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A review by oliviat
Air Magic by Astrea Taylor
2.0
Has value for a beginner, but not what I expected. I have always struggled with connecting to the element of Air, and I was looking forward to reading through some exercises to help that. I am currently 195 pages in (out of 300), and have only found a couple exercises. This book is mostly information you can find easily over the internet, or telling you what correspondences air has.
The first part is just "what qualities are associated with air, how to make an altar, what deities are associated with air, etc". Some of the deities didn't quite make sense; how is Persephone, goddess of the Underworld and agriculture, an air deity? I would call Her an earth deity! Oh, wait, it's because later the author says spring is associated with air (which is not something everyone would agree on.)
The second part, titled "Working With Air", is just list after list of correspondence. Stones associated with air, plants associated with air, trees associated with air, etc. Correspondences are not set in stone, people are allowed to have different correspondences than you, especially with elements.
I also find some of the things she says...Maybe not inaccurate, but strange. She essentially says Roman ornithomancy is superior to "just looking at which birds cross your path when you ask a question", but then her traditional Roman ornithomancy is sitting and...seeing which birds cross your path. She doesn't even talk about how to do Roman ornithomancy. The direction the bird comes from and goes towards is important, but it isn't listed anywhere in her chapter on "traditional" Roman ornithomancy.
The first part is just "what qualities are associated with air, how to make an altar, what deities are associated with air, etc". Some of the deities didn't quite make sense; how is Persephone, goddess of the Underworld and agriculture, an air deity? I would call Her an earth deity! Oh, wait, it's because later the author says spring is associated with air (which is not something everyone would agree on.)
The second part, titled "Working With Air", is just list after list of correspondence. Stones associated with air, plants associated with air, trees associated with air, etc. Correspondences are not set in stone, people are allowed to have different correspondences than you, especially with elements.
I also find some of the things she says...Maybe not inaccurate, but strange. She essentially says Roman ornithomancy is superior to "just looking at which birds cross your path when you ask a question", but then her traditional Roman ornithomancy is sitting and...seeing which birds cross your path. She doesn't even talk about how to do Roman ornithomancy. The direction the bird comes from and goes towards is important, but it isn't listed anywhere in her chapter on "traditional" Roman ornithomancy.