Spells for Change: A Guide for Modern Witches by Frankie Castanea

Description from Goodreads:

Forget warts and cauldrons—a new generation of witches is on the rise. From justice spells to protective charms, Frankie Castanea brings their fresh style to an ancient practice, showing that contemporary witchcraft is a powerful force for good and a tool for manifesting positive change.

Modern-day witches are a blend of the old and the new. They travel to the grocery store, work nine-to-five jobs, and teach in our classrooms. They also carry black tourmaline and quartz, and wave bay and rosemary bundles over their doorways.

Within an ancient and sacred practice, a new type of Craft has taken hold: one that combines the power of action with energy and intent, prioritizes self-realization, and matches its activism with manifestation.

With chapters on meditation, grounding, cleansing, banishing, binding, and more, Spells for Change will help the modern witch create change within the hearth, the heart, and the world—one spell at a time.

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My Review:

I was so excited to read this book. I have been following the author on Tik Tok for a long time and love their content. I figured I would love their book too. Plus, I always want to support creators. I will say this, this is a very beginner friendly book. It's not bad at all, but I couldn't help but be disappointed as I am not a beginner and knew pretty much all of the content in this book. So if you are not a beginner, you may not find this as useful.

Once I got over my initial disappointment I was able to enjoy this book for what it is. A great and simple reference guide. This book contains quick and easy explanations for a multitude of topics such as grounding, calling quarters, moon phases, common crystals, herbs, and more. There are also some very useful spells in almost every chapter that the reader can utilize and put what they learned to practice. The author also makes a point to have the reader do some self reflection before doing these spells by having the reader ask themselves some questions.

Another thing I really liked was that the author put a lot of emphasis on decolonizing your practice and learning the history of the craft as well as if your tools are ethically sourced. This is very important and something I didn't learn until a couple years into my craft. Not many beginner books talk about this which is a huge same and something I think authors and creators need to do better about. If you use your voice and content to influence others, you have a duty to accurately reflect all aspects of the topic. Same goes to me as a reviewer. People are listening to my opinion on what books to read.

One thing I want to point out is page 78. This is not a bad thing or criticism. I find this is a great example of either different belief systems or practices. On this page the author says that East represents fire and South represents air. I have always been taught the opposite. This doesn't make either of us wrong, but it goes to show that while I think this is a great reference guide, you should still do some more research into the items and topics you choose to use in your craft.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed this book. I especially love that the author included a list of books at the end and sources to show where they received their information. I definitely recommend this book for beginners. Again, if you are not a beginner, you may not enjoy this book but it can definitely be handy if you need a quick reference or reminder.