Book Review: The Witch's Broom, The Craft, Lore & Magick of Broomsticks

I was fascinated by the title of the book. Magic, witches and broom... they are just simply indivisible entities in our collective unconsciousness. 

Deborah Blake skilfully starts the book with our concept of a witch and her companion broom (and obviously there is always the cat), what goes around that image and what has fostered it through the ages. 

The book continues with the basics of what a broom is, its history, how it is made, its various shapes and sizes through the eras, different cultures and the detailed, well explained DIY section to create your own broom for ritual purposes.

Have you ever thought how a broom came into being...well Deborah Blake has some interesting examples. 

From then onwards the book takes a more witchy path and becomes a proper ritual book of how to consecrate a broom/brooms for various special occasions or persons with annexed detailed procedure of how actually one can do that even in a small flat and with very easy to find basic things. Blake is very flexible....so do not fret.

I am not a witch and do not practice the Craft although I am aware of both the magic and the energies at play in such traditions. Reading this book helped me have a peak inside the Wiccan rituals, putting together information that I gathered through my curiosity forays in such themes.

It is a practical cool book to demonstrate how we can use everyday tools to became more aware of the world around us and actively partake into its harmonious creation. 

A great book to any Wiccan curious or budding apprentices of the Craft.

The book is published by Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd and available as e-book on Amazon in April 2014

Witch Finder Book Review

Witch Finder is a lovely, little book that you can read anywhere. It is pleasant, easy to scan and yet intriguing enough to make you want more and turn that one page further.

It's full of evocative Victorian England, both in places, especially industrial London and in describing how people related to each other. Through these very visual in period style description we gleam in the huge disparity between classes not only the rich and the poor but also men and women.

We can feel the contrasts filling in the story, fuelling the evolving drama, of hard extremes somehow looking alike and opposites attracting hearts that shouldn't have ever bet together.

I gave it three out of five stars because somehow I expected a bit more and not always the obvious. But on the whole it is a perfectly light, accessible read at any hour of the day with a dazzling cover front picture.