Composing Magic: How to Create Magical Spells, Rituals, Blessings, Chants, and Prayer

by Elizabeth Barrette

You've attended rituals that took your breath away. You've borrowed spells out of books. You've read splendid Pagan poetry in magazines. Now learn to compose all these types of magical writing yourself! Composing Magic guides you through the exciting realm of magical and spiritual writing. You'll explore the process of writing, its tools and techniques, individual types of composition, and ways of sharing your work with other people. The book shows you how to
Each type of writing includes its history and uses, which cover diverse traditions. Step-by-step instructions lead you through the creative process, such as how
Examples demonstrate finished compositions of each type, while exercises help you develop your skills by practicing what you've just read. You'll discover that magical writing has more impact when it comes from the heart. Anyone can develop the skills needed to create effective compositions, but the most successful writers reveal their souls. Composing Magic will also show you ways of deepening your craft through performance and publication. Whether you practice solitary or in a group, this book will help you write with more power, more beauty, and less effort.

Genres: Paganism, Writing, Metaphysics, Nonfiction, Magic, Witchcraft

240 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2007

About the author

Elizabeth Barrette lives in Illinois with her partner, Doug. An avid wordsmith, she works as a writer and editor, doing poetry, articles, essays, reviews, interviews, short stories, and more. Her main fields include speculative fiction, gender studies, environmental/social issues, and alternative spirituality. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Rhetoric with a Women’s Studies minor from the English Department at the University of Illinois.

Her wordsmithing work has taken many forms. She wrote the articles "Balancing Powers" in Communities, “Anthimeria: Verbing Weirds Language” in Sol Magazine, and "Appreciating Speculative Poetry" and "Do Women and Men Really Write Differently?" in Internet Review of Science Fiction. Honors include winning the Sol Magazine Poet Laureate Competition (2003), Left Coast Eisteddfod Poetry Competition (2009), Dwarf Stars Award (2010), and Rose & Bay Award: Poetry (2010); plus six poems nominated for the Rhysling Award (2005, 2007, 2010). Elizabeth Barrette served as Managing Editor of PanGaia for eight years and Dean of Studies at the Grey School of Wizardry for four years. She currently sits on the canon board for Torn World. She has edited over a dozen books including novels, short story collections, and nonfiction.

She has published hundreds of poems, dozens of articles, and dozens of short stories. Her writing has appeared in numerous periodicals including Apex, The Blessed Bee, Capper’s, Cicada, CIRCLE, Doorways, Eggplant Library, EMG-zine, Five Feathers, Fortress, Green Prints, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Horror Writers Association Newsletter, the Llewellyn annuals, The Lorelei Signal, The Mid-America Poetry Review, Mytholog, Nature’s Song, Noneuclidean Café, Passion for Poetry, SageWoman, Sol Magazine, Strong Verse, and the Wiccan/Pagan Times. Her work has also appeared in the anthologies The 2010 Rhysling Anthology, Companion for the Apprentice Wizard, [Book: Creative Community Collected Comics Pages], Genderflex, The Goddess in Each of Us, The Impossible Will Take A Little While, and Pagan Muse Short Fiction Anthology Volume 2.

Elizabeth Barrette supports small press and electronic publication, crowdfunding, and communal living. She hosts a monthly Poetry Fishbowl on her LiveJournal, The Wordsmith’s Forge. She enjoys presenting panels and workshops at science fiction conventions, Pagan festivals, and other events. Her favorite pastimes include gardening for wildlife, photography, and studying obscure languages.

Reviews

[Onyx · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the book. It's a novel, yet serious in-depth approach to the composition of your own spells, rituals, ceremonies, and rites. It won't be a sloppy treatment of the subject; that's for sure.
If you're interested in improving your spell-writing style beyond just grabbing a random piece of paper, quickly jotting down a few awkward lines, and hoping it works, this book is for you. It delves into this kind of writing as an actual art form in which you focus on, not just the intent, but on the craft of the writing to cause things to happen...and every bit of focus and meaning helps. If you haven't known anything about creative writing before, or you've never tried your hand at poetry and prose, you might walk away with an appreciation on the background of how to execute a piece that not only would work on an aesthetic level, but would also function practically as well.
The book treats the writing of spells as seriously as writing good lines of poetry, period...an approach that should be given a chance. Yes, it does discuss the breakdown of the theory of how poetry and prose is written, and the explanations might seem too technical and tedious, but a decent understanding on how to take apart and put together good writing could make a difference between mediocre ritual and something that might blow the socks off the god or goddess you're trying to get the attention of, let alone the audience who will be witnessing or participating in ritual with you.
If you care much about your rituals, give the book a read...but come prepared with lots of time on your hands, a comfortable chair, and a nice pot of tea by your side. It will take a while to discover how a master writes great magic.

[Bill Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would be good if I happen to ever create a character who writes spells, incantations, rituals, blessings, chants, and prayers. Kind of like what I already do but polishing magical poetry. Has some nice exercises in the back. I haven't attempted any compositions yet but hope to in the future. I did read this for background in a section of my Mardi Gras Ripper e-book concerning mystical elements.

[Samantha McGuire · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really helped get my creative juices flowing. I want to start writing my own poetic spells and this book really helped get the ideas flowing. It is a fun read!

[Rusty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book. Interesting information.