mike gleason

Llewellyn's 2007 Magical Almanac © 2006 Llewellyn Worldwide ISBN
0-7387-0327-3 384 pages Paperback $7.99 (U.S.) $9.50 (Canada)

Over the years Llewellyn has developed a formula for each of their annuals
which works. The format for this annual is quite simple - articles divided
among the four elements by a variety of authors and a short almanac section
in the middle. In this volume there are forty-seven articles (15 in the
Earth Magic section, 10 in the Air Magic, 11 in the Fire Magic, and 11 in
the Water Magic section) by twenty-eight authors running the gamut from
writers on Llewellyn's list of book authors to folks whose major
contributi9ons are on websites and in the Llewellyn annuals.

The daily listing section, in keeping with most almanacs, is actually the
least important reason to buy this annual. After all, that information is
available from any number of other sources. The articles are the major
draw. This year, as every year, there were some articles that jumped out
and begged to read ("The Well-Organized Witch" comes to mind), and others I
just skipped over. That doesn't mean I won't go back at a later time and
read them, they just didn't hit a chord at the time I was looking through
the book.

This year's selection of articles seems even more diverse than usual, to me.
Some addressed problems we have all faced (like "Spiritually Social: A
Guide for Sticky Situations") while others were much more specialized
("Sigils & Signs"). There were a number of recipes, and a few "reference"
articles. This very diversity is, in my opinion, one of the major strengths
of this annual publication. Over the course of a few years you can build up
an impressive store of material to use in research. (Hint to Llewellyn: It
might be worthwhile to publish an index of the articles once every five
years or so on your website.)

Overall, I have to say that this is probably my favorite of all the almanacs
I see every year. I thoroughly enjoyed it once again and recommend it
whole-heartedly.