Chaos Wicca : A Beginner's Guide

 

Pop Magick

By Alex Kazemi

Pop Magick by Alex Kazemi is an incredible guide because it completely simplifies the practice of magick. The book is packed with practical techniques and deep insights. In the first section, Kazemi establishes his definitions of magick and explains how to manifest your desires. While traditional definitions often focus on altering consciousness in accordance with your will, Alex frames it as bending reality to your will. I loved this approach immediately. Alex is someone who genuinely lives his dream; he works in the entertainment industry and openly credits magick for helping him break through and get there.

Alex keeps things simple, embracing a modern Chaos Magick philosophy that instructs you to do whatever works best for you. He breaks down four core types of spellwork:

• Candle Magick: Instead of forcing you to follow a rigid guidebook, Alex teaches you to use colors and oils in ways that are personally meaningful to you. If a traditional book says red stands for passion, but it means something entirely different to you, you go with your intuition.
• Sigil Magick: Pulling directly from the Chaos Magick tradition founded by Austin Osman Spare, this technique requires you to write out an intention, cross out all repeating letters, and arrange the remaining letters into a unique design. Once created, you charge the sigil with energy and then destroy it by burying or burning it.
• Elemental Magick: This involves working with the four elements to manifest your desires—using Water for emotions, Fire for passion, Earth for grounding and success, and Air for new ideas.
• Lust Magick: This practice utilizes sexual energy, instructing you to hold a strong visualization of your intention during a climax, either alone or with a partner.

Beyond these spells, the book explores mental alchemy across several chapters, teaching you how to transmute heavy or negative energy into productive focus. For example, he guides you to visualize a negative urge as a specific color and then consciously shift that color into a more empowering feeling.

Everything in this book is much more accessible than what you typically find in older occult texts. To charge a tool like a wand or an athame, Alex explains that you can simply hold it under a full moon or visualize your own energy flowing directly from your hands into the object.

While Kazemi leans heavily into Chaos Magick, he still maintains a deep belief in divinity. However, in Pop Magick, you don't have to work with traditional deities. If a superhero, pop star, or entertainment icon carries the specific energy you are looking to tap into, you can use them as an archetype instead. His take on spirits and angels is equally fascinating: he suggests that spirits are fluid rather than rigidly named, meaning that when you call out to a specific entity, whatever ambient spirit is hanging around might answer the call.

If you want a practical, fluff-free entry point into modern witchcraft, this book is a must-read. Does it call to you like it did me?

Witchking of America

 High Priest 

By Jason Mankey

Raymond Buckland is the "father of American witchcraft," credited with single-handedly spreading Wicca and witchcraft across the United States. Born in London in 1934 to an English mother and a Romani-heritage father, he developed early passions for theater from his father and spiritualism from his Romani aunt. After relocating to New York to work for the British Overseas Airways Corporation, his interest in spiritualism led him to Gerald Gardner's book Witchcraft Today. Buckland contacted Gardner's museum, which put him in touch with the Wilsons, who initiated him into the craft during an era of rigid male/female binaries, rapid elevations, and immense pressure to recruit.

As a major innovator, Buckland transformed modern witchcraft by introducing new concepts that made the craft more accessible. He co-created the "Outer Court," allowing prospective witches to practice a simplified version of the craft prior to formal initiation, with Ed Fitch later writing its material. He also founded Seax-Wicca, a Saxon-themed tradition based on the old Norse god that completely eliminated formal rankings and allowed anyone to practice without a traditional initiation. Additionally, Buckland published books on Romani witchcraft that introduced the wider public to Romani culture, magic, and entertainment before his death.

An Atmospheric and Informative Journey into Alpine Lore

 

Krampus, Witches and the Wild Hunt

By Christian Bruner, Sophie Reyer and Wolfgang Liemberger

Krampus, Witches, and the Wild Hunt is an incredible book filled with holiday lore, history, and traditions. Written by Christian Brunner, Sophie Reyer, and Wolfgang Liemberger, the text benefits immensely from the authors' unique perspectives. Each grew up in a different part of the Alpine mountains, allowing them to beautifully combine personal memories with deep historical research.

