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TWPT:
Having wandered around your website you seem to be a
person of many interests. Tell me a little about your interest and your
involvement with the occult and the metaphysical aspects of life. What was it
that first sparked your interest in these fields of study?
JI: That's a
very good question, what first sparked my interest, one I ask myself sometimes.
Honestly, I don’t know the answer, other than I was exposed to metaphysics and
the occult very early, as a young child and my immediate response was
passion, love and a recognition that this was something I wanted to pursue.
I have an
older sister who brought home a deck of tarot cards one day and I, of course,
like any little sister, wanted to see what new thing my older sister now
possessed. As the song goes, just one look, that's all it took: it was
passionate love at first sight, a very visceral response. I knew, at first sight, that those cards were
meant for me and I just took them from her. She was generous and perceptive
enough to let me have them. My sister attended art college near the old Samuel
Weiser's metaphysical bookstore inNew York'sEast Village
and, in addition to those cards, around the same time she began bringing home
books devoted to astrology, palmistry, numerology and so forth. I just devoured
everything she brought home. So she really set me on my path.
That
passion and fascination I felt on first seeing that first deck of tarot cards
still remains. So, you know, the bigger question becomes why do any of us fall
in love with whomever or whatever we fall in love with? What made a six-year
old react so intensely to a deck of cards? And you have to appreciate that the
first deck I ever saw was not the brightly colored Rider-Waite-Smith tarot
deck, which presumably might attract any child but the more formidable and very
esoteric B.O.T.A. (Builders of the Adytum) deck. Children often display passions very early,
whether towards the occult or spirituality, music, art, dance, science or whatever
and too often these interests are squelched or discouraged, leading to all
sorts of problems, not least being self-doubt. I was very lucky in that,
although no one, with the exception of my sister, really encouraged me, no one
ever really discouraged me either. No one tried to make me feel sinful or
misguided because of my interests, which is what happens to so many children
who demonstrate magical or metaphysical gifts and aptitudes. My interests were
tolerated and I was left alone to pursue my path.
TWPT:
How would you describe your current spiritual path and
how has that evolved since you first started to explore your spirituality on a
personal level?
JI: I am the
sum and result of all my influences and a pretty diverse bunch of influences
they are. Some of those influences are ancestral. Some derive from people
who've influenced me or from books that have had a profound influence on me and
also from my own personal experiences, direct personal experience of the
sacred. I went looking for some of those influences but some of them found me.
I come from
an eclectic background and I've always lived in extremely ethnically and
spiritually diverse places and so was exposed to lots of teachers from a vast
variety of traditions. In my own life, I'm the crossroads where all those
influences meet and so it's an ever-evolving journey to see where these
influences and experiences transport me.
I strive to integrate my various experiences and influences into a cohesive
path that works for me. It's an on-going, active process.
I have a
very independent, individualistic nature and my spiritual path reflects that.
Like many urban practitioners, I don't hew to one official school of
spirituality, religion or metaphysics. I
can't speak for anyone else but speaking only for myself, I really hate labels,
they make me feel boxed in. I have a pretty international family with strong
nomadic tendencies. I have family living all over, speaking different languages and not all
subscribing to the same spiritual path or religion so I learned fairly young to
respect other people's differences, to trust people to make their own spiritual
decisions and to find our commonality, our common denominators, rather than
concentrating on our differences.
I think, in
terms of recently published metaphysical authors, I'm somewhat of an anomaly:
my strongest spiritual,ancestral and magical influences are not from Western or
Northern Europe. My own most powerful
influences derive from African and Asian traditions as well as those from the
Eastern side of Europe: Central Europe, Eastern Europe
and the Balkans, lots of Jewish, Slavic and Romany sources. I've also spent
alot of time amongst people fromLatin America
who have been incredibly generous to me with their wisdom. I spent part of my
childhood and still have family in the New York City
borough of Queens, which I believe was
recently described by the New York Times as the most ethnically diverse place
on Earth. So part of my own spirituality involves integrating those various
influences into a personal path that is right for me. I've received alot of
e-mail from readers thanking me for not preaching a religious agenda, (those
are the exact words used in several e-mails) but I would never presume to tell
anyone else what to believe. I've learned from so many diverse people and traditions
and one thing that I've learned is to respect that different people have their
own paths and that just because those paths differ doesn't mean that either
yours or theirs is wrong.
Divination
was what first attracted me but over the years, what has been most profoundly
spiritually meaningful and satisfying for me involves direct personal
communication between people and spirits. If you want to name that process, you
could call it spirit-working or shamanic witchcraft or shamanic spirituality.
TWPT:
For many writers it starts with journal keeping, creative
writing classes or just making up stories to keep yourself and your friends
entertained. When was it was that writing became something special to you and
what channels did that writing find to express itself?
JI: Okay, I
have to confess: I love reading: books, cards, you name it. I love researching.
I could do that endlessly and if I didn't have publication deadlines, I
probably would. Researching is a journey of discovery and an act of spirituality for me. The spirits
will guide and direct you if you let them. Frankly I don’t love writing.
Writing is what I know how to do, it's my skill. Some people have a natural
aptitude for athletics or music. Writing is my natural aptitude.
The act of
writing is work for me, not pleasure or fun. I do keep dream diaries and other
journals but, for every single entry, I have to force myself to pick up the
pen. I'd much rather read than write. I'm a compulsive reader: I don't only
read metaphysical or spiritual works, although I do read alot of those. I also
love William Faulkner, Robertson Davies and Tennessee Williams. I love
mysteries and noir novels. I read comic books and graphic novels as well as
lots of history, travel and cook books. I read books about music and film.
Because I love to read and I read alot, I appreciate and value fine writing and
so I work hard at providing a pleasurable experience for my readers. I have a
high standard of what constitutes good writing. Magic, witchcraft, history,
metaphysics: these are all innately fascinating topics and I'm always
frustrated by books that are so dry and dense that these topics are rendered
boring and lifeless. The writer should do the work, not the reader: it's very
important to me that my work is accessible and entertaining, as well as
informative and thought provoking. I've also worked as a teacher and educator
both in classrooms and in correspondence situations and I'm conscious that
writing is a form of teaching. I try not to be boring when I teach in a classroom
and I try not to be boring when I write and hopefully I accomplish those goals.
I work to express difficult and esoteric concepts in such a way that the reader
can understand it, rather than emerge from the book confused and frustrated.
