Divination

Spirit Walking, A Psychic Handbook:

Spirit Walking, A Psychic Handbook: 
The Definitive Guide to Living and Working with the Unseen  
by Poppy Palin
O Books, 2007

 

While I wouldn’t necessarily call this book the definitive guide, it’s a fairly thorough guide to the basics involved in a magical practice. The author addresses a wide variety of subjects from protection to astral travel, from working with faeries to doing the necessary banishing and cleansing after all the magical work is done.

This would be an excellent book to get for someone just starting out, because it provides a nice balance between magical theory and its practical application. I also like it because it doesn’t present a particular religious perspective, but does provide a solid focus on actual techniques.

One section I particularly liked was the exercises for creating an astral office. The author provided clear instructions that anyone could follow, without a lot of pretension, and with a focus on helping the reader get a good sense of what each direction of the astral office should look like as well as getting in touch with the intuitive aspects of the senses.

I only had one issue with this book, and that quite simply is that while it is well-written, it is yet another 101 book. It provides good exercises and explanations, but it doesn’t offer much in the way of innovative work. I’d still recommend it over the majority of similar books but I have to admit I was hoping for something a bit more creative. That said, go right ahead and pick this up if you are just starting out in magical practice — or as an excellent Solstice gift for someone who is.

TAYLOR ELLWOOD.

RATING: 4½ Broomsticks

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