34 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ AUGUST 5, 2019
Mind-Body-Spirit Books
InnerTraditions.com
800-246-8648
COMING
WINTER 2019
A practical
guide to the
topical application
of essential oils
for physical and
emotional health
and healing
$24.99 • 320 pages
Paperback
Full-color throughout
978-1-62055-871-3Wake, Bake & Meditate: Take Your Spiritual Practice to a Higher Level with Cannabis by
Kerri Connor (Llewellyn, May 2020) might sound like a cookbook, but instead it
provides guided meditations for using cannabis in spiritual practices, for physical and
emotional healing, to enhance relationships, and to improve one’s affinity for magical
spells. Connor includes recommendations of particular
strains for specific purposes. She is the author of Ostara:
Rituals, Recipes, and Lore for the Spring Equinox and editor of
the Pagan Review, a website that reviews pagan products.
Another psychoactive compound that changes minds is
the subject of LSD and the Mind of the Universe by Christopher
M. Bache, with a foreword by Ervin Laszlo (Inner Traditions,
Nov.). Bache personally explored that mind-bending terrain
through 73 high-dose LSD sessions conducted over the
course of 20 years. “The sheer power of the catalytic energy
unleashed by this protocol kept driving me through one
experiential barrier after another, repeatedly expanding the
territory of engagement,” he writes. “Eventually, my ses-
sions became a periodically painful but steadfastly ecstatic
journey of cosmic discovery.”
In the book, Bache makes the case for the value of psy-
chedelics in spiritual growth. He is professor emeritus in
philosophy and religious studies at Youngstown State
University and adjunct faculty at the California Institute
of Integral Studies.
Books also cover other avenues and tools for practicing
the craft. Intuitive Witchcraft: How to Use Intuition to Elevate
Your Craft by Astrea Taylor (Llewellyn, Apr. 2020) pro-
vides techniques for melding intuition and witchcraft in a
way that is emotionally and spiritually satisfying. The
book—designed for both beginners and advanced practi-
tioners—features exercises, examples, activities, and rit-
uals to help readers find their own way to a personal mag-
ical path, as well as insights from writers, thinkers, and
leaders in a variety of fields. Taylor is an author, witch, and
fire dancer who owns Blessed Be Box, a company that sells
“rituals in a box” for the solstices, equinoxes, and cross-
quarter holidays.
Though witchcraft is an earth religion, there are ways
for city dwellers to be witches, too. Urban Magick: A Guide
for the City Witch by Diana Rajchel (Llewellyn, Mar. 2020)
shows how to connect with the ecosystems of cities and tap
into their energy with spells for navigating city life, tech-
niques for working with spirits and elements, and exercises to boost creativity. Rajchel
includes historical background on the purposes behind ancient and modern cities, and
how architecture and population density affect magical practice. A third-degree Wiccan
priestess in the Shadowmoon tradition (an American eclectic Wiccan tradition), Rajchel
has written for the Beltane Papers, Circle, Facing North, and SageWoman.
The horse has been a powerful force in human culture, and in Horse Magick (Weiser,
May 2020), Lawren and Domenic Leo offer spells, rituals, chants, and meditations
based around equine imagery. Numerous traditions and deities are represented, and
no contact with actual horses is required to work this magic; instead, accessible
tools such as crystals, candles, and tarot cards are used. Because of the psychic power
that they ascribe to horses, the authors argue that it is time for witches, warlocks,
continued on p. 37