Italian Folk Magic: Rue's Kitchen Witchery by Mary-Grace Fahrun

Description from Goodreads:

In this fascinating journey through the magical, folkloric, and healing traditions of Italy the reader learns uniquely Italian methods of magical protection and divination and spells for love, sex, control, and revenge.

"Mary-Grace Fahrun's Italian Folk Magic is an intimate journey into the heart of Italian folk magical practices as they are lived every day. Having grown up in an extended Italian family in North America and Italy, the author presents us with the stories, characters, saints, charms, and prayers that form the core of folk religion, setting them in context in an authentic, down-to-earth, and humorous voice. A delight to read!"—Sabina Magliocco, Professor of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

Italian Folk Magiccontains:

magical and religious rituals

prayers

divination techniques

crafting

blessing rituals

witchcraft

The author also explores the evil eye, known as malocchio in Italian, explaining what it is, where it comes from, and, crucially, how to get rid of it.

This book can help Italians regain their magical heritage, but Italian folk magic is a beautiful, powerful, and effective magical tradition that is accessible to anyone who wants to learn it.

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My Review:

I have never connected more with a book on magick than this one. It was like I was coming home. A little background on me. I grew up in an Italian household and my family is full of Catholics. Most of them do little spells or have "remedies" that they would 1000% deny is folk magick, but I recognized a few of the things I saw in this book. So I will admit, I am very biased so you may not be interested in my review unless you're also from an Italian household or just want to learn about Italian Folk Magick in general.

One thing that I really liked about this book was that it was filled to the brim with resources and suggestions. A lot of witch books I've read are more like memoirs with like one spell or activity at the end of the chapter. Not this book. I have so many color-coded sticky tabs in this book, it looks like I was trying to turn it into an art project. That's how much you are going to get out of this book. There are rituals, food recipes, curses, spells, cures, and so much more. I can already tell this is a book I will frequently pull out and reference.

I would have to say my favorite chapters were Rituals and Working with Spirits. I really liked Rituals because they were huge events that you needed to prepare for and get special supplies. These were small rituals that one can do daily. I struggle a lot with my practice just because I always feel like I'm not doing enough. This chapter made me feel better and saw rituals in a different light. I thought the Working with Spirits chapter was really good as it had a nice section on working with ancestors which is something I have been wanting to do for a while.

My least favorite chapter was the Amulets and Talismans one because I felt the author didn't do a well enough job of explaining the difference between them. She stated that they are interchangeable unless the intent is different which made no sense to me. However, it still wasn't a bad chapter necessarily.

Overall, I highly recommend this book and will definitely use many of the tools that the author provided. This book has also inspired me to do more research into my family background so I can learn what region of Italy we're from. I hope if you read this that you gain the same experience I did.