Llewellyn (1)Critiques

A very passable collection of lore, crafts and ideas for celebration following a Wiccan calendar. These are published every year, mostly for the new date and time references (solstice, astrological, moon rise, etc.) but you can pick those up from anywhere, and the rest of the advice seems rather timeless.

I really enjoyed this! Not only was there enough space for my own appointments and entries as well as notes,I enjoyed perusing the spells and while some were frivilous, I added many to my own BOS! I also enjoyed it enough that I ordered a current one for the coming year!

What's it about? It's a selection of short stories from pagan authors as collected by a panel of judges for PanGaia magazine.

What did I like about it? There was variety so if you didn't like the style of one author, at least you could look forward to the next, in addition to which no one piece was overly long or short.

My favourite stories were A Valkyrie Among Jews by April, which incidentally was the winning story according to the Introduction to the book, and Black Doe by Vylar Kaftan.

A Valkyrie Among Jews examines pagan identity and the conflict that sometimes arises between the birth religion and paganism of converts. In this instance, the pagan convert is a woman working in a Jewish retirement centre where she is surrounded by the religion of her upbringing. Black Doe was a very well written story about a woman who is shunned by her tribe at her own request in order to feel free, but has to turn to the gods for help. According to the author, the story was written in response to challenge to write about "survivor's guilt about food poisoning and someone getting a haircut" (page 209) and the author certainly delivers. It's also the last story, so was a real treat.

I would be interested to read more work from either of these authors, which I suppose is the purpose of anthology: to bring new authors to the attention of readers.

What didn't I like? All but two of the stories in the anthology.

I'm afraid most of the pieces held no interest for me, and I continued reading only so I could discuss them with fellow readers in the book club. I found myself half a page in on one story, and already hoping the next work was better.

Every story involved the supernatural or fantasy in some way, i.e. there was no real, modern world stories which I think has been mentioned by another reviewer, Eli, here. I kept hoping I'd find a piece that wasn't overtly pagan, fantasy or magical but it never arrived. I've read pieces by pagan authors which have not fantasy, science fiction, magical or pagan elements but are just very good stories. One, in particular springs to mind; it's about a girl working behind a bakery counter as life passed by. There is nothing in the storyline that would label it as pagan; it addresses ordinary concerns from a pagan point of view, i.e. the author. I guess, though, this is not the anthology to find such a narrative.

I do enjoy reading books with magic, the supernatural, myth and manifest deity, but I would dearly love to see writing from pagan authors which veers from the expected genres and, in this regard, I think this collection missed an opportunity.

Would I recommend it? I would recommend the two stories I mentioned above, just not the whole book.½

Full review located at http://paganbookreviews.com/2009/12/18/llewellyns-2010-sabbats-almanac-various/

Full review available at http://paganbookreviews.com/2009/04/25/the-pagan-anthology-of-short-fiction-by-v...

Full review located at http://paganbookreviews.com/2009/03/29/lllewellyns-2008-herbal-almanac-various/

The always interesting Witches' Spell-A-Day Almanac! I start each year with the idea of reading a bit a day, but always end up forgetting or reading through it all at once. Pretty interesting, even if I'd never do most of the spells.

Besides being a handy guide, it's also an enjoyable read.

the almanac part is obviouly outdated, yet full of varied articles still useful as springboards for other info to investigate, so worth a look in that regard. typical llewellyn criticisms apply - take with skepticism until verified by an author who actually cites references.

I bought this book because I liked the idea of doing a 'spell a day', for the sake of practice. I also really liked how they used lunar phases to determine the best time to do a spell.

Despite all that, honestly, I didn't use this book much at all.

Some of the spells listed are awfully silly -like the one on page 104, regarding the goddess "Burn-It". They're joking, but I'm not laughing. It's just too silly for me (which is shocking, because I can be a rather silly person!)

The silliness is there for a reason, though. The author explains that the spells "are seemingly fun and frivolous, filled with rhyme and colloquial speech. This is not to diminish the seriousness of the purpose, but rather to create a relaxed atmosphere for the practitioner...".

I could've done with less frivolity, but I love the idea of doing a spell each day, in accordance with the lunar phases. -- overall, four stars from me.

reference,almanac

reference,almanac

Check out Stephanie's annual wisdom, lore and magick into the world of conjuring the natural world to manifest balance and harmony and love in your current reality. Follow this Herb Whisperer as she shares natural magick and current reality.

Check out Stephanie's annual wisdom, lore and magick into the world of conjuring the natural world to manifest balance and harmony and love in your current reality. Follow this Herb Whisperer as she shares natural magick and current reality.

Check out Stephanie's annual wisdom, lore and magick into the world of conjuring the natural world to manifest balance and harmony and love in your current reality. Follow this Herb Whisperer as she shares natural magick and current reality.

Check out Stephanie's annual wisdom, lore and magick into the world of conjuring the natural world to manifest balance and harmony and love in your current reality. Follow this Herb Whisperer as she shares natural magick and current reality.

Check out Stephanie's annual wisdom, lore and magick into the world of conjuring the natural world to manifest balance and harmony and love in your current reality. Follow this Herb Whisperer as she shares natural magick and current reality.

Usual Llwellyn approach of Wicca lite.

reference,almanac

reference,almanac

Check out Stephanie's annual wisdom, lore and magick into the world of conjuring the natural world to manifest balance and harmony and love in your current reality. Follow this Herb Whisperer as she shares natural magick and current reality.