Llewellyn Publications's Blog, page 6

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Debra L. Burris, author of the new Weather Magic.

On April 8, 2024, my farm in the Arkansas Ozarks will be near the midline of totality of the solar eclipse. My astrophysicist self has been involved in all sorts of planning events, and I’ve given dozens of presentations to civic groups, planetarium shows to school groups, and a fair number of programs at metaphysical fairs. This is one of my favorite parts of my job: sharing my love of celestial objects as their mysteries with people. I also love connecting my spiritual practice to science.

Talking to people about the why of the eclipse (why it is so rare to see a total solar eclipse) is usually where I start. Firstly, it takes the right moon phase (a New Moon) so that the moon is between the Sun and Earth. Next, the orbital planes of the Earth and Moon have line up so that the shadow of the New Moon falls on the surface of the Earth. Then, the shadow of the Moon needs to cross the location where you are. Since the Moon’s shadow is pretty small compared to the size of the Earth, the likelihood of being in the right place at the right time is pretty low. The last factor, and the one that is the least predictable, is that the skies need to be clear. That is the one factor that has me worried for April here in Arkansas: we could have clear, blue skies, but we could also be hiding in our tornado shelter!

Our thanks to Debra for her guest post! For more from Debra L. Burris, read her article “How One Witch Prepares for Severe Weather Season.”

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Sandra Kynes, author of several books, including The Herb Gardener’s Essential Guide, Plant Magic, and the new Witches’ Encyclopedia of Magical Plants, among many others.

Although a few old books note that faeries have an aversion to yellow flowers, the same texts also contradict this information. This is also true for some flowers used for protection against faery mischief that have been said to be used by them. When it comes to flower color, the fae seem to delight in the full spectrum, but the cheery color of sunshine is hard to resist. Following are some yellow flowers that can aid in contacting and working with the faery realm.

As their name implies, buttercups are cup-shaped flowers with rounded, slightly overlapping petals that earned them the folk names of elf goblets and fairy basins. And, of course, they are the color of butter. According to legend, faeries used the small ones for drinking morning dew and the larger flowers as basins for washing their hands and faces. Magically, buttercups can be used to manifest abundance and prosperity, and aid in divination and dream work.

Elecampane flowers have tangled rays of petals that make them look like scraggly, yellow daisies. Also known as elf dock and elfwort, faeries reputedly used the flowers to make garlands. Honeysuckle is noted in legends as marking a place where faeries like to gather and sometimes live, perhaps because they are said to enjoy sipping the sweet nectar from the trumpet-shaped flowers. Both elecampane and honeysuckle can be instrumental in developing intuition and fine-tuning psychic skills. They can also be used in love spells or to attract luck.

Perhaps more than any other flower, the foxglove is associated with faeries and is especially favored by them. It is also known as elf gloves, fairy bells, fairy caps, and goblin’s gloves. While the purple foxglove may be more common, yellow foxglove is also frequently grown in gardens, too. When you see a bent over flower stalk, it means that a faery might be nearby or that a faery or pixie is sleeping inside one of the flowers. The markings on the interior of the flowers were said to be where an elf had touched them. According to legend, these bell-shaped flowers make a magical sound that humans cannot hear. Magically, foxglove aids in opening awareness and fostering creativity as well as releasing whatever you no longer need in your life.

Hold one these flowers and invite any nearby faery to join you. When reaching out to faeries, you can speak to them aloud or in your mind. Whichever way you choose to communicate, do so clearly. Occasionally you may experience a slight surge of energy, but most often it may be a subtle feeling, the fleeting sense of a presence. Interacting with these beings from another realm takes time and patience. Don’t rush. It will be a privilege and soul-felt experience when they touch your life.

Our thanks to Sandra for her guest post! For more from Sandra Kynes, read her article “Powerful Plant Magic with the Allies Already Around You.”

April 19, 2024—2pmCDT

Join us for our next Llewellyn Virtual Author Forum! This bi-monthly series of free online roundtable events feature your favorite Llewellyn authors discussing topics important to you and answering your questions.

