Composing Magic by Elizabeth Barrette

I picked up this book a few months ago, and just can't keep my hands off of it ever since. It was Composing Magic by Elizabeth Barrett, a nonfiction book on writing literary pieces for magical use.



It first begins with a brief retelling of magickal composition's not-so-brief history, from the rhapsodes, druids and skalds, to the songwriters and pagan webmasters of today. And then proceeds to the basics of composition, the materials and tools, and even a holistic method of preparing the surroundings, mind and body in a way conducive to writing. Then the proceeding chapters build upon each other, beginning with basic poetry, and ending in the construction of complex, multi- rituals. Enough attention was given to each of the chapters without dragging the topic too long, and focused on how the techniques could be applied. On top of that, it even included supplementary exercises at the end of every chapter, to make sure the message sinks in.

Even though most of the examples given on this book were from wiccan and pagan sources, all the techniques and topics are very universal, and adaptable to any tradition and belief system. The book itself was written in a very lighthearted manner and reading was a very delightful experience, and since it's very practice oriented, it becomes both a workbook and reference.

Up until now, I still pick up the book from time to time to read up on how to write or edit this-and-that, and unlike most books I bought, the re-readability of this book makes it worth all of the money I spent.

I hope you guys enjoy reading it enough to actually make you write something.

^ _ ^