Among the cosmic
ironies of life is that I write these huge books because I really don’t enjoy
the writing process. Writing The Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells and The
Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft means that I wrote virtually non-stop for
about three years but the size of those books is more of a testament to my love
of research and my spiritual obligations to the information in the books than
to any pleasure in the writing process itself. I do enjoy sharing fascinating,
crucial and endangered information. I write in order to preserve and transmit
information. I write to entertain and to serve as a tour guide to a realm that
never ceases to fascinate and interest me. I'm very aware that I'm part of a
community that historically hasn't been able to tell its own stories, that much
of the information that I'm privileged to share has often in the past been
written down by authors who are either inherently unsympathetic to the topic or
maybe don't really understand it. I may not love the process of writing but I am
passionate about what I write about. I feel an obligation to the community I
represent, to those who came before me and weren't able to tell their own
stories and to the information itself. I also write because I come from a
tradition where telling stories and transmitting information is a sacred
process, a magical conduit to the divine and because you can reach more people
and preserve more information via books than orally. But if I have a day off,
believe me, it's spent reading, not writing.
TWPT:
What are your feelings about the old knowledge about the
Craft and things occult that seems to be fading away and being replaced by the
new ideas? Do you think that this old knowledge should somehow be preserved and
passed down to the next generation or is it inevitable that new ideas will
always replace the old ideas?
JI: Any living
tradition can't remain static if it seeks to remain vital and relevant and so
by necessity, there's always an evolutionary process, the new building on the
old or evolving from the old to suit modern times.
That said,
complaints about old knowledge fading away need to be placed in perspective.
For more than two-thousand years, the history of the occult, witchcraft and
Pagan spirituality in general has all too often been the story of the ruthless
mass destruction of knowledge, wisdom and sacred traditions as well as
simultaneous desperate attempts by a small group of dedicated people to
preserve, transmit and revive that knowledge. Tremendous amounts of information
and knowledge have been lost over the centuries: Augustus Caesar burned thousands
of irreplaceable magical texts. The early Christian Church destroyed so many
Pagan traditions. For centuries, during the Burning Times, there was a
concerted attempt to exterminate magical practitioners and eradicate magical
knowledge along with all traces of Pagan spirituality. My book, The Element
Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, unfortunately, has a whole section devoted to what
I call Libraries of the Lost, listing and describing all sorts of books that we
can't read, because it was decided to eradicate all traces of those books.
There are entire schools of herbalism, healing and botanical wisdom that are
most probably gone forever. So comparatively speaking, the last forty or so
years in the West and continuing into the present, have been paradise for metaphysicians,
occultists, witches and those following a Pagan path. We live in a magical
renaissance, even as we speak. The fact that my books and so many others are
published and readily accessible, the fact that we're even having this
discussion openly and in public, is testament to that renaissance.
There are brilliant people active today:
astrologers, diviners, rune-casters, healers, mediums and occult philosophers
who have the freedom to practice openly and to exchange ideas with each other.
What's published isn't necessarily entirely representative of today's
metaphysical community. Alot of the most brilliant people aren't necessarily
writing books but they are out there practicing. Whether you're aware of these
practitioners may have alot to do with what circles one travels in. The fact
that there are so many circles is a demonstration of the current strength of
the metaphysical community. In the
modern, greater witchcraft community, there are circles devoted to magical
practice and not to any organized spirituality, circles devoted to spirituality
but not to magic and lots of circles that combine the two in various ways. I
think sometimes people are frustrated by the circle in which they find
themselves and aren't aware of how many paths are currently available but if
you think about it, that's actually a wonderful thing: that there are so many
of us that all of these different paths exist. Despite this magical
renaissance, we still live in fundamentalist times and we need to be vigilant
about our rights. There's power and freedom for Pagans and for magical
practitioners in unity, rather than in dissension.
In the last
several decades in the West, there has been a powerful movement devoted to
reclaiming and preserving our magical and spiritual heritage and trying to fill
in those gaps caused by centuries of destruction. I don't think new ideas will
replace old ones but will hopefully join them.
But that's
in Western, industrialized nations. In other parts of Earth, right now, magical
knowledge and Pagan spiritual traditions remain under siege. Throughout Asia,
Africa and theAmericas,
traditional religions, what's left of them as well as magical practices are
under assault from Christian and Islamic missionaries. The disaster in Tibet
continues. That's the knowledge that's being rapidly lost today.
TWPT:
With a massive volume such as The Element Encyclopedia of
Witchcraft where was it that you began this project and how did you wrap your
mind around the scope of the work to keep in mind what you wanted to accomplish
with the completion of the work?
JI: I fell in
love with witchcraft even before I encountered tarot cards. In essence, that’s
when my witchcraft encyclopedia was born because that’s when I started
accumulating information and actively thinking about witches and the different
facets of witchcraft. The main thing I wanted to accomplish was to share that
love and respect for my subject with readers. My two most recently books have
been encyclopedias, reference books: I'm very aware that I'm not just writing
about my own personal experiences, beliefs and preferences or writing for one
narrow audience. I have to serve a broad and diverse audience who have
different needs, interests, backgrounds and levels of expertise. In my
experience, witchcraft and magic spells fascinate everyone, not just other
witches, Pagans and practitioners so I have to be able to serve the needs of a
very diverse audience. But there's also an incredible amount of misinformation
out there and I felt very privileged to be able to set some records straight
and maybe salvage some reputations.
5000 Spells
was initially scheduled to be a 450 page book. Neither the publisher nor I had
done the basic math during the planning stages: how many spells can you fit per
page? It very quickly became clear that 450 pages was never going to be
sufficient. That book was a harrowing experience to write and to produce, both
for myself and for the production staff inLondon. Everything had been planned in the
belief that it would be 450 pages, in terms of scheduling, deadlines, the
planned price of the book. It turned out wonderfully and I don't regret it but
the only way that book was ever completed was because I was able to summon up
and maintain an almost crazily intense focus.
How did I
wrap my mind around the scope of the work? Other than my children who are very
patient with me, it was the only thing on my mind. I didn't do anything else. I
stopped talking to people, I didn't do readings, stopped teaching classes,
stopped answering my phone. I literally stayed up days and nights writing
non-stop until I couldn't stay awake any longer. Then as soon as I woke up, I'd
go back to working on the book.
The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft was
easier if only because the Element staff and I had already done 5000 Spells
together. We began the Witchcraft project with our eyes open, anticipating the
process whereas 5000 Spells was very experimental and unknown territory. Also,
the Encyclopedia of Witchcraft was written in fairly linear fashion, which was
very much not the case with 5000 Spells, which was put together like a
patchwork quilt.
TWPT:
I’m sure that I’m not making a very large leap to assume
that the research for a book like this has to be a huge undertaking in and of
itself. Did you have a plan for attaching the research associated with this
book in a systematic way so that you could stay on your predetermined schedule?
