Today, I am answering the question that has appeared more and more in my emails.  What spell book do I endorse?  Good Witch Bad Witch by Gillian Kemp is my most favourite.  The spells are simple and affective.  


The two types of cards represent the balance of opposites within nature - day and night, summer and winter, good times and bad times. This is something witches respect as they honour the seasons of the year and all aspects of life. We might prefer to only have happy days but we can't avoid every misfortune and there are valuable lessons to be learnt from the sad times of grief and hardship.

http://badwitch.co.uk/2008/01/good-witch-bad-witch-by-gillian-kemp.html 

http://badwitch.co.uk

 Good Witch Bad Witch by Gillian Kemp  
ISBN 9781903116517 

  Sweet Spells and Wicked Witchery 
Includes 52 Enchanting Cards and a 64 page Spell Book. 


  With this beguiling set of 52 cards and accompanying book, you can revel in delicious devilment against your enemies, or weave good white magic around you and your loved ones. 


  In Good Witch, Bad Witch there are two suits of cards: 26 Good Witches and 26 Bad Witches. Simply shuffle and lay them like tarot cards, then look up the prediction in the book and cast the spell. Remember, the good witch spells turn toads into princes and
the bad witch spells turn princes into toads. All you need is this charming kit and a little hocus pocus. 

  About the Author
Gillian Kemp is a clairvoyant and medium who prophesies the future using astrology, tarot cards, a crystal ball and tea leaves. She appears regularly on television and radio as an astrologer, writes a weekly column in Baby magazine and is the author of books including The Good Spell Book, The Romany Good Spell Book (published in the US by Little, Brown), and The Love Spell Box (Cico Books, 2000).
 


http://Gilliankemp.com

     Merry We Meet, With the warm weather's arrival life has become more eventful for me which means I won't have much time to spend on the computer.  I will still post at least once a week so come by, kick off your shoes and sit a spell!

March 2013
BBI Media News
Publishers of Crone,  SageWoman, and  Witches&Pagans magazines.

     St Paddy’s Day —  Green, Orange, or by Byron Ballard      edited and reprinted from her blog "The Village Witch”   at PaganSquare.com

      For years I’ve struggled with St. Patrick’s Day. No, not the drinking and eating — no struggle there. But I learned years ago that you wear green on St. Patrick’s day if you’re Catholic and orange (for William of Orange — see the Battle of the Boyne for more info)  if you’re Protestant.


       I wear a lot of green (and black, to be honest), most of the time.  But I am hardly Catholic. And though I’ve threatened to pre-order  an orange jumpsuit for Gitmo, I wouldn’t do the Prod thing either.


      What’s an Irish Pagan woman to do?

      Like Columbus Day which is not at all about Columbus but is all  about being Italian-American, St. Patrick’s Day is not about the dreaded saint--at least not in the US. It is a time to be “Irish”, whatever that means. Everyone wants to be Irish for the day--you can buy a hat or t-shirt that proclaims your faux-Irishness. Owning such a classy item gives you entree into the world of cultural stereotypes--will you be drunken Irish? Fighting Irish? Maudlin Irish? Will you bypass all that and proclaim yourself a Celt, wearing a utilikilt and an attitude?


      Or perhaps you’d prefer a button with the ubiquitous “Kiss Me, I’m Irish”. Kissing the famous stone in Blarney Castle gives you “the gift of the gab”--what does kissing a person of Irish-extraction give  you? Will you achieve the legendary “Luck of the Irish”--which, to me, is always akin to the notion of the Jews as “God’s Chosen People?” Yep, you grab yourself some of that wonderful luck--domination by a neighboring island, destruction of your culture and  spirituality by invaders, mass starvation and emigration, a Celtic tiger economy that crashes into devastating poverty…again? Let me know how that sort of “luck” works for you.


      So, not green (though I love it) and not orange. What to do?

       The answer, as always for me, lay in the land, the “auld sod” to  continue our adventure in cultural stereotyping. When I was first in Ireland--I came across the sea from Holyhead, in Wales--there  was a kind of call to me from the dirt, the actual soil of the place.  Wherever I went, I found myself picking up small stones, kneeling in dirt, touching my hands to the ground. The Hill of Tara caught my breath with its fierce wind and deep history. And little Kildare Town…and the monstrous Glendalough…and the great Boyne Valley.


