📝 49th Spells8 Book Club - Readers' Reviews!

[MeganB]

Feel free to share your finished thoughts and reviews from the book you read for the 49th book club here. For the current book club post, please visit the new session post: Spells8 50th Book Club July 2025

A warm welcome to all of the Witchy Readers!

The latest reading period for June 2025 has now ended - thank you to everyone who joined in!

Members & Their Books This Reading Period:

• Women of the Dawn by Bunny McBride - @MeganB
• Breaking the Curse by Alex DiFrancesco - @MeganB
• The Untamed Witch by Lidia Pradas - @Amethyst
• Cunning Words: A Grimoire of Tales and Magic by Marshall WSL
  @kayla31
• Psychic Witch by Mat Auryn
  @stephanieanne76An Apostates Guide to Witchcraft by
  Moss Matthey @tracyS
  Read above so am starting Rebel Witch by Kelly Anne Maddox
• Christ in Egypt - The Horus Jesus Connection by DM Murdoch @Cosmic_Curiosity

Even if you are not listed above but you read a book during this reading period or you decided to read a different book than listed, you are very welcome to share and discuss here too!

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Time to share your thoughts with your coven!

This discussion post will serve as a place to share your thoughts and opinions on the book you chose.

• If you loved your book and think everyone should read it - awesome! Talk about your favorite points or something you learned.
• If you didn’t connect with the book - consider explaining why it wasn’t for you.
• Absolutely hated your book of choice? Warn others to stay away!

This is a great place to share your love for books and find recommendations for new books to read

(Photo by Olha Vilkha on Unsplash)

Your book review can be as simple or elaborate as you’d like

If you’re not sure what to talk about, here is a suggested format you can use. Feel free to write as little or as much as you’d like!

Book Title and Author:

Status? : Finished / Still Reading

My overall rating of the book : ???/10

How does this book relate to my magickal practice?:

My personal thoughts/opinions:

An interesting quote from the book: " "

All in all, would I recommend this book?: Yes / No

Remember that your review is uniquely yours - this is a chance to let your opinions and voice be heard

Please keep in mind that others may have opinions that differ from yours - when responding to the thoughts of others, please always show respect! Remember that 100 people will read 1 book and have 100 different experiences. That’s what makes sharing interesting

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What if I didn’t finish my book / joined late?

No worries!

You are welcome to share your thoughts about the part you have read so far. If you joined the session late and have just started, feel free to talk about your expectations for your book. You can continue reading it into the next reading period.

And whether you read a book or not, you are very welcome to jump in and discuss what others share about their books!

(Photo by Tanya Barrow on Unsplash)

Deadlines and Dates

You have all month to share your thoughts and discuss (until the next Readers’ Review Post appears in the forum!)

Deadline for Reviews for this Session: July 31, 2025

While you have plenty of time for reviews, know that the next reading period has already started!
→ Spells8 50th Book Club July 2025

You can find more info about the club in the Book Club FAQ.

It can be hard to find the time and motivation to read on your own - hopefully, book club helped provide a bit of motivation, and it led to some wonderful new knowledge and discoveries in your Craft

I hope you enjoyed your books this session and that you’ve got another fun one in line to read this coming month!

Happy reading and blessed be!

[tracyS]

An Apostate Guide to Witchcraft

So I finished this in just over a week, perhaps because it was pertinent to me, but it’s been healing. The writer was a Jehovah’s Witness and left after 20 years to pursue witchcraft amongst other things. This is a practical book on how to make the craft yours particularly if you come from a controlled religious background.

Each ritual is designed to remove fear and heal. He’s a Welsh witch so his belief system is in the Welsh tradition but you can adapt the rituals to your style and gods.

It’s not a how to do witchcraft book, nor a personal journey although that is in there. It’s more a healing journey on how to move from one system of belief into another.

I loved it. 10/10

[MeganB]

Book Title and Author: Women of the Dawn by Bunny McBride

Status? : Finished

My overall rating of the book : 10/10

How does this book relate to my magickal practice?: As a witch with a region-based practice, this book is a collection of historical accounts of four Abenaki women in Maine who lived from the late 1700s to the 1970s. Their stories all connect in one way or another, and reading about the places they lived, where they travelled, and how they lived with the land is inspiring in more ways than one. Several of the places mentioned in the book are all within a day’s trip for me, and I think I’d like to take a few days this summer and explore some of them, both to get out and explore, but also to honor the Indigenous Women who walked this land before me.

