Items related to Book of Shadows
"Most people know intuitively that when you fall in love the world is full of magic. What they don't know is that when you discover the universe is full of magic, you fall in love with the world."
When high-powered Manhattan lawyer Phyllis Curott began exploring Witchcraft, she discovered a spiritual movement that defied all stereotypes. Encountering neither satanic rites nor eccentric spinsters, she came to know a clandestine religion of the Goddess that had been forced into hiding over the course of history. Book of Shadows recounts Curott's remarkable initiation into Wicca (meaning "wise one") and shares her insights as a high priestess of an elegant, ancient spirituality that celebrates the magic of being alive.
An Ivy-league graduate and promising lawyer, Curott was a typical young woman in her twenties, determined to forge a law career within the burgeoning, male-dominated music industry. But when she began having prophetic dreams and mysterious visions of ancient female figures and unfamiliar symbols, she discovered an unexpected world of magic and began searching for a rational explanation. When her friend Sophia--a practicing Witch--suggested having her cards read by a Wiccan High Priestess, Curott instinctively dismissed the idea, but then forced her natural skepticism aside on the chance that this age-old practice might help her understand the unusual occurrences in her life.
Thus begins her journey into the magical world of Witchcraft, a religion originally practiced by priestesses, shamans, and healers that empowers our lives by working with the natural cycles of nature. Fascinated by this pre-Judeo-Christian religion that honors women as the embodiment of the Goddess and emphasizes respect and love for the natural world, Curott began attending a local coven's weekly circle to learn the sacred arts. Her Book of Shadows chronicles her ascent to the position of Wiccan High Priestess and her efforts to reconcile her newfound spirituality with her struggles as a woman rising through the ranks of the corporate world. Along the way, Curott relates the history of Witchcraft and shares many traditional Wiccan practices, such as casting a circle, drawing down the Goddess, harnessing the powers of the natural world, and casting spells for health, prosperity, and love.
Engagingly written and rich with detailed rituals and techniques, this inspirational book traces a modern woman's spiritual journey into a realm of extraordinary experience and enlightenment. Book of Shadows provides us with the keys to discover an enchanted world of divine empowerment so as to unlock the power that lies within us all.
When high-powered Manhattan lawyer Phyllis Curott began exploring Witchcraft, she discovered a spiritual movement that defied all stereotypes. Encountering neither satanic rites nor eccentric spinsters, she came to know a clandestine religion of the Goddess that had been forced into hiding over the course of history. Book of Shadows recounts Curott's remarkable initiation into Wicca (meaning "wise one") and shares her insights as a high priestess of an elegant, ancient spirituality that celebrates the magic of being alive.
An Ivy-league graduate and promising lawyer, Curott was a typical young woman in her twenties, determined to forge a law career within the burgeoning, male-dominated music industry. But when she began having prophetic dreams and mysterious visions of ancient female figures and unfamiliar symbols, she discovered an unexpected world of magic and began searching for a rational explanation. When her friend Sophia--a practicing Witch--suggested having her cards read by a Wiccan High Priestess, Curott instinctively dismissed the idea, but then forced her natural skepticism aside on the chance that this age-old practice might help her understand the unusual occurrences in her life.
Thus begins her journey into the magical world of Witchcraft, a religion originally practiced by priestesses, shamans, and healers that empowers our lives by working with the natural cycles of nature. Fascinated by this pre-Judeo-Christian religion that honors women as the embodiment of the Goddess and emphasizes respect and love for the natural world, Curott began attending a local coven's weekly circle to learn the sacred arts. Her Book of Shadows chronicles her ascent to the position of Wiccan High Priestess and her efforts to reconcile her newfound spirituality with her struggles as a woman rising through the ranks of the corporate world. Along the way, Curott relates the history of Witchcraft and shares many traditional Wiccan practices, such as casting a circle, drawing down the Goddess, harnessing the powers of the natural world, and casting spells for health, prosperity, and love.