The book explores the "dark half of the year," beginning on November 1 with All Souls' Eve. Rooted in ancient pagan holidays, this is a time when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest. I loved reading about the unique traditions from the Alpine regions of Germany and Austria, such as carving out turnips, leaving out meals for the dead, and the children who go door-to-door asking for traditional All Souls' pastries.

A major focus of the book is the Wild Hunt, the intermediate nights between the winter solstice and January 6 (though the dark half of the year stretches all the way to April 30, culminating in Walpurgisnacht). Led by the goddess Perchta, the Wild Hunt is a chilling procession—legend says if you sit in a cemetery at night to watch it pass, you will see who dies in the coming year!

My absolute favorite section covers Krampus, the horned deity with one human foot and one hoof who punishes bad children on December 5. The book explores him not just as a monster alongside St. Nick, but as a cleansing, protective entity that sweeps away sin and keeps other evil entities at bay.

Beyond the fascinating folklore, each section offers practical value, including recipes and rituals (like incense cleansing and symbolic scourging) to incorporate into your own spiritual practice. The book even ends with a delicious dessert recipe featuring prunes, cream, and chocolate. If you love winter folklore and practical folk spirituality, you need to read this book!

The Family Curse

 

Evil Eye

By Etaf Rum

Evil Eye by Etaf Rum follows Yara, a Palestinian-American woman raised in a conservative, emotionally volatile family in Brooklyn. Married to entrepreneur Fadi and now living in the suburbs with two daughters and a job at a local university, she has a life her mother could only dream of — yet she feels unfulfilled.

When her hope to chaperone a student art trip to Europe clashes with her husband's expectations, tensions at home rise. At work, a racist provocation from a colleague leads Yara to speak out, landing her on probation and in mandatory counseling. Her mother blames a family curse, but Yara begins to unpack intergenerational trauma instead.

With the support of her friend Silas, Rum crafts a moving mother-daughter story about patriarchy, identity, and breaking cycles. Intimate and thought-provoking.

The Story of Mercy Brown : The Last American Vampire

 

Exhumed

By: Aaron Mahnke

 

Like the Satanic Panic of the 1980’s, New England witnessed almost 100 years before a “Vampire Panic”. In the year 1892, 19-year-old Mercy Brown died. Shortly after her death, her brother began to get ill and slowly waste away.  The town immediately thought that Mercy was reaching beyond the grave to slowly drain away his life.  Since she died during winter it was nigh impossible to dig up the earth to inter her, so she interred about ground in a crypt.  During family illness and the fear of vampires the father had his daughter’s body dug up.  She was remarkably well preserved, in fact too well preserved. So, the towns’ people elected to burn their heart and liver to ashes.

This was a case of folklore outweighing science. Even the doctors who examined the corpse said that everything was normal. Still the will of the town persisted. How on Earth could superstition outweigh science? The year was 1892, not that long ago.

Many beliefs about vampires were brought over from the New World. Poignant is the belief about blood. Back in old times when someone was sick, they would practice something called “bloodletting” or have leeches such out the infected blood. This was believed to cause the infection to be drained out. Another thing coming in vogue was transfusions. Back then in George Washington’s time it was something new and just beginning. The belief was that if you injected animal blood into a human it would help revitalize the individual. George Washington’s doctor wanted to try it. They did not end up doing it. In some instances, it appeared to work but later experiments did not yield the desired results.

There were also beliefs about the role of electricity being able to revive a corpse. In 1800 Luigi Galvani, applied Alessandro Volta’s battery to a frog and noticed its muscles twitch. In 1803 Giovanni Aldini applied electricity to executed criminal George Foster in London.  The electric current from the battery made the dead criminal’s muscle and jaws twitch. This would be the inspiration behind Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”

The body parts of the dead, especially those who died young and violently, were sought after for medical cures. Rubbing a dead person’s hand on a wart or other sickness would cause the illness to deteriorate along with the hand. A dead man’s fat could be rubbed on an ailing part of the body as a supposed cure. Epileptics would drink a dead man’s blood in hopes of remedy.

Revenant in which vampires are a species there are corpses that refuse to totally die and often return to plague surviving family members. They would often bring disease and plague in their wake.

Excellent book that filled with well researched information. The book is easy to ready and very enjoyable.