My personal thoughts/opinions: Okay, so I had already typed this all out in a conversation with someone else, so I’m just going to copy/paste it under a read-more because it got kind of long

rambly thoughts on the book here

It’s hard to describe how the book is written and how everything connects together, but the fact that it’s about four women all named Molly is just the first step of that connection. Each one before Molly Dellis, the narrator of the book, has something to teach her as she researches and learns about their lives.

• Molly Mathilde (1665-1717): The daughter of a great Wabanaki chief, her husband was a French man who helped bond the French settlers with the Wabanaki people of her tribe. The town of Castine, Maine, bears his name. (This place is about an hour and a half from me.)

• Molly Ockett (1740-1816): A healer by nature, Molly Ockett found herself trapped between her rage and her better nature. She mentioned several times in her journals that it boosted her confidence to know that the people responsible for the loss of her people’s independence were dependent on her for their care. She successfully lived as traditionally as she could during the period of colonization because of the relationships she built with white settlers who became dependent on her medicine and healing. She is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Andover, Maine. There are even local signposts that show locations she is associated with, like Molly Ockett’s Cave. (This place is about two hours from me on the border of Maine and New Hampshire.)

• Molly Molasses (1775-1867): Later in life, Molly Molasses was the picture of the stubborn, grouchy old woman. She had what the Wabenaki called m’teoulin – magic. In her younger days, she earned a living by traditional Indigenous crafts, such as baskets and weaving. She refused to give up her nomadic life, continuing to move about until she was in her 90s and could no longer move. Like Molly Ockett, Molly Molasses struggled with the white settlers and their contradictions. She said that “the enemy seemed to have two faces: one cold and selfish, the other kind and helpful”, and she defied every role that was placed on her until she died. She lived and died in Bangor, Maine, somewhere that I’ve been to many times and actually have to travel to frequently for my daughter’s orthodontist appointments. The pictures I shared in Fun Friday are actually from Bangor. Now, I just need to find her grave, or somewhere associated with her.

a picture I found of Molly Molasses

Molly Molasses, Bangor, ca. 1865 - Maine Memory Network

• Molly Dellis (1903-1977): Molly Dellis (also known as Molly Nelson) is the “main character” of the book. She gathered information about the other three women, searching for connection with her ancestors through their stories. It’s so fascinating how their stories all connect and are similar in different ways. Molly Dellis was a dancer in New York, and her stage name was Molly Spotted Elk. She married a French man and her story aligns a lot with Molly Mathilde in that respect. She lived on Indian Island, the reservation north of Bangor, and is buried there.

a picture of Molly Dellis

Molly Spotted Elk - Wikipedia

Anyway, there are places I’ve been inspired to visit now, thanks to these women. Sorry, I geeked out and just kept writing…

And I learned while searching for the links and stuff to put here that not only did Molly Molasses know Henry David Thoreau, he actually wrote quite extensively about her and other topics regarding the Maine wilderness! There’s this one here, so now I know what else I’ll be reading soon lol

An interesting quote from the book: There was one section in particular that I found interesting, and though it’s just one quote, the sentiment is echoed by each of the women in various forms.

Tufts was not the only person to make demands of Molly Ockett. On one occasion, a destitute settler from Fryeburg came to her Bethel camp to ask for a loan. After scolding him for trying to borrow from “a poor Indian despised by white people,” she gave him eight pounds - a considerable sum in those days – and made him promise to return the next winter to hunt furs in order to repay her. This he did, in contrast to many less fair-minded folk. Time and again, Molly Ockett tried to call up the balance of give and take, but almost invariably settlers focused only on their own needs. They wanted her to see their plight and relieve their pain, yet they turned a blind eye to the fact that her way of life was unraveling right in front of them. As they saw it, it was her job to adjust to them and their habits. Remarkably, however much anger or frustration she felt toward colonists who pursued their own happiness at the expense of her people, she repeatedly acted on their behalf as a healer and even a peacemaker.

my note on this passage

It’s interesting to see that this is mentioned here because I also always go back to this idea of reciprocity. There’s a give-and-take that is necessary in nature, and one of the complaints of Christianity, when it was being imposed on Indigenous peoples, at least from my perspective, was the fact that there is no reciprocity. The white settlers and the colonists were very selfish and that is the kind of idea that has continued in the Western world. And it has, in my opinion, led us to where we are now, with capitalism and consumption and not caring about the land we live on or the other people that live here with us.

