Dorothy Morrison

Table of Contents:

Yule - Reviewed by Mike Gleason
The Craft - Reviewed by Mike Gleason
The Craft Companion - Reviewed by Mike Gleason

Title:	Yule
Author:	Dorothy Morrison
Publisher:	Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN:	1-56718-496-0
Pages:	188 page + Appendices, Bibliography and Index
Copyright:	2002
Reviewer:	Mike Gleason
Contact Information:	gleason.mike@verizon.net
Category:	Paganism, Wicca
Review:	This is the fourth book in this series (by various authors) that I have read (Halloween, Midsummer and Lammas were the first three). This one, more than any of the others, is family friendly. But more of that a little later. Chapter One deals with the history not only of the Sabbat, but of all the holidays associated with this time of year. It is fairly light in content and tone, but very entertaining. Traditions and symbols are explored in Chapter Two. There are a few surprises in this chapter, so expect the unexpected. Chapter Three is simply a run down on the various festivals, which are currently observed around the world. It is very short and contains nothing unexpected. Chapter Four lists customs, representative of the world-wide observances, from nineteen countries. These range from Argentina to Syria and Venezuela. Chapter Five lists omens and superstitions including animal lore, marriage omens, and weather among others. The first section concludes with Chapter Six, which is filled with trivia and unexpected facts. These six chapters are all fairly short. They only occupy a total of thirty-nine pages. Everyone can find something of interest in here. The second part of this book deals with preparing for the season, and is the reason I said this book was particularly family-friendly. The arts and crafts included in this part of the book will appear to even the newest novice out there. This section starts with suggestions for making room for Yule (in Chapter Seven), both by cleaning your physical space, and your mental attitudes. It includes some ideas for charms. Chapter Eight starts the real arts and crafts section, with ideas for everything from making Yule logs and wreaths to centerpieces and stockings. It includes suggestions for involving your children in the decorating. Chapter Nine provides ideas for decorating your house. Chapter Ten gives a wide variety of ideas for decorating your Yule tree. These ideas work regardless what your religious orientation may happen to be. Tired of shelling out a0 small fortune for holiday greeting cards? Want to give a card that reflects your own specialness? Chapter Eleven has a few ideas for you, from the moderately elaborate to the downright simple. Chapter Twelve is filled with ideas for handmade gifts. The bonus here is that nearly anyone can make them (even little ones with some help and supervision from the folks or older siblings). The gift ideas include some for the fur children who share our homes, and who are sometimes overlooked in the rush of holiday activities. Chapter Thirteen provides a few suggestions for wrappings and name tags that will make that special gift stand out from the rest. And they are mostly wallet-friendly ideas, which is a plus in today’s economy. Chapters Fourteen and Fifteen will help with the holiday parties. Chapter Fourteen will help you decorate your table, while Chapter Fifteen suggests activities which will help brighten the winter scene. Chapter Sixteen will help your holiday be a delicious experience for all your guests. It includes everything from meat and potatoes to sweets guaranteed to tempt any palate. Sure, I know we live in a health-conscious world, but it’s the holidays. Forget the diet for a day. Indulge yourself. And don’t forget the potables (potent and otherwise). None of these recipes are particularly unusual but it is nice to have them all in one place. Chapter Seventeen is pure anecdote. Dorothy takes time to explain some of her personal family traditions and suggests a few ideas for creating traditions of your own. Chapter Eighteen is a Daily Event Calendar for the month of December. You don’t need to observe all the events listed (or any at all, for that matter), but if you are looking for an excuse to change your patterns of anxiety and tensions, you can definitely find some ideas here. Chapter Nineteen suggests ways of dealing with the seasonal stresses we all face, by doing simple things which are cost free and user friendly. Chapter Twenty offers good suggestions for the after-holidays turmoil of packing it all away for a year. These suggestions make it relatively painless both now and next year, when it is time to start all over again. The appendices list names of Gods and Goddesses associated with the holidays, but only their names with no background; various holiday greetings from around the world; and a list of holiday-related websites. Is it a valuable Pagan resource? No. Is it a fun source of facts and suggestions? Absolutely. Would I add it to my library? Yep, and I would refer to it every year as well.
Review submitted:	1 October 2003

