Like his other thorough guides for all things witchcraft, Penczak (The Mystic Foundation
) offers fans another comprehensive, user-friendly handbook for the aspiring witch, this time for advanced practitioners—what he calls “continuing education” for followers of his Temple of Witchcraft series. According to Penczak, high witchcraft is quite different from the household magick of the everyday witch. It is known as “god magick,” involving “the use of ritual to align with the divine” and “seeking divine enlightenment while incarnated in a body.” Penczak helpfully likens learning the ceremonies and rituals of high witchcraft to a regular routine of exercise, yet instead of the body, you are “build[ing] your psychic and magical 'muscles.' ” And readers should get ready for a hefty workout. Following several introductory chapters, Penczak provides a highly technical course of 13 lessons designed to provide all the necessary tools and intellectual, academic and ceremonial background information readers need to deepen their “connection to the divine” and self-initiate into high witchcraft. Audiences looking for witchcraft history will certainly find it here, but this is foremost an engaging textbook designed for home-schooling the advancing witch, and it is encyclopedic in its rituals, charts and even homework assignments. (Oct.)