Engagingly written and rich with detailed rituals and techniques, this inspirational book traces a modern woman's spiritual journey into a realm of extraordinary experience and enlightenment. Book of Shadows provides us with the keys to discover an enchanted world of divine empowerment so as to unlock the power that lies within us all.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
High Priestess Phyllis Curott is president emerita of the oldest and largest international religious organization in the Wiccan tradition and has been widely profiled in the media as a public figure and advocate for Wiccan Spirituality. A graduate of Brown University, she holds a law degree from the New York University School of Law and is a practicing attorney. She divides her time between New York City and Long Island.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
Thousands of years ago, the Sumerians created a legendary collection of invocations to the Goddess, ordaining their magical corpus of poetry and songs a "Book of Shadows." Over time, Book of Shadows has come to refer to a Witch's journal, a record of spiritual wisdom, a diary of spells, songs, chants, rituals, and invocations. This is my Book of Shadows, the story of my first encounter with the ancient ways of the Goddess. It is the true story of a modern woman's spiritual journey into a realm long forgotten by Western culture. It is a chronicle of discovery, challenge, and transformation.
Over the past two decades, as a High Priestess and a teacher of the Old Religion, I have found when I mention the word Witch, it often brings to people's minds images of hurly-burly hags casting spells, licentious young women consorting with the devil, and wizards commanding supernatural demons to appear. On the lighter side, they might think of glamorous Veronica Lake in I Married a Witch, sexy Kim Novak in Bell, Book and Candle, or the adorable TV Witches in Bewitched and Sabrina lending some desperately needed excitement, as well as some unexpected morality, to the American suburbs. Or perhaps they will remember, with a child's delight, The Wizard of Oz and Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, who tells young Dorothy the power to find her happiness, and her way home, has been with her all along. This last image comes closest to capturing the real and unknown truth about Witchcraft.
Like most people, there was a time when I thought Witches existed only in the realm of make-believe. Whether they were real, and whether they actually had magical powers, were not questions I even considered as a philosophy student at Brown University, and certainly not later as a young practicing Manhattan attorney. After all, why would a well-educated, professional woman be interested Witches, let alone willingly become one?
Then, twenty years ago, a series of mysterious coincidences led me to a world where I discovered the answers not only to these questions, but to questions buried at the center of my soul--questions, it turns out, millions of people also want answered, for the answers are the hope for humanity's future as we enter a new millennium. How are we to find our lost souls? How can we rediscover the sacred from which we have been separated for thousands of years? How can we live free of fear and filled with divine love and compassion? How can we find and fulfill our magical destinies? How can we restore and protect this Eden, which is our fragile planet?
The answers were not found in the domain of make-believe, but in the place one might least expect to find them--in the hidden world of real Witches. But contrary to the clichÚs in fairy tales and Hollywood films, Witchcraft is not a subculture of satanic rites enacted by wacky spinsters or mad demonologists. It is an ancient, elegant spirituality that revives the magic of being alive--the kind of magic we have always longed for, but sadly assumed only came true in storybooks.
Wicca, as Witchcraft is most often referred to by contemporary practitioners, is the renaissance of a pre-Hebraic, pre-Christian, and pre-Islamic Goddess spirituality. The word Witch actually comes from the old Anglo-Saxon word wicce, meaning "wise one," a seer, a priestess, or shaman who is able to work with unseen, divine forces. Witches were the singers of sacred songs, the midwives and healers, guides and teachers of the Goddess's spiritual wisdom. Like Native Americans, Taoists, Australian Aborigines, the Yoruban tribes in Africa, Eskimos, Hawaiians, Lapps, and other indigenous peoples, the people of old Europe and the Fertile Crescent lived close to the earth and respected their relationship with nature as sacred, for they experienced their world as the embodiment of the divine.
The shamanic practices of the Old Religion enabled women and men to attune their psyches and their daily lives to the cycles of nature and the mystical wisdom found in the earth's profound rhythms. A spirituality of divine empowerment, the holy magic practiced by Witches, shamans, priestesses, and mystics celebrated an enlightened connection to the earth.
