Every month is full of magic, each day has its own energy, and the seasons rotate as part of the cycles of nature. Pagan Portals - Rounding the Wheel of the Year looks at ways to honour each month with folkloric customs, herb and plant lore, traditional crafts, spells, visualisations, and pagan rites that go beyond the eight festivals of Imbolc, Spring Equinox, Beltane, Summer Solstice, Lammas, Autumn Equinox, Samhain, and Winter Solstice. The wheel of the year turns smoothly, it doesn’t bump over eight cogs, and that’s the meaning of the title of this book. Inside these pages you will find the history behind some much-loved folklore and modern pagan customs, as well as practical suggestions for ways to celebrate the turning of the year.

Scrying is the practice of looking into crystal balls, mirrors, water, fire, clouds and many other things to see visions, find messages and gain knowledge. It can be done for personal guidance, for inspiration, to find the answers to questions, to look at distant places or other realms, or for fortune-telling and prophecy. It is a form of divination that taps into our psychic senses and powers of intuition. Pagan Portals - Scrying shows how anyone can learn to develop the necessary skills to scry in a variety of different ways.

The journeys in this book are all ones using the mind. Guided visualisations use an interactive story to help people know themselves better, find solutions to problems and get ideas for creative projects. They can also be used as a wellbeing tool using relaxation techniques. Many guided visualisations also have spiritual aspects. Within this book are visualisations created for those on the paths of paganism, witchcraft and earth-based spirituality. They were written to follow the Wheel of the Year, embrace the power of the moon and the elements, and develop magical wisdom. Through the pages of this book you will be guided to amazing places. It will be an adventure...

''It all began when we found the bones…'' This is the start of Erosion, a gothic novel set on the English coast, in 1987, the year of the Great Storm. Violent weather is but one of the problems a group of friends face when they discover an ancient grave inside a crumbling cliff and decide to unearth a skull. Supernatural mystery intertwines with the problems of human relationships, of earning money, of following dreams. Alison wants to spend a glorious summer writing her novel, Asher wants to wow audiences with his comedy routines, Zoe wants to make a living as an artist, Jo wants to make the world a better place and Baz just wants to help his friends succeed, but the events that happen change all their plans.  Death and destruction test the bonds of friendship, yet moments of beauty entwine with scenes of horror as a magical summer becomes an autumn of devastation. 

Poppets are dolls used for sympathetic magic, and are designed in the likeness of individuals in order to represent them in spells to help, heal or harm. The word poppet comes from the Middle Ages in England, originally meaning a small doll or child, and it is still in use today as a name of endearment. The term is older than the phrase `Voodoo doll'. Pagan Portals - Poppets and Magical Dolls explores the history of poppets and offers a practical guide to making and using them in modern witchcraft. It also covers seasonal dolls, from Brigid dolls, used in celebrations for the first stirrings of spring, to fairy dolls enjoyed in tree-dressing at Yuletide. Other topics covered include spirit dolls, ancestor dolls and dolls as representations of mythological beings and creatures from folklore. The newest book from Lucya Starza, author of Every Day Magic: A Pagan Book of Days.

Candle magic is something almost everyone has tried, even as a child - who hasn't made a wish over a birthday cake? Candle spells are among the easiest yet also the most effective to perform. They are perfect for anyone who wants to have a go at casting a spell for the first time and for the solitary witch with a busy life. Yet candles are also an important part of modern pagan witchcraft rituals. They are used to mark the quarters of the circle, placed on the altar and can represent the changing seasons of the year. This book is aimed at all who want to use candle magic, from beginners to those experienced in the craft; with everything from simple castings to elaborate and beautiful ceremonies. It offers a background to candle magic as well as spells, rituals, divination techniques, meditations, a guide to making your own candles and more.

Every Day Magic - A Pagan Book of Days contains 366 spells, rituals, meditations, Pagan prayers, divinatory techniques, poems to read and recipes and craft projects to try out, along with the details of festivals that take place throughout the year. All the activities are intended to be easy to follow so you can pick up the book, open it to a day and find something you can do. There are festivals from the ancient world and modern Pagan celebrations as well.

An around-the-world tour of ancient Christmas celebrations, Pagan Solstice customs, and magical seasonal plants. Whether viewed as a mid-winter observance of the Winter Solstice or a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, for millennia cultures have taken time out to honour the darkest days of the year with lights, foods, and festivities. In ancient Egypt, people decorated their homes with greenery at the festival of the re-birth of the God Horus. The ancient Romans decorated their homes with vines and ivy and shared gifts, especially candles, at the midwinter festival of Saturnalia. In Scandinavian and Germanic cultures, the Yule Log was burned in the hearth, fruit orchards were wassailed, and sheaves of wheat were displayed to carry luck into the New Year. In Celtic cultures, mummers and guisers went door to door and European mistletoe (Viscum album) was gathered by Druids as a medicinal and magical aid. Presenting an around-the-world tour of ancient Christmas celebrations, Pagan Solstice customs, and magical seasonal plants, Ellen Evert Hopman shares lore, recipes, rituals, and crafts you can make as a family activity to enliven your Yuletide observance. She explores the origins of the Christmas tree and Santa Claus, as well as female gift bringers, holiday Spirits, and Yuletide animals. She shows how to make a Yule Log and decorate your house with greenery and grain weavings. She explains how to perform Winter Solstice divinations and cook traditional foods and drinks such as Wassail and Elizabethan gingerbread cookies. And she looks in depth at the medicinal and magical properties of the many herbs, barks, and berries associated with the Christmas and Yuletide season such as Frankincense and Myrrh, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Hibiscus, Bayberry, and many more. Woven throughout with mystical seasonal lore, this guide offers practical and magical ways to celebrate and honour the darkest days of the year.