Return to Cauldron Home Page

Please donate now to pay our monthly server fees:
Donate to The Cauldron
[More Info]

Community Menu
Community Home

Message Board
Board Home
Board Rules
Board Extras:
   Arcade
   Calendar
   Links

CauldronMUX [Client]
Sister Forums:
   Asatru Lore

Menu

Home
Site Info & Rules
Site Archives
Volunteers Needed
Advertise Here

Pagan Supplies
Buy Pagan Books
Buy Pagan Supplies

Books & Media
Books Home
Games Home
Music: Free | Pagan
Online Books
Pagan Book Browser
Reviews:
   Academic Books
   Divination Decks
   Fiction Books
   Pagan Books
   Speculative Books
   DVD & Videotape
Submit Review

Pagan Features
Article Library
Auctions
Chat Log Index
File Library
Humor
Lessons
Pagan Holidays
Pagan Primer
Pagan Rituals
Pagan Supplies
Pagan Youth
Polls
Reconstructionism
Spell Grimoire [Blog]
Web Resources

Pagan Living
Cauldron Cookbook
Take Political Action

Newsletter
Back Issues
Subscribe

Other Features
eCauldronMail
Greeting Cards
Syndicated Articles
World News/Opinion

Shopping
Cheap Web Hosting
Doxy's Bazaar
Witchcraft Course
Zazzle

Old Indexes
Article Index
Webcrafting Index

Network Sites
Cauldron and Candle
Cauldron's Grimoire
RetroRoleplaying
RetroRoleplaying: The Blog
Software Gadgets
The Terran Empire

Site Search
Google
Entire Web
The Cauldron

Member - Pagan Forum Alliance
Charter Member

Get Firefox! While this web site is designed to work in all major browsers, we recommend Firefox.

This site hosted on
a Linode VPS
Formerly hosted by

Why Use Dreamhost?

Site copyright
© 1998-2009
by Randall

Home > Books & Reviews > Pagan > Magickal Mermaids and Water Creatures Search

Order from Amazon.com
Buying books via our Amazon.com links helps support The Cauldron.
Book Review:
Magickal Mermaids and Water Creatures: Invoke The Magick Of The Waters

1564147843
Author: D. J. Conway
Trade Paperback, 183 pages
Publisher: New Page Books
Publication date: 2005
List: US$15.99
ISBN: 1564147843
Price & More Info: Click Here


 

If you accept Ms. Conway's basic premise (that mermaids and other magickal creatures once had a physical presence in out world, but now restrict themselves to the astral world, by and large), you will find this an easy book to deal with. If, on the other hand, you reject that premise, there are problems here.

Some of Ms. Conway's ideas are going to be considered unconventional by many. Unlike many magic-users she subscribes to the idea of using the least amount of energy, in the most efficient way, to cause the changes and effects one wants, rather then just throwing massive amounts of energy at the problem.

She lists many varieties of mer-folks, from a wide number of cultures. Some of these may well be unfamiliar to many readers. Her evaluation of many of these types of mer-folks strikes me as a bit unorthodox. I'm not sure how she reaches these opinions, but she is consistent.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, this book is very light in substance. The first half of the book reads like a compilation of various fairy accounts (or mythological accounts, if you prefer), gathered from a variety of sources. Suggestions are given about which groups of mer-people to work with for various desired outcomes, but there is not enough space devoted to the techniques for interacting with them.

In the first half of the book there is one meditation given and one ritual described. Yet, over a score of various mer-folk and water creatures are mentioned. It is hard for me to believe that one ritual and/or meditation would be appropriate for meeting and interacting with such a wide variety of beings.

Ms. Conway has written nearly two dozen books on a tremendous variety of topics (ranging from books with a Celtic flavor to ones on candle, healing and pendulum magic and from Norse magic to cats). While I understand the value of being a "generalist" as opposed to a "specialist" (an approach I apply in my own magickal life), there may be a tendency to over-simplify things, or to attempt to be all things to all readers. While I own several other works by Ms. Conway, this one left me disappointed. I had hoped for better from her.

I know that I am a bit of a purist in some things, and others are more flexible. Ms. Conway's suggestion, therefore, that "artificial forms" of oils may be used (because of scarcity and/or expense) strikes me as merely sloppy thinking. Pure oils are used specifically because of their magickal associations. To substitute something created merely to resemble such an oil would be (in my opinion) like buying a Mercedes-Benz automobile body and putting a Volkswagen engine into it to save money. It might look like a Mercedes to those seeing it from the outside only, but you would know of the difference and so would the garage mechanic when you needed help with it. It makes no sense.

The rituals and meditations in the second half of the book aren't much of an improvement over those in the first part. The lists of correspondences are very short and really add nothing to the book. My overall impression of this book is that it was dashed off because Ms. Conway had an obligation to produce a book and didn't want to put too much effort into it. It isn't a bad book, necessarily, but it is not one I would rush out to add to my library. If this was my first introduction to her writing, I probably wouldn't look for anything else by her.

Reviewed by Mike Gleason


Top | Home | Message Board | Site Info & Rules | Report Site Problems
Thanks to Cauldron Sponsors
(Sponsor The Cauldron!)

Cheap Web Hosting Report | Pagan & Magick Supplies
Witchcraft Course
Download Hundreds of Magic Spells