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217 reviews for:
The Witch's Book of Self-Care: Magical Ways to Pamper, Soothe, and Care for Your Body and Spirit
Arin Murphy-Hiscock
3.7 AVERAGE
217 reviews for:
The Witch's Book of Self-Care: Magical Ways to Pamper, Soothe, and Care for Your Body and Spirit
Arin Murphy-Hiscock
3.7 AVERAGE
fast-paced
Read for Sbooktober readathon.
Unfortunately not all books during a readathon can be gems.
Even though I have adored everything else I have read by this author, this one was lacking something for me.
Unfortunately not all books during a readathon can be gems.
Even though I have adored everything else I have read by this author, this one was lacking something for me.
0.5 out of 5 stars
Can I really be disappointed when my expectations were next to non-existent? Debatable.
Let's start with the self-care part of the book. There's nothing revolutionary about the things the author suggests we do as self-care pactices: naps, baths, journaling, meditation, teas, scents and the like. Trite, all of it. You can cover all that with a quick google search. You don't actually need this book to tell you how to look after yourself. It is common knowledge at this point that the aforementioned practices are soothing and helpful.
Now that that's out of the way, let us discuss why this book is c o n f u s e d . While reading it, I distinctly felt that a big chunk of it was just jumble of spiritual undistilled ideas. The "worshipping" portion of this book (prayers, spells, incantations) comes off as self-indulgent in the sense that I found it to be rather shallow and not attached to the Craft. "Witch" is a word heavily associated with neopaganism, but other than some vague animistic notions -that at times were appropriating Native culture-, I don't think I learnt anything of value about modern day witches. Moreover, I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of using a belief system and one's faith solely for aesthetic purposes, which was exactly what I think happened here. What makes me think that? Why, the mental calculation of all the MONEY one would need to apply some of the crafts and ideas presented in this book in their every day life . I wasn't aware that witchcraft practices were so vastly commercialised. The self-promo doesn't help to convince me otherwise.
However, it wouldn't be fair to say all that without aknowledging my own bias. As an atheist and a firm believer in healthy scepticism, I found the pagan/wiccan/call-it-what-you-want portion of this book unecessary, especially considering the points made in the previous paragraph. As a student in the STEM field, I couldn't have suspended my disbelief enough to accommodate for all the unscientific waffle in this book. All that being said, I have a great and active interest in religions and belief systems and the symbolism behind their dogmas and practices, that has been passed down to me through my religious upbringing. So I think it is fair to say that "The Witch's Book of Self-Care" failed to satisfy my curiosity in that regard.
To sum up, I would NOT reccommend the "Witch's Book of Self-Care". If you're looking for a Self-Help book, maybe look into a regular one, but definitely not this.
Happy reading!
P.S. Trigger warning: Discussion of depression
In my opinion, the way this book discusses mental health is rather problematic, so you might want to stay away from that. There is a spell on how to accept/embrace your depression for crying out loud (!), that could be understandably triggering to people. Oh, and one last thing: Essential oils can't heal your mental health troubles.
Can I really be disappointed when my expectations were next to non-existent? Debatable.
Let's start with the self-care part of the book. There's nothing revolutionary about the things the author suggests we do as self-care pactices: naps, baths, journaling, meditation, teas, scents and the like. Trite, all of it. You can cover all that with a quick google search. You don't actually need this book to tell you how to look after yourself. It is common knowledge at this point that the aforementioned practices are soothing and helpful.
Now that that's out of the way, let us discuss why this book is c o n f u s e d . While reading it, I distinctly felt that a big chunk of it was just jumble of spiritual undistilled ideas. The "worshipping" portion of this book (prayers, spells, incantations) comes off as self-indulgent in the sense that I found it to be rather shallow and not attached to the Craft. "Witch" is a word heavily associated with neopaganism, but other than some vague animistic notions -that at times were appropriating Native culture-, I don't think I learnt anything of value about modern day witches. Moreover, I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of using a belief system and one's faith solely for aesthetic purposes, which was exactly what I think happened here. What makes me think that? Why, the mental calculation of all the MONEY one would need to apply some of the crafts and ideas presented in this book in their every day life . I wasn't aware that witchcraft practices were so vastly commercialised. The self-promo doesn't help to convince me otherwise.