Our next in the series, on Tarot & Divination Meet Magic & Witchcraft, will feature Tarot Every Witch Way author Lilith Dorsey; Ethony Dawn, author of Tarot Grimoire; Sasha Graham, author of a number of tarot decks and books, including The Magic of Tarot; and Alaric Albertsson, author of Fortune in Your Hands. Whether you are looking for methods to integrate divination into your daily spellwork or the perfect way to get started with the cards, join the conversation and chime in with questions!

We’ll be streaming live on Crowdcast—save your spot today!

We look forward to seeing you virtually!

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Rick de Yampert, author of the new Crows and Ravens.

I was gobsmacked the time I looked out my living room window at the woods behind my Palm Coast, Florida, home and saw a crow hanging upside-down in a loblolly bay tree!

What the freak!

I scrambled to get my camera (the real one I use to photograph crows, not my smart phone), but by the time I nervously flicked the on switch and returned to the window, the trickster crow was gone.

Damn, I just missed the crow photo of a lifetime!

Given my Pagan spiritual path and my concordant affinity for reading tarot (I own more than 50 decks) I immediately thought of the upside-down Hanged Man that’s a fixture in many tarot sets.

Is this “Hanged Crow” an omen?

Eden Gray’s book The Tarot Revealed says that the Hanged Man’s divinatory meaning is: “Surrender to a higher being causes a reversal in one’s way of life. In spiritual matters, wisdom, prophetic power, self-sacrifice. May also mean suspended decisions, a pause in one’s life.”

The Hanged Man entry in the LWB of Aleister Crowley‘s Thoth Tarot reads: “Redemption through sacrifice, enforced sacrifice, punishment, loss, suffering in general, defeat, failure, death.”

Despite the challenging, even dire aspects of the Hanged Man, I was still thrilled over my Hanged Crow encounter. After all, any tarot enthusiast worth their salt must learn to engage and navigate the so-called “shadow” cards rather than soft-pedal them…And besides, I had witnessed an upside-down crow!

However, in the following weeks my joy at witnessing such an astonishing crow feat turned to a nagging doubt: Did I really see that? Or did I misperceive that crow or—gulp—outright hallucinate it?

Whether my Hanged Crow sighting was reality or hallucinatory, its efficacy as an omen was proven less than a year later when I faced an arduous major life event: I was being forced to move because the owners of the home I had been renting for 11 years wanted it back for their own use.

The move’s time-suck would entail a huge delay in working on my book Crows and Ravens: Mystery, Myth, and Magic of Sacred Corvids.

Damnit. Sigh.

After landing in a new home just three miles down the road—a home that also borders woods and is frequented by crows—I resumed work on my book, more than a year behind schedule.

My uncertainty about the physical reality of my Hanged Crow sighting lingered until several years later when I acquired the book The American Crow and the Common Raven by Lawrence Kilham. A physician and amateur ornithologist, Kilham reported he himself had witnessed a crow hanging upside-down! Kilham also noted other birders who had seen such a feat.

Yay—I’m not crazy!

So, I’m ambivalent about seeing another crow do a Hanged Man routine. Maybe for its next tarot-inspired trick, a crow can somehow imitate the Magician, the Hermit, or the Star.

Our thanks to Rick for his guest post! For more from Rick de Yampert, read his article “5 Ways to Forge Communion (Both Practical and Magical) with Crows.”

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Melanie Barnum, author of several books, including Psychic Abilities for Beginners, The Book of Psychic Symbols, Llewellyn’s Little Book of Psychic Development, and the new Real Life Intuition.

“Wait, what was that? Did that just happen? Am I crazy? How did I know that? This can’t be real.” Well, what if I told you it might just be your intuition? You might have just had your first aha moment! Yay you! That aha moment is when you realize you’ve had an intuitive spark, and it’s the beginning of a new way of experiencing your world.

We move through life, often thinking we are aware of all life has for us. But, sometimes, we are surprised by something we may not have previously experienced, and after discovering its existence, it makes us question everything else we thought we knew. Your intuition definitely falls into that category.

We are all intuitive. When activating these gifts, it’s as if we are being inducted into a new or parallel universe, one that has more wisdom and knowledge to share with us. It can also make us question what the heck is going on when you’re not used to it. We’ve all had a moment, an event or a flash, a time when we aren’t able to explain how we knew something or why we heard something or even saw something in our mind, that may have helped or guided us in a situation or in our life in general. These extra sensory perceptions (ESP) will offer us no evidence to back up what we perceived, distinguishing them as intuitive.

