Book Review: Silver's Spell For Love
Silver's Spell For Love
Author: Silver Ravenwolf
Trade Paperback, 312 pages
Publisher: Llewellyn
Publication date: January 2001
ISBN: 1567185525
More Information:
http://www.ecauldron.com/cncbook.php?asin=1567185525
Like most of Silver Ravenwolf's recent books, Silver's Spells
for Love is going to be controversial in the Neo-Pagan
community, especially in the Wiccan part of the community. Many
Neo-Pagans have no use for spell books, claiming that everyone
should create their own spells. Many Wiccans simply object to
the very idea of doing love spells.
I got my start along the Neo-Pagan path from the magick end --
Paul Huson's Mastering Witchcraft and later ceremonial magick to
be specific. While I agree that a personally created spell can
be better, I don't think that spell books are a waste of paper.
Nor, as a non-Wiccan, do I have automatic ethical objections to
love spells. Therefore, as this book does not claim to be about
Wicca or any other religion, I'm going to review this book
solely on its merits as a book of spells aimed at the beginner.
This book is obviously aimed at the general public -- not just
Neo-Pagans or Wiccans. The first twenty pages are a very basic
introduction to magick. While easy to read, it is incomplete and
has a somewhat Wiccan mind set. A Christian or other non-Wiccan
picking up this book is probably going to be put off by circle
casting that refers to the God and Goddess, for example.
However, the introduction does warn about the possible negative
consequences of casting love spells aimed at a particular person
or persons. Unfortunately, the author takes a "just trust my
years of experience" position instead of explaining what can
happen if one ignores this advice without knowing exactly what
one is doing.
The next three chapters are the actual spells. The first is
spells for obtaining love, second is spells for keeping love
alive, and the third is spells for terminating a relationship.
Unfortunately, this is all the organization the spells really
seem to have. There are simple spells next to complex ones,
spells for romantic love are next to spells for lust, etc. The
spells themselves vary in quality, but you will get this in any
book of spells. Some of the spells come with advice from the
author in "Mama Silver" mode. While I know some people like
this, I could have done without it.
Six short appendices on herbs, magick days and colors,
astrology, moon phases and planetary hours round out the book.
There's also a bibliography and an index.
This book isn't bad, especially if you are a clueless magickal
newbie looking for a large collection of love spells. In other
words, for its intended audience, this is a good book. For the
average Neo-Pagan or Magician, it's just another book of spells.
You probably will not really need it or want it, but it's
something you can suggest to everyone who begs you for love
spells. While it has spells some will consider questionable, at
least you will not be suggesting a book full of "sexual slavery"
type spells like some books of love spells I've seen in the past.
This review is one of hundreds of reviews of Pagan, Wiccan,
occult, and metaphysical books in The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's
Books and Reviews section at
http://www.ecauldron.com/bookstore.php.