Copyright Date:
2022
Edition Date:
2022
Release Date:
10/25/22
Pages:
x, 290 pages
ISBN:
0-316-35334-5
ISBN 13:
978-0-316-35334-2
Dewey:
133.91
LCCN:
2022936431
Dimensions:
21 cm.
Language:
English
Reviews:
Publishers Weekly
(Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)
Tarot artist Goodchild (The Antique Anatomy Tarot) delivers a generous grab bag of strategies for connecting with the spirits of the dead. She explains that anyone with patience, dedication, and compassion can learn to perform séances, use tools of divination, and interpret occult signs and messages. Discussing death rituals in ancient Egypt, Madagascar, and Tibet, she offers detailed advice on how to hold séances, enumerating the pros and cons of conducting them in churches, graveyards, or parks and urging readers to summon spirits by focusing one’s “intention” on the spirit one wishes to summon. She provides a bounty of alternative methods for receiving messages from the beyond, including reading tea leaves, analyzing randomly chosen passages in books, and interpreting dominoes. For example, Goodchild explains that cartomancy involves divining messages from tarot cards, and she outlines spreads—or card configurations—readers can use to glean meaning. Goodchild’s impressive variety of divination techniques that encompass the common and obscure, paired with straightforward instructions for interpretation and execution, makes for a bountiful volume that practitioners will find easy to follow and customize. Readers of the occult will want to check this out. Agent: Meg Thompson, Thompson Literary. (Nov.)
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Publishers Weekly
(Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)
From an award-winning artist, a beautifully mysterious guide to conducting seances and communing with the spirits in our conscious and unconscious lives.
As long as people have lived, they have longed for wisdom and comfort from those who have died. In The Book of Séances, artist, author, and witch Claire Goodchild takes readers on a journey through the historical landscape of spiritualism and guides questers through safe practices for cultivating a connection with the other side.
The Book of Séances details the four types of spiritual encounters, teaches us how to protect ourselves, and breaks down the different tools -- from spirit boards and tarot to dominoes and charms -- that are essential for opening a bridge to the afterlife. Whether conducting solitary or group séances, this book offers a way to safely glimpse beyond the veil.
Through her evocative writing and singular art, Claire provides a comprehensive history of the séance, alongside an immersive guide to accessing and communing with the spirit world. The Book of Séances provides hauntingly lovely signposts into our own personal mythology as revealed through our conscious and unconscious lives.