JI: Predetermined
schedule? What predetermined schedule? Luckily, I’m an insomniac! Basically I
worked day and night, non-stop.
I'm not complaining. I’m a very lucky person:
I love what I write about. There is almost nothing I'd rather do than research
these topics. I came into these projects, having already accomplished alot of
the research. When, years ago, I first
began studying, researching and exploring these topics, I did it for myself,
not because I ever thought I'd turn the material into a book. I read grimoires,
collected spells, watched movies and read novels featuring witches and studied
the history of witchcraft for myself, because it interested me. I did not
deliberately set out to be a metaphysical author: I have a huge storehouse of
fertility-oriented information that I sought to get published years ago because
I know that that information would be valuable to many people. Greg
Brandenburgh who was then at Element Books saw that manuscript, which included
a chapter of magic spells and rejected it but asked me to write Earth Mother
Magic for him and that started me on this path.
TWPT:
With a task like
this before you I would think that you might feel like a director who had 50
hours of raw movie footage in the can and had to cut it down to 2 hours to make
the movie. Given the scope of the material that is available out there how did
you handle the difficult task of deciding what stays and what goes when it came
down to the final edit of the book?
JI: That
analogy is much more accurate than you
realize. Even though my books are really big, there's still always a finite
number of pages to cover what are genuinely limitless topics. There's so much more I wanted to include if
only we had more space. I would write second volumes of both my encyclopedias
in a minute, given the time and
opportunity.
When
writing the Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, I was conscious from the start that some
material had to be included because of historical importance. You can't call a book an encyclopedia of
witchcraft and not include material about Gerald Gardner or the historic
persecution of witches. You can't omit the Salem Witch Trials or Aleister Crowley
no matter how many other books discuss them. However, there was also
information that I felt was crucial to include precisely because in the past
it's been too often excluded: I wanted to include information on the unsung
heroes of witchcraft, people of tremendous significance yet who remain largely
unknown like Pascal Beverly Randolph, Franz Bardon or Cecil Williamson. It was
also very important for me not to merely replicate information that is easily
available in other books, other encyclopedias of witchcraft. People who are
interested in metaphysics tend to be avid book-buyers, often on a limited
budget. I know how frustrating it is to buy a book that merely reproduces
information that's already in a bunch of other books and doesn't offer anything
new. So I wanted to take a fresh approach and present some fresh material as
well as the information without which an encyclopedia of witchcraft isn't
complete.
Because of
the deadlines involved, the publication schedule, there were things that I
really wanted to include but couldn't. For instance I originally planned to
include entries dedicated to a host of modern practitioners and witches. But
who knows? Maybe that will be another book.
So there's
an editing or elimination process that begins before you start writing. In your
mind, as an author, you're already sifting what you can include from what may
have to be saved for another project. However, in the case of my most recent
book, there was a secondary elimination process after the manuscript had already
been completed. The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft was originally scheduled
to be around 1200 pages but just before final submission of the last pages of
the manuscript, the publisher determined, for cost-cutting reasons, not for
reasons of content, that the book had to be shorter. It could not be more than
800-some pages including a lengthy bibliography and very necessary but lengthy
index. So it was exactly like editing a three hour film into a two hour one.
Had I known earlier, I would have written shorter entries but because of
scheduling it was impossible to go back and re-write. The production manager
and I literally went through every line of the book trying to minimize the cuts
as much as we could, weighing what was possible to remove without destroying
the integrity of the book versus what we felt absolutely had to stay. One thing
that was very gratifying for me as an author was that because the production
staff had been involved with my manuscript as it was being written, they had
become attached to the material as well. I wasn't the only one with an
emotional involvement with it. So there was alot of discussion about what we
could best afford to cut. For instance, I was ready to lose the entry on Virgil
but people on the staff felt so strongly that it should stay, that it ended up
remaining in the book.
Someone
complained to me that there wasn't an entry for the movie, Practical Magic.
Well, originally there was but that was one of the entries that ended up on the
cutting room floor as well as entries for Hocus Pocus and several other Disney
films. That decision was made because it's fairly easy to find information
about those films, they're included in other witchcraft encyclopedias versus
some of the other films in my book where it's difficult to obtain information
about them, especially from a witchcraft standpoint. But every one of those
cuts was painful to make.
TWPT:
Another area of interest that you speak about in your bio
is aromatherapy. Is this an underrated area of study in your opinion and why
should folks spend more time learning this skill? What was it that drew you to
this field of study and motivated you to spend over a decade studying it and
earning a certificate?
JI: In the United States,
aromatherapy remains very much an unknown and misunderstood topic. A lot of
people associate aromatherapy with room fresheners or similar products.
Aromatherapy is the art and science of essential oils, which are not true oils
but are plant extracts. Many of them are fragrant, hence the name of the art.
Essential oils have been used since ancient times, they were among the tools of
the Egyptian process of embalming and mummification. They may be used
magically, cosmetically, therapeutically and spiritually: essential oils are
amazingly versatile and powerful. From a metaphysical standpoint, they are
considered the lifeblood of a plant. The essential oil enables one to tap into
the myriad powers of each individual plant species. It's a direct conduit to
sacred, magical botanical power. Essential oils are used to power magic
potions, communicate with the spirits and just bring pleasure into your life.
In America,
aromatherapy tends to be trivialized by mass culture, which is unfortunate. In
addition to their magical uses, the therapeutic benefits of essential oils are
incredible: many are powerfully anti-bacterial or anti-viral and can be used
for all sorts of ailments. In parts of Europe,
health insurance would cover consultation with someone with a certification
like mine, although that's very much not the case here.
I fell in
love with essential oils the same way I fell in love with tarot cards: love at
first sight. In general, I have a real fondness for small potions. I'm drawn to
little bottles. I really enjoy working with flower essence remedies and
condition oils, too. (I make my own condition oils using essential oils.) As
for what drew me to essential oils, in particular, I first encountered them in
the 1980's. I read about them somewhere, I can't remember exactly where but I
have a real occultist's brain: I'm always curious, always trying to learn
something more. I first began exploring essential oils purely for my own
pleasure: I loved them and so I kept studying. I saw for myself how effective
they are: I had some minor scars that were completely removed through the use
of essential oil of frankincense.