 

The Journey of Norway’s Witchqueen

 

Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec

This is a tale that places a witch in the midst of the Viking world. It starts off in the story with Gunnhild rushing to meet an incoming ship with very important guests. A feast is about to occur that evening, and Gunnhild wants a vision from the seeress. She reunites with her friends, who she swore a blood oath with in order to protect if there’s any danger about. They go to the feast, but the seeress won’t tell Gunnhild her fortune. Gunnhild’s mother, Solveig, forbade it many years ago. A seeress foresaw something dark in Gunnhild’s future. Gunnhild, tired of being oppressed by her mother, goes to the seeress Heid and asks to become a witch just like her. At first Heid does not offer her services, but eventually she gives them, and so Gunnhild is smuggled out. Twelve years later the farm she abandoned comes under attack by raiders led by Kolfinna, with witches Thorbjorg and Katla. In the process of raiding, Gunnhild’s friends lose their family and the whole village is burned. Their mother, who is the healer and mother of her two friends, is killed brutally in front of their daughters’ eyes. Signy is taken into slavery while Oddny is somehow spared and must make a journey to redeem her sister. While the raid commences, Gunnhild helps Oddny escape in bird form. Heid doesn’t die in the raid—she trained Gunnhild earlier. This puts Gunnhild on a journey to the north in order to find more magic to release her friend and defeat the evil witches. On her journeys she goes over to Prince Eirik’s court, and she demonstrates her promise as a witch and offers her magical protection. This later turns into a marriage proposal as Prince Eirik offers his hand to her in marriage. She will become the most powerful queen of all Norway. And so as things commence, many battles begin, a lot of drama, and eventually things come to a head in a certain town where the dead are buried. A person named Halldor, who participated in the raid, is also a lost prince. He has a fight with Eirik and swears his love to Oddny. In the end there’s a final confrontation at Birka, not at sea. Rival witch Thora severs Gunnhild’s spirit, trapping her in the void. Oddny and Signy descend into the spirit world to rescue her, reaffirming their bond and restoring Gunnhild to life

A New Middle Eastern Peace Plan

 

The Abrahamic Revolution: A Middle Eastern Peace Formula

By Tom Wegner

Most conventional peace processes between Israelis and Palestinians have failed to produce lasting agreements. Both peoples would clearly prefer to build lives and raise families rather than remain locked in conflict. October 7, 2023 marked a watershed: trust on the Israeli side collapsed further after years of violence, while many Palestinians remain deeply angry over the scale of Israeli military response. The question is why these efforts keep failing.

Wegner identifies core flaws in the classic two-state approach centered on territorial separation—assigning Gaza and the West Bank to a Palestinian state while Israel remains a separate Jewish state. Practical obstacles include the reality of extremist control (particularly Hamas in Gaza) and the difficulty of large-scale settlement evacuations. He argues that pure separation has repeatedly proven inadequate.

A further obstacle is radical political Islam—not ordinary Muslim faith, but extremist ideologies that threaten moderate Muslims, Christians, other regional minorities, and Jews. These currents have repeatedly overshadowed pragmatic attempts at coexistence.

The book’s proposed alternative is “Political Abrahamism”: a shared Abrahamic identity rooted in the common figure of Abraham as a unifying framework for Jews, Muslims, and Christians. This identity would complement, rather than erase, national and religious particularities. It envisions states retaining their own borders while enabling freer movement, mutual respect for laws, and practical cooperation on regional challenges such as water, security, and counter-terrorism. The goal is a more integrated regional architecture based on mutual respect and shared interests rather than enforced separation.

Wegner presents this as a practical peace formula forged in discussions after October 7, 2023, and positioned as an alternative both to failed Western models and to radical ideologies. The book is short (English edition approximately 76–78 pages) and written in manifesto style. It does not provide an exhaustive historical or mechanical analysis of the conflict, nor does it develop extensive case studies of successful Muslim-Jewish cooperation on the ground. Those limitations keep the text concise but also leave room for a longer, more detailed treatment of the same ideas.

Overall, The Abrahamic Revolution offers a clear, regionally grounded argument for moving beyond separation-based formulas toward a shared-identity framework. Readers seeking a brief, idea-driven manifesto will find it useful; those wanting deeper historical detail or multiple concrete examples of cooperation may find it thin.