HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN! Review: A Year and a Day of Witchcraft by Deborah Blake

Title: A Year and a Day of Everyday Witchcraft: 366 Ways to Witchify Your Life
Author: Deborah Blake
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: October 8th 2017
Source: Publisher


Book Description:

Connect with your witchy self every day using small, easy, and fun practices. This book features quick and meaningful ways to integrate witchcraft into your daily life, inspiring you to take your magick to a new level whether you're a beginning or experienced practitioner.

Deborah Blake guides you on a journey through the Wheel of the Year, providing witchy wisdom, affirmations, spells, questions to ponder, and much more. From connecting with nature to connecting with deities, A Year and a Day of Everyday Witchcraft explores a variety of modern Pagan practices to help you get more in touch with your personal path of witchcraft.

Review:

★★★★

I think this is a great concept. I love the idea of having little "witchy" things to do each day. I'm a list following, schedule-making type person, so having something that applies to paganism really appeals to me. This is the type of book I'd really like on my shelf. Plus, look at the cover art- would that darling black cat lead you astray?

This book has a little bit of everything. As the title suggests, includes 366 daily exercises that pertain to witchcraft. Each day has a theme, and a little lesson. The tone is very approachable, which I think would be helpful to those who are just starting out along their spiritual paths. Because these ideas are generally pretty short, I think it'd be a good way to dip one's toes into the magick pool, so to speak. It's also time considerate, so even if you don't have a huge amount of free time, you'll be able to reflect on or complete most of the "try this!" activities on each day.

I also really like that the author gives suggestions, not orders. One thing that really, really turns me off from pagan books is when the author speaks as though they are the One True Knower of All Things and that their way is the One True Way or You're Not a Wiccan or whatever path. It happens far more often than you'd think, given that this branch of spirituality tends to be wider in its forms of expression. Blake is the opposite, the tone is very "hey, you could do this, but if you'd rather do that instead, go for it". It's a refreshing tone, that is well appreciated and didn't go unnoticed.

The "try this" suggestions that are listed, one per day, are really widely varied. They include tasks that are more directly spiritual like candle lighting and prayer, but also creative arts such as writing poetry and coloring. There's also a good mix of "self-help" type ideas, like organizing lists for yourself and topics for self-reflection.

A few of the suggestions are a bit less than accessible. There's one day, for instance, that suggests walking around a shop to find crystals. Not everyone has access to such places. But, I suppose that's where the "suggestion" part comes in- I plan on scrolling Amazon and counting that.

All in all, I plan on getting a physical copy for myself. I'm always one of those "new year resolution" people who always has these big dreams but then gives up in a week when the holiday glow has worn off. Hopefully, this will be a successful resolution to follow this book for a year.

I received a copy in exchange for my honest review.