Book Review: Lakshmi Mantra Magick by Baal Kadmon

Upon seeing this book on the internet, I thought I had honestly struck a gold mind. I have been looking for reading material on my mother goddess and wanted anything and everything to read up on her to obtain more knowledge.* The book promised mantras and an inside depth of these mantras. I had expected a great read that was unique and from a current worshipper of Hers. Sadly, I was mistaken.

If you want a reference book of the things you already know, then this book is the perfect one for you. Most of these mantras can be found on the internet and the author only briefly introduced the goddess stating that we should already know who she is or else, why would we be reading this book? Kadmon missed the opportunity to bring the beauty of Lakshmi to readers who had never heard of her before. Granted if the reader doesn't know who she is, they probably wouldn't be researching her or trying to find a book on her. But what if they were curious and the introduction to the book called to them, the opportunity was lost.

Now when he went in with the mantras, he did state the original language and the english translation of them and then followed brief exercises to use the mantras for, which I found very useful. Kadmon states that the mantras are extremely powerful and will work with the right intent. There is also a lot of white space in the book that I plan on taking notes in with my own findings, therefore creating a little personalized book for Lakshmi.

However one thing that I cannot understand is the spelling errors. There were several spelling errors in the book, simple words too such as 'the' and 'she'. If Kadmon had had an editor to review the book, or if Kadmon had read over the book themselves, the spelling errors could have been avoided. Also the book itself was quite short; most of the information in the book is available online and other then the mantras and exercises, the book was unoriginal. What I am implying is that I wish there was more to it. I wanted it to have more information that was unique and would aid in my spiritual growth. Overall, I would not recommend the book.

Love & Light

Ganshmi

* Yes I know I can just research this information on the internet, but there's something about having a book that it far more personal and intimate then just looking at a web page. I plan on saving the internet for last in my research. [But honestly if I had, I probably would have saved a few dollars]. 

Book Review: Witches In America by Alex Marr

Greetings My Loves!

Today I am going to discuss a review on a book I read a bit ago. If you do not wish to know how this book is writen or what it pertains, feel free to click off of this post but I have a hunch that since it has received numerous reviews and opinions such as those indicated here, here, here and here [along with my personal favorite being this one] then I figured my two cents wouldn't be too much to handle.

Under the Ancient Oaks/Patheos

Upon reading the reviews of this book I decided to form my own opinion on the words within this book. The other reviews I have read about the book are correct when she is describing other people's bodies, which I found to be a little unnecessary, especially when she describes one woman letting go of her problems and Alex describes this woman as obese with her boobs flattening as she twirls around (not quoting Alex's words word by word but am paraphrasing what she states).

“One very obese woman has chosen to go topless: her breasts are so pendulous they hang nearly to her navel, flattened into thick slabs. It is clear she is dancing a word that means something to her. She’s dancing it off, waving her arms , her skin rippling, and her long, frizzed-out hair askew. A large-bodied misfit.” (p. 52)

I do believe Alex was interested in learning about witches however, but she is instantly turned off by anything pagan related except for those of the extreme, such as the two types of groups she tends to study about which is the Feri tradition and the OTO. The vast majority of the pagan community is NOT represented in this book and should not be considered as such. This to me is a tad bit annoying for the soul reason that the 'simple' or 'mundane' way of magickal practice was not worthy enough of her to write about. She constantly states how she wants to be 'wowed' into being a believer in something bigger then herself, which is fine. I get it. You want the proof, in fact we all did at one point or another. But attending regular circles and not finding them 'magickal' enough is a bit absurd. However, she goes into her own experiences, such as her Samhain vision and her breathing techniques, I sense she is trying to understand what she is learning, which I can admire in her writing. And she does try to delve into other styles of paganism, such as the all women's group that I believe to be Dianic but I could be wrong. 

The necromancy chapter was completely unnecessary and unrelated to the whole book in its entirety. I felt it was put in there for a shock value as it was just randomly thrown in there towards the end of the book, being the third to last chapter. Details of that were a bit disturbing and you know, if it had been a common theme in the book, then I probably wouldn't have as much of an issue about the chapter but the randomness of that threw me off. She is constantly switching from stories about her trying to get into the Feri tradition and to understand it and then the next chapter she is experiencing OTO and its initiation/public rituals. The ending as well did upset me too, for I felt there should have been more added into the story. After being initiated into two covens, I am surprised she didn't disclose how she fell out of the traditions. For the Feri one, I do recall her stating she did not feel she belonged there, which is completely fine and she did have a conversation with the woman disclosing her wishes. However with the OTO, she was initiated and then the book ended. You don't get a sense of anything more magickal in her practice after that which makes me wonder if that's also another reason there is so much angst against this novel.

