A Charmed Life: Celebrating Wicca Every Day

by Patricia J. Telesco

Increasingly the magickal community is made up of city dwelling witches, pagans, and neo-pagans. How do these people combine a natural philosophy with the concrete jungle? A Charmed Life looks at this issue in a fresh, creative, and fun way that anyone can apply whether they live in a high rise or on a farm. Our times have changed dramatically since pagans were "country folk." Those transformations require that we rethink the way we approach magick so it makes sense of our surroundings and times. A Charmed Life is a transformational book that includes spells, rituals, prayers, incantations, and all manner of helpful hints for creating and maintaining a healthy, happy spiritual environment. Better still, it reaches out to the next generation of magickal people, our children, with activities for them and the whole family-activities that accent various lessons and meet various personal needs in a real, and effective metaphysical way.

Genres: Wicca, Paganism, Witchcraft, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Crafts, Occult

191 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 2000

About the author

Patricia "Trish" Telesco is a professional author with more than 50 metaphysical titles on the market.

Trish considers herself a kitchen witch whose love of folkore (and a bit of Strega) flavor every spell and ritual. Her strongest beliefs lie in following personal vision, being tolerant of other traditions, making life an act of worship, and being the magic!

Trish travels minimally twice per month to give lectures and workshops around the country. She has appeared on several television segments and maintains a strong, visible presence in the public through journals like Circle Network News, and on the internet.

Her current pet projects include supporting pagan land funds and coordinating spiritually oriented tours to Europe.

Telesco began her Wiccan education and initiation on her own, but later received initiation into the Strega tradition of Italy. She is a trustee for the Universal Federation of Pagans, a member of the Authors Guild, a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism and a professional member of the Wiccan-Pagan Press Alliance.

In March 2012 her husband, Paul Telesco, was diagnosed with a tumor on his brain stem. Since that time, Telesco has been focused on raising awareness and fund-raising

Reviews

[Natasha Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. Trish Telesco is a warm hearted writer, who keeps things basic but doesn't talk down to the reader or write at a third grade level (which is a problem with a lot of modern books on Wicca - it's embarrassing). This book is not really a Wicca 101 type book, but it would be a helpful companion volume to a more traditional basic book on Wicca like Scott Cunningham's "A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner". It is very practical, and in order to receive its benefits, one would have to do the myriad of exercises and meditations within. It's a slim volume, because it has virtually no extraneous material - every page has an activity that will enrich the lives of the people who do them.

I expect that this book would be fairly controversial as to whether people love it or think it's a piece of fluff. Here's why:

People who will love this book:
Covens looking for insightful healing group ritual
New Wiccans who want to improve their connection to the divine and their self worth
Experienced Wiccans to want to get back to the basics through experiential exercises
People who might want to try some interesting self help rituals who aren't Wiccan
Therapists looking for out of the box ideas to help their clients cope with stresses of daily life

People who will hate this book:
Wiccans that believe there's only one right way to do magick
Wiccans that don't want to do any personal growth work
Wiccans that feel like every ritual needs to have a historical basis or deep cultural connections to the Gods

I was in the camp that loved the book, obviously. I think Trish Telesco has a number of creative rituals and exercises that could be very useful in covenal situations and for times when you need some spiritual support for personal growth. I kept telling myself: Dog ear that one, that one's good, or so-and-so needs to do that spell, or this one's for our yearly covenal planning meeting!

She has written many rituals that address different situations than what I have encountered before in other spellbooks. I have a million love or money spells, but this is one of the first times I've seen spells for "Renewing Communications after a Long Separation" as an example. Plus, her spells are interesting, and great for a coven or solitaries to do. They aren't just another round of "Light a black candle and say this invocation." This book reminds me a lot of "The Spiral Dance" - it's not as poetically written, but the rituals have a similar philosophy of personal growth and community building.

The beauty of this book is that you can hand it to a brand spanking new Wiccan or someone going on 20 years in the Craft (me!), and they can both get something very useful out of it.

[chrisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read. I can see it being helpful for beginners to Wicca or witchcraft. Includes lots of rituals to try which I appreciated and which I think more advanced witches would enjoy. Also has some correspondences which are useful to have. The author is Wiccan and I'm not, but there was information here that I connected with as well, which is not always the case with books written from a Wiccan perspective.

[Cathy Addley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read, some different ideas, good for a beginner

[Silas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covered many interesting areas, though the format left something to be desired, making the interesting bits spread apart. I got through it, and enjoyed many parts of it, but it was a bit of a challenge to see it through.

[Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a few really interesting chapters, but most of the book was a bit boring and hard to read.

[Desiree']

This is the author's personal biography of how she began a life of practice in Wicca. I think it is a good read for basic information.