The 1993
Northridge Earthquake in Los Angeles
is probably what most motivated me towards enrolling into a formal aromatherapy
program and obtaining certification. I lived very close to the epicenter so
that was really a jolting experience, in more ways than one. I had two very
young children. The quake caused me to try to be more self-sufficient and
knowledgeable in regards to our health so that in case of an emergency like an
earthquake or other disaster where the usual, conventional solutions are not
available, we wouldn’t be entirely helpless. You know, people, women in
particular, used to be very involved in healing their families: I began
studying homeopathy and the therapeutic aspects of aromatherapy at that time.
But I follow my passions. Aromatherapy captured my heart in a way that
homeopathy didn't and so that was the path I pursued.
TWPT: Lets talk a little bit more about the process of
researching the Encyclopedia of Witchcraft. For those readers out there who
might be inspired by your book to delve even deeper into the sources that
served as the basis for your Encyclopedia how hard would it be for them to
follow in your footsteps in regards to researching the material themselves? I
guess the question is what resources exist out on the net or in local libraries
around the country that will allow the curious to seek out the information?
JI: There is alot of information available on the net and the
net is also invaluable as a source to meet other scholars, researchers,
practitioners and students. It's sort of a big salon where you can meet all
these wonderful, accomplished, fascinating people. In my experience, people
with specialized interests tend to be happy to meet others with similar
interests so don't be afraid to contact someone who may have information that
you seek or who may be able to point you in the right direction.
Unfortunately, many public libraries still refrain from
carrying books that deal with the occult, metaphysics, witchcraft and
Neo-Paganism, especially in any kind of serious way, although happily this is
starting to change. In some cases, although obviously not all, this policy is
not based on any serious philosophical
issues but is merely force of habit. These aren't the kind of books they've
ordered in the past, so they're simply not thinking along those lines.
Personally I rely on libraries alot, especially for older, out of print books
but I've always been lucky to live in areas with well-funded libraries and very
open-minded librarians. If there are specific books that you want and can't
find or afford, it may be helpful to request that the local library obtain them
for you. Often the library is simply unaware of serious interest in these
topics and will be happy to accommodate once they're made aware, especially if
they receive requests from more than one person.
The crucial point that I was taught when I was learning how
to research is never to rely on only one source. This can be very difficult
when you're studying witchcraft or those spiritual traditions that have been
persecuted for so long and which have only survived through the secrecy and
discretion of their practitioners. You'll find alot of information is encoded
or inferred and you have to learn how to interpret what's been written, to
really think about what you're reading, to read between the lines and sometimes
to read with a grain of salt. For instance, I read alot of old anthropology
books from the 19th and early 20th centuries. In many cases, these are the only
surviving descriptions of certain practices so they're valuable but they're
also typically written by authors who lacked respect for their subject, who
were writing about magical and spiritual traditions from a position of contempt
and prejudice. So as you're reading these books, trying to understand the
practices that are being described, you have to be constantly aware of the
author's bias.
It's also really crucial to realize that not everything is
written down. Not everything can be learned from books. It's only in recent
years that much of this information has been published. Most of it was passed
down orally or traded back and forth between people and was and is constantly
evolving. It's not just history, these are living, vital traditions. There's
still lots of stuff that, at least at present, can only be learned directly
from other human beings. Alot of the research that went into 5000 Spells in
particular didn't come from books but directly from other practitioners.
My advice really is to read everything that you can get your
hands on and talk with anyone available to you. Whether or not you agree with
everything you read or hear because the issue isn't necessarily finding
information that confirms what you already know but finding information that
broadens your horizons and furthers your path. Sometimes it's beneficial to
read something that you disagree with if only because that helps put your own
vision and beliefs in sharper focus and perspective.
TWPT: Was there a certain percentage of the information
contained in the Encyclopedia that came from your own experiences or your
personal collection of books or information?
JI: Is it easier or harder to take
your own experiences and integrate them into a project like the Encyclopedia?
Well you really can't help it. You bring yourself to the project. Every author
brings their own background, their experiences, education and sympathies to
their work. That's something I address
very directly in the introduction to the Encyclopedia of Witchcraft. An author
always has certain sympathies whether or not these are acknowledged openly. My
books are written from my perspective as a life-long magical practitioner. I'm
not ambivalent towards witchcraft or spellcasting; instead I have tremendous
love, respect and affection for witchcraft and spellcasting in general and also
for the cultures, traditions and individuals that produce and nurture these
practices. I do my best to write neutrally and open-mindedly but I do have deep
residual anger against those who have persecuted and suppressed magical practices
and practitioners over the ages. So that's my bias.
The seed for 5000 Spells came from my pursuit of fertility
lore. I have a huge collection of information regarding traditional approaches
to enhancing fertility and healing infertility that I have now been collecting
for over fifteen years. Initially I was very single-minded in my approach,only
looking for information about that specific topic. But I kept coming across
really interesting information regarding other topics and after a while I just
started saving whatever interested me. I just thought it was rare, valuable
information and shouldn't be discarded or forgotten. I began collecting Maria
Padilha spells at that time, for instance, whether or not those specific spells
were relevant to my own personal life. Or I'd write down things that people
taught me even if it wasn't relevant to me personally on the off-chance that
someday I'd need it or that maybe someday it would be useful to someone I knew.
That turned out to be true because that was the personal data base with which I
began 5000 Spells. And I am a pack-rat by nature. I find it very difficult to
discard anything, information as well as physical items. I think I still have
every postcard that anyone's ever sent me.
I realized, as I was writing them, that those encyclopedias
had to, by definition because they're encyclopedias, encompass more than just
my personal preferences. So the researching aspect is a learning experience for
me, too: I was learning and expanding my own horizons as I was writing. I
hardly ever watch television for instance. I had never seen Buffy the Vampire
Slayer before embarking on the Witchcraft Encyclopedia but I knew that once we
were discussing images of witches on television that I would have to sit down
and watch it because it's significant to the subject.
My goal was really to share and preserve information rather
than to integrate my own personal experiences into the work. But the very first
filter the information had to pass through was whether I thought it was
interesting so that's my personal influence. By necessity you have to choose
which details to emphasize or present, if only because the information is
endless but space is limited. One of my goals when discussing the various
historically significant magical practitioners was to bring them to life for
readers, to emphasize that these often mythic figures like Cagliostro,
Blavatsky or Edward Kelley were really living, breathing individuals, to give a
sense of who they were as real people because they're so often sensationalized
so I tried to emphasize details that would help accomplish that goal. So I
included John Dee's vision of how a perfect day would be spent and details
regarding Helena Blavatsky and Dr. John's financial travails and Aleister
Crowley's childhood religious experiences because those are details that help
us understand them as actual people, not merely as legends.
TWPT: For you personally what is the thrill or benefit of
pursuing wisdom both ancient and modern and making that wisdom part of who you
are?