However, it wouldn't be fair to say all that without aknowledging my own bias. As an atheist and a firm believer in healthy scepticism, I found the pagan/wiccan/call-it-what-you-want portion of this book unecessary, especially considering the points made in the previous paragraph. As a student in the STEM field, I couldn't have suspended my disbelief enough to accommodate for all the unscientific waffle in this book. All that being said, I have a great and active interest in religions and belief systems and the symbolism behind their dogmas and practices, that has been passed down to me through my religious upbringing. So I think it is fair to say that "The Witch's Book of Self-Care" failed to satisfy my curiosity in that regard.
To sum up, I would NOT reccommend the "Witch's Book of Self-Care". If you're looking for a Self-Help book, maybe look into a regular one, but definitely not this.
Happy reading!
P.S. Trigger warning: Discussion of depression
In my opinion, the way this book discusses mental health is rather problematic, so you might want to stay away from that. There is a spell on how to accept/embrace your depression for crying out loud (!), that could be understandably triggering to people. Oh, and one last thing: Essential oils can't heal your mental health troubles.
3.5 stars. This was a good little book with self-care ideas, activities and recipes. There were some sections where the woo-woo aspect was a bit strong for my tastes but considering the title of the book that is obviously not something I will hold against it. Overall I enjoyed a lot of the ideas behind the book, including mindfulness, positive affirmations, visualization, gratitude, and meditation. This is a good book for people who are open to "New Age" approaches, even if they don't consider themselves witches or particularly believe in magic.
I was about to give this book two stars because I was not really enjoying it all the way through. I was liking what the author was talking about when it came to self care but the rituals were a but repetitive and not something that I would see myself doing - and that was what took up a majority of the book. I wasn’t feeling it but I told myself to push through and finish it on the flight - and I am so glad I did. It vastly improved towards the latter half of the book.
This book splits itself into 5 chapters, the first is Self Care and Magic. Where it gives self care tips and the different sources of magic they will be using in the books such as herbal magic, candle magic, meditation, etc. I thought this was a great overview and is good for readers who are unfamiliar with this field. This chapter also had a lot of good things to say about self care and my favorite one was when it says “don’t let yourself be driven by a need to be approved or liked by others.”This quote is under the section that talks about living authentically and it is so important for people to incorporate in their life. If you live for others’ approval you aren’t going to be happy. They people who are meant to be in your life won’t be looking for you to please them or seek their approval. Live to make yourself happy and you then in turn you will find the right people. It also talks about how self care is acknowledging all the parts of yourself, even the “bad” ones. We aren’t perfect and we all have flaws. Instead of denying them we should acknowledge it and by doing so we can work on bettering ourselves.
The next chapter talks about Mental and Emotional Self Care. My favorite part of this chapter is the Daily 5 Minute Self Care Routine to start the day. For me, when I wake up the first thing I check are my phone and my messages and I really want to get away from that. I want to be able to commit the first few minutes of my day to myself. It talks about stretching, drinking a glass of water, and even doing meditation. This honestly may take more than 5 minutes but the longer I am away from my phone in the morning, the better. My favorite self care concept that this chapter talks about is the idea of Affirmations. Over the past year I have learned how much positive affirmations can affect how you go about your goals and whether or not you will succeed in them. For example, I used to hate running. When I got tired I would immediately stop and berate myself for being so out of shape. That happened for years and I couldn’t get out of it. During one running session as I was starting to get tired I decided to try out a positive affirmation. I told myself that “I could do it” that I “was strong” and that “I could make it through” and you know what happened? I did. I made it through the tiredness phase during my run and was able to finish all 3 miles. I am not exaggerating when I saw that positive affirmations has changed my life and i am glad this book talks about it. It also gives you affirmations that you can start saying to yourself!
