Judika Illes - The Big Book of Practical Spells: Everyday Magic That Works

What a fascinating book! Judika Illes Pure Magic does for magickal practice what I attempted to do for general Wizardry with the Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard. You don't have to already be a trained practitioner to learn from and work with the functional materials she presents here. She covers the foundations in a clear and straightforward manner, and builds on them to provide a complete Grimoire for effective spellcasting and personal magickal empowerment. From theory to practice, it's all here. And most important, the information and teachings are scrupulously accurate. I particularly appreciate Judika's encyclopedic approach to concepts and definitions. This book will be a treasured addition to any magickal library; I know I will be making considerable use of it in my own practice. Great Work, Judika!

Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, Headmaster, Grey School of Wizardry

Pure Magic is exactly that. Judika Illes underscores the fact that magic is (i) real and (ii) available to everyone. She proves it in this delightful book filled with spells, charms, recipes, magical exercises and down-to-earth instruction. As she says: Magic is your birthright. And there is no negative magic includednothing harmful to you or anyone else. Now you have no excuse not to use it!

Raymond Buckland, author of Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft

I have always adored Judika Illes' work. Both her books and her classes are filled with sound advice and solid research. In Pure Magic, Judika has given us another treasure filled with practical wisdom for the beginner, intermediate, and advanced practitioner of magic.

Christopher Penczak, Author of Instant Magick and
The Temple of Shamanic Witchcraft

This edition first published in 2016 by Weiser Books, an imprint of

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

65 Parker Street, Suite 7

Newburyport, MA 01950

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2016 by Judika Illes

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages. Previously published as Earth Mother Magic in 2001 by Fair Winds Press, ISBN: 1-9311412-65-0 and as Pure Magic in 2007 by Weiser Books, ISBN: 978-1-57863-391-3.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-597-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016933096

Cover design by Jim Warner

Cover Illustration from Insects of Surinam, 1726 (hand-coloured engraving), Merian, Maria Sibylla Graff (1647-1717) / Natural History Museum, London, UK / Bridgeman Images

Interior by Debby Dutton

Typeset in Berkeley Book, Bernhard Modern, and Futura

Printed in Canada

MAR

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www.redwheelweiser.com

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In loving memory of

Zoltan, Herta, and Irma Illes

I revisit certain books over and over again; Mikhail Bulgakov's novel, The Master and Margarita, for instance, a book I first read in childhood. Every few years, I read it again. Every time I read it, I see something that I missed in previous readings or something that, over the years, I've gained the capacity to comprehend in a different way than before. Through experience, over time, our inner eyes open and we are able to see what once we couldn't.

For an author, though, re-reading your own work is a totally different experience: it's a form of time travel. Memories of where you were and who you were and what life was like while you were writing flood back to you as you read.

When I wrote the initial manuscript of The Big Book of Practical Spells, I was living in Los Angeles, my children were small, and my parents were alive. The Twin Towers still stood. Social media did not yet exist.

The Big Book of Practical Spells is the third incarnation of what was my first published book. The opportunity to write it was a beam of sunlight during a particularly bleak period of my life. The manuscript sprouted from my still-unpublished book devoted to fertility. A publisher rejected that book, but liked the chapter I had written on magic spells intended to counteract infertility and asked me to expand it into a book on magic and spell-casting to be called Earth Mother Magic. The title was given to me, as was a deadline, and I was set loose to write.

I desperately wanted to write this book. I had been learning, studying, and practicing the magical arts since my earliest childhood and so I was not being asked to do anything particularly difficult for me. I don't exaggerate when I say earliest childhoodmy mother taught herself English by teaching me to read when I was three. There was no censorship in our household. My mother was not a practitioner, but she was a mystic and she never prevented me from exploring and developing my own magical path. We had metaphysical books on our family bookshelvesastrology, numerology, palmistry, and moreand I consumed them all voraciously.

However, although I didn't tell the publisher, I secretly hated the title. Earth Mother Magic seemed hypocritical to me. How was I to write a book that implicitly praised the sacred powers of Earth and natural magic, while, simultaneously being very aware of how many trees are cut down to make paper? I agonized about this for a bit. The only solution, I determined, was to write a book that attempted to be worthy of the sacrifice of the trees, a book of honest, true, experiential magic in clear, comprehensible language, the book that you now hold in your hands.

At the time I was writing that initial manuscript, the phenomena that was Harry Potter was in full swing. The first couple of books had already been published. My children were in that first generation to read them or, more accurately, to hear them: we read each book aloud. We'd go to parks, playdates, and classes, and Harry Potter was on everyone's lips, not just the children's, but the parents' as well.

Magically-speaking, I was very isolated when I lived in Los Angeles. I had left compadres and coven sisters behind in New York City. In Los Angeles, I became a solitary practitioner, not necessarily by choice, or at least not initially. This was, as I said, before social media and so the concept of the virtual community did not yet exist.

I was solitary and I was discreet. I did not reveal my metaphysical interests to very many people. (It would be the publication of my first book that thrust me from the broom closet.) However, listening to those parents discuss Harry Potter, I was struck by the longing expressed by so many, most of whom had never previously had a serious discussion about witchcraft or the existence of magic power.

What I heard from these Muggle mothers was their hunger for magic. Occasionally, someone would whisper a story to me about some unusual experience, typically with anticipation that I would respond with mockery. When I didn'twhen I instead shared a mystical experience of my ownthe floodgates would open. I witnessed how hungry so many were for true magic, not fantasies, but the real deal that I knew existed. They yearned to be reconnected with their own personal power. I realized then how blessed and lucky I was to have made this connection so early in life. And so, faced with my challenging title, I determined to write a book that would ring true to those who were already experienced in the ways of magic, but which would also provide a bridge and a clear, easy-to-follow path for those embarking on their first magical journeys.