Who wouldn’t want to glimpse their future, review the past with a fresh perspective, or gain insights for resolving today’s troubling personal or social questions? Publishers are attuned to the thriving marketplace for guides to the magic of crystals, flowers, elaborate tarot cards, and imaginative oracle decks. Forthcoming books explore how to utilize the magical properties of these and other items to brighten moods, restore energy, quell pain, and foster a sense of connection, even to face tough social issues.
Crystals are the ticket in titles such as The 7 Chakra Crystals (Andrews McMeel, out now) by naturopath Luca Apicella, which instructs on ways crystals can restore the body’s energy centers. Gem Sorcery (Watkins, Feb. 2024) is by Amaris, known as Gem Sorceress on Instagram, who teaches ways crystals can “connect you with the universal consciousness,” according to the publisher. Practical Crystals: Crystals for Holistic Wellbeing (Leaping Hare, Sept.) by holistic health master teacher Kathy Banegas, spells out the qualities and best uses for 150 different crystals.
Brian Cotnoir’s On Alchemy (Watkins, out now) is all about the magical act of turning base metal into gold. Watkins publisher Fiona Robertson says the book is useful for “practicing alchemy in a lab, or in a metaphorical sense to help creativity and self-development.” Would-be witches can build their own tool kits with Melissa Madara’s The Witches Workshop (Watkins, May 2024), which features instructions on how to craft such things as blessings incense or banishing salts for use in rituals, altars, and spells. Enchanted Foraging: Wildcrafting for Herbal Remedies, Rituals, and a Magical Life (Running Press; Sept.) is built on the premise that natural resources with inherent magic are all around us, according to author Ebony Gheorghe.
Other titles with a down-to-earth approach include the illustrated guide The Art of Flower Therapy: A Comprehensive Guide to Using the Energy of Flowers to Heal, Thrive, and Live a Vibrant Life by Dina Saalisi (Redfeather, Sept.); Houseplant HortOCCULTure: Green Magic for Indoor Spaces (Llewellyn, Apr. 2024) by Modern Witch podcaster Devin Hunter, who profiles more than 160 plants he says can work magic; and Reading Tea Leaves: Discover What Brews in Your Future (Weldon Owen, Aug.) by psychic April Wall, who teaches readers how to divine messages in 100 tea leaf patterns.
Decks get serious
Card decks of all kinds may historically be the most popular items in mind-body-spirit shopping carts, but today there’s a new twist: “People are using the decks differently now than they did before the pandemic,” says RedWheel/Weiser president Michael Kerber. “In the past, people would look to readings wondering about what might happen tomorrow or whether they’re dating the right person. Today, they are using them more as practical tools for insight, personal growth and development, or confronting social issues.”
Kerber points to two examples. Tarot for the Hard Work: An Archetypal Journey to Confront Racism and Inspire Collective Healing (Jan. 2024) by Maria Minnis—a queer Black artist and psychic who blogs weekly at Antiracism with the Tarot—is a workbook-style guide detailing how tarot cards can be used to understand systemic racism and how to take steps to begin to dismantle it. And veteran tarot reader Theresa Reed’s guidebook The Cards You’re Dealt: How to Deal When Life Gets Real (Oct.) aims to show readers how they can use any deck to learn ways to face obstacles in life.
Christopher Marmolejo’s book Red Tarot (North Atlantic, out now), which also can be used with any deck, is a guide for a “tarot for self-determination, collective healing, and reclamation” from a queer Indigenous Latinx healer and teacher. The Time Changer’s Tarot: Reading for Yourself, Your Community, and Your World with the Waite-Smith Tarot by Caitlin Matthews (Redfeather, Oct.) looks to ancient mythic traditions and sources of inspiration to interpret cards in ways that prompt action for solving current social problems.
Below is a sampling of forthcoming decks, as described by their publishers:
• Awakening Intuition: Oracle Deck and Guidebook (Weldon Owen, out now) by spirituality writer Tanya Carroll Richardson features quotes and prompts that aim to help people activate their own sixth sense.
• Bee Tarot (Llewellyn, Apr. 2024) is a deck and guide by Kristoffer Hughes and artist Nadia Turner that connects bees’ mythological and cultural attributes with tarot wisdom.
• Elemental Alchemist Oracle Deck and Guidebook (Andrews McMeel, Sept.) by South African–born sisters Nyasha Williams and Grace Banda, with illustrations by Kimishka Naidoo, celebrates the traditional spiritual practices of their ancestors.
• The Folklore Oracle (Watkins, Sept.) is a deck and guide by folklorist and printmaker Mike Bass, who created linocut-style illustrated cards that feature images of mermaids, muses, maple trees, and more.
• The Knight-Waite Tarot Deck: Cards and Quick Start Guide (JohnMurrayOne, Nov.) incorporates historical photos of noteworthy people from traditionally underrepresented groups, such as Oscar Wilde and Bessie Smith. The author, psychic and astrologer Michele Knight-Waite, also has a second companion title, The Knight-Waite Tarot Guidebook: Meanings and Readings.
• The Magic of Tarot: A Modern Guide to the Classic Art of the Cards (St. Martin’s Essentials, Mar. 2024) by mother-daughter psychics Beleta and Leanna Greenaway offers techniques for readings and tips to “enhance the magic” with crystals and more.
• Music Tarot: Be Guided by the Stars (Laurence King, Aug.) by Diana McMahon Collis, illus. by Alexandria Hall, recasts classic tarot characters as modern musicians, such as depicting Prince as the Emperor.
• Oracle of the Birds: A 46-Card Deck and Guidebook (Findhorn, Oct.) by Jeanne Ruland, illus. by Petra Kühne, portrays the spiritual powers of birds to help people “find healing, growth, and insight.”
• Sacred Seasons: Nature-Inspired Rituals, Wisdom, and Self-Care for Every Day of the Year by Kirsty Gallagher (Running Press, out now) presents what she calls “mantra cards” along with a guidebook for tapping into the rhythms of the world.
• The Sacred She Tarot Deck and Guidebook: A Universal Guide to the Heart of Being by Ma Deva Padma (Beyond Words, Nov.) features quotations from “contemporary world visionaries” to “encourage spiritual growth and introspection for all genders and walks of life.”
• The Siren’s Song by Carrie Paris and Toni Savory (Weiser, Aug.) offers insights from a deep-sea realm of myth and mystery using two different centuries-old European card systems: Lenormand cards, which are read metaphorically, and Kipper cards, which are read more literally.
• The Subtle Body Oracle Deck and Guidebook (Sounds True, Aug.) by Cyndi Dale, illus. by Adela Li, features cards intended to help users develop their sense of intuition by connecting with the body’s energy systems.