Chapter 3 is probably my least favorite chapter and why I was considering giving this book 2 stars. It is all about physical self care and doesn’t really have much in teaching you about self care and the majority of the chapter are recipes for different meals, teas, and skincare. Normally I love stuff like that but the recipes listed here are meant as comfort food and don’t necessarily deal with health. It even says in the book that eating healthy and well is a vital key to caring for yourself. The author even states that when it comes to calories, these foods may not be the best. A lot of the recipes didn’t seem healthy and I believe that comfort food can be if you think hard enough. There are amazing dishes that have a lot fruits and vegetables that the author could have incorporated in here. My favorite is a simple dish of Baked Salmon, Broccoli, and Sweet Potatoes and tasted good and also leaves you feeling good.
The book started to pick up after chapter 3 and the next chapter talks about Spiritual Self Care. What I liked most about this chapter was that it talked about how you can honor the gods and deities you believe in. I don’t know if I believe in a god with a name. I believe that there is a force in the world but I don’t want to give that force a name. However, whenever I look to strength I do call on to the Greek gods. I don’t know how to explain it but believing that honoring a specific god or goddess and them giving me strength in their specific domain is strangely empowering. I also liked the part when it talks about how we can form connections with certain animals and the animal we are drawn to says something about what we value. There is a list of animals in the book and the values that they are associated with. The owl I have felt most connected to is the owl and it is associated with wisdom, insight and honesty with yourself. I loved when I read this because these are three concepts that I value greatly and try to incorporate in my daily life, especially the part of being honest with yourself. That can be one of the hardest things you can do but once you achieve it you will feel exceptionally free. This chapter also talks about Focused Meditation which is all about focusing on one thing at a time. It seems simple but in a world where we have so many options and things to do we sort of developed a habit of multi-tasking. When we eat we watch a tv show. When we only listen to music as background noise for other activities. What focused meditation asks you to do is to spend an hour or two on just one activity so that you can fully appreciate it.
The last chapter deals with how to make your home safe for you. It starts off the chapter bys aying “your home is your spiritual retreat… the space should reflect the protection, nurturing, and support you need from it.” I completely agree with this. You home should be a place that gives you energy and you should curate it in a way that does just that. You need to be able to create comfort, declutter, and cleanse your home and this chapter lists a bunch of rituals and activities that can help you do just that. The activity that I liked the most was where it teaches you to create an altar to yourself. It has you collect things that make you happy and put them on a towel or a tray. You will look at these things as you chant affirmations that validate you have done a great job and you will continue to succeed in life. It is important for you to honor yourself and it’s nice to see that the author tries to help her readers do that in a creative way.
Overall, this was a really good book! I loved all the things it had to say about self-care and agreed with most of them. If you are looking to better yourself and for fun activities to help you do that - this is a great book to check out!
TL;DR - This is a really good book that has great things to say about self care and a bunch of fun activities and rituals for you to start loving yourself. My only negative is that the recipes in this book aren’t necessarily healthy and that is important to me and my self-care journey.
This book splits itself into 5 chapters, the first is Self Care and Magic. Where it gives self care tips and the different sources of magic they will be using in the books such as herbal magic, candle magic, meditation, etc. I thought this was a great overview and is good for readers who are unfamiliar with this field. This chapter also had a lot of good things to say about self care and my favorite one was when it says “don’t let yourself be driven by a need to be approved or liked by others.”This quote is under the section that talks about living authentically and it is so important for people to incorporate in their life. If you live for others’ approval you aren’t going to be happy. They people who are meant to be in your life won’t be looking for you to please them or seek their approval. Live to make yourself happy and you then in turn you will find the right people. It also talks about how self care is acknowledging all the parts of yourself, even the “bad” ones. We aren’t perfect and we all have flaws. Instead of denying them we should acknowledge it and by doing so we can work on bettering ourselves.
The next chapter talks about Mental and Emotional Self Care. My favorite part of this chapter is the Daily 5 Minute Self Care Routine to start the day. For me, when I wake up the first thing I check are my phone and my messages and I really want to get away from that. I want to be able to commit the first few minutes of my day to myself. It talks about stretching, drinking a glass of water, and even doing meditation. This honestly may take more than 5 minutes but the longer I am away from my phone in the morning, the better. My favorite self care concept that this chapter talks about is the idea of Affirmations. Over the past year I have learned how much positive affirmations can affect how you go about your goals and whether or not you will succeed in them. For example, I used to hate running. When I got tired I would immediately stop and berate myself for being so out of shape. That happened for years and I couldn’t get out of it. During one running session as I was starting to get tired I decided to try out a positive affirmation. I told myself that “I could do it” that I “was strong” and that “I could make it through” and you know what happened? I did. I made it through the tiredness phase during my run and was able to finish all 3 miles. I am not exaggerating when I saw that positive affirmations has changed my life and i am glad this book talks about it. It also gives you affirmations that you can start saying to yourself!
