it costs nothing to be kind

Find Them in the first sip of hot coffee that doesn’t quite burn. Find Them in the rising sun and the safety of warm sheets. Find Them in the silver light that heralds the sun.

I carry my past selves, and soon I will join them.  I am evolving.  I will find myself more powerful and better than ever before.

The Witch’s Book of Self-Care: Magical Ways to Pamper, Soothe, and Care for Your Body and Spirit by Arin Murphy-Hiscock.

I started to read it with skepticism (my main way to take everything… yeah, I know, weird coming from a WITCH) but this book surprise me pleasantly.

Written with an evident good intention, the book doesn’t feel pedantic, and neither bring that “obnoxious positive energy of good vibes only not allowed to feel anything bad” but bring a nurturing, warm, caring and patient energy. Easy to understand, no technical language, no specific psychological words. Not big chunks of text that could make us ADHD pals get lost. Short, concise, easy steps.

Focused in the practical side, is not a book that you will read and automatically discover the hidden truth of your mind (even when it has a few very interesting quotes to keep always on sight), but a book of tools to improve yourself.

If you are looking for epiphanies in each page, is not your book. If you are looking for what to do for your own, or even as a complementary task with your therapy, heck yeah. Like, I kinda hate copy rituals from others but this book has a few that make me say DANG I NEED TO DO THAT.

General review: 8.5/10 with 4.5 stars, which is a lot to a witch book (for me, mostly of the witch books are under the 6/10, so that say a lot). General a great book with some small “BUT” here and there.

Positive Points:

Even when she mentions that womens struggle more with self-care, she also take the detail to mention that’s not a “woman-exclusive problem” and the book is “genderless”.

Emphasis of the self-care in “small doses each day” instead “huge changes”, great to aim to chronic ill people.

Consideration of the complexity of the self-care, interconnected to many other aspects of the life, going against the toxic “easy to fix/solutions” mentality like “exercise fix depression” or “yoga to erase mentally struggles”.

Consideration to the personal limitations like income, free time, so the author presents some non-classist, non-ableist, non-neurotypical views.

Hygge concept, which can fit into a semi “open culture” that take “cottagecore” and remove the classism of it to turn it into a more plausible, easy to access- daily- mindfulness mentality.

The psychological aspect of the book is 10/10.

No medical bullshit, misinformation or “herbs that heal everything”.

Clear separation between “herbal magic” and “herbalism” as they don’t make them mutually exclusive. * happy green witch noises *

The book is not focused to teach about basic magic knowledge and it point it, and yet take a moment to explain some super basic stuffs to make sure no new witches gets lost.

Small attack against the mainstream use of manifestations as if was a harry potter spell to get stuffs, without deny the effective aspect of it.

Mention the “Divine” a few times but more like a “higher being/ cosmos” and not like “The Deity”, neither mention the “God and Goddess”. No Wiccan tints.

Many good and very interesting easy to make rituals. Some are even more close to a psychological exercise and helpful daily tips than a ritual. She remembers us recurrently that the reader can manipulate them and change them accordingly their needs.

Sporadic considerations to people in different geographic places, chronic ill people, people with triggers, and others; stepping aside of the classical self-care books aimed to body abled neurotypical ones.

Don’t do guilt pressure like “do this or you will never heal”, instead she points that you must do what you can, allowing yourself to stop if is too much. 10/10

Don’t fall into the “things must be done in this way” mentality. She says some things like extinguish the candle or the incense instead of let them burn completely. Casting the circle and the anti-clockwise movement, are mentioned as she remembers us that is our path, our ways and we can change them as we need it.

The “if you are serious depressed, check a professional if you can”. Maybe is too obvious to point it, but the witch community lately is too mixed with the dangerous “illnesses are symptoms of a spiritual growth”, so I’m glad the author is not falling into that hole.

Food section. Not magical, but food. Edible. Curious that a self-care book pay attention to throw easy, pretty cheap recipes focusing in nutrition and not in calories, also mentioning vegan variations. 10/10

The author takes a second in remember to be careful with herbal teas and check any interaction with medication, just as warnings to pregnancy. 20/10

Good explication of the deity aspect of witchcraft, with emphasis in the worship part and how is a relationship that demand respect.

Non-religious. She points it in some places but only when is needed. Clear separation between religion and spirituality.

Full replacement of the Feng Shi (Closed practice) to explain about the Basic Elements of the Rooms (Very open).

No chakras mention, no karma.

Negative Points:

She mention that self-care is “a healthy mind, body and spirit”. Tricky when, in medicine and psychology, “healthy” is not a matter of yes or not, but more like “pathological grades”. Nobody is full healthy, but having a low grade of illnesses that don’t affect substantially the normal life. Besides that self-care is “the process of taking care of oneself with behaviors that promote health and active management of illness when it occurs”. But okay, I’m being annoyingly technical, I let it pass.

Some topics felt somehow rushed when it has so much room to explain, discuss and even rant.

I’m a hard anti capitalist ak broke af witch who get acne and lose hair each time I see the word “purchase”, so I feel forced to point that some of their rituals (and I quote the words of the book) “…most of them are easy and accessible, and others ask for minor purchases of herbs or stones…” (Page 13). But also mostly is “basic grocery stuffs” easy to replace, so I give half bad point lol.

Essential oils. Also quoted “…Essential oils may seem expensive…”. Double pain. But also point cheaper replacements and their dangerousness, so, half bad point.

She points that you can get a “negative outcome” by having a “creative visualization”, which sounded a little like “you can manifest yourself bad stuffs, control your ADHD, bad things happen because you don’t control your mind”. But again, is just me being a prick and looking for each detail.

Sometimes she kinda contradicts. In some point they say “…Rewiring your brain by repeating something is easy to do…” and a few lines later they say “…It can be very difficult to retrain your inner voice to be nurturing…”. So… is easy or not?

“Pregnant women”.

Mentions of Cultural appropriation:

-          The raffia fiber, ylang-ylang (I have not info about them, I don’t know nothing about their status of closed/open so I can’t say shit). -          Sage. Not smudging or white sage, but yet… sage… as if there are not enough other open herbs on the planet. -          She says to research about deities without consider the closed aspect of some of them (like Isis, Durga and Kuan Yin from the page 94). -          Talk about “Spirit Animals” without say they are closed to Native Americans, even when later add the variation of power animal and animal spirit (open versions of the Spirit Animals). -          Tibetan Bowls.