Muses No More - Ùna Maria Blyth - Hexen Press
MUSES NO MORE - Ùna Maria Blyth
MUSES NO MORE - Ùna Maria Blyth
MUSES NO MORE - Ùna Maria Blyth
MUSES NO MORE - Ùna Maria Blyth
MUSES NO MORE - Ùna Maria Blyth
Muses No More - Ùna Maria Blyth - Hexen Press

MUSES NO MORE - Ùna Maria Blyth

€39.00

Muses No More: Portraits of Occult Women  by Ùna Maria Blyth

Illustrations by Luciana Lupe Vasconcelos

Muses No More: Portraits of Occult Women is a meandering ghost train through the lives, work, politics and beliefs of both familiar and lesser known female occultists from the distant past to the 21st century. From the freedom fighting New Orleans Voudon Queen Marie Laveau to the witch-next-door personality of Sybil Leek, these biographical portraits bring light to women often sidelined in occult spaces and memory in favour of the (white, male) heavyweights such as Arthur E. Waite, Aleister Crowley and Gerald Gardner.
Readers will discover that there was much more to Pamela Colman Smith’s magical undertakings than her illustrations for the Rider Waite Smith tarot deck, and that Doreen Valiente, whilst valiantly fighting for the modernisation of Wicca, was an ardent follower of televised football.

Filled with fascinating historical trivia, there are deeper narratives at play in this compendium too - the struggle for women’s liberation, pleas for modernisation of religious movements, the reign of the patriarchy in many magical traditions, and the fight for civil rights.

Thoroughly well-researched and written with the flair of an impassioned queer, feminist occultist, Muses No More tells the centuries-spanning stories of women who threw off their aprons in favour of the search for greater esoteric knowledge.

The book concludes with tried and tested personal practices and rituals, respectfully designed in honour of these wondrous women, so that we might channel their power and knowledge and pursue the mysteries of the vast unknown.

Royal Octavo (240 × 160 mm)

206 pages

Issued in 2 editions – hardcover & softcover

Edition

 

Contents

Section One: Portraits

1 - Margot Adler: Journalist Priestess
2 - Doreen Valiente: Mother of Modern Witchcraft
3 - Marjorie Cameron: Muse No More
4 - Sybil Leek: Witch Next Door
5 - Madeline Montalban: Lady of Lucifer
6 - Rosaleen Norton: The Witch of King’s Cross
7 - Mirra Alfassa: The Mother
8 - Maya Deren: Sorceress of the Screen
9 - Pamela Colman Smith: Tarot’s High Priestess
10 - Maria de Naglowska: Satanic Woman
11 - Annie Besant: Sceptical Seeker
12 - Leila Waddell: Rag-Time Revolutionary
13 - Moina Mathers: A Subversive Wife
 14 - Sojourner Truth: Power in Forgiveness
15 - Marie Laveau: Voodoo Queen of New Orleans
16 - Biddy Early: Medicine Woman
17 - Isobel Gowdie: The Confessor

Section Two: Rituals

Banishing the Hungry Ghost
The Practice of Oomancy
Kinship Candle Ritual
Zodiacal Mind Training
Unglamouring Ritual
A Simple Sabbath Unguent
The Arrival Exercise
A Beginner’s Guide to Possession
Tarot for Creative Blocks
Your Ears Can Be Microphones
Hexing 101: Know Your Enemy
Scrying Musical Notation
A Practice for Life
Ritual Towards Liberation
Ancestral Altar in a Box
Eyebright Tea
Witch Bottle for Bravery

Bibliography
Acknowledgements



Ùna Maria Blyth

Ùna Maria is an occult writer and practitioner of peatbog folk magic, tarot reader/teacher, workshop facilitator, and meditation teacher living in the Shetland Isles.

Alongside offering card readings, magical consultations & meditation facilitation, she has written for a range of publications including Folklore for Resistance, Sabat, Rituals & Declarations, Cunning Folk Magazine, Doggerland, Fire & Knives, and the academic text Reframing Immersive Theatre (published by Palgrave Macmillan).

Having grown up with deep spiritual inclinations, she was formally initiated into ritual magic in her early 20s, as a member of London-based ritual theatre group FoolishPeople and later became a student of the now deceased Canadian Buddhist teacher Michael Stone. She is a qualified meditation and yoga teacher, and have led hundreds of students towards a more mindful way of moving and living through her work across the UK.

"I first began to grasp the very concrete connections between occult women and feminism whilst attending the Visions of Enchantment conference held in Cambridge in 2014. In writing for various occult publications I discovered a flair for biography, for mining troves of the long dead’s secrets, as well as delving specifically into the vast roll call of powerful witches and sorceresses of all varieties who have peppered both occult and feminist history.

I am writing a book that I myself would adore to read - a well-researched but rollicking adventure through history and magical practice with a feminist lens.

My hope is that Muses No More will serve as a compendium of sorts - filled with both wit and wisdom alike, and concluding with actionable practices and rituals for the modern occultist."



"Muses no More is a love letter to the female trailblazers, the Esotericists, the Occultists, who are, most importantly out our magical Ancestors.
They are the women who stood their ground, waged war, who crafted, created and conjured in a world that stood against them.
I highly recommend you grab yourself a copy, you wont regret it, I certainly didn’t
"

Read the full review by Aconite Conjure.

"This is an amazing and shockingly overdue compendium. Whether respected, notorious, forgotten, or flying completely under the radar
these women and their work have been denied, forgotten, marginalized or outright dismissed for too long,
and that’s an injustice that this work begins to set right."

Read the full review by Scavenged Rituals.

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