      Each had an underlying vestment of longing and pride and fear and belonging.

      So I’ve decided to tie myself to the land of Ireland and not the crashing cymbals of two religious groups I can’t really tell apart. I cleave to the earth of that island that my ancestors called home,  so long ago. I fancy that my love of gardening came from
both sides of my family tree--the Irish and the English. And when I throw in the long years here in these old mountains I call home, I athrice blessed with silt and clay and stone.

     I will wear brown to honor that connection, to honor the soil from which I come and to which one day I will return. And in between? I’ll grow some vegetables.

I would like to thank my readers who rushed out to bookstores to read my paranormal book Severed Ties.

http://DamnationBooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615728206 

Till Death and Beyond - The bond of love can bring two forbidden opposites together.

     Till Death and Beyond opens with a teenage girl named Zoe, inexperienced in witchcraft, in the woods on a Full Moon cast a spell for a love she feels is lost to her.  The teenager new to magic, is careless of her words for her desire.  The spirit of a maiden witch appears.  At first the teenager is afraid of the ghostly figure, and then her curiosity calms her nerves.
 
      The Spirit tells the tale how she and the love of her life were separated by ignorance.  Zoe, the teenage girl experiments with magic to reunite the Spirit with her long lost love.
 

      As a direct result of the long hours I spent reading the history of witchcraft my novella Till Death and Beyond was created.
 
      The main conflict in the short read is the Puritans attempting to keep evil from tarnishing their community and the witches strong belief based on the oneness of self an nature.   Puritans against the witches.  What happened and what it meant.

    Historically the Puritans and witches were two very different groups of people with two very different belief systems.  Puritan America was based on clear roles between men, women, and God.  Witchcraft served as a system of explanations for the ways of nature and a method by which one could gain control over their life. Witches were considered enemies to their God. 
 
     Puritans linked witchcraft with the devil and hell because their first responsibility was to serve one God.  The Biblical regulative principle of worship and commandments was the puritan blueprint toward that duty.  Witchcraft became a crime against the church to rid those who did not dedicate themselves to their faith.  They became known as immoral and wicked people even though their faith exsisted long before the Purtian's belief system did.
 
    I had a very specific idea in mind when I wrote Till Death and Beyond a love story between Emery a Puritan and Frye a witch and the petty rivalry connecting the two faith driven neighbors.  The main conflict between the Puritans and the witches' belief systems is the the theme of the romantic story.  I wanted to tell the important elements that are in the traditions and of the similarities and difference among them.  I hope to say to the reader the story isn't strictly romantic; it will have some history.
 
Check out the first chapter  Till Death and Beyond
at http://AngieSkelhorn.com/book-trailer-till-death--beyond.html
 
 
Read an Author Interviews  at http://BookGoodies.com/?s=Angie+Skelhorn
Join me on Face Book - http://Facebook.com/pages/Author-Angie-Skelhorn-Witchskel/106332176093960
Publisher Link -http://Clublighthousepublishing.com/productpage.asp?bNumb=232

     The holidays are rushing toward us!
 
      Are you gifting someone an e-reader this year?  Are you expecting an e-reader?  Are you just looking for a great deal?  

     My book Severed Ties is published by Damnation Books.  Damnation Books  has darn good books at damn good prices.  They have a coupon code that will take 25% off your purchase at checkout. 

     The formats available are supported by the most popular e-readers.
Codes for site are below.
 
      At check out, enter coupon code 12PE9NGO4MDS for 25% off your ebook order when you buy directly from our website. 
http://Damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615728206 
     The code's good until 12-31-2012

     Formats available: epub (Nook compatible), pdf, mobi (Kindle compatible), lit (Microsoft Reader), and pdb (Palm)

An interview for my YA paranormal book Severed Ties - is on line at

http://BookGoodies.com/?s=Angie+Skelhorn 
 
Please stop by.  Thank you.
  
Wishing you all the peace and joy of the season!