JI: That's such a tough question to answer. To paraphrase what Louis Armstrong
said about jazz, once you have to explain it to someone, they won't get it, you
know? That quest for knowledge is just a driving force; some of us were just
bitten by that bug! Who knows exactly why? It's very hard to describe the
experience without resorting to what sounds like really cliched, fuzzy New-Age
type language. Exactly as you say, pursuit of wisdom and knowledge provides a
thrill. That's it in a nutshell.
Ultimately, pursuit of metaphysical wisdom is a pursuit of
ecstasy. The more you search, the more you find. The searching process is
simultaneously a method of plugging into the sacred. The ancient Greeks used to
describe it as "coming into your power." The more knowledge you
accumulate, the more connections that you make, the more powerful you become as
an individual and the more you appreciate the beauties and mysteries of Earth
and all her inhabitants and mysteries. So ideally you improve with age rather than
deteriorate. Ideally life is constantly becoming more interesting and
stimulating. And there's always a mystery to explore. You never run out.
There's a shamanic
quality to this pursuit of knowledge. Because what's that other old saying?
That which you are pursuing is causing you to pursue. Are you seeking it or is
it seeking you? The knowledge you seek tends to show up at significant moments.
That pursuit of knowledge could also be understood as a dialogue with the
spirits: they provide clues and information to set you on a path.
Plus this pursuit of wisdom and knowledge bestows really
priceless gifts. You eventually develop a way of experiencing and appreciating
the world around you. It's a very stimulating, joyful way to live. Everything
around you is vibrant with life: it's a very exhilarating, ecstatic,
spiritually and sensually rewarding existence. I think this is revealed in the
youthful nature of so many magical practitioners. Boredom is banished and
there's a real sense of being connected to all these mysteries and powers.
TWPT: As an author and as a follower of an alternative
spiritual path what kinds of advantages do you feel you have by having been
born and raised in a city like New
York?
JI: Ready access to other practitioners and to metaphysical
bookstores, which I know was not the case elsewhere. At a time when mainstream
bookstores would not carry a metaphysical book, when people had to mail-order
books that arrived in plain brown paper wrappers, in those pre-Amazon.com days,
those of us in New York could just walk into Samuel Weiser's bookstore and find
whatever we were looking for.
I remember walking into Herman Slater's Magickal Childe and
it was like entering a magickal world. There was a community waiting behind the
doors of these stores and it was a very
warm, welcoming, sharing community. Urban magical communities tend to be very
tolerant and to expect everyone to bring something to the table. So from the
start, even as a kid, I understood that I had something to share with others,
just as they had something to share with me. You also have the opportunity to
meet and learn from a wide variety of people with very diverse experiences and
knowledge. And because of the vastness,the sheer number of people and
traditions, different paths have the opportunity to reach you because sometimes
you pick the path but sometimes the path picks you.
People of all kinds of orientations have traditionally run
away to big cities seeking tolerance and hoping to find communities of
like-minded individuals. This is as true of magical practitioners and spiritual
seekers as it is of anyone else.
I spent alot of my adolescence and early adulthood just
hanging out in local botanicas, which are Latin American herbal/spiritual/
magical supply stores. In New York
City, there were loads of these stores so the
opportunities were endless. I would literally spend hours in a store, poring
over every bottle and every book. I was very shy at that time but I learned
that if I stayed long enough, eventually someone would talk to me or teach me
something or put me to work doing a little something in the store, which was
also a learning process. People were very, very kind and generous to me,
regarding knowledge. Part of writing 5000 Spells involved my opportunity to pay
that forward, to share what I had learned in the same manner. But I'm talking
about a specific time as well as a place: I think one of the great tragedies of
recent years is how rents have skyrocketed in so many urban areas, so that now
so many independent spiritual/magical/metaphysical merchants are no longer able
to stay in business. The sources on the internet are wonderful and it makes
communication across distances possible but there's no substitute for that
direct human contact.
TWPT: You talked about your beginning with the tarot cards
earlier in this interview but what role have the cards played in your life
since that discovery as a child?
JI: They bring me joy virtually every day.
Something as simple as a deck of cards can serve as a direct conduit to the
sacred anytime you feel the need or desire for it. Tarot cards are particularly
versatile: beyond divination, you can meditate with them, use them as a tool
for visualizations, dream incubations and spells. The whole divination process
is incredibly fascinating, especially, I think, if you read for other people.
Even though you are focused on the other person, even though they've been
choosing the cards, not you, inevitably there is something in the reading that
is simultaneously beneficial for the reader, too. That's the little bonus you
get as a reader. Also on a very personal level, it took me a long time before I
felt confident in my ability to read cards well enough to read for other
people. It was something I really worked at for a long time and so when I
finally felt that I had achieved a mastery, that gave me a tremendous sense of
self-esteem, so that was another gift from the cards.
TWPT: Do you feel like your pursuit of a wide range of occult
and metaphysical wisdom has given you a broader perspective of your path and
how it fits within the framework of other paths and beliefs?
JI: As you assimilate
more and more information on these various disciplines do you start to see
patterns emerge that move from one path to the other? Absolutely. Particularly
if you're interested in spirit-working, in communications between people and
spirits, what you learn is that there is such commonality between all the
traditions and cultures that describe these experiences and techniques. What
fascinates me is that real primal, bottom-line mystical experience that's
shared by humans everywhere.
Writing 5000 Spells was particularly educational for me. Because although the spells came from
all over, from lots of different sources, I had to reformat almost all of them
so that they would be written in a clear, simple, consistent, instructional
fashion. For those who aren't familiar with that book, it's written in the
style of a cookbook. Most of the spells in that book are broken down into
numbered steps, similar to the way a cookbook presents recipes. I wrote out
each of those spells, breaking them down into steps, all day, every day for
months, spell after spell after spell. Although the spells derive from many
sources, traditions and eras, eventually, when you examine them like this, you
begin to perceive and appreciate underlying rhythms and patterns and you gain a
better understanding of the whole process of spell-casting. I developed a real sense of the
inner-workings of spell-casting and also spell-creating, the nuts and bolts of
it.
With the Witchcraft Encyclopedia, the more research I did,
the more certain common themes became apparent. Certain motifs like hair and
horns are entwined with the mythology of witchcraft fairly universally. Issues
like how comfortable a culture is with women expressing anger also consistently
appear.
TWPT: We have established that writing is your skill but not a
love for you, was it any more difficult writing your first two books than the
Encyclopedias simply because the process was unfamiliar to you at the time?
