Forthcoming titles

Just had the cover designs through for the latest titles in the Moon Books power animals series - Pagan Portals - for Aubry's Dog and Black Horse, White Horse.   These should be available early in 2013.

USA Breakthrough

We have just agreed to provide a regular contribution on traditional British Old Craft for the American Witches and Pagans' blog PaganSquare.   Witches and Pagan is an important US publication with a wide readership and we will be submitting regular updates explaining some of the differences between Old Craft and modern Wicca.  See website www.witchesandpagans.com

Rocks are a girl's best friend

Article published in Brigid’s Fire magazine - Ireland at Lughnasad 2012

Regardless of where we live in the world, some geological formations are better suited for magical or creative working than others, an idea that was mooted by Dion Fortune in her novel, The Goat-Foot God. … “Now the best place to get the kind of experiences you want is on chalk. If you think of it, all the earliest civilisation in these islands was on the chalk … Avebury’s on the chalk; and St Albans is on the chalk …”  Christopher Tilley in A Phenomenology of Landscape, however, gives a wider overview of the topographic features of the prehistoric landscape that attracted our distant ancestors’ attention: an affinity with the coast; mountain escarpments and spurs; the ridges, valleys and chalk downlands. Obviously, the most important aspect of each site being not what is seen above ground, but the geological formation beneath our feet.

There are, of course, many different types of rock that make up the Earth’s surface and each of them will have certain positive or negative magical/creative properties. As an example, we will look at what has been found to be the best and the worst when it comes to drawing from, or stifling magical/creative energy.

The Best: Slate is a widespread, metamorphic rock commonly found inter-layered with sedimentary strata and with rocks of volcanic origin. Once we understand that quartz is very abundant in slate and may form as much as 70% by weight of the rock, it is not difficult to see why this particular material generates so much Earth energy – quartz being one of the most powerful crystals on the planet. Magical, psychic and creative working on slate packs a very distinctive punch, especially if the slate layers are close to the surface.

The Worst: Clay - the name derives from Old English clæg meaning ‘sticky’ - is a widespread sedimentary rock with grains too small to be seen under any but the most powerful microscope, and may form in many different geological environments throughout the world. The most extensive layers are found in both deep and shallow marine deposits, in moraines (piles of debris) left behind by receding glaciers, and in zones of pre-existent rocks (especially granite) that have been altered by hydrothermal fluids.  Try walking through heavy clay and it immediately becomes apparent why Earth energy is often ‘blocked’ or sluggish. Magical working on clay involves a lot of energy-generating techniques by the practitioner, and unless there is a considerable amount of experience (and knowledge) to draw on, things may take a long time to come to fruition.

Here in the Glen of Aherlow, however, the mountains are Old Red Sandstone – a tough enduring rock formed during the ‘Caledonian Foldings’, the mountain-building period of the Earth’s long history.  The pressure caused the underlying softer Silurian rocks to fold into great ridges; and over millions of years the erosion dust compacted to form this magnificent range of Red Sandstone mountains. The Galtees are Ireland’s highest inland mountain range, a high ridge which rises up almost sheer from the surrounding plain.  Two major Ice Age periods have affected the area, and the rounded summits of the Galtees are due to the higher parts being above the ice. This freeze-thaw action on the higher peaks gradually wore them away to form the stony, scree covered summits we see today. This glacial action also formed cirques (or corries) on the higher slopes – amphitheatres or hollows, which are now five gloomy lakes.

Despite being easily weathered, sandstone has been used by builders and sculptors for thousands of years, including the ancient ruins of Petra (Jordan), which has been described poetically as ‘a rose-red city half as old as time’. The disadvantages of sandstone are out-weighted by its natural beauty and the ease with which it can be shaped and carve into outstanding works of art such as the famous bust of Queen, Nefertiti that has survived more or less intact since it was carved during the Egyptian 18^th Dynasty.

And as the author observed in Magic Crystals, Sacred Stones and The Hollow Tree: A beginner’s guide to the Tarot and Qabalah, because sandstone is highly susceptible to weathering and decomposition, and ultimately crumbling to dust, we can safely assign it to the Element of Earth. Or more precisely, the ‘Earthy part of Earth’ symbolised by the Princess of Disks in the Tarot, who represents the ‘element of the brink of Transfiguration’. She has been depicted with her sceptre descending into the Earth where the point becomes a diamond, and her shield denoting the ‘twin spiral forces of Creation in perfect equilibrium’.

Which might go a long way in explaining why, in the five years we have lived in the Glen, I’ve managed to complete eight books in quick succession, several of which had been lying dormant for several years.  The energies of the Glen are ‘dark’ – not in any negative sense – but because the primitive history of the place is unchanged and unchanging.  And if, like me, you are someone who is attuned to primitive energies, then the magical/creative urges will be stimulated with a vengeance when living in such a magnificent location.   The mountains are never the same on consecutive days: the summits are either capped with snow, radiating in the mellow tones of sunset, shimmering in a soft blue haze, cloaked by low-lying clouds and soft rain, or (on rare occasions) crystal clear images of a hot summer day when sheep are seen as tiny pin-pricks of white against the green.  And when the river is in high-flood, the Glen turns into a vast lake, just as it was before people came to inhabit this part of Ireland.

The area also has a wealth of prehistoric monuments, the earliest of which, is a passage-tomb at Shrough, on the Slievenamuck Ridge (immediately behind our cottage), and south of Tipperary Town, which dates to Neolithic times (c.4000–2400BC); with many prehistoric monuments, such as standing stones, surviving in upland areas on the slopes of the Knockmealdown and the Galtee mountain ranges. In the western part of the county, around Emly (where we lived before moving to the Glen) and Lattin, there is a dense concentration of barrows, earth-built burial monuments from the Bronze and Iron Ages (c.2400BC–AD400).
In legendary terms, Darby’s Bed, located, like most Irish passage tombs is on a hilltop site, near Galbally on Duntryleague Hill - the westerly end of Slievenamuck Ridge. This great megalith is said to be the grave of Olill Olum, one of the early Kings of Munster. The name Duntryleague is derived from Dún-Trí-Liag, meaning the ‘fort of three pillar stones’, and Diarmuid and Gráinne are also said to have rested there in their flight from the angry Fionn MacCumhaill.  A path through the forest leads to this amazing burial ground where one enormous rock slab rests across a number of upright stones.
But before you respond that this ‘creative stimulus’ is merely wishful thinking on the part of the writer, I would have to add that I experienced similar literary outpourings when living in my homeland of Wales, near the Preseli Mountains.  These hills are also dotted with prehistoric remains, including evidence of Neolithic settlement, and in 1923 the bluestone from the hills was identified with that used to build the inner circle of Stonehenge. Archaeologists have since pinpointed the precise place from where the bluestones were removed in about 2500BC - a small crag-edged enclosure at one of the highest points of the 1,008ft high Carn Menyn mountain. The stones were then moved 240 miles to the famous site at Salisbury Plain. This discovery came a year after scientists proved that the remains of a ‘band of brothers’ found near Stonehenge were Welshmen who transported the stones. The skeletons were found by workmen laying a pipe on Boscombe Down and chemical analysis of their teeth revealed they were brought up in South West Wales. Experts believed the family accompanied the stones on their epic journey from the Preseli Hills to Salisbury Plain.
By contrast, the time between living in Wales and Ireland, was spent in the flat, reclaimed lands of Suffolk and rural Leicestershire, and produced hardly anything at all of a creative nature.  To get any form of inspiration it was necessary to take the dog for a long walk to a spot that proved itself to be particularly strong on magical/creative energies, and that was the granite outcrop at Markfield (Charwood Forest in Leicestershire) that rises up from the Midlands clay plain. These rocks are more closely comparable with those of many parts of Wales and represent some of the oldest known anywhere in England.  On the western side of this central plain, the magical Malvern Hills are also unlike any other outcrop in England and Wales, and may represent a slice of pre-Cambrian base-rock, which is only found at the surface in north-west Scotland.  Weekends spent in the Malverns also produced a surge of creative energy that quickly diminished after returning home on the plain.  The Suffolk sojourn produced absolutely nothing at all, to the point of atrophy.

·        Once you have located what appears be a suitable site, try to pinpoint your own personal energy spot by using a pendulum that contains an element of quartz. Dowse the site thoroughly and calculate where the energy is the strongest from the pendulum’s reaction.

·        If a location seems unsuitable for magical or inspirational working, then a short journey might make all the difference. For example: the short distance between the clay plain levels at Charnwood, and the granite outcrop was only a daily dog’s walk away from each other.

The surrounding landscape does influence the way magical and creative workings come to fruition, and also the amount of effort needed to be put into the ritual or writing project to bring about the desired effect. By understanding what lies beneath our feet will enhance our magical and creative ability, especially if we can learn to plug-in to the natural energy of the place.

An extract from Magic Crystals, Sacred Stones by Melusine Draco to be published by Axis Mundi, an imprint of John Hunt Publishing in October 2012 in paperback and e-book format.

Publishing history:

For a complete publishing history see bottom of page

ignotus books are still in demand!

It's recently come to my notice that ignotus press titles are now fetching silly money on the second-hand market.  Coven of the Scales by Bob Clay-Egerton has an asking price of £40+ - might have to consider releasing this as an e-book at some stage.  Other ignotus titles are also increasing in value on Amazon and ABE Books.

Traditional Witchcraft for the Seashore - Review

Review from Andy Lloyd’s Book Reviews
andy-lloyd@hotmail.com
www.darkstar1.co.uk/traditionalwitchcraft.htm
Traditional Witchcraft for the Seashore
I recently heard a presenter on Radio 4 say something like “Of course, there weren't any real witches” as a throw-away line, as if assuming that the whole movement itself was something dreamt up by misogynistic religious nuts with pyres in need of human kindling.  Yes, the genocidal witch-hunters hated the old religion and drove it to extinction.  But there was actually an old religion there to destroy.  Gradually, that movement is re-emerging, mostly in the form of Wicca.  And what a wonderful thing it is - devoid of the dogmatic power-trips of monotheistic religions, immersed in science and folklore, and most of all promoting a tangible connection to the environment.  Surely it is a religion for our times?  Yet it treads warily.  There is still much prejudice - even fear and loathing - aimed at witches, who are generally grossly misunderstood.
The ‘Traditional Witchcraft’ series provides varied information about what it means to be a practising witch in modern times.  In places, it feels like a guide, or self-help book.  But there is much more to it than that.  What strikes me is the amount of science running through the book.  To understand nature is to live as a part of nature, and ultimately to become one with its changing patterns and cycles, to synchronise one’s own psychic or magical energy with natural tidal forces and the elements.  So a witch, like no other religious practitioner that I’m aware of, must study her environment carefully, and attune her life to it.  For a witch devoted to the sea and seashore, that involves learning much about the tides, weather, flora and fauna of the coastline, lunar cycles, as well as the folklore and myths of the sea: 
"The world of the sea-witch is not confined to the shore and the water margin.  It is a multi-dimensional world of light and shadow, of reality and illusion, where we have moved into the subjective world of the spirit - a rich fishing-ground for those who trawl in these inner seas.  The Mystery is now within and around us.  By immersing ourselves in the world of myth and legend to such a degree, it has become as tangible to us as the 'real' world, forming a continual back-ground to our daily life." (p133)
The learning is multi-disciplinary, and feels almost as if one was studying a textbook written by a poet.  Yet the science collated in these pages is interesting, and pragmatic.  Intermingled with the factual information is much about rituals, superstitions, beach treasures to collect for magical means and, of course, spell-casting.  The witchcraft seems real enough - the engagement in the rituals and practice requiring as much faith as any other religion as to its efficacy.  The author warns against the use of black magic, but does not shy away from revealing some of its secrets. 
Each witch finds their own path, and the sense here is mostly of a solitary journey rather than the work of a coven.  Indeed, many times the author cautions the reader about how to conduct her craft in public spaces so as not to draw attention to herself.  That wariness is still very much apparent, and after centuries of religious persecution perhaps that is wise counsel.  Yet, the old religion is never far from the surface even in everyday life - you just have to know where to look.  The book shows how seafarers and those whose lives depend on the sea, cling to superstitions deeply entrenched in the old lore.  The crafts of sailors of yesteryear are closely related to the spells and rituals of the sea-witch e.g. the tying of knots.  Witches, through their personal study and observation of the coastal environment, were able to attune themselves to the weather, and thus predict in-coming storms - very useful for local folk before satellite/computer based forecasting, but this was also a knowledge that created a sense of unease.  Knowledgeable women made the local patriarchs uncomfortable, of course - plus ça change.
Not everyone tuned into the sea can physically live near it, of course, and the book also provides advice for the budding sea-witch who lives inland, even in an urban environment.  Much information is provided on how to build a sea garden sanctuary, away from prying eyes, to conduct ritual and relax in. The tides still extend their reach inland, as science has shown through its study of the remarkable tidal recalculation made by inland oysters (p115-6). 
Traditional Witchcraft for the Seashore is like a Radio 4 feature about witches - not that one could ever imagine that happening, or imagine a witch providing ‘Thought for the Day’ on the Today programme!  But it has that sense of quiet wonder about it, supported by education, knowledge and, above all, wisdom.

New Books Under Contract

This week I've added two more books to my forthcoming titles list in the Moon Books Shaman Pathways series: Black Horse, White Horse and Aubrey's Dog - Power Animals Within Traditional Witchcraft.  A couple of good reader's reports are well worth noting ...


Submitted by Krystina Kellingley (Aubrey's Dog)
I really enjoyed this, a really good read. It starts off with an interesting story and maintains the reader’s interest throughout. I enjoyed the historical and scientific information as well as the charm, amulet and herb lore. The second chapter was a fascinating look at breeds and their characteristics and the bearing this has from a magical perspective and I also really enjoyed the stories of superstition. In fact this book has lots of appealing information on everything and anything you could ever want to know about the dog as a power animal and spiritual companion. It’s written in a very reader friendly manner and I can see dog lovers of all descriptions being hooked by it.


Submitted by Maria Moloney Wilbrink (Black Horse, White Horse)
I like earthy books. Big fan in fact. Also a big horse fan it being one of my own animal companions as it must be for others. Lots of interesting information and research. It's a good reference book but also has rituals and practical exercises


Probably due for publication before the end of the year ... and as we've reached the (very wet) Summer Solstice, I will be taking my customary break from writing until after the Autumn Equinox. MD.