what you already have. Look around yourself; find the meaning behind what you already have.

Pick this book up for your coffee table. You won't be disappointed.

reviewed by Neal Levin

The Healing Craft : Healing Practices for Witches and Pagans
by Janet Farrar, Stewart Farrar and Gavin Bone

ISBN: 0-919345-18-2
Publisher: Phoenix Publishing
Subject: healing
Subject: massage, holistic
Subject: herbalism

I was greatly impressed with this book. It put into perspective my own studies of Reiki and other healing modalities. It helped me shape my healing ethics further, as well as introduced new ideas and practices.

The book has a good many chapters and covers a great many ideas. The order of the chapters progresses through Why, What, and How. The Why, are chapters on History of Healing, The Philosophy of Healing, and the Ethics of Healing. The What covers the physical body, the mind, and the psychic or spiritual body. The How covers gods, sanctuaries, spells, spirituality, massage, herbalism, shamanism, and counseling.

I am glad that the book covered ethics of healing. Ethics in most books on paganism is glossed over, and those of other religions tend to take it as a statement that pagans have no ethics. The ethics section in this book explains some of the background behind the Hippocratic Oath that we always hear of in movies, books and other mediums, usually when someone breaks it. But it is good to understand what it was about. And how it may be updated to suit the atmosphere of today's society.

The physical body chapter is much too small for the subject matter it attempts to convey. Even though the authors stated in the chapter that they wished to amend the negligence of other writers on the topic, they do not fully explore it themselves. In roughly 20 pages they attempt to cover all of the human body. It is much too little. One can only hope that people do not attempt to base all their healing craft on such inadequate studies.

While the book doesn't state that it is for Wiccan practices, many of the statements throughout the book call for vows in which Wicca or Wiccan is a stated word. This should not negate use of the book for non-Wiccans since while the words are stated; neither the principles behind it nor the vows are in fact restricted to a religious background.

While Stewart Farrar has passed on since the writing of this book, it is my hope that Janet Farrar will continue with her writing, and Gavin Bone will continue displaying his skill in the healing ways. This was a wonderful overview. Let us hope that we will see more detailed studies in the future.

reviewed by Neal Levin

The Knitting Sutra: Craft as a Spiritual Practice
by Susan Gordon Lydon

ISBN: 0-06-251202-1
LCCN: 96-34368
Dewey Decimal: 746.43 LYD
Publisher: HarperCollins
Subject: Knitting - Philosophy
Subject: Spirituality

Very rarely do I find spiritual books that I truly enjoy. The Knitter's Sutra was one of the few that has captured my spirituality and has hung on for dear life! I found this to be a refreshing perspective on how a simple hobby can transform your life. Those who know me know that I am a crafter through and through, and when I picked it up off the shelf and thumbed through it I knew that it was coming home with me.

The book, at its core, is about how doing something you love can take you on a journey and change you in the process. It also touched on many issues that women deal with as they get older. The author uses her passion, knitting, as the backdrop of her journey. Through her anecdotes about knitting, her study of Native American and Indian traditions, and her explanations of how they work hand in hand, she weaves a colorful, and often funny, picture of her path. It was easy for me, being a rabid needleworker, to understand her approach. Don't let the knitting fool you, if you have a passion for a hobby or pastime you shouldn't have a problem understanding the passion and insanity that comes hand in hand with the way she describes her knitting.

Before I read this book I had a very limited knowledge of both Native American and Indian religions. The author has, through her experiences with both traditions, given me a new outlook. I especially enjoyed her anecdote about her stay with the Navajo Indians in Arizona, as well as talking about the shikr in Eastern thought. I also enjoyed the anecdotes about women in different cultures.

While this book may not change my life, I appreciated its honesty and passion. I will definitely read it again and see if I can't apply even a little of the teachings to my life. The author firmly believes the saying, "It's not the destination, but how you get there," which has made me pay a little bit more attention to where my stitching passion it going.

reviewed by Karistan

Witchcraft: Theory and Practice
by Ly De Angeles

ISBN: 156718782X
Dewey Decimal: 133 DE
Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
Paperback - 256 pages (October 2000)
Subject: Religion & Spirituality

So many new age books on witchcraft and Wiccan beliefs somehow lose something along the path to completion. Not so with this work, it is at once complex and simple. I found this book to be amongst the few that Llewellyn is publishing in the "201" and beyond range, making a valid attempt beyond the basics. Usually they follow a set formula that leaves much to be desired in the area of letting the readers think for themselves. I was surprised, this book will provoke thoughts from both those new, and old to this way of life. If you are just starting out, be ready, this book will demand that you think, give you some very important tools, but more important, guide you so that you learn to use them. If you are one old in knowledge - read with an open mind and remember the night that you rode to the sea, danced under the moon, embraced the flames, or whatever that defining moment was for you.

Though Ly's work is obviously an extension of Wiccan belief (i.e. the constant reference to the goddess and god, the attention to the sabbats and esbats, ((not all witches follow each of those details, although Wiccan witches do)).), it covers topics of such things as direct energy manipulation, what subconscious and conscious thoughts (realized or not) can do to a spell, the general forms of initiation and why they should be undertaken (as solitary or coven oriented), Then goes on to explain some aspects of the Qabbalah (this gets obscure for those without an in-depth knowledge of hermetic or Golden Dawn Traditions.)

From section three of part two onward is where the book becomes interesting and goes beyond the basic ideas of what any basic practitioner should know. Entered into are topics such as energy manipulation, warding, seals, astral projection, hauntings, dreaming, familiars and some things less talked about in the three degrees of initiation. It is obvious from the work that the author is coming from a definite coven/group work background, but this does NOT make the this work difficult to understand nor does she talk down to or insult the intelligence of the reader, and this by far is the best aspect of this book. She has covered topics, which are readily applicable but rarely, talked about between witches in the community and in the craft. She makes you think for yourself, and DOESN'T just give you a list of spells to do verbatim.

She understands so much about how to *learn*, to ask questions about language, and the nature of the world, and the nature of self... She teaches her readers how to ask good questions, offers her insights, gives generously of her robust good will.

This book is highly interactive. Questions are posed. Answers from the heart are expected. Exercises are provided. Progress is made This is for the serious and joyful practitioner of any level. It is intensely intelligent, disciplined and eclectic - centered but open.

reviewed by Neal Levin