I have to agree with other reviewers and recommend this book. I enjoyed the elemental exercises very much and would also highly recommend purchasing the CD set that goes with it.

My only problem was that I got a little less out of this one than I did out of Inner Temple of Witchcraft, but that is mostly due to the fact that I started out with this information from other books (for about 7 years before I read this one) and those books were more "outer" heavy whereas the meditations, etc. from the IToWC were newer to my experience. I suppose I learned a little backwards from the way Christopher teaches.

If you're a newbie, get these books first, then move on to others. You can't beat the solid foundation you'll get here. ( )

This is one of the few books on witchcraft that didn't leave me feeling dumbed-down and dizzy. Most Witchcraft 101 books spend a good deal of time going over what have become well-known and relatively obvious facts about pagan deities, nature and its energies, the sabbats, and the very basics of magical tools and techniques. In this book, however, Penczak chooses a few of the more intriguing (and, for beginners, often intimidating) practices and explores them in depth.

Rather than the usual cursory chapter on magic--which is often no more than the repetition of warm-fuzzy affirmations about how "anything goes" and the power is "all within you" anyway--Penczak devotes two chapters to a detailed explanation of the theory of spellwork, discussing first the guiding principles of energy and the "science" behind magic, and then turning to a treatment of spellwork as artistic crafting. This is the only book that didn't take me from "it's easy!" to a "sample spell" of five or more exotic ingredients and astrological correspondences in one giant leap. Step by step, Penczak builds on knowledge in an intelligent and instructive way, without implying either a dumbed-down make-believe approach or an all-or-nothing game of calculations and memorizations.

This is also one of the few books that does not place visualization as the primary tool of magic. I found this immensely comforting, as I have worked intuitive magic for years without hardly any visualization or "mystic experiences" (and always felt I must somehow be "doing it wrong"--even if it worked!). Overall, his approach is a scientific one, primarily, and yet it incorporates the foundations of personal and thoughtful spirituality as a necessary building block for (and ultimately the goal of) witchcraft. A great book, well worth the read. ( )