True Magick Amber K

Until Silver Ravenwolf came onto the scene, "True Magick" by Amber K was the flagship intro to witchcraft book by Llewellyn Publications. It's cheap, small, easy to read, and the author has a sense of a humor that keeps things flowing pretty well. Of course, as this is an offering from Llewellyn, this book has been fluff-bunnified to the max. You won't find any inverted pentagrams , lengthy discussions on the moral or religious implications of assuming god-forms, information on the darker planes of existence, or any kind of instruction regarding anything but white light style magic. This is the safe and fun kind of book about witchcraft that teens show to their parents to prove they aren't worshiping the devil and casting hexes on the bullies at school. Despite all the sunshine and star drops going on here, if I had to recommend one book by Llewellyn it would be this one. Underneath the cutesy-wootsy exterior there are very solid ideas that will help the aspiring magus learn the basics of how magic works.

True Magick starts out with the standard "What magic is and isn't" chapter, explaining in painstaking detail how witchcraft is all cuteness and spiritual advancement, and certainly has nothing to do with any of those uncomfortable things like demons or devils. Surprisingly, Aleister Crowley is quoted here, and the book even gives some background info on Crowley. This immediately sets True Magick apart from all other fluff bunny manuals, as 99.9% of Wiccans like to conveniently pretend that Crowley never existed. Real witches don't do those sort of evil things, after all. Quite a bit of this book is devoted to really mundane things, like how to find a teacher or group of magicians, and how your physical and mental state can affect your magical ability. While this is all good info for the absolute beginner, it unfortunately means the rest of us get to wade through about 30 pages of Amber K's personal opinion on what sort of things people should and shouldn't be eating, how they should think and feel, etc.

All the customary (and completely unnecessary) "let's play dress up and have a ritual" info is present as well, with the cute little diagrams of people in robes and pictures of what a proper athame should look like. Skip past all this and you will get to the real information about magic. After all the ritualistic nonsense Amber K actually explains to the readers that the ritual is all just metaphor to more strongly align your will with your magical working - extreme kudos to her for not pulling the average, incredibly stupid "If you say these words and wave your wand this way while the moon is in this phase you are casting a spell" doctrine that a disturbing portion of the magical literature out there ascribes to. A really good method of using Will to bring about magical changes is presented in the form of a metaphor regarding the three "selves" - Younger Self, Talking Self, and Higher Self. Against all logic, the book then plunges back down into absurdity. Despite the fact that Amber K had just finished explaining how magic is really all about will power and raising energy, she then lists spells that are all about lighting a certain color candle while using a certain scent incense during a certain phase of the moon. Gah!! She was so doing so good, and then had to go back to stupid mode again! The book finishes off with a fairly comprehensive set of appendices such as a glossary of occult terms, and a table of correspondences between colors, elements, gods, etc.

If you are willing to wade through a whole lot of inane white light dogma, you will find some excellent occult concepts in "True Magick".