Magick Made Easy (Patricia Telesco)

Magick Made Easy
Patricia Telesco
HarperCollins
Nonfiction, Magic
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: Cauldrons, broomsticks, eye of newt... real folk magick has never been like most popular descriptions make it sound. It's often been much smaller and more practical, a personal sort of magick and manifestation that still holds relevance today. The author offers tips on materials and rituals for today's magick workers.

REVIEW: Another potential idea-sparker, I picked this up on discount. Telesco doesn't offer step-by-step spells or cleansing rituals or other such things. Mostly, she gives an overview of what "real" magick is, which seems to boil down to focusing one's intent and using ritual and specific items as props to help with manifestation or thought change. Teleseco then offers long, alphabetized lists of items and their "meanings" and associations in spellcraft, with the frequent reminder that one's own interpretation and gut reactions ultimately trump any belief handed down from previous cultures or generations. I found the lists only vaguely useful; aside from the alphabet, they were disorganized, and some of her descriptions were vague or incomplete. (At one point, she refers to the ruby slippers of The Wizard of Oz - though, if she'd actually read the book, she'd know they were silver originally. A minor thing, but it made me wonder about the depth of research in other entries.) To be honest, I started skimming round about the B's. On the plus side, she included thoughts on the magical potential of the modern world, bringing folk magick into the twenty-first (well, twentieth, as it was published in 1999) century. Her writing is also reasonably clear and accessible, without losing itself in esoteric terms or concepts, which earned it the extra half-star over Okay. It isn't a bad book, and would likely be useful to someone looking to try a little folk magick for the first time, but it failed to really engage my interest or imagination.

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