Product Description

Gilly Sergiev's style should inspire everyone to bring more magic into their life. Her 5 steps include: finding your Guardian Angel - the perfect guide to work with; your appearance - which style will give you greatest allure and energy; your spells - simple ways to attract desire, happiness and protection; your tools - everything you need to get the spells started; your special mystical talents - how to cast them over friends, family and lovers! She also reveals her calendar of special feast days; a variety of spells and special recipes for every occasion; and great ways to use herbs for healing and beauty purposes. Learn how to tap into your own personal style and access the latent power of bewitchment we all possess!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #361834 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-16
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Gilly Sergiev describes herself as "a natural-born white witch" and a "solitary". The "solitary" aspect comes through clearly in this little guide to the life and habits of a witch--it's very much her personal view, rather than the well-developed beliefs and practices of Wicca. In fact, some Wiccans might be irritated at her assumption throughout that witches are female, and on her spending a 10-page chapter on "Appearance", which gives the impression that this might be a rather trivial approach to the subject. In fact, much of the content of this book would probably be acceptable to most witches; Wicca is, after all, one of the most individualistic religious practices. Included in Sergiev's 5 Easy Steps to Becoming a Witch are thumbnail sketches of the eight major annual festivals, advice on rituals, and on the care needed in choosing and looking after the various "tools of the trade", including the cauldron, the athame or ritual knife--and the broomstick. (This is used for sweeping out a ritual space, not for flying over the rooftops.) There is also a useful compendium of spells for love, luck, protection and so on. This is a light-hearted and attractive book, nicely illustrated in a simplified version of Aubrey Beardsley's style. A useful introduction for those who might find more heavyweight books on Wicca a little off-putting. --David V Barrett

About the Author
Gilly Sergiev is a professional artist as well as a witch and this will be beautifully illustrated throughout. Has worked as an artist for many woman's magazines Woman and Woman's Own and the Daily Telegraph. Also has worked as a cartoonist for films including Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Excerpted from 5 Easy Steps to Becoming a Witch by Gilly Sergiev. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
5 Easy Steps to Becoming a Witch
Keep in touch spell

What You Will Need:
*a blue candle
*a handful of caraway seeds
*two blue pouches or small purses
*a sheet of blue paper (torn into two pieces)
*a red pen
*a snip of hair from your head and a snip from the person you want to keep in touch with

What To Do:
On a full moon, light a blue candle and sit with the person (who may be going away or whom you want to stay in touch with) within a magic circle. Hold their hands and say: ‘Mother Goddess to you I pray, keep (name of person) from too far stray, keep ourselves in constant touch, Mother Goddess let it be such.’
Then take a snip of your hair and place it in one pouch with half the caraway seeds and your name written in red on one half of the torn blue paper and give to the person. Let them snip a piece of their hair and put it in the second pouch with the remaining caraway seeds and their name written in red on the other half of the torn blue paper and give it to you. As long as you both keep the poaches on your persons, you will keep in touch. At the end of your workings, snuff out the candle (do not blow it out) and carefully remove the magic circle.

N.B. To make a magic circle for these purposes, simply sit with your friend together and draw around you in free flowing salt a circle which encompasses you both.

Customer Reviews

*clap*
When i first got this book i knew completely nothing of the craft except for a few basic guidelines such as mediation, incantations, spells and that it was a religeon but even knowing this i didnt know about them into great depth.

If you are a beginner i do really reccommend this book, it tells you everything from tools- on how to use them, their meaning and how to get started with them. It also tells you the meaning of wicca etc. You dont even need to go buy a book of spells or anything straight away as it has a few spells and recipies in the back! its more than worth its small sum!

p.s i hope this reiew helped

exellent
First of all the title is just a title of this book it does not explain what the book is really about like some seem to think it does, it in no way tells you that you can become a witch in 5 easy steps, they had to call the book something !!

This book is amazing, i have been a Witch now for 11 years and i am no way still a teenager but i did enjoy reading every bit of it. Normally the books i have read on wicca i skip most pages due to it being boreing or hard to understand and read the bits that i want but with this book i read it over and over again every word.

It teaches wicca in a very up to date fashion, its not hard to understand and its in no way old fashion like most books are.If your looking for a new view on wicca and want a fun way to get into wicca this book is a must! Some people like the old and in my view boreing way of reaserching the "old craft" i am very much a cool chick witch and like to show people that wicca doesnt mean you have to wear black and look and think like a hippy (nothing wrong with that at all its just not my cup of tea)but i like to make it look more like fun, wicca is all about having fun and doing what you think is right and it shouldnt be a chore.

The last few pages are my fav so dont miss reading them.I have had many friends who have asked what wicca is all about and i lend them my other copy (i have two i loved it that much !!) and so far everyone who has read it has been converted and been drawn to wicca.

Only one thing, if your are looking for a more complicated book which goes a lot deeper this may not be the book for you.

stay away!!!!!!!!! check out ravenwolf instead...
Well, I hate to burst everyones bubble, but I did not think much of this book. First of all, I am a teenager as well. OK. Now, I got this book for Christmas, and as soon as I saw the title I felt put off. If you read any other wiccan book, you will immediately understand that you CANNOT ''become'' a witch in 5 easy steps. Many wiccan authors have different views on different matters, but they all agree that becoming a with is something that occurs naturally, when you feel the time has come.

Second of all, in this book Gilly devotes a whole chapter to your appearance, which frankly is disgusting, and totally contradicts the whole wiccan state of mind. I mean, isn't wicca a religion where you can wear what you want? Yes, it is. I know in this book Gilly is simply suggesting that we wear the colours assigned to us via our birthdate, telling us which shoes to pick etc. but I do not particularily enjoy someone telling me how to dress, and certainly not a supposed witch. Supposed witch. Another thing, in the introduction how she kept bragging about how she was a natural born witch. Do we care? On the other hand she did cover the tools very completely anbd very well, I'll give her that. Her information got confusing at times, as she did not explain the phases of the moon very well, and they didn't correspond to the explanations of other extremely well known wiccan authors very well. To conclude, I will warn you to stay away from this book. Whilst creating a portion of my BOS, I wanted to refer to a few of my books on subjects I wasn't too clear about, and opening 5 EASY STEPS TO BECOMING A WITCH was a complete waste of time, as all that happened was I was left very confused, and was left with no other option but to read someone elses book. I can see why this book would seem attractive to beginning teens as it looks simple and fun, but honestly, check out some of silver ravenwolf's books like TEEN WITCH and TO RIDE A SILVER BROOMSTICK which is fun, easy, and very informative, along with scott cunninghams' GUIDE FOR THE SOLITARY PRACTIONER. Read those, and I can guarantee you will have a wonderful guide to the Path of the Craft...