Chapter 3 is probably my least favorite chapter and why I was considering giving this book 2 stars. It is all about physical self care and doesn’t really have much in teaching you about self care and the majority of the chapter are recipes for different meals, teas, and skincare. Normally I love stuff like that but the recipes listed here are meant as comfort food and don’t necessarily deal with health. It even says in the book that eating healthy and well is a vital key to caring for yourself. The author even states that when it comes to calories, these foods may not be the best. A lot of the recipes didn’t seem healthy and I believe that comfort food can be if you think hard enough. There are amazing dishes that have a lot fruits and vegetables that the author could have incorporated in here. My favorite is a simple dish of Baked Salmon, Broccoli, and Sweet Potatoes and tasted good and also leaves you feeling good.
The book started to pick up after chapter 3 and the next chapter talks about Spiritual Self Care. What I liked most about this chapter was that it talked about how you can honor the gods and deities you believe in. I don’t know if I believe in a god with a name. I believe that there is a force in the world but I don’t want to give that force a name. However, whenever I look to strength I do call on to the Greek gods. I don’t know how to explain it but believing that honoring a specific god or goddess and them giving me strength in their specific domain is strangely empowering. I also liked the part when it talks about how we can form connections with certain animals and the animal we are drawn to says something about what we value. There is a list of animals in the book and the values that they are associated with. The owl I have felt most connected to is the owl and it is associated with wisdom, insight and honesty with yourself. I loved when I read this because these are three concepts that I value greatly and try to incorporate in my daily life, especially the part of being honest with yourself. That can be one of the hardest things you can do but once you achieve it you will feel exceptionally free. This chapter also talks about Focused Meditation which is all about focusing on one thing at a time. It seems simple but in a world where we have so many options and things to do we sort of developed a habit of multi-tasking. When we eat we watch a tv show. When we only listen to music as background noise for other activities. What focused meditation asks you to do is to spend an hour or two on just one activity so that you can fully appreciate it.
The last chapter deals with how to make your home safe for you. It starts off the chapter bys aying “your home is your spiritual retreat… the space should reflect the protection, nurturing, and support you need from it.” I completely agree with this. You home should be a place that gives you energy and you should curate it in a way that does just that. You need to be able to create comfort, declutter, and cleanse your home and this chapter lists a bunch of rituals and activities that can help you do just that. The activity that I liked the most was where it teaches you to create an altar to yourself. It has you collect things that make you happy and put them on a towel or a tray. You will look at these things as you chant affirmations that validate you have done a great job and you will continue to succeed in life. It is important for you to honor yourself and it’s nice to see that the author tries to help her readers do that in a creative way.
Overall, this was a really good book! I loved all the things it had to say about self-care and agreed with most of them. If you are looking to better yourself and for fun activities to help you do that - this is a great book to check out!
TL;DR - This is a really good book that has great things to say about self care and a bunch of fun activities and rituals for you to start loving yourself. My only negative is that the recipes in this book aren’t necessarily healthy and that is important to me and my self-care journey.
This is definitely a good book for people just beginning in witchcraft and people who need help with self-care. There were some really good and meaningful quotes that really helped me reflect inwards. There was also a lot of good information (my copy is full of highlights and sticky tabs) but I found the amount of recipes/diys to be a bit much. They seemed to distract from the work and I kind of brushed over the ones that didn't apply to me. Overall, I'd recommend it to any baby witches and people with mental health struggles that need some help caring for themselves.
I liked this, but not for myself. I could see this book being really helpful for Wicca-minded people (and even non-Wiccans) who are also seeing a therapist to work in tandem. Overall, this book was wasted on me though I did appreciate the recipes and the projects in this book. I'll be giving this to someone as a gift.