Cottage Witchery: Natural Magick for Hearth and Home

by Ellen Dugan

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Author: Ellen Dugan

Publisher: Llewellyn Publications

Paperback:
ISBN 10: 0738706256
ISBN 13: 978-0738706252

Ellen Dugan, the author of Garden Witchery, is the ideal guide to show us how to bring the beauty of nature and its magickal energies indoors. Using common household and outdoor items―such as herbs, spices, dried flowers, plants, stones, and candles―she offers a down-to-earth approach to creating an enchanted home.

From specialized spells and charms to kitchen conjuring and color magick, this hands-on guide teaches Witches of all levels how to strengthen a home's aura and energy. Readers will learn how to use begonias and lilacs for protection, dispel bad vibes with salt and lemon, perform tea leaf readings, bless the home with fruit, invite the help of home faeries, perform houseplant magick, and create a loving home for the whole family.

Praise:
"The queen of everyday witchery has outdone herself with this tome."―Retailing Insight

From Publishers Weekly

According to Dugan, a witch's cottage can take any shape, from a city apartment to a house in the suburbs. A self-described "Garden Witch" and psychic-clairvoyant, Dugan offers a Martha Stewart–like guide for setting up a magickal home, helping readers to "reconnect to the energies of the natural world," and "direct these magickal forces into [their] homes and everyday lives." A follow-up to Garden Witchery, this guide will appeal to a broad audience, from the serious witch hoping to align each room with magickal principles, to the interested dabbler looking for ways to draw magick into the kitchen or the newbie seeking an alternative kind of feng shui. Included are a range of interesting spells for "removing bad vibes," warding off unwanted guests and buying and selling a home, as well as a household journal with blessings for various rooms of the home, and a helpful glossary of terms. Dugan is at her best when explaining concepts like the history of different goddesses and categorizing elements like the magickal qualities of houseplants, yet her tendency to converse directly with the reader can be off-putting, as are her frequent personal tangents. Though Dugan claims often that this is a guide for any style of home in any location, it will be most useful to readers with easy access to nature. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"This guide will appeal to a broad audience, from the serious witch hoping to align each room with magickal principles, to the interested dabbler looking for ways to draw magick into the kitchen or the newbie seeking an alternative kind of feng shui."―Publisher's Weekly

"The queen of everyday witchery has outdone herself with this tome."―Retailing Insight

About the Author

Ellen Dugan, the "Garden Witch," is an award-winning author, a psychic-clairvoyant and a regular contributor to Llewellyn's almanacs, datebooks, and calendars. A practicing Witch for over twenty-nine years, she is also a certified Master Gardener.
Ellen has written several books, including Garden Witchery, Elements of Witchcraft:Natural Magick for Teens, 7 Days of Magic, Cottage Witchery, Autumn Equinox, The Enchanted Cat, Herb Magic for Beginners, Natural Witchery, How to Enchant a Man, Garden Witch's Herbal, Book of Witchery, Practical Protection Magick, Seasons of Witchery and Witches Tarot.

When not keeping up with her family, Ellen unwinds by working in her perennial gardens at home with her husband. She wholeheartedly encourages everyone to personalize their green spellcraft by getting their hands dirty, discovering the wonder and magic of the natural world, and connecting with the spiritual side of nature. To find out more, visit her website at ellendugan.com or check out her blog at ellendugan.blogspot.com

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Welcome and make yourself at home. Have a seat and let's you and I sit and chat. Hmm? What was that? Oh, thanks. We like our house too. I watch as your eyes dart around the living room, looking for signs of witchery. I smile to myself as, for the most part, the magickal accessories are pretty subtle. But I will admit there are a few things that jump right out at you.

Where did I get the stained glass pentacle, you ask? Oh, I made that years ago when I worked at a stained glass shop; everyone thought it was a hex sign. The big old cauldron sitting on the brick hearth? Found it for next to nothing at an antique shop, rusted and stuck in a corner. A little steel wool and black spray paint and it's as good as new.

Your eyes continue to search the room as the family's two cats come strolling in to check out the visitor. They may or may not grace you with their presence by sniffing you over and then perching behind you on the back of the sofa. Other than a few crystal clusters, to you everything looks pretty normal and lived in. Well, this isn't what you were expecting.

You rise and follow me into the kitchen at my question as to whether you'd like something to drink. As I pour your beverage into the glass, you look around the kitchen and check out the mossy-green painted walls and a crafty kitchen witch collection centered on a painted shelf. The herb prints hanging on the walls draw you in for a closer look. Mounded on the counter is a variety of seasonal produce from our family's farm. I tell you to expect to take some home with you. There is way too much there for us to possibly eat.

We make our way back to the living room and you curl up comfortably on the couch, thinking to yourself that you are going to have to do a complete revamp of what you thought a real Witch's house would be. Hmm . . . so now that you are all snug on the couch, how do you feel? Safe, calm, happy, and at ease. Good, that's exactly how you should feel.

Disappointed at the lack of drama? Don't worry, I get that reaction a lot. I have had students come to my home for the first time expecting some suburban-type of Addam's family mansion. They were pretty uptight until they saw that we lived in a ranch-style home in the 'burbs. As they came in and sat on the couch I could see that they were scanning everything as fast as possible. When my three kids came flying down the hall engaged in hand to hand combat, they started to smile. When I excused myself to ask the kids . . . okay, to go and yell at the kids to knock it off, my guests started to laugh.

As I came back into the living room to join them, they were grinning. I could only smile back at them and say that what really makes a Witch's home different is the way that it makes you feel. The magickal home carries a particular type of positive psychic vibration. This type of enchanting energy is often expanded upon and refined by the Witch who dwells there. This sort of magickal emanation puts welcomed guests and family at ease. It is both a strength and a comfort. If you think about it, a home that exudes a sense of hospitality and welcome is a type of natural magick all of its own.

So you're here because you'd like to learn a few natural magick practices for your own hearth and home? Great, you've come to the right place! The tips and techniques of bringing a little witchery into the place where you live are both simple and down-to-earth. These are subtle types of magick: think handmade and homegrown-a leaf from a tree, a flower grown in the yard, herbs and spices, candle spells and color magick. The enchanting household accessories, charms, and spells may not be glaringly obvious to the casual observer, but they are powerful magick nonetheless. Many of the ingredients cottage witchery calls for are, more often than not, already readily available to you, possibly lurking about in the spice rack or outside, compliments of good old Mother Nature.

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Cottage Witchery: Natural Magick for Hearth and Home