As far as the disclosing of private information, she does list first names or craft names, but discloses on some of them, not all, that she will not share their identities for they did not grant her permission. I do not know anyone involved in this book and had only heard of a few pagan groups mentioned, so I cannot comment whether the information is obscene or not. I could not look up these individuals just by the information in this book alone however. I am not stating that those upset with this book are not unjust in their ratings or opinions, especially since there are so many, and perhaps if I were more involved in this realm I would understand more. I could however, see if you knew these individuals you would be able to pick up who exactly she is talking about without her stating a name and that to me is a bit unsettling. The emails she had shared weren't that extreme to be honest, so I do not understand the whole outrage on that part. One email contained two binding spell techniques, and perhaps that is why people are upset over the emails. The sharing of rituals however, I can understand why they would be upset over her sharing their rituals, initiations, etc. because in a lot of traditions, those things are kept secret for a reason.

So overall I did enjoy her encounter but some things in the book and the way she went about it is a bit disturbing. I do not think she painted paganism, specifically the Feri or OTO traditions in a bad light at all, but she did not conclude if she wished to study paganism more or not towards the end [ I am assuming she didn't based on other reviews and claims ]. This book, according to Alex, was several years of research and experiences in the making, and I felt the ending was really rushed or just came to an abrupt halt. After making pledges to two covens specifically, I can't imagine how they felt about this book.

Meet Me, Ganshmi

Greetings My Loves!

My name is Ganshmi and I will be writing a blog post on anything that comes to mind. Here you will find current events, holiday topics, struggles with being in the broom closet, health and diet, and much more. This will be more of an actual blog but will be mostly related to pagan like ideas. 

Now for a little about me. I am female that is 24 years young living in New Jersey and am living in an 'in the closet' type situation for the time being. I am mainly out of the closet except to family members of mine and my boyfriend's. We live with his mother at the time being but plan on looking for houses beginning in 2016 (super excited about that by the way) in our area. I have been a practicing pagan for a year now (yes, baby pagan) but according to my past lives, this is not something new to my soul, just new to me until I begin remembering again. I do not have free reign to practice apart from candle magick and meditation, which for now is fine. I however am part of a coven that lets me celebrate the holidays and has become a family to me in such a short time frame.

Amazon

 I did not discover paganism by any sort of flashing light or some great beautiful goddess smacking me on the head. One day my boyfriend and I were walking around Princeton (by the college part of the town) because we had never done something like that before even though we live pretty close to the town. We did a little window shopping and when I spotted a book store, I wanted to check it out. I just obtained a new job and had a lot of free time to read books. Upon browsing, I came upon Babayaga by Toby Barlow and instantly knew I had to have the book. After purchasing it, it took me about a week with the free time I had to finish it. It peeked my interest with finding the witch who was not so good while there was another that was. There's also a love story and the detective becomes a flea! Oh it was so good haha. But then I had a thought, and this thought changed my entire world. Do witches exist today?

That question led me to do a simple Google search asking the same question. I found the words 'wicca' and 'paganism' amongst the top searches and began doing my research. I briefly heard of the word 'pagan' before but had no idea what they actually meant. Upon reading definitions of what they were, I began doing more research: what do they believe? how do they worship? what is magick and why does it have a 'k' at the end of it? etc. and found upon reading, I felt I agreed more with the idea of paganism and wicca then I ever had with christianity. Now I am not saying christianity is wrong, but it never settled well with me. A god that loves everyone regardless of their sins yet cannot accept gay marriage though we are created in his own vision? That thought was the strongest against my beliefs, being a form of pansexual (not exactly sure what to call my sexuality at this time) and if I ever fell in love with anyone other then a male, I could not get married to them. That and the church I did not agree with because I felt them to be greedy. You were judged for throwing in little money, or no money at all, even if it was a choice between food for your family and the salary of the priest.  I felt you could worship the lord anywhere, it did not have to be inside the church on a Sunday morning.

Then I began researching groups in my area and went to find online discussion groups such as WiccanTogether and PaganSpace, which I still am active on, and WitchVox where I found a few covens in the area who do public classes. Thus my research began to take off and I was in the mindset of transforming my spirituality. My family is super religious so I chose not to tell them for the sake of having a relationship with them, although my mother might come around. I do not know if I will ever tell them at this point, but I was sure I was not going to tell anyone and yet I have told my closest friends about my new founded religion. They have been surprisingly supportive and it does help that most of my friends now are pagan.

But this post is already long enough and I shall describe exactly what I do and what I practice at a later date. Thanks for reading!
Love & Light, Ganshmi