Grimoire of Pope Honorious

The Complete Grimoire of Pope Honorius by David Rankine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Could you believe that Catholic Popes used to practice magic? Yeah that is write they summoned demons, Angels and other spirits to do their bidding. This Grimoire is one of the oust famous. It has had an impact on several other European grimoires. Most notable would be the Red Dragon Grimoire. It maybe have been influenced by the keys of Solomon and the works of Cornelius Agrippa. There were also several addition to this Grimoire.

The Grimoire has it's most value as a historical document to study. The book has several invocations including one to have the book bless the owner. There are several ways of calling quarters and casting a circle depending on how you want too do your working. There are also secrets or folk magic spells on how to win games , cure sicknesses, win over a lover and to dominate a lover. The appendices are rather lengthy and at times they seem to be space fillers. Several entries will say that the spell is mentioned elsewhere.

A big question that remains is how useful is the book. The invocations can used and adopted for those who are pagans r anything but CHristian. Some of the working call for serial days of fasting and some of them call for items that would involve the harm of animals to obtain. Such things are not useful, especially when it comes to hurting animals to get stuff. Fasting is rather difficult. The authors name various intelligences and when to work with them. This is useful.

I myself grind Grimoire magic rather complicated and hard t figure out. I prefer something a bit more on the simple side. Reading vast amounts of material and experimenting can help you figure that out.

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The Darkspears in World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde by Michael A. Stackpole
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tying in books to video games has become en vogue for a good many years now. This series is based on the online subscription game World of War Craft. The story centers around a troll named Vol’jin leader of the Dark Spears. The rest of the characters are dog like or furry creatures called Pandaren and of course they live on Pandaria, an island continent that kin of reminds me of Australia. The shado Pan are Pandarian monks ho practice martial arts that enhance their mental powers. These monks are clearly based on the Shaolin Monks of China.
A little background on the story. Pnadaria used to be controlled by the Mogu, giant magical beings that seems to live forever. They ha been buried a god long time an no want to rise with the help of the Zandalari, powerful troll nation. An armed conflict I raging between the human Alliance and the trollish Horde. The trolls, or at least many of them wish to revive the old troll empire an rule the world. The story line itself is rather simple, Chen a brewmaster is called to a river in order to rescue and heal a wounded troll. That troll is Vol’jin who was set up by his leader Garrosh. Being ambushed in a cave by Surok creatures and ogres, Vol’jin is thought to be dead. While healing at the monastery he befriends a human named Tarathan. Together they become friends and allies against a Zandalari /Mogu invasion.During the invasion they offer resistance, get captured and then set traps for the invaders. At the end is an intense conflict.

The story line to this rather simple as you have just read above, there is a lot of going inside the characters head and dealing with l their thought. Some of them are rather extraneous and not important to the plot nor story line. The book was somewhat difficult at times to get into. But over ll an enjoyable read.

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Nordic Folk Magic

Trolldom - Spells and Methods of the Norse Folk MagicTradition by Johannes Gårdbäck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Finally a book on Norse Folk magic! The book is mostly a collection of various spells used for a variety of reasons. The spells are based on pre Christian methods but in reality a variety of spiritual entities are called upon. Occasionally Thor and Odin will show up in a spell, on even more occasions the devil and his demons will be summoned, and finally most of all the Christian deities of Jesus, Mother Mary and the Holy Ghost are invoked. The reason the methods survived and not the belief in deity is that when Christianity took over, the Norse used the same spells and prayer but adopted them too different saints and other spiritual creatures in the Christian Pantheon. So the saints after a while get the prayers.

Trolldom is any sort of magic that falls outside the official purview of the Church. The spells include the usual gambit of blessing the field and cattle, protecting the cattle and farmstead from both magic and regular human assault. There are a variety of spells for revenge, hunting luck, getting Justice , so forth and so on. There is also extensive discussion on divination and talk of the different spiritual creatures that are still worked with.

While I am not too sure about how many people use this magic, I think the numbers are dwindling. The spells are relatively simple which would qualify this as low magic, or magic to obtain things. Some of them are impractical cause they ask you to take the parts of a dead man, or hair of an intended lover or put something in their food. No one is going to do that. There are other spells that can be used and they are simple to perform.