JI: No,
if only because they're so much smaller. You know, I don't love the process of
writing but I do love books very passionately, especially magical books. I felt very blessed to be given the opportunity
to write Earth Mother Magic, my first published book. I had not initially set
out to write a book on witchcraft and spellcasting. I have a large manuscript
devoted to traditional approaches to boosting and healing fertility, which
includes a chapter on magical spells devoted to that topic. Greg Brandenburgh,
who was then the publisher at the original Element Books saw that manuscript,
liked that chapter and asked if I'd write a more general book devoted to
witchcraft for Element. I felt very honored and privileged to be able to pay
tribute to the traditions, techniques and spirits that I loved and that had
sustained me. There's alot of myself in that book, probably more than in any of
the other books: my love of botanicals, oils, blues music and the city of New Orleans. Alot of the
spiritual information in that book was also very personal, particularly the
sections on Isis and Oshun. It was written with a lot of love. I was aware
while I was writing how privileged I was to be able to have a book published
(having had other manuscripts previously rejected) and I didn't necessarily
expect to ever have another book published so that was my opportunity, you
know? Plus, that book was written during a very unhappy time in my life and so the opportunity to write that
book was like a light piercing the darkness.
Element
Books went bankrupt just before Earth Mother Magic was published and there was
a point where I wasn't sure whether it would ever see the light of day. So I
was very happy when it was finally published and delighted when I was asked to
write Emergency Magic! That's a really little book: from the start, the
publisher envisioned it as a very small, lean book. At the beginning, it wasn't
tied so closely to the concept of those worst-case scenario books, that came
later with the design aspect, I wasn't involved with that aspect. I had just
moved back to the East Coast after more than a decade in southern California and so
Emergency Magic! was kind of my little tribute to being back in New York and to all
those botanica books that I grew up on and that influenced me so much, like
Anna Riva's books.
TWPT: Tell me about the topics that you chose to write on for
those first two books and why it was that you decided to write about them?
JI: When I was first asked to write Earth Mother Magic, one of
my initial thoughts was, who really needs another book about magic, there are
already so many. So I had to think about what I could write that would be
unique, that wouldn't just reproduce what was already available. So my goal
became to write a book that would explore different facets of magic and that
would enable a reader to actually put the material into practice by the time
they finished the book. A real hands-on,
how-to book; a non-judgemental book that would explain what to do and how to do
it, rather than what to believe. A book that would be written in plain English,
so that complex concepts could be readily understood by someone with little
experience. Because in a classroom situation, you can ask questions, you can
ask the instructor to clarify their language but as a reader you can't do that
with a book.
A book that would express the realities of being a
spellcaster. Because so many of the books that I had been reading at that time, although I'm sure these
were very beneficial books for someone, didn't reflect the reality that I was
familiar with as a modern, urban practitioner. I had become very frustrated with what I had been reading: things with a
real consumerist focus, that emphasized what you had to buy, what you had to
wear or how you had to decorate your space and were very, very adamant and
specific. If you didn't do it this way, then you were doing it wrong. And you
know, beyond anything else, I was a broke single mother. I was struggling to
pay for food and shelter-- I couldn't afford half the stuff these books told me
was required. I didn't have the privacy or space they claimed I had to have.
And when I first started as a teenager, I had had even less funds and privacy!
I kept thinking that
if I had read these books when I was first beginning, maybe I would have been
discouraged and never have pursued my interests. Luckily I knew my reality wasn't unique: most of the
other practitioners I knew were also financially challenged. They didn't have
unlimited budgets, they lived in tiny, cramped apartments. But they were living
their magic, as was I, on a daily basis, regardless of these obstacles and I
thought that this experience and perspective was something that I could express
in my book, that would be valuable to other people, that would encourage
readers to experience the joys of magic, rather than be frustrated and
discouraged.
Almost all of what I've learned about hands-on spellcasting,
I've learned directly from other people: how to dress candles, how to build an
altar, how to feed the spirits and so forth. But I realize that that's a
privilege that not everyone has. More and more people are practicing solitary
by necessity and are trying to learn from books, which can be a very
frustrating experience. And you have to appreciate that I'm not only a writer,
I'm a teacher. Over the years, I've taught all kinds of topics to both adults
and children. I teach spellcasting and aromatherapy but I've also worked as a
math tutor. So I understand that whole teaching process. My goal with Earth
Mother Magic was to provide a complete instructional course, from basic theory
to mechanics to a source guide telling you where one might find ingredients.
And also not least to share and expose what I loved.
Emergency Magic! was written after I had emerged from a real
period of desperation and crisis. Earth Mother Magic was written during the
tail end of that period but by Emergency Magic! I had enough distance to
develop some perspective. There were a few years where I may as well have been
living in a soap opera, just disaster after disaster. But those
emergency-packed years were what really transformed me into an experienced,
skilled spellcaster. Because magical spells are intended to help you take
control of your destiny, to help you protect yourself and those you love and to
help you avert disaster. And that had very much been my personal experience and
so I wanted to share what I had learned: the key to magical success isn't the
emergencies themselves but the intense focus that they evoke in the
practitioner. Ideally you want to summon up that focus without having to wait
for a crisis, to be pro-active rather than merely reactive. I was also working
very intensely with condition oils , really researching formulas and so that
was a primary focus of that book as well. Those formulas can be incredibly hard
to find and in some ways the formulary in Emergency Magic! was the most
important part of that book for me. And that little formulary eventually
expanded into the larger one in 5000 Spells.
There have been many definitions of magic(k) over the
years so I am curious as to what your working definition of magic was in
regards to your books Earth Mother Magic and Emergency Magic! How does magic
integrate into a person’s day to day life and do you think that is the case for
the majority of the followers of this path?
I know that I
integrate magic into every aspect of my life as do the people who taught me and
those who I personally work with and those whose practices I'm familiar with.
Because magic isn't about the individual spell, it's about a way of
approaching, understanding and looking at the world. It's a way of living in
the world. I strongly believe that if there were more practitioners, for
example, we'd have better environmental policies because magic teaches you to
value and preserve all forms of life, botanical as well as animal. Because
everything has a power of its own and all our powers are interconnected and
interdependent. But that's an awareness that emerges with extensive magical
practice.
