Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Deborah Blake, author of several books, including The Eclectic Witch's Book of Shadows and the new The Eclectic Witch's Book of Shadows Companion . A funny thing happened on the way to my current book… Back in 2021, I put out The Eclectic Witch's Book of Shadows. It was a great book, if I do say so myself, made even more appealing by the brilliant Mickie Mueller's gorgeous cover and fabulous full-color illustrations inside. (Really, if you haven’t seen it, you should check it out.) This was my prettiest book ever, and my first hardcover, so I was really excited. I had a great time writing the book, because I wanted to give people a

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Deborah Blake, author of several books, including her new Eclectic Witch's Book of Shadows. If you ask any Witch what their most valuable magical tool is, you will probably get a wide range of answers. For some it might be one of the tools that direct energy, such as an athame or a wand, which are often treasured personal items. For others, it could be tools that boost the focus and energy of spellwork, like crystals or herbs. But if you ask me, I would say that my most valuable tool is the knowledge I have gained through my years of practicing The Craft. And for some, that knowledge is contained in their Book of Shadows. No two Witches

I am really proud of the court cards for both volumes of the Book of Shadows Tarot. Because Lo Scarabeo encouraged me to push the boundaries and explore new possibilities, I tried to meet the challenge. Because Book of Shadows, vol. 2: So Below is meant to be closer to the RWS tradition (whereas As Above was meant to be a kind of re-imagining of what tarot can be), the court cards are grounded in the familiar Rider-Waite-Smith tradition. However, I did two things that I think shake things up and mess with our expectations. Instead of letting rank decide the gender of the characters, I let the suits decide. And to play with our heads even more, I designed the “passive” suits (Cups

The Yule card (aka XIII, Death) from the Book of Shadows, volume 1: As Above Tarot