I bought a book on cursing, bottling, and binding. I'm really only in it for the bottling and binding, as I'm pretty sure I know how to curse someone. For the most part, the book is actually just a historical account of a lot of known curses. That's fascinating in its own right, as people everywhere had a variety of ways to f*ck someone over who'd f*cked them over first, but I was looking for more of a primer.
The ancient Greek lead tablets with writing on them (you see one being made in the show "Rome"), the curse of blacksmiths and windows on the kings of England (what Brit has ever liked their current king? Non, that's who.), and Jezus defiling property by cursing a fig tree into oblivion in a fit of pique for having the audacity to not produce fruit for him to nosh on out of season.
I've only read about 40 pages in and already have curses from Egypt to New Orleans. I'm hoping that somewhere near the back is a section on mechanics of throwing curses. What's the point of telling us that you can melt a wax figure of someone to curse them into loving you if you don't know any more of the components? Like what kind of wax, what make of pin, where do you put the remnants of the spell?What if you want to end a curse? There's no way to end a curse. The author seems pretty set on this fact and reiterates in in the front of the book and through the curse type sections pretty well. She also has several instances where she tells you directly that for specific spells there is definitely going to be a price to pay.
So far so good for my first kindle book. I bought it after seeing it was only $5 on Amazon and thinking I usually spend that on candy from Dollar Tree once a week. What if I spent that on books instead? Going to build up a digital library this way. And this way I won't have to share the books with sisters who like to spill everything from wax to chocolate milk on anything and everything.
Not to mention how much she bangs a book up before giving it back. Books she's had new for three weeks look worse than books I bought used 15 years ago. Bless her cotton picking heart.
I became interested in the author because of another book I'd read where the author gave the preface. Some instances of the book have her listed as the author and since I LOVE the Coarse Witchcraft Trilogy I wanted other works by her. Coarse Witchcraft often talks about cursing and since it was a new subject to me that some people are so open to it I became curious. It was really this idea of "bottling" that did it for me. So far in this book bottling is only mentioned once and I hope it goes into more detail later on, as the one given was nothing more than putting meat in a jar.
So I guess I'm adding new books to my collection. Maybe I should do that for all the holidays: buy a book that correlates to that holiday.
Other books I want to get include a history of Native Americans in Oregon and well as a book about the history of Portland, Or. If there is anything that "A Witch Alone" taught me it is that if you're going to live somewhere and have the audacity to call yourself a witch then you had better be able to walk your talk. Not even knowing moon lore or where the local sacred places of your area are is a travesty. I love British authors and their ability to demand that you do your homework in all areas, not just purely magical ones.
Other books I want to get are herbology books on local foliage, lore books on local trees - as well as to track these trees down like Proff. Mary had us doing in her shamanism class - lore about my personal spirit animals, and more books on the religion of the Natives of this area.
My mythology class did more for teaching me what people in this area considered sacred and held dear than anything else. It's from these roots that the village witch needs to draw her power. She needs to know why salmon are important to this area, and who Coyote is, as well as the courses of the rivers - and there are a lot of them - and the lay of all the different terrains of this state. We have everything from desert to sea, from sweeping forests to mountains that clear the clouds. We even have a volcano. Wouldn't the Native Locals know whats what when dealing with these forces?
Some people are a priestess of only the sea. Or only the dessert. Or only the forest (druids). I aim not to be a fully-fledged priestess of all of these, but I certainly want to be a witch in tune with all of them and fully within my ability to feel, breath, read, and appreciate all of them.
"To Know" is the first tenant of the Witch's Pyramid. Education is my first challenge. "To Will" is the second tenant. Deciding what to do with my knowledge is my second challenge. "To Dare" is the third tenant. Finding the sacred and making contact is my third challenge. "To be Silent" is the fourth tenant. Not scattering my essence to the wind by oversharing my wisdom.
Salutations,
Sesh