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Title:	The Craft
Author:	Dorothy Morrison
Publisher:	Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN:	1-56718-446-4
Pages:	178 pages + Appendices
Copyright:	2003
Reviewer:	Mike Gleason
Contact Information:	gleason.mike[at]comcast.net
Category:	Wicca
Review:	Another "Wicca 101" book. Some of her early statements are easy to disagree with (page 5, footnote: "The Threefold Law is also known in many circles as Karmic Law."), but since this is intended to be an extremely basic book, it may be over-simplified on purpose. Perhaps the best piece of advice Ms. Morrison gives is in the first chapter (pages 6 and 7) when she says "First and foremost, we must remember the things that our parents tried to instill within us. Things like playing nice, using good judgment, and knowing when to listen rather than speak. But the most important thing is something your parents impressed upon you day in and day out. It, of course, is good manners." [emphasis added]. Far too many "101" books (and more advanced works as well) fail to make that connection. There is far too much rudeness in the world today and common courtesy is more important than ever, especially in a minority setting, which the Craft is. The first chapter of this book includes "the Wiccan Rede," "The Witches Creed," and "The Thirteen Principles of Wiccan Belief," any one of which is valuable in its own right. To have them all gathered together, within the first dozen pages is (in my opinion) an excellent idea. These should be an important part of any beginner's reading. Whether or not you agree with them, they have been a formative part of Wicca for the past 30 years, at the very least. On a personal level, I dislike her use of the word "sector" (i.e., ".Wicca has different religious sectors." [page 4] and "Every religious sector in the world." [page 13]). I strongly feel that "sect" is the word which should be used here, and feel that it was avoided for reasons of "Political correctness," but that is a personal feeling, and others may disagree with it. Ms. Morrison's presentation of the Goddess is far too "sweetness and light" for my liking. The Maiden is innocent, the Mother is serene, and the Crone is the "Keeper of Justice." Nowhere is there any mention of the defender of family life (Hera), the destroyer of evil (Kali), or any of the other not-so-nice aspects of human experience. This does a disservice to the novice, since when they encounter one of these aspects, they have not been prepared for the experience. Her concept of enticing the Gods and Goddesses is flat out wrong, in my opinion. She seems to imply that divinity is so simple-minded that a bit of simple flattery is all that is needed to invoke their aid. That is definitely not my relationship to divinity. Nor do I feel it is an appropriate concept to be giving to those who are looking into the religion. Her elemental exercises are simple and quite basic. Because of their non-threatening form and format, they will appeal to many and, because of their simplicity, they are very likely to be completed, unlike many exercises which tend to intimidate newcomers. The third chapter, "Boosting the magic", presents the idea of using correspondences with a different emphasis. Seeing them as boosters will undoubtedly appeal to many. This idea makes it seem less like a magickal necessity, and more like a magickal accessory, which is what they really are. Ms. Morrison does say that it is possible that you may find some things which do not work for others will be just what are needed for you. You need to be willing to experiment. There is no logical reason for the way colors affect us, as she reminds us. Logic and magick are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but they are not necessarily mutual requirements, either. I've never heard of using the freezer as an aid to cleansing stones for magickal use, but I seem to be always learning new techniques, and there is no reason this wouldn't work, especially if you expect it to work. Intent is far and away the most important part of magick. She provides rituals for blessing your tools, but she also includes instructions for harvesting (or obtaining) the basic materials for their construction as well. Her ritual for consecrating the athame is unique in my experience, at least in part. I have never heard of anyone heating their athame till it is red hot, unless they are a blacksmith and are forging their own blade. I really don't understand the rationale behind this. If the exercises she sets for students are standardized in the Georgian tradition, I am amazed that I have never encountered any of them before. The Georgian Craft has Gardnerian and Alexandrian roots, with Celtic leanings. I was trained Alexandrian and have never encountered any of the ideas she puts forth in any group I have worked with. If, on the other hand, those exercises are drawn from her own particular coven, I can understand why I haven't encountered them before. Each teacher puts their own mark on the lessons they impart to their students. I just wish Ms. Morrison had been a bit clearer about the source of these lessons. The chapter entitled "Other Tools and Ritual Accoutrements" offers a challenge, for me at least, in the first paragraph. She says "And regardless of what other folks may say, you can perform successful magic with the tools you already have." (wand, cup, athame, and pentacle) With that statement she appears to imply that you MUST have these tools to work magick. Sorry, I disagree. The only "tool" you need, as I was taught, and as my own personal experience has proved to me, is your mind. That is the source of magick. The tools are simply props and stage dressing. Pretty, nice, but ultimately unnecessary. The next chapter addresses this, almost. It identifies "The Ultimate Magical Tool" as the human brain. While that may be the physical location associated with the mind, it is not the mind itself. Assuming an intact brain with no neural activity, you will not have the capability to produce magick. It is the spark of the human mind which is indispensable. Her training exercises are designed to take about a year to complete, and that doesn't count the time devoted to tool preparation. To that extent, this book is basically equivalent to the year and a day training period many covens require before initiation. I'm sorry, but the image she presents in "The Circle", of the Guardians waiting impatiently for us to release them so they can move on to ".keep our planet operating smoothly" just strikes me as wrong. The impression she gives is that these Guardians are, like humans, capable of only a limited number of actions at once. If that is so, then there must only be one circle at a time which has them present, and everyone else must wait their turn. Where's the sign-up sheet? I want to be first in line every time. I do agree that you don't have to worry about insulting them. I feel that they wouldn't let themselves be insulted by anything humans do, unless it is done with malicious disregard for their domain. She casts the circle clockwise (without an explanation of why) starting in the East (again without an explanation) by walking the perimeter three times (this gets an explanation). When it comes time to release the Circle, she describes going counter-clockwise (no explanation) and only needing to walk it once (why only once?) starting in the North (no explanation again). Her ideas for Esbats and celebrations are certainly in tune with mainstream thought and imagery, although her choice of incense ingredients could stand a bit of fine-tuning in my opinion. And, although her advice about consulting a reliable herbal for the effects of herbs is good, I would recommend that a good herbalist be your source of information. As for her idea of anointing a candle with vegetable oil and rolling it in dry herbs, there should be a warning about the effects these herbs could have on the burning characteristics of the candle (unexpected flare-ups, popping embers, etc.). Appendix A is a short dream dictionary. I'm not a fan of such dictionaries, since the meaning of symbols is such a deeply personal thing. Still, this is fine as far as it goes. Appendix B is a short listing of topics and the herