Monday, January 2, 2012

Rebuilding Your Magickal Library

A while back, I was dating a certain Christian that was actually a very wonderful guy. However, he had never seen my magickal library. When I moved in with him, and subsequently my sister lost her apartment, rather than having to have "the talk" with him, I decided I had learned what I was going to from the current books in my library and would just get different books, so I gave them away. About two weeks after that, I started looking for a couple of certain books and was like, oh yeah, I gave them away. Fortunately I had given them to a friend so normally it wouldn't have been a big deal to just borrow the ones I missed from her, however, she had promptly lost them as soon as she took them home, in the way that magick books do, they had in essence hid from her.

She was baffled, freaking out! She was so upset that she had lost my books! I looked at her and told her that they were her books, and that magick books just have a tendency of hiding until you need them. She nearly burst into tears because she knew I was looking for those certain books and she couldn't find them for me. It was almost like instead of me giving them to her, she was holding them for me! She never got the idea that magick books tend to hide until needed, and now she lives in Dallas about 4 or so hours away from me, and I have no clue if she took them with her or not.

I have been slowly refilling my library, replacing the books I missed, and adding in new ones that call out to me. The one I was most excited to get back was Cottage Witchery by Ellen Dugan. That one is my absolute favorite book, not because it is technically a magick book, but because it has awesome decoration ideas. I've also replaced The Way of the Green Witch, and have a couple of others on my Amazon wishlist to remind myself to replace them too. Slowly but surely my magickal library is coming together. And wouldn't you know, when I first moved into my tiny cabin, as I started unpacking, I found a couple of books from my personal magickal library. Stubborn little guys refused to be given away! Have any of you done this? Decided to give your books away, and then have some show back up, or decide you'd made a bad decision?

4 comments:

  1. I sold or gave away most of my magical books (actually, most of all my physical books) before moving this year. I kept a few of the reference books that would be harder to replace, and found some in digital format instead. I haven't missed any yet, but then, I was able to take my time with it and make sure I was okay with all of the little decisions.

    Would you recommend Cottage Witchery, then? My girlfriend's interested in household-type magic but hasn't find a book on the subject that she likes yet. (Any other recommendations would also be welcome.)

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  2. I personally recommend Cottage Witchery, I really love this book. I'm also reading Magical Housekeeping by Tess Whitehurst, and I'm enjoying it as well, although it doesn't hold a candle to Cottage Witchery. I hope she finds something she likes soon. I'll keep an eye out for any magical house keeping type books and post them here.

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  3. During a few rushed moves, I have had to give up my books, and I have, over time, replaced most of them. Some books, such as Cunninghams Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs I have purchased three times. So in a way, they all found their way back to me. I don't even consider parting with them now.

    Before or during these moves, things in my life were chaotic and I wasn't able to practice as much as I normally do. To a certain extent I was also going through a "dark night of the soul." So these books returning, and particularly the way they returned (through my own choice to buy them again) was very symbolic of my true belonging and commitment to my chosen path.

    Needless to say I am a fan of Amazon booksellers - some of the books I wanted to buy again were out of print so I had to find used copies. And now I recently found a used book store locally that carries occult books, so I browse in there from time to time.

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  4. I'm a huge fan of Amazon as well lol. While Barnes and Noble is a fairly good choice for general reading, the one we have here doesn't have much of a choice on occult books. So I turn to Amazon, and they are awesome!

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