Their sacred truths have been passed down by magical orders and within families, who carefully preserved the religion of the great Goddess. Those who practiced the old ways--in southern Italy, in the small towns of the British Isles, and, several centuries later, in rural parts of West Virginia and New England--were forced to do so secretly, having been driven underground nearly five hundred years ago, when accusations of Satanism first arose. From these accusations came the "Witchcraze," the Church's crusade to suppress the Old Religion of the Goddess and establish religious hegemony in Europe. Hundreds of thousands were killed in an unholy campaign, most of whom were women, who suffered great losses in economic and social power. But this was not the only wound to Western culture. The ancient knowledge of the village wise woman, and man, was nearly lost, as the sacred rites that maintained the connection between people, the earth, and the divine were rent asunder.
Hundreds of years after the Witchcraze, the archetype of the horrific hag continues to hold tremendous power as a repository for modern culture's fear of women, sexuality, and individual freedom. The repulsive crone has become our guardian at the gate, challenging our readiness to enter a world of ecstasy and enchantment. Those with courage, curiosity, compassion, and a taste for adventure may confront her, and when they do, behind the mask of the wicked Witch, they will find the beatific face of the Great Goddess.
As a young woman at the start of my career, I began studying with priestesses of the Goddess. They introduced me to the timeless arts of spiritual transformation, imparting tools and techniques that anyone can use to experience the divine within themselves and in the world around them. I entered a realm of magic that was as ancient as the history of humanity, and as modern as the theories of quantum physics. And their ways enabled me to see the world as vibrantly, divinely alive, rich with wisdom and beauty.
Since I first began practicing the secret arts of the sacred earth, Goddess spirituality has emerged from the shadows of misunderstanding as the fastest growing spiritual practice in the United States. I have addressed the public, the media, the legal system, Church congregations, the Parliament of the World's Religions, and United Nations conferences. I have taught the wisdom of the Great Goddess. I have found a beacon of truth, a torch that I offer for your journey into the future, into realms of wonder, magic, and divinity.
We are entering a new era, an age of the Divine Feminine, when the illumined power of women and men will bring new life to a dying world. It is a time of critical change that depends upon our spiritual awakening, a collective epiphany, a summoning of the sacred into our lives. Now is the time for the Goddess's return, for the return of our lost souls. For the return of life to a world laid waste by spiritual and environmental crises. Through the re-empowerment of the feminine principle, our world can become a holy vessel of connectedness, grace, and joy for all. With Her return, we will rediscover the Paradise which dwells within and which encircles us on this sacred, beloved planet.
Over the past two decades, as a High Priestess and a teacher of the Old Religion, I have found when I mention the word Witch, it often brings to people's minds images of hurly-burly hags casting spells, licentious young women consorting with the devil, and wizards commanding supernatural demons to appear. On the lighter side, they might think of glamorous Veronica Lake in I Married a Witch, sexy Kim Novak in Bell, Book and Candle, or the adorable TV Witches in Bewitched and Sabrina lending some desperately needed excitement, as well as some unexpected morality, to the American suburbs. Or perhaps they will remember, with a child's delight, The Wizard of Oz and Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, who tells young Dorothy the power to find her happiness, and her way home, has been with her all along. This last image comes closest to capturing the real and unknown truth about Witchcraft.
Like most people, there was a time when I thought Witches existed only in the realm of make-believe. Whether they were real, and whether they actually had magical powers, were not questions I even considered as a philosophy student at Brown University, and certainly not later as a young practicing Manhattan attorney. After all, why would a well-educated, professional woman be interested Witches, let alone willingly become one?
Then, twenty years ago, a series of mysterious coincidences led me to a world where I discovered the answers not only to these questions, but to questions buried at the center of my soul--questions, it turns out, millions of people also want answered, for the answers are the hope for humanity's future as we enter a new millennium. How are we to find our lost souls? How can we rediscover the sacred from which we have been separated for thousands of years? How can we live free of fear and filled with divine love and compassion? How can we find and fulfill our magical destinies? How can we restore and protect this Eden, which is our fragile planet?