Here's a not uncommon scenario: many people are fascinated
by magic and so they dabble: they practice a little divination, they cast a
spell here or there. But then something happens: they have a genuine mystical
experience, a needed spell actually works, there's clear communication from
some sort of spirit and so then there's that profound eye-opening moment of
epiphany. The person realizes that this isn't made-up, there's really something
there, it isn't just playing. Now some people get scared at that point, they
withdraw or refuse to believe in their own experiences but for many others
that's the starting point: the moment where you realize that Earth is just full
of all these powers and mysteries that are willing and able to interact with
you. You also begin to discover and
explore the magic within yourself, your own personal magic power and so magic
begins to become integrated into who you are rather than what you do. And in
general, I must emphasize, despite propaganda otherwise that originates amongst
those opposed to both independent magical practitioners and magic-friendly
Pagan traditions, most magical practice is very positive and beneficial.
Historically, magical practitioners have been persecuted; they're not the
evil-doers and that's still true today.
Now there are alot of definitions circulating and many
different philosophies. It's my policy not to argue about beliefs. As I
understand it, as I was taught and in my practical experience, magic involves the
awareness and manipulation of various natural Earthly energies. Everything that
occurs naturally in our universe radiates some sort of energy, including words
and language. These energies interact in different ways. People have been
studying, analyzing and experimenting with these energies ever since people
have existed. A magic spell is an
attempt to harness these energies for the spellcaster's benefit. The type of
magic that personally interests me most is very primal folk magic, the type of
magic that cuts across other human boundaries but is understood wherever there
are people. I like finding the common denominators between people, cultures and
traditions and that definition of magical energy and power is one that cuts
across many boundaries and is found worldwide.
TWPT: How was it that you hooked up with Thorson’s as your
publisher and is it any more difficult working with a publisher that is located
in the UK as it is with a US publisher?
JI: At the time I started working with what was then Thorsons-Element and is now
Harper-Element, they had an office in the US which was headed by Greg
Brandenburgh who I had worked with on my previous books. Greg is a visionary
and I was very happy to work with him again. Because of modern technology,
especially e-mail, it was no more difficult producing a book with a staff in England than in the US. Without that technology, it
would have been very challenging, however! The production staff at
Thorsons-Element is incredibly dedicated, from Simon Gerratt, the Encyclopedia of
Witchcraft's production manager to the indexers and type-setter. They worked
really long hours and so that made up for the time difference between us.
TWPT: As an author what
is it that you wish for those who find your books and read them? When all is said and done what do you want your
readers to take away from your books and carry with them along their
individual paths?
JI: Well,
ideally you hope to satisfy readers or at least provide something of value for
them, something substantial. My readers are pretty diverse: they're not all
interested in the same thing nor are they all coming to my books from the same
place or with the same desires so hopefully I fulfill their varying
expectations.
My fellow
practitioners are pretty tough customers: most are already really well read so
you can't waste their time with nothing more than recycled information because
they will recognize it. So my goal is to provide those readers with fresh,
useful information that can actually be put into practice.
For those
readers who are fascinated by witchcraft or spellcraft and think they might
wish to enter or explore that world, I hope that my books provide a lucid,
functional, welcoming doorway. And, you know, for those readers who are just
interested in spells and witchcraft but have no interest in practicing whatsoever,
I hope that I'm able to provide them with some entertainment, fresh information
and new perspectives. The history of witchcraft, spellcraft and the magical
arts is absolutely packed with fascinating, interesting stories. Magic and
witchcraft aren't obscure, marginal subjects: they are entwined into virtually
every aspect of human history, spirituality and culture including modern
science, medicine and the creative arts even though their influence is usually
ignored or denied. Witchcraft and magic have had tremendous influence on all
sorts of things that many people wouldn't
necessarily associate with them.
My own
personal goal, as an author, what I personally wish for and what would satisfy
me, is for all my readers, regardless of what brought them to my books in the
first place, to carry away with them a fresh and accurate perspective on
witchcraft and spellcraft. So many negative, malicious misconceptions regarding
witches, witchcraft, magic and its practitioners still survive and remain
deeply engrained and so my wish is, that when all is said and done, that my
books help dispel these misconceptions and expose the truth. For instance,
there is this terribly pervasive misconception about witches, practitioners,
whatever you want to call them, being wicked,evil and generally malevolent. Now
obviously you will find corrupt individuals in any profession-- doctors,
lawyers, pharmacists, politicians, just for starters. Magick is no exception
but in general, this misconception couldn't be farther from the truth. That
stereotype of the wicked witch derives from propaganda created by those who
have historically persecuted Pagans, practitioners, witches and who have used
those lies to justify their cruelty. But those lies remain entrenched in
popular belief.
Another
common misconception that hopefully my books help dispel is that if you are a
genuine practitioner of witchcraft, spellcraft, divination or any of the
magical arts,then you can't possibly be smart, you must be uneducated,
ignorant, misguided or unintelligent. That's really commonly believed and
teenagers, in particular, who express interest in these traditions are so
vulnerable to mockery but that misconception is so blatantly untrue, it's
almost laughable, if it weren't so tragic. Historically as well as currently,
Earth is full of undeniably brilliant people who practice and master these
traditions. The standard example is Sir
Isaac Newton, who was a dedicated astrologer, although that's a little factoid
that's left out of a lot of textbooks . I'm very proud to be part of the
magical community and I hope that's something that comes through in my writing.
TWPT: What kind of feedback have you been getting about The
Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft from readers and reviewers and
how much does this feedback influence what you will do next as an author?
JI: I received some very kind words from Raymond
Buckland. I can't even begin to express
how much that meant to me. Words fail me. I felt so honored to hear from him.
The feedback that I treasure most is from those who I consider my teachers or
my elders or those who are masters of the arts. I received some very, very
kind, positive e-mails from several masters of Latin American magical
traditions and that, too, went straight to my heart. It's kind of like being
back in school and getting good grades or positive responses from highly
respected teachers. I realize that, with my books, I'm teaching others but I'm
still a student, too and so feedback from the masters and elders is
inexpressibly precious and valuable. The review of 5000 Spells that I treasure
most is the one in the most recent issue of The Witches' Almanac. That has
always been among my favorite publications and I absolutely was not expecting
to see any review, let alone such a positive one, so, again, I can't even begin
to say how much it meant to me. I literally cried when I saw it.
But, in
general, I don't really read reviews unless someone specifically tells me that
I should read one. Because everyone is entitled to their opinion but if you
start worrying too much about pleasing everyone--whether they've given you a
positive review or a negative one-- you can become paralyzed. It becomes very
hard to create and to listen to your own inner voice and your spiritual guides.
Obviously
an author- or any creative person- hopes that their work will please and
satisfy their audience. Books are kind of like an author's children and you
hope that, just like your human children, the universe will give them a kind
reception but you must appreciate, as an artist, that it isn't possible to
please every single person, every single time, no matter what it is that you
have created.