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Meet the Krampus: The Christmas Devil

The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas: Roots and Rebirth of the Folkloric Devil by Al Ridenour
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dang where do I begin. This book is totally awesome. It tells you everything about the Krampus and then then some. Being the first time that someone puts out an information book about Krampus and on that does not get caught up in any Neo _Pagan craziness or New Agey stuff just makes m want to jump up and down for joy. I am going to apologize in advance because there is so much information and so many details that any summary I give will not do this justice. There are many German names that I will not get straight and I have to hand it to Al he did a bang em up job going to all the towns in the Alpine area which is Krampus’ home and doing the research and reporting on the various Krampus events.
Krampus is not that old. Having ben put on posts cards in the 1850”s his existence is perhaps one to two hundred years. Yet his roots stretch back been further. The Krampuslauf or Krampus run seems to have started perhaps around the turn of the century. In different towns like Gastein there are Krampuspasses or Krampus clubs. They require permits now days. But in the past performers wore wood carved masks that resemble in some cases African masks. Making the masques is an art and there is frowning down upon innovations that alter the Krampus outfit. Now according to lore the Krampus helps Saint Nicholas by punishing bad kids while he gives out the gifts. The book traces th evolution of Church plays and Saint Nicholasmarches into how they evolved into the Krampus run. The book also covers a variety of Krampus like creatures.
The Krampus and by the ay that is not a character name but rather the name of his species sem to have origins that go back to the German Goddess Perchta. She I a goddess who would lead a procession during select days of the Christmas season. In her train are various creatues called Perchten, and they come in light and dark varieties. Perchta or Frau Holle had a dual role. Mostly associated with the spindle and house cleaning chores she would reward those who left food out for her and kept the house clean. Those who kept a messy house she would punish by eating, burning and what not. The wild Hunt with Odin leading a menagerie of people who dies early or whatever provides another source for he Krampus run.
The Perchten also had their runs but the traditions which in many ways are similar. Oten borrow from each other.Borth developed separately on to tracks but ten t seems like they are looking for each other. What has been rendered in this review is a partial summary. Read the book for more details’ strongly advise it.


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The Life of a Kurdish Girl in Turkey

The Little Virgin Whore by KA SEFIKA
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you are a non-Turkish girl in Turkey things can get really rough for you. By non-Turkish I mean Assyrian, Armenian, Greek and Kurdish. Minorities have no real rights in Turkey even if they are Muslim. If you ae a female it is even tougher. Women are treated like second class citizens. They are subject to abuse by males with no recourse to defend themselves. Females are exploited, harassed and even raped at times. Fathers beat their daughters and a female offspring is viewed as a burden.

The story starts off with Seren, a young Kurdish girl from Adana, Turkey who is studying at a college in Smyrna. After debates with her friends she graduates but none of her family even shows up. An Uncle Alp shows up though and pretends to have fatherly feelings toward her. When she returns to Adana, her abusive father can do nothing but curs her or being alive and her enabling mother just goes along with it. After a few days her father throws her out of the house. Seren goes back to Smyrna to find a job as a nurse. Uncle Alp takes her in. Pretty soon though neighbors’ tongues are wagging with all sorts of speculation. In addition to finding a job, she lots has to cope with epilepsy. When she does land a job in the dialysis unit she realizes that they are treated no better than slaves. On a daily basis she is subjected to intimidation and nosiness. She does her best to hide her Kurdish origins. Corruption reigns supreme when a patient commits suicide after contracting hepatitis from the unit. Al the nurses are forced to sign document or lose their jobs. Seren in the meantime is exploited by Uncle Alp. A neighbor assaults her and takes pictures and after realizing that she is Kurdish like him he ends up feeling remorseful and repents to Allah. He will get his just deserts. Later on she goes to Ankara to train for more advancement. The story peeks into the lives of girls who can e harassed on the street at will, raped or even impregnated by a boyfriend who ends up leaving them. Once a woman’s virtue is gone it is hard for her to get married. In the end she realizes she must leave Turkey if she can ever self-actualize.

I would give this book three stars based on the virtue of its insight into Turkish society and what females there have to endure. The writing style is very choppy and sort o hard to get into. The translation rigid and non-flowing. The dialogue is like cardboard. If they could do a better job of editing this book might earn a higher rating.


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