I just got done reading this book, and
I was extremely impressed. Let me start off by saying that Lady
Sable has a wonderful writing voice. The book was simply enjoyable
to read! She writes as if she were talking to you, with bits of
humor, and without sounding like a lecture. There are plenty of
technical terms where appropriate, but it never became hard to
understand.
Lady Sable lays out the Eight Paths in
a progression, from the ones that form the foundation to pretty much
all magical practice, to the more advanced arts that many might not
have worked with. She includes instructions and exercises with
variations for both men and women, solitary and group work. If you
follow the course laid out in the book, and work with the exercises
as suggested, this book would definitely build a strong practice.
I wouldn't call this a 101 book, though
I think this is what many 101 books wish they could have been. I
think that someone fresh to the practice could take up this book and
work through it and build a solid core practice. The things that
aren't in this book that are often in other beginner books are things
that I think most people would research more on their own anyways,
like deity lists. There are some very nice charts at the end which
cover a lot of the correspondences. She doesn't cover Sabbats in the
traditional way (there is no section for them, though there is a
chart that shows the basic essence of the Sabbats), so if you aren't
already familiar with them, then you will need to research those on
your own as well. What she does cover is how to build a ritual, so
that you can create your own. In my eyes it is the difference
between the types of lessons you got in grade school (here is the
information: memorize it) and the type you got in college (here is
the structure of how to write a paper, pick a topic and do your
research).
I really loved the exercises. There
are just under a hundred and thirty in the book, and many of them
have different variations. The exercises fit with the content well,
and often build on earlier exercises. Some are core practices, such
as shielding and grounding. There are a lot that are tools that will
be used again and again, like the exercise for dealing with anger or
the one for processing grief. The exercises really focus on looking
inward, on processing how you think and react to things, which put
them a step above many other books that include exercises but only
talk about the physical actions and don't point you inward to reflect
on them.
Lady Sable doesn't hold back. She
talks about difficult subjects that aren't explored in a lot of books
(besides very specialized books that only deal with one particular
subject). Things like using mind altering substances, sex and pain
are explored, and she not only explains how they are often used, but
shares her own personal experiences (or reasons why she chose not to
work with certain things). She takes a very balanced approach,
sharing very solid cautions as well as the main reasons why these
practices are used.
One of my favorite topics was
Channeling. I have read a lot of descriptions of drawing down or
invoking, and often it feels more like authors are talking about the
process rather than explaining how to do it. Lady Sable not only
gives an excellent explanation of many different types of Channeling
and what you might expect, but also shares a lot of her own
experiences and tips for how to have a safe and productive session.
I very much appreciated her thoughts on non-traditional gender bound
channeling. I think that there is still a pretty big assumption that
women will channel Goddesses and men will channel Gods and if two
people are channeling it will be a God and a Goddess. Lady Sable
talks about ways to use channeling in same-gendered pairings as well
as channeling deities that do not match your biological gender.
I also had the opportunity to check out
some of the companion videos she has made to accompany the book. I
haven't watched them all yet, but I loved that she made videos for
the 5 Tibetan rites and Dance. One thing that is often very hard to
get across with writing is movement, and having a video that you can
watch to show you how to do the different movements is much easier
for me to learn from than just text (although her written
instructions are very good, and the book includes excellent pictures
to help illustrate).
She also has a video where a nice
selection of chants are demonstrated. I am a huge chanting fan! I
absolutely love learning new chants, and I know dozens of them
already. She has some on her chant video that are new to me which is
lovely, as well as many that are extremely well known. Chanting is
another thing that I think really needs audio, I am always frustrated
when I find a new chant I really like, but it is only the wording and
I can't find the tune for it.
I am definitely going to be re-reading
this book many times, and working through a lot of the exercises.
There were a ton that I was excited about while reading through the
first time. I think that this book makes a lot of things really
approachable, whether you choose to add them to your practice or not,
you will walk away with a much deeper understanding of the practices.
While there is plenty of 'how to' in the book, I think what I
appreciated most was that there was an equal amount of 'why' answered
as well. I think that is something that a lot of books don't explore
as much as they should.
I highly recommend this book to anyone
who is interested in the Eight Paths (intent, trance, spellwork,
intoxicants, movement, control, the scourge, the great rite). While
I do think that this would be a good book for someone just starting
out, it has such great depth that I think it would appeal to a more
experienced person as well.
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