Readers
pick up a book with expectations and your work may or may not fulfill those
expectations. You know, I had someone complain to me that Emergency Magic! was
only a spell book. And what could I tell her other than it is a spell book,
that's just exactly what it is, there's no pretence of it being something
else. I appreciate that she was
frustrated but that had nothing to do with the book, it just wasn't the right
book for her needs. That's like complaining that you opened the refrigerator
and found nothing inside except food. You hope, as an author, that your books
are able to find the readers who will find them beneficial.
I do
correspond with many readers and their opinions can be very influential to me.
Often I solicit those opinions because those readers are my sounding-board. My
final decision to go ahead and write the Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft
actually came about because of e-mail I received from readers. When 5000 Spells
was complete, Greg Brandenburgh suggested that the next project should be an
encyclopedia of witchcraft and I was initially very resistant. For a whole
variety of reasons, I wasn't sure whether that was the right project to take
on..
But then I received a very thoughtful e-mail
regarding 5000 Spells from a reader who is a member of the Non-Wiccan Witches
listgroup at Yahoo.com. I e-mailed her back and asked her opinion as to whether
she thought there was a need for a new encyclopedia of witchcraft and if so,
what sort of information that book should include that maybe wasn't readily
available elsewhere. She distributed my e-mail among the list-group and so many
people took the trouble to write such insightful, heartfelt responses that
that's when I decided to go ahead and write the witchcraft encyclopedia. I
realized that I could write a new book that would be of value. So if it hadn't
been for reader feedback to 5000 Spells, maybe I never would have written the
Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft at all. And 5000 Spells stems partly, not
from reader feedback but from interactions with my students. In the years just before writing that book, I
taught a series of classes on various types of spellcasting. Inevitably a
student would stump me by asking for a spell for a particular situation that I
hadn't considered, particularly very specific health crises. The research those
students inspired me to do eventually contributed to 5000 Spells.
TWPT: Are you burnt out on doing encyclopedic kinds of books
after doing two of them or do you still have something else in mind that you
might like to give the encyclopedia treatment?
JI: Yeah, you would think I'd be
burned out by now, wouldn't you? I really should be. Sometimes I have some
serious doubts about my sanity but I actually wouldn't mind doing more. Given
the opportunity, I'd be happy to do a really encyclopedic treatment of any of
the individual sections in the Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft because
what's in the book is substantial but the more you research, the more you find
and there's alot more that could be included. I'd also love to do an
encyclopedia specifically devoted to the modern magical, witchcraft and Pagan
communities. Or an encyclopedia specifically devoted to divination systems.
Several readers have written to me suggesting an encyclopedia of ritual. And
then, of course, I have an encyclopedia's worth of fertility and infertility
lore that I'm still hoping to have published.
TWPT: When you finish a project such as the Encyclopedia of
Witchcraft do you just settle back and enjoy the fact that you've successfully
finished a long term project or does your mind start thinking of what should
I do next? Have you decided what that something next is going to be yet?
JI: I
have some irons in the fire, I even have some manuscripts kind of partially
ready, but nothing is decided yet. It takes me a while after I've finished to
settle back and enjoy the accomplishment. It's not easy for me to detach from
the last project: I need some time and distance before I stop kicking myself about what I couldn't
squeeze in or feeling frustrated about information that I uncovered after the
book went to print but wish I had found earlier.
I wrote
those two encyclopedias pretty much back to back and so when I finished
the Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, the most
recent one, I honestly didn't quite know what to do with myself, without having
all that writing to do. But it was time to take a break. Writing is such a solitary
process. I've spent the last couple of months getting out, traveling a little
and just being with other people. I really enjoy meeting my readers. I have
some bookstore signings and workshops scheduled through the end of the year.
They're posted on my website and then, hopefully, maybe at the beginning of
next year, I'll start writing again.
TWPT: Looking back on your works to this point in your life
what satisfaction is there for you personally for having written the books
that you did and having them in print?
JI: For
starters, for a writer, writing a book is very much like birthing a child:
there's this wonderful satisfaction when that process is complete and the
actual book exists as an independent entity. And if you can bring other people happiness
through your work, then that's incredibly satisfying. Because it's such a harsh
world, if you can do anything to make life happier or easier for others, then
that's an accomplishment. People write to you and tell you that you've made a
difference in their lives and that's tremendously humbling and gratifying.
Plus, specifically as a metaphysical writer, there's tremendous satisfaction in
feeling that you've contributed to the community, that you have earned a place
in that community. (My Aquarius rising isn't too obvious, is it?)
But the
absolute greatest reward of being a published metaphysical writer are the
people that you are privileged to meet. You meet and get to know people that
maybe you never would have otherwise been able to meet. There's not necessarily
alot of fame or fortune in being a metaphysical author. It's not like being an
academic writer, either: you're not necessarily going to receive alot of
respect from anyone outside the magical community. But publishing metaphysical
books brings the opportunity to meet the
most interesting, wonderful, dedicated, accomplished, generous, brilliant
people. I've met all kinds of practitioners, (both published and not
published), shared some thoughts, stories and experiences and made some good friends.
I correspond with people who live at a great distance from me, whom I'm sure I
never would have met had I not written my books. I treasure those
relationships.
The books
draw people to you but your books also give you the opportunity to contact people
you'd like to speak with, for the benefit of your work. People are willing to
talk to you because you are an author. For instance, I was so blessed to have
met Elizabeth Pepper, publisher of The Witches' Almanac, shortly before she
passed. When I started writing my Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, I knew I wanted
to include an entry for The Witches' Almanac, because even though it's such a
long-standing influential publication, it's modest and very unheralded. There
was very little information elsewhere and so I contacted Elizabeth directly and I'm so glad I was able
to do so.
Also as an
author, you're invited to come into stores to sign books and meet readers: the
dedicated people who run independent bookstores, witch stores and occult supply
stores are true heroes of our community, too often unsung and unappreciated.
It's a financially precipitous thing to do and it's very public; they often
take the brunt of anti-magical prejudice in conservative communities. Owning an
independent metaphysical store is a very brave thing to do. These stores
provide books, supplies, education, and places to meet other like-minded
people. They hold down the fort, so to speak. I've been privileged to meet, get
to know and work with many of them over the last few years.
TWPT: Lastly do you have any thoughts, wishes, hopes or wisdom
that you would like to share with our readers before we say goodbye?
JI: Blessings
to all!
TWPT: Thank you Judika for taking the time to share with our readers your thoughts about being an author and what that has meant to you. You've put a lot of thought into these answers and I do appreciate your efforts. May your path be fruitful and may your words never fail.
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