Candlelight Spells Review
by Gerina Dunwich
Sometimes when you get into occult books or witchcraft books, you run into a book which is hard to define and hard to review in terms of actual content. This book is part recipe book, what should have been an appendix list book, and part misinformation and poorly disguised racism. In truth, it was a bear to try to read through this book. I kept expecting there to be explanations for anything but then we just moved on to the next random topic. I can only guess that her publishing house Citadel Books was looking at her and she was just throwing shit in to cash a check.
If you look at the title and expect, ah a book that will focus on the candle magic and the techniques that you can use candles in spellwork, you would be mistaken. The book only briefly touches on candle making for a total of 10 pages (including lists, two lists) in the middle of the book in chapter 3. And most of it is contradictive instruction about how “making candles yourself makes it more powerful so don’t buy store bought” while simultaneously saying “you can buy candle making supplies from hobby / craft stores!” which is it? And don’t bother, there’s no explanation on why making things yourself stores your psychic energy (which is what?) in the candle, it’s just 1 sentence and we move on to how to make candles. This book does that a lot, introduce a specific concept and then moves on before we get into the rough territory of having to explain ones own practice ideas.
Normally when I review books, I break down the main part of the book into sections and then specifically call out individual quotes throughout the book to show exactly how this author wrote the items in context. But frankly, if this book hadn’t been copyrighted in 1988, I would have accused it of being AI slop not worth reading.
So let’s hit the high notes:
No, witchcraft is not “the Old Religion” – and no it doesn’t need to be religious. And no, it’s not anti-christian either because there is a deep history of blending christian elements into various forms of spellwork, witchcraft, and other practices.
No, none of the history in this book is factual, even messing up some of the trial details from Salem and other New England areas in the 17th century.
No, Magick is not spelled with a K because of “avoiding theatrical stage magic and sleight of hand.” It’s spelled that way because Crowley balanced the word out and didn’t want to be associated with witchcraft (which he called stage magic). And no, I don’t have time to go into it, there has been numerous posts and discussions that talk about exactly what the K means on the end of the word. Yes, I did look up "older" uses and none of them match the gematria explanation from Crowley or his definition of it which is in this book. So... Find the time to read Crowley’s own writing about it.
The Threefold / Karmic Law of Retribution / Wiccan Rede is very funny as a reference because we have straight up curses in this book to decay your enemy’s health so do as I say, not as I publish.
The Lists on Lists on Lists does not make a book. It does make a reference book but is this book a reference book or is it supposed to be a modern witch’s book on spellcasting, feasting, and natural healing.
Yes, using slurs, referring to “evil” magic (which again what is evil?) as black magick while also implying Voodoo is “black magick” because you referred to poppets as similar to voodoo dolls but “used in white magick,” is, in fact, forms of racism that we should step away from as a community.
No, just because herbs are “natural” does not mean they are better than other medicines. No, just because herbs are “natural” does not mean they aren’t dangerous and especially if you are trying to take them as supplements for various illnesses or diseases, you should really be consulting an herbalist or a book on actual herbalism.
“Herbal remedies are nature’s cures. They are natural, safe, and will not produce dangerous side effects like artificially prepared medicines.” (p. 86, Candlelight Spells, Gerina Dunwich)
Yes, it is icky that you had such a weird focus on sex / love and forcing people to love you via spellwork. I understand there is levels of sexual revolution in some of the general thought processes but like, this ain’t it buddy.
Anyway, this is it. The book summed to simple sentences to counteract the points made by this particular book. It’s not by any means some grand discussion on witchcraft, spellwork, techniques, occultism, metaphysics, etc. It is just simple a bunch of lists with some general blasé information as described by an author too bored by her own work to feel it’s work her time to explain anything.
Basically, my view is – skip this book.