We each identify intuitive impressions in our own way, because we are individuals, living our distinct lives. However, there are also commonalities in how we perceive them. Generally, there are five basic intuitive senses that go beyond, but also mirror our physical senses: Clairvoyance (sight), Claircognizance (knowing), Clairsentience (feeling), Clairaudience (hearing) and two that usually go hand in hand, Clairgustance (tasting) or Clairalience (smelling). Each person tends to have one or two prevailing metaphysical senses, naturally. Usually, the other senses can be practiced or developed, if desired, to increase fluency and range of impressions.

So, what does that all mean? Let’s break it down. If you see an image of bread in your mind’s eye, your clairvoyant sensory area, it may be a hint to buy the loaf. If you’re trying to decide whether to remain at your current job or leave and you hear “stop,” your clairaudient impressions are telling you to stay where you are and not move. And, if you’re wondering if your grandmother that passed away the previous year is around and a couple of hours later you begin smelling pasta sauce and tasting meatballs, which was the favorite meal your grandma made, then it’s probably your clairalience and clairgustance letting you know she’s visiting!

These examples are just a few of the many ways you’ll recognize your intuition. Though not everything is a sign or metaphysical in nature, be sure to keep an open mind and you might discover it just might be your intuition!

Our thanks to Melanie for her guest post! For more from Melanie Barnum, read her article, “3 Easy Ways to Recognize Your Intuition.”

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Deborah Blake, author of several books, including The Eclectic Witch’s Book of Shadows and the new The Eclectic Witch’s Book of Shadows Companion .

A funny thing happened on the way to my current book…

Back in 2021, I put out The Eclectic Witch’s Book of Shadows. It was a great book, if I do say so myself, made even more appealing by the brilliant Mickie Mueller‘s gorgeous cover and fabulous full-color illustrations inside. (Really, if you haven’t seen it, you should check it out.) This was my prettiest book ever, and my first hardcover, so I was really excited.

I had a great time writing the book, because I wanted to give people a hands-on tool that would make their Witchcraft practice even more fun, rewarding, and easy to do. A Book of Shadows is a convenient reference tool and a useful way of keeping track of the knowledge you need for your magical work, so I came up with one that had all the basics: herbs, stones, candles, instructions for creating things like charm bags and magical oils, info on divination and various gods and goddesses, plus of course some invocations, spells, rituals, and even some recipes for yummy feast foods.

We even made sure to include lots of blank pages for people to write down additional information in all those categories, either things they found in other places, or learned from their own experiences as they went along. The whole idea was that the witches who used the Book of Shadows could make it their own, adding their own personal touches over time.

But there was one thing we hadn’t taken into consideration. Apparently, we made the book too pretty. I got lots of emails and messages from folks telling me that they really loved the book, and used it all the time, but they just couldn’t bring themselves to write in it because it was such a beautiful hardcover! Whoops.

But I didn’t want to give up on my goal of providing people with a Book of Shadows that they could expand with their own experiences and what they learned as they continued their practice. So I talked to the fabulous folks at Llewellyn and suggested an alternative—a paperback version with even more information, and cool new additions like coloring pages, so that the witchy folks could have the best of both worlds. One stunning hardcover that they didn’t have to write in if they weren’t comfortable doing so, and one relaxed paperback where they could add anything they wanted and even decorate it themselves.

So now we have The Eclectic Witch’s Book of Shadows Companion , and all my witchy readers have two options for creating their own perfect source of information and magical wisdom. Of course, you don’t have to have the first book to use the new one, but I’m hoping that most people will want to have them both, and use them to deepen and expand their personal magical practice. I can’t wait to find out what people think. Tell me, will you be writing in yours?

Our thanks to Deborah for her guest post! For more from Deborah Blake, read her article “Making the Most of Your Book of Shadows: 10 Simple Tips.”

