The Modern Witch's Spellbook
by Sarah Lyddon Morrison

Paperback: ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.71 x 8.29 x 5.44
Publisher: Lyle Stuart Hardcover; (May 1987)
ISBN: 0806503726
 

Simply put (but I promise to get more complex), there are not enough words in the English language (sadly, it's the only language I know, so I'm rather limited) to adequately ridicule and bash this book.

Appearing like any typical cookbook of spells, this book quickly loses any charm it ever thought of possessing when it gets to quickly talking about "true black witchcraft ceremonies."  What is most telling in this book is the continued mention of backfiring spells, chaos, repercussions and other pending disasters.  Seemingly written by some D&D, Vampire-playing Nerd-ess hell bent on throwing a little more madness into the world, Morrison instructs the readers in a large number of spells bent on ignoring any semblance of the respecting of free will or exhibition of ethics.  Spells involve such activities as gathering fresh dung from a crossroads and include wording such as "If _____ [insert your loved one's name] strays, let her burn in hellish fire." 

But that's just the beginning.  There's a whole section solely dedicated to "hate magic," with spells to bring about "Torment, But Not Permanent Injury," "To Cause A Lot of Agony," and "To Maim and Kill."  Morrison admits glibly that "Not everyone can practice black death magic," so I suppose we should be grateful for that.  The author schools the reader how to avoid the pesky guilt that can result from such magic (and, she laments, cause the spell to be ineffective) and in knowing what targets need killing by magic and which need mere maiming.   Through the inclusion of a good bit of dead bugs and in one particular ritual, instructs the reader to spend three days reading the Bible naked, then eat a communion wafer and drink a glass of wine at midnight of the third day. 

While I do not consider myself a blush ingénue by any means, I was deeply offended that this book is on the market.  It makes us all look bad and furthers the unreasonable stereotypes that true Witches have fought against for decades.  All Witches with any kind of tenure in The Craft knows that one must be as knowledgeable of the harsher side of Craft as the lighter side.  As Z Budapest says, "A Witch who cannot curse, cannot heal," but the extreme lack of conscience and responsibility displayed in this book is heartbreaking to the extreme and only serves to further the negativity associated with Craft, both from the external of the world and the internal by polluting our energies with this crap.

The saddest part of all is that there are sequels. 

A weeping, disdainful negative 5 pentacles out of five.
This book owes me 5 to break even

Review by Katrina Rasbold