All My Friends Are Funeral Singers

Posted on December 15, 2011 by newworldwitchery

All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, directed by Tim Rutili (IndiePix Films, 2010) The supernatural has never seemed so…natural. In this outstanding independent film from director (and bit player/musician) Tim Rutili, a lonely fortune-teller and magical worker named Zel (played by the radiant Angela Bettis) lives in an old country house inhabited by a wide [...]

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American Mystic

Posted on December 15, 2011 by newworldwitchery

American Mystic, directed by Alex Mar (Empire 8 Productions, 2010) Spiritual documentaries are tricky things. They can come across as editorializing and biased; shallow puff-pieces; or overly-detached and sterile. When fringe spirituality enters the picture, the tendency is to become sensational and turn the entire film into a circus sideshow where the audience is just [...]

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Old World Witchcraft

Posted on December 15, 2011 by newworldwitchery

Grimassi, Raven. (2011) Old World Witchcraft. Weiser, San Francisco. Raven Grimassi’s name crops up in discussions of southern European witchcraft frequently. He has produced a number of books on stregheria, the Italian folk-magic/religion which may or may not have been a major influence on authors like Charles Leland in the 19th century. He also presents [...]

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The Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook

Posted on December 15, 2011 by newworldwitchery

Alvarado, Denise. (2011) The Voodoo-Hoodoo Spellbook. Weiser, San Francisco. A surge of interest has bubbled up around the folk magical system known as hoodoo in recent years. Many have been pursuing online courses, reading everything they can get their hands on, and buying up mojo bags and condition oils at a breakneck pace. During this [...]

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The Book of English Magic

Posted on December 15, 2011 by newworldwitchery

Carr-Gomm, Philip, and Richard Heygate (2010).  The Book of English Magic. Overlook, New York. If you have spent much time studying occult literature, you know that Great Britain is rife with magical lore: fairies, Arthurian legends, druidry, cunning folk, etc. There have been many who have attempted to collect that literature and lore over the [...]

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The Weiser Field Guide to Witches

Posted on August 18, 2011 by newworldwitchery

Illes, Judika (2010). The Weiser Field Guide to Witches. Weiser, San Francisco. In the past year or so, Weiser Publishing has begun releasing a series of what it terms “field guides” to various topics: the paranormal, cryptozoology, etc. The idea seems to be that creating small, portable compendiums of knowledge which go beyond a dictionary [...]

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Promises to Keep

Posted on August 10, 2011 by newworldwitchery

De Lint, Charles (2007). Promises to Keep. Tachyon, San Francisco. Charles De Lint’s work frequently gets compared to other literary fantasy writers: Neil Gaiman, Kurt Vonnegut, Terry Pratchett, etc. In Promises to Keep, De Lint’s 2007 entry into his Newford story canon, the atmosphere of the book certainly evokes the best literary fantasy, but the [...]

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Occult America: White House Seances, Ouija Circles, Masons, and the Secret Mystic History of Our Nation

Posted on November 10, 2010 by newworldwitchery

(This review is also posted at New World Witchery, a blog about magic and witchcraft in North America) Occult America: White House Seances, Ouija Circles, Masons, and the Secret Mystic History of Our Nation by Mitch Horowitz Bantam Books, 2009 (304 pages) This popular history of metaphysical thought in the United States has brought mainstream [...]

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