For twenty-seven years, INATS (the International New Age Trade Show) has been a gathering place for the Mind, Body, Spirit Business Community to network, learn, and experience one another’s unique offerings and products. This convention was always a high point of Llewellyn’s year, as well as the fertile soil that birthed many partnerships, friendships, and amazing projects. Dreams were realized and celebrated at this show, innovation in the fields of metaphysics and spirituality were shared, and like-minded practitioners and intuitives were able to find connection and acceptance from a larger community.
In a word, it was magic.

We are saddened to announce that there will be no INATS in 2024 and that Andrew is retiring. In Andrew’s own words:
“It breaks my heart to announce there will be no INATS® at the Crowne Plaza DIA in 2024. Thank you for your support through the years. It was a dream to work on this event for so long and have made many friends in the industry. I wish you all health and good fortune!”

Farewells are never easy, but we will treasure these memories and experiences for years to come. Join us as we remember this stellar event with a look through our INATS archives.

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Melanie Marquis, author of a number of books, including The Witch’s Bag of Tricks, the award-winning Carl Llewellyn Weschcke, Beltane, Lughnasadh, Llewellyn’s Little Book of Moon Spells, and the new Cookbook of Shadows.

With spring on the way, romance is in the air, and many people are looking for love spells to invite new possibilities or to strengthen an existing relationship. Cooking magick is a great medium for love spells of all types, offering variety and versatility. From how you stir to the dishes you use, each step in the process can be infused with magick. Check out Cookbook of Shadows: Simple Recipes for Powerful Magick if you want to master all the different techniques you can use! In the meantime, try any of these top five foods for enhancing passion, inducing lust, and attracting love into your life. As you handle each of these best ingredients for love magick, imagine the feelings of love you wish to experience and let these emotions flow into the food.

Chocolate: Chocolate has a fortifying, energizing quality that’s excellent for promoting passion and encouraging love for the self and for others. Try drizzling melted chocolate over fruit, or stir some into your coffee to get those loving feelings flowing.

Cherries: Cherries are a lucky food for lovers, believed to enhance attraction and encourage declarations of affection. Heat a handful of cherries in equal parts water and sugar to create a cherry sauce to enjoy on cakes or ice cream.

Strawberries: Associated with the Goddess Venus, strawberries are believed to magnify love, luck, beauty, and happiness. Share with a romantic partner to encourage good feelings and affection.

Cinnamon: Aligned with the Fire element, cinnamon brings a fiery energy that intensifies passion and invites excitement. Try on baked fruit or chicken dishes, or add to cookies, cobblers, and hot beverages like coffee, cocoa, or cider.

Rosemary: Aromatic, fresh, and earthy, rosemary is a great choice for romantic recipes, welcoming good feelings and happiness and opening the heart. It’s also great for encouraging peace and improving communication, helping to strengthen relationships and fortify connections.

There are lots of other foods and herbs for love magick that you can use in your cooking, including apples, peaches, plums, coconut, tomatoes, hemp, ginger, and basil. For more ideas for your cooking magick, see the recipes, techniques, and ingredient correspondences in Cookbook of Shadows. Cooking is naturally magickal, and when you add emotionally charged willpower and carefully chosen ingredients, food becomes a powerhouse of magickal potential. Mindful cooking can transform your meals as well as your life. Once you learn the basics, you can create an infinite variety of magickal meals to promote positive change, bring prosperity, boost confidence, and more. You’ll be a magickal master chef in no time!

Our thanks to Melanie for her guest post! For more from Melanie Marquis, read her article “A Magickal Cookbook for Self-Empowerment.”

Our Llewellyn Virtual Author Forums are a bi-monthly series of free online roundtable events featuring your favorite Llewellyn authors discussing topics important to you and answering your questions.

Our latest in the series, on Powerful Plant Magic, featured A Year in the Enchanted Garden author Monica Crosson; Charity L. Bedell, author of Divine Dirt; Laurel Woodward, author of Backyard Garden Witchery; and Devin Hunter, author of Houseplant HortOCCULTure.

Did you miss the live presentation? Watch it on demand now!

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Siolo Thompson and Thomas Witholt, author and artist of the new Searborn Kipper.