Although reluctant to entrust themselves to someone who was not only Indian but Catholic, frontier folk often found that Molly Ockett was their only source of help. They may have missed the irony of this, but Molly did not: the individuals asking her to cure them were related to the very people who had earned bounties for killing and scalping her relatives and friends; the descendants of those who had brought epidemics to her people now asked her to heal them of diseases. How should she, who had lost so much, respond to a call for help from those who had done the taking? Focused on survival, Molly Ockett had little space for contemplating the dilemma of revenge versus forgiveness. She was a pragmatist and understood that doctoring provided a means of supporting herself and her daughter. Yet there were times when human suffering worked on her heart, and she could not help seeing her common humanity even with those who had attacked her people. Grace overcame her in these moments - as it did when she attended and cured the wife of John Evans, a former scalp hunter.

my note on this passage

I’m not sure if could reconcile with what Molly is dealing with. Having to treat the people who harmed her people must have been extremely conflicting, even if she saw their shared humanity and gave them grace.

All in all, would I recommend this book?: Yes - with the caveat that it is very regional, but if the topic is something you find interesting and want to learn about, then I fully recommend it.

[georgia]

Book Title and Author:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Book-of-Signs/Mystic-Michaela/9781507223970

I obtained this book in the mail last night and read it while I was awake for the full moon. It was a quick and easy read, as most of it is a dictionary of symbolism. Each symbol comes with a translation of the message, positive use in personal life, and suggestions of things to do to incorporate it.

Rating:
8/10

Many more things could have been added, but then the book could easily have ended up 600+ pages!

I like how it fits in my hand. Some reference books can be so big as to require a table to put them on while reading. A simple reference book is more likely to move with me, and I am more likely to refer to it than to flip pages for some arcane info in something more complex.

How does this book relate to my magickal practice?

I see many signs around me all the time. I’m aware that they are messages, but I don’t always get the gist of the message right away. This is a good starter book of symbols to get the juices flowing on translating the daily or special messages in life.

The author frames the signs as though from those who have passed over the rainbow bridge. However, the messages can be from the deities or spirit guides as well, in real life or from dreams

All in all, would I recommend this book?
Yes. I will hang onto it like a bird book to refer to when symbols appear in the wild. It won’t be with me every minute, but signs in the wild are usually remembered when I return home after the experience, like that half remembered flash of color or enchanting warble which appears when I least expect it.

[Amethyst]

Book Title and Author: The Untamed Witch by Lidia Pradas

Status? : Finished

My overall rating of the book : 7/10

How does this book relate to my magickal practice?: I wanted to get in touch with my magic more, and hoped this book would do it.

My personal thoughts/opinions: This book was enjoyable while reading, and had some good exercises. But to tell the truth, I finished it just a few days ago, and can’t remember much about it. It didn’t touch anything within me, if that makes sense. But it was good and has many good points about the Self, Gods and Spirits, and Ethics. But yeah, it was nothing I hadn’t read before.

An interesting quote from the book: “Magick resides inside you. It is inherent to you, and nobody can take it from you. That also means you are the only person who can tap into your magick and use it. In the journey presented in this book, you have learned to connect with all aspects of the trinity of mind, soul, and body; understand other realms; and connect with your surroundings and sacred spaces. Now is the time to put it all together, claim your power, and experiment with it yourself.”

Pradas, Lidia. The Untamed Witch: Reclaim Your Instincts. Rewild Your Craft. Create Your Most Powerful Magick. (p. 229). Fair Winds Press. Kindle Edition.

All in all, would I recommend this book?: Yes, if you’re new to the craft. But if you’re an intermediate, you may not come away with anything. Then again you may. I guess it’s up to what sticks in your head.