Product Description

Ellen Dugan, the author of Garden Witchery, is the ideal guide to show us how to bring the beauty of nature and its magickal energies indoors. Using common household and outdoor items-such as herbs, spices, dried flowers, plants, stones, and candles-she offers a down-to-earth approach to creating an enchanted home.

From specialized spells and charms to kitchen conjuring and color magick, this hands-on guide teaches Witches of all levels how to strengthen a home's aura and energy. Readers will learn how to use begonias and lilacs for protection, dispel bad vibes with salt and lemon, perform tea leaf readings, bless the home with fruit, invite the help of home faeries, perform houseplant magick, and create a loving home for the whole family.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27660 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780738706252
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
According to Dugan, a witch's cottage can take any shape, from a city apartment to a house in the suburbs. A self-described "Garden Witch" and psychic-clairvoyant, Dugan offers a Martha Stewart–like guide for setting up a magickal home, helping readers to "reconnect to the energies of the natural world," and "direct these magickal forces into [their] homes and everyday lives." A follow-up to Garden Witchery, this guide will appeal to a broad audience, from the serious witch hoping to align each room with magickal principles, to the interested dabbler looking for ways to draw magick into the kitchen or the newbie seeking an alternative kind of feng shui. Included are a range of interesting spells for "removing bad vibes," warding off unwanted guests and buying and selling a home, as well as a household journal with blessings for various rooms of the home, and a helpful glossary of terms. Dugan is at her best when explaining concepts like the history of different goddesses and categorizing elements like the magickal qualities of houseplants, yet her tendency to converse directly with the reader can be off-putting, as are her frequent personal tangents. Though Dugan claims often that this is a guide for any style of home in any location, it will be most useful to readers with easy access to nature. (Mar.)
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About the Author
Ellen Dugan, the "Garden Witch," has been a psychic-clairvoyant and a practicing Witch for over twenty years. She is a Master Gardener and teaches classes on flower folklore and gardening at a community college. She is also a regular contributor to Llewellyn's Almanacs, datebooks, and calendars, and is the author of Garden Witchery: Magick from the Ground Up; Elements of Witchcraft; Natural Magick for Teens; 7 Days of Magic: Spells, Charms & Correspondences for the Bewitching Week; Cottage Witchery: Natural Magick for Hearth and Home; Autumn Equinox: The Enchantment of Mabon; The Enchanted Cat: Feline Fascinations, Spells & Magick;  Herb Magic for Beginners: Down-to-Earth Enchantments . Future titles from Ellen include "Natural Witchery: Personal, Intuitive & Practical Magick " (2007) and “How to Enchant a Man” (2008). When she's not keeping up with her family, Ellen likes to unwind by working in her perennial gardens at home with her husband. Ellen wholeheartedly encourages folks to personalize their spellcraft: to get their hands dirty and connect with the spiritual side of nature, discovering the wonder and magick of the natural world.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
There is an emanation for the heart in genuine hospitality which cannot be described but is immediately felt, and puts the stranger at once at his ease. washington irving

A WitcHY WELcoME

Welcome and make yourself at home. Have a seat and let's you and I sit and chat. Hmm? What was that? Oh, thanks. We like our house too. I watch as your eyes dart around the living room, looking for signs of witchery. I smile to myself as, for the most part, the magickal accessories are pretty subtle. But I will admit there are a few things that jump right out at you.