Are you ready to work with an oracle of everyday life that will have you diving deep into your psyche one minute and scanning the far horizon for future events the next? If so, you want to try Kipper, a system of divination from 19th-century Germany that uses 36 cards to understand present influences and future probabilities. Kipper is a direct system, which makes it powerful for clear insights. And the new Searborn Kipper takes the edge off that directness with playful and modern appeal.

Reason 1: Kipper is easy to learn. If you’ve never heard of kipper, we wouldn’t be surprised—it’s not as popular (yet) as other forms of cartomancy. But Kipper is incredibly straightforward with cards that have obvious application to your life and that don’t require memorizing abstract concepts to get the point across. Sure, you might remember that the Clover in Lenormand means a little bit of money or good luck, but you might not. A card like Kipper’s Unexpected Treasure is easy for a beginner to understand, and it still has rich meaning and openness that a more experienced reader can see in context.

Reason 2: An unfamiliar system lets your intuition shine. When you’re learning a new system of divination, it’s great to come in with a beginner’s mind. There’s so much magic and potential that your intuition sees just by enjoying the cards. A history of strict methodology can sometimes squash that brilliant freshness. With the ease of understanding the Kipper cards, you won’t constantly be searching for the guidebook to understand a card, and you won’t need to study it for years to find confidence in playing the deck. That ease and confidence are great when you’re listening for intuitive guidance. Yes, there are plenty of techniques and methods you can use to read Kipper, but you don’t have to. You can just read the cards.

Reason 3: Kipper shows the unfolding drama of everyday life. Kipper cards tell a story about what’s coming up in your life. With Kipper, you see the interaction of cards, a current of causes and effects that help you make the most of the potential in front of you. As with other divination systems, it gives you a glimpse of the possible future, but it specializes in flow. The cards create a scene or a story as people, places, and experiences come together to paint a clear picture. And because of the sequential and causal nature of the cards, you get to see not just opportunities and problems, but also the sources or influences around those opportunities and problems.

Reason 4: Everybody’s business is your business. While you may (or may not!) have certain ethical guidelines about reading into other people, Kipper is designed to show you how key players will be flowing in and out of your life. It’s a way of seeing how other people may or may not be involved without losing sight of what you can control: your own life. Kipper includes cards that represent important people in your life, and your readings will show you where they’re creating waves that could give you a little assistance or might crash into your own intentions. If they’re not involved, you’ll see them at the edges of your reading, but if they are, Kipper will spill the tea.

Reason 5: Kipper shows you your life. The directness and everyday nature of Kipper cards speaks to your everyday experience, and with the Searborn Kipper, you’re bound to find yourself represented in lovely underwater form. The Searborn Kipper was designed to be inclusive with updated titles to remove unnecessarily gendered references and extra significator cards to represent you and your primary partner (in love, business, underwater basket-weaving club, or whatever the concern of your reading). And the artwork lovingly captures a range of faces and bodies that will invite you to see yourself in this beautiful underwater world.

Reason 6: You can foretell the future, reflect on the present, or gain confidence for your day. There is a current to time, and you’re on it with Kipper, which makes it great for unambiguous future-oriented readings. But that forward momentum doesn’t mean that you can’t also use Kipper cards for exploring the present moment and what may be influencing how the present is playing out. This may include the past, but Kipper helps you focus on how the past is affecting the present, not something you are powerless to change. And in the Searborn Kipper, we’ve helped you connect with the cards in the present. The guidebook includes reflective questions for journaling or deeper understanding of the cards and how their concepts may be relevant, as well as affirmations to help you bring in the energy of the cards in an affirming way, even the tough ones!

However you want to use the deck, there’s an easy point of entry—a tidal, pool if you will—and a seamless way to deepen the experience whenever you’re ready. And trust us that you don’t have to stay in the shallow end for long. We’ve lost count of the number of people who have said that they tried a grand tableau of all 36 cards for the first time with Kipper after only a month or two. For whatever reason, it’s just so much less intimidating than other systems.

And if you’re ready to try Kipper for yourself, we hope you find the waters of the Searborn Kipper to be warm and welcoming. We do.

Our thanks to Siolo and Thomas for their guest post! For more from Siolo Thompson and Thomas Witholt, read their article, “Meeting the Seaborn Kipper.”