The answers were not found in the domain of make-believe, but in the place one might least expect to find them--in the hidden world of real Witches. But contrary to the clichÚs in fairy tales and Hollywood films, Witchcraft is not a subculture of satanic rites enacted by wacky spinsters or mad demonologists. It is an ancient, elegant spirituality that revives the magic of being alive--the kind of magic we have always longed for, but sadly assumed only came true in storybooks.
Wicca, as Witchcraft is most often referred to by contemporary practitioners, is the renaissance of a pre-Hebraic, pre-Christian, and pre-Islamic Goddess spirituality. The word Witch actually comes from the old Anglo-Saxon word wicce, meaning "wise one," a seer, a priestess, or shaman who is able to work with unseen, divine forces. Witches were the singers of sacred songs, the midwives and healers, guides and teachers of the Goddess's spiritual wisdom. Like Native Americans, Taoists, Australian Aborigines, the Yoruban tribes in Africa, Eskimos, Hawaiians, Lapps, and other indigenous peoples, the people of old Europe and the Fertile Crescent lived close to the earth and respected their relationship with nature as sacred, for they experienced their world as the embodiment of the divine.
The shamanic practices of the Old Religion enabled women and men to attune their psyches and their daily lives to the cycles of nature and the mystical wisdom found in the earth's profound rhythms. A spirituality of divine empowerment, the holy magic practiced by Witches, shamans, priestesses, and mystics celebrated an enlightened connection to the earth.
Their sacred truths have been passed down by magical orders and within families, who carefully preserved the religion of the great Goddess. Those who practiced the old ways--in southern Italy, in the small towns of the British Isles, and, several centuries later, in rural parts of West Virginia and New England--were forced to do so secretly, having been driven underground nearly five hundred years ago, when accusations of Satanism first arose. From these accusations came the "Witchcraze," the Church's crusade to suppress the Old Religion of the Goddess and establish religious hegemony in Europe. Hundreds of thousands were killed in an unholy campaign, most of whom were women, who suffered great losses in economic and social power. But this was not the only wound to Western culture. The ancient knowledge of the village wise woman, and man, was nearly lost, as the sacred rites that maintained the connection between people, the earth, and the divine were rent asunder.
Hundreds of years after the Witchcraze, the archetype of the horrific hag continues to hold tremendous power as a repository for modern culture's fear of women, sexuality, and individual freedom. The repulsive crone has become our guardian at the gate, challenging our readiness to enter a world of ecstasy and enchantment. Those with courage, curiosity, compassion, and a taste for adventure may confront her, and when they do, behind the mask of the wicked Witch, they will find the beatific face of the Great Goddess.
As a young woman at the start of my career, I began studying with priestesses of the Goddess. They introduced me to the timeless arts of spiritual transformation, imparting tools and techniques that anyone can use to experience the divine within themselves and in the world around them. I entered a realm of magic that was as ancient as the history of humanity, and as modern as the theories of quantum physics. And their ways enabled me to see the world as vibrantly, divinely alive, rich with wisdom and beauty.
Since I first began practicing the secret arts of the sacred earth, Goddess spirituality has emerged from the shadows of misunderstanding as the fastest growing spiritual practice in the United States. I have addressed the public, the media, the legal system, Church congregations, the Parliament of the World's Religions, and United Nations conferences. I have taught the wisdom of the Great Goddess. I have found a beacon of truth, a torch that I offer for your journey into the future, into realms of wonder, magic, and divinity.
We are entering a new era, an age of the Divine Feminine, when the illumined power of women and men will bring new life to a dying world. It is a time of critical change that depends upon our spiritual awakening, a collective epiphany, a summoning of the sacred into our lives. Now is the time for the Goddess's return, for the return of our lost souls. For the return of life to a world laid waste by spiritual and environmental crises. Through the re-empowerment of the feminine principle, our world can become a holy vessel of connectedness, grace, and joy for all. With Her return, we will rediscover the Paradise which dwells within and which encircles us on this sacred, beloved planet.
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- PublisherHarmony
- Publication date1998
- ISBN 10 0767900545
- ISBN 13 9780767900546
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages320
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