Brandy Williams

The author claims that her aim is to help the readers strengthen their relationship with their ancestors, a key principle in pre-christian european cults, she tried her best to recreate each historical setting, but failed miserably and ended up writing an insipid post-modernist abomination. Her recreated biographies draw from reliable sources, but her writing style appears droll, overly facetious and unworthy of any serious reader's precious time. But what really gets on my nerves is that the author's political bias leaks all over her book, she never grows weary of reminding us that the Egyptians did not hold darker people in low regard, that female scribes played a (minimal) role in antiquity, and last if not least that the ancient Europeans are guilty of "colonizing" the Egyptian culture from which they based their metaphysical beliefs on. If miss Brandy Williams is truly bent on shamelessly smearing ageless traditions with neoliberal wokeism, perhaps she should simply stick to a religion that suits the likes of her better than indo-european polytheism like Wicca or Satanism.… (more)

Cord Magic by Brandy Williams
Tapping into the power of string, yarn, twists and knots

Having used knots and cords and other magic devices in the past I was interested in seeing what this book had to offer.

What I liked:
* the history of cord use
* the personal use of cords as illustrated by the author
* the personalization options
* the worksheets/charts that will assist the practitioner
* the common thoughts on correspondences
* Information on color, number, fibers, how to make cords, etc
* specific projects
* layouts/charts for setting up a magic working
* dyes
* measurements
* choosing what will be used to do magic
* energy in magic
* steps
* consecration, cleansing, choosing, focus, invocation, etc in regard to what will be done
* what to do with cords once magic has been done and it is time to release the energy from the cord/knots
* use of beads, charms, stones
* listing of knots
* all of it really

What I didn’t like:
* as this was an ARC and not complete, I found that not being able to see the illustrations, photographs and such made it more difficult to visualize what the purchaser of the book will be able to see. I cannot give feedback on this area as it was not in the ARC.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I like to have it in my library? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Llewellyn for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars… (more)

This book does not go into a wide discussions on origins or religious system of Wicca. Instead, it goes into a detailed explanation of ways of practicing witchcraft. It gives plenty of exercises and sound advice on posture, meditation, grounding and centering, energy work, directing energy, moon-phases, chakras , and much more. The book is well organized and starts of with the basics and then builds up from there. It took me a while to read because I stopped and did many of the exercises the book suggested. A good read overall.… (more)