Where did I get the stained glass pentacle, you ask? Oh, I made that years ago when I worked at a stained glass shop; everyone thought it was a hex sign. The big old cauldron sitting on the brick hearth? Found it for next to nothing at an antique shop, rusted and stuck in a corner. A little steel wool and black spray paint and it's as good as new. Your eyes continue to search the room as the family's two cats come strolling in to check out the visitor. They may or may not grace you with their presence by sniffing you over and then perching behind you on the back of the sofa. Other than a few crystal clusters, to you everything looks pretty normal and lived in. Well, this isn't what you were expecting. You rise and follow me into the kitchen at my question as to whether you'd like something to drink. As I pour your beverage into the glass, you look around the kitchen and check out the mossy-green painted walls and a crafty kitchen witch collection centered on a painted shelf. The herb prints hanging on the walls draw you in for a closer look. Mounded on the counter is a variety of seasonal produce from our family's farm. I tell you to expect to take some home with you. There is way too much there for us to possibly eat. We make our way back to the living room and you curl up comfortably on the couch, thinking to yourself that you are going to have to do a complete revamp of what you thought a real Witch's house would be. Hmm . . . so now that you are all snug on the couch, how do you feel? Safe, calm, happy, and at ease. Good, that's exactly how you should feel. Disappointed at the lack of drama? Don't worry, I get that reaction a lot. I have had students come to my home for the first time expecting some suburban-type of Addam's family mansion. They were pretty uptight until they saw that we lived in a ranch-style home in the 'burbs. As they came in and sat on the couch I could see that they were scanning everything as fast as possible. When my three kids came flying down the hall engaged in hand to hand combat, they started to smile. When I excused myself to ask the kids . . . okay, to go and yell at the kids to knock it off, my guests started to laugh. As I came back into the living room to join them, they were grinning. I could only smile back at them and say that what really makes a Witch's home different is the way that it makes you feel. The magickal home carries a particular type of positive psychic vibration. This type of enchanting energy is often expanded upon and refined by the Witch who dwells there. This sort of magickal emanation puts welcomed guests and family at ease. It is both a strength and a comfort. If you think about it, a home that exudes a sense of hospitality and welcome is a type of natural magick all of its own. So you're here because you'd like to learn a few natural magick practices for your own hearth and home? Great, you've come to the right place! The tips and techniques of bringing a little witchery into the place where you live are both simple and down-to- earth. These are subtle types of magick: think handmade and homegrown-a leaf from a tree, a flower grown in the yard, herbs and spices, candle spells and color magick. The enchanting household accessories, charms, and spells may not be glaringly obvious to the casual observer, but they are powerful magick nonetheless. Many of the ingredients cottage witchery calls for are, more often than not, already readily available to you, possibly lurking about in the spice rack or outside, compliments of good old Mother Nature. Now before you think to yourself Oh, she's just going to talk about kitchen witch stuff, let me point out a few things to you here. For starters, I really hate to cook. I can cook, I just would prefer not to. So don't worry, I will not be bombarding you with recipes. I'll leave that to the culinary magicians. Also, something else you may want to consider is that traditionally much of the spellwork of the wise women/cunning men originated from the hearth. And the hearth is where the family of olden times prepared herbal remedies, cooked their food, and gathered together. It was the natural place for magick, as the hearth exuded light and warmth and was literally the heart of the home.

Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. oliver wendell holmes

The Magickal Heart of the Home

Alas, today very few homes have a central hearth. They may lay claim to a fireplace or a wood-burning stove if they are fortunate, but for today's modern Witch the hearth area is actually the kitchen. Think about it. Dinner...(Continues)

Customer Reviews

Wonderful book on Indoor magick!!!!!!
I am a young witch, it's true, but that doesn't mean my opinion doesn't count. This book is AMAZING! I read my mom's copy and I love the author's sense of humor and breezy perspective on Wicca and spells. I love how she personalizes the book by including her own experiences! This book is a wonderful addition to any wiccan, beginner or not's bookshelf. Ellen Dugan is a talented author/witch who inspires the reader in all sorts of ways! Buy this book right away!

A Good Beginning
As a novice kitchen witch & yet to begin gardener this book was quite helpful in sparking ideas. While no chapter went into deep detail the basics are covered and that's what I was after. Ms. Dugan's style is very conversational which I prefer over academic language. It's an easy read, and offers inspiration, not concrete "must be this way" type solutions. Ms. Dugan encourages creativity and adapting her charms. If you're just getting started this is an excellent resource. If you're more advanced in the art of kitchen or green witchcraft you may want to look for a different title as I doubt you would find the indepth information you may desire here.

Practical, "Down-to-Earth" Hearth Magick Hits the Spot
Mrs. Dugan reprises with another absolutely fantastic book dealing with the elements of natural witchcraft and its connections to the hearth and home. Practical and amazingly easy to read and retain information from, Mrs. Dugan takes the reader on a fantastic journey through the parts of your own home that seem to lack a magickal mystery, and insures her readers that the home is one, if not the best place to practice witchcraft. Jam packed with useful information, hearth magick seems less of an abstract idea and more of an accessible entity, completely surrounding you.

As to her style, Ellen connects with her readers and steers clear of the "bow-down-to-my-almighty-knowledge" attitude that some writers stick close to when writing a book on the subject of Wicca. With ease and expertise, Mrs. Dugan writes what's in her own clever heart, but fully delivers the vast amounts of info one would deem necessary to have in order to practice this wonderful, natural craft, the Craft of the hearth and of the home. Does it really sound as if Mrs. Dugan is speaking to her readers in a tone one would use with a two year old? Personally, I don't see a hint of that. After reading book after book after book, the titles, the authors and the information, for me, seem to bleed together and become indistinguishable in a muddled, wordy mess. Ellen Dugan stands out among the rest who have attempted to write on this difficult and vast subject and fully utilizes the humor and wit she is know for.

A FULL FIVE STARS to Mrs. Dugan and "Cottage Witchery". I hope to see more from such a talented and informative author in the future.