Sunday, October 28, 2012

Mrs. B's Guide to Household Witchery: The Virtual Tour




Mrs. B’s Guide to Household Witchery: Everyday Magic, Spells, and Recipes
By Kris Bradley

Genre: New Age/ Wicca

Publisher: Weiser Books, an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
ISBN: 978-1-57863-515-3

Number of pages: 224
Word Count: 49,000

Cover Artist: Jim Warner

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Book Description:
For domestic goddesses everywhere—add some magic and fun to those mundane household chores with Mrs. B.'s Guide to Household Witchery. Whether you're sweeping the floor, making a meal, or cleaning out that junk drawer, domestic witch Kris Bradley, creator of the popular blog, Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom, will show you how to create spells and magic to bring happiness and balance into your home.
Bradley offers ideas and solutions to make the most out of everyday items, activities, and obligations. From Anchovies to Broccoli, and Wine to Yeast, from sweeping the floor to blow-drying your hair, you can change your outlook on life with a pinch of knowledge and a dash of magic! The book includes simple rituals, spells, and ways to connect with the spirits that watch over your home and family. Includes an appendix of herbs and a complete materia magica from the kitchen pantry.
Mrs. B's Guide to Household Witchery features:
        Room by Room: How to create magic while you cook, set up a family altar in the living room, or do a junk drawer divination
        The Elements for the Domestic Witch: a primer on the 4 elements and how to balance them in your home
        The Domestic Witch's Herbal: Magical uses for every herb and food in your pantry, as well as instant magic with prepackaged spice mixes
        Simple Sabbats for the Busy Witch: simple ways to celebrate the passing of the seasons
Magical Recipes: More than 100 recipes and spells


Thoughts...

This book is wonderful! You want to know what the magical properties exist in an apple. It's there. You want to stir a little lust with your partner? That's there too. 
Kris is a great source for all things in the magical community. Her blog posts are informative and from the heart, and her book continues in the same vein. I enjoyed the down to earth simple spells, home and hearth blessings and overall felt like the book really focused on what you can do at home with everyday items. This is the kind of witchery that most appeals to me. If it is too elaborate, well, the chances of it happening are going to be nil. Especially with my schedule. For many of us, this holds true, so Kris's book is a great solution. 

5/5 Awesome and witchy resource!!!




Making and Using Black Salt
-Kris “Mrs.B.” Bradley

One of the great things about Domestic Witchery is that it really gives you the option of pulling from different tradition and practices to create magic in your home.   In reading about the Hoodoo, I was completely thrilled to find how much I could create using items that I already had on hand.
Black salt is one of those things that has multiple uses and can be created quite easily.  In fact, it can be created in several different ways.  As with much of magic, it’s more the intention you put behind it than the ingredients or tools that you use.



Black salt is sometimes called Sal Negro, Witches’ Salt, Drive Away Salt, Voodoo Salt or Santeria Salt.  It can be used for driving away evil or negative energies, it can be added to war water.  You can sprinkle it in the doorways and corners of a room or business to drive away negativity or give you protection against unpleasant neighbors or co-workers. Sprinkle it around your property or garden for protection.   It can be used to cast circles of strong protection.  Black salt has also been traditionally used in removing hexes and jinxes.

So how do you make black salt?  There are several different ways, which include mixing 2 parts salt to 1 part of another substance; cast iron scrapings, ash from a fire place, charcoal, black pepper or black dye are the most often used.

For my mix, I use the scrapings from my cast iron cauldron, which includes a bit of cast iron, a bit of ash from burning things, and a bit of charcoal.  In fact, I intentionally burn herbs of protection on  self-lighting charcoal so I’ll have plenty of matter – with a boost of protective energies- for my black salt.

An old metal spoon is the perfect tool to scrape out the burnt bits from your cauldron, giving the sides a good scrape to get a bit of the cast iron into your mix. 

Remove any large, unburnt chunks, then mix together with twice as much salt, always concentrating on protective energies.

It’s a great idea to whip up a batch of this salt and have it on hand before you need it.  I’ve made a tradition of adding it to the protective herbal mix that I strew around my property line each Samhain.  A little extra boost of protection never hurt!






About the Author:
Kris Bradley is the magic behind the popular blog Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom (2500 readers). She helped establish The Sisterhood of the Triple Goddess coven in Keyport, NJ and is a legally ordained minister, in addition to being a witchy wife and mother. Her work on domestic witchery has been featured in PaganParenting.org and as a national column for Examiner.com. She lives in Keyport, NJ.







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4 comments:

  1. I love this book!! It's fabulous!!

    And I love your blog! This is great!!! Awesome job!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dana: Just wanted to thank you for this great book! Lots of helpful tips and a great reference to have on hand... I love it!

    ReplyDelete
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