daven

The Pocket Spell Creator
By Kerri Connor
New Page Books, 2003, US $9.99
ISBN 1-56414-715-0

Review by Daven
(available on the web at http://davensjournal.com/RTPSC.xhtml)


This is a small book. When I got it, I didn't think there could be
much material in the book, but I was wrong. What is NOT in here is a
lot of filler or commentary. What IS here is content and a lot of it.
This is not a book that one can read from front to back like a
"Magic(k) in 5 easy steps" book. This is a reference.

Because this is a reference, there are LOTS of chapters. Each chapter
focuses on a different set of correspondences. For instance, there is
a chapter detailing the correspondences for the days of the week.
There are also chapters covering the magickal properties of gems,
herbs, colors and so on. Each chapter is indexed. This makes
information easy to find with a quick check of the table of contents,
where the items are laid out in alphabetical order.

The index is brief, and does not list the contents of the book again,
and the bibliography is interesting. There are about 10 books cited. I
feel that books listed are good, some bad and some so-so. All of the
information is well laid out and researched.

This is by no means an indispensable reference. In fact, everything
that is in here has appeared in other volumes, many of them already on
the shelves of the average well-stocked private metaphysical library.
In addition to being redundant, the information in many cases is also
incomplete in the interests of brevity.

What this book is, is PORTABLE. It's the "Reader's Digest (TM)"
version of many people's Books of Shadows. It has a lot of information
that is brief and to the point, giving the major qualities of items so
that if you are at work and need to cast a spell, you can, without
searching through tomes of lore on your bookshelf. It could be used as
a primary tome for a student, but I would still recommend that they
have the other references to flesh out the details. It would make an
excellent memory jogger for the advanced student or teacher. The

While this book tries not to perpetuate any one version of magick, it
fails about half way through the book. There is a two page chapter on
ethics and rituals, where different things to think about before you
write a spell are bulleted. In it, the very first item is "Always
follow the 'harm none' rule" and the second item is "Always observe
and remember the rule of three". I understand why she feels the
ethical statements are necessary, and in the past I may have supported
it, in good conscience I can't any more. Wiccans are not the only
spell casters who can or should utilize this type of book.

But, taken in total, this book seems to be written for Wiccans. While
there is no commentary, there is also no information for those of
other religious paths (or no path) who need to cast a spell. There is
no listing of how the Celts view the Elements, which animals would be
good for a sacrifice in Santeria, which Loas like what items and how
to call them or which Sefirah control which aspects of human nature
and which paths one needs to take for the Cabbalist.

I find the chants and recipes to be too brief. It's good that recipes
for incense and oils and even bath salts are included in this work.
The chants and rituals are questionable. *I* can sit down and write
chants, but without any context for the chant, without any ritual
structure to hang them in, then they are nothing but a short poem. IF
the book is designed to be a reminder, a quick reference, I don't
understand the need for the rituals that are included.

There are worksheets in the back, which encourage the student to copy
them and use as many correspondences as possible in their own
workings. But other than that, they are simply worksheets and
intellectual exercises, like worksheets from many books.

I'm going to give this book 3 1/2 stars out of 5. The author obviously
worked hard on this and put in her correspondences, and for that it's
good as a quick reference among other deeper works. However, it may be
more useful if a teacher asked their student(s) to sit down and write
all this up themselves for the student's reference, rather than
spending almost $10 for this book. Heck, on a long weekend with
nothing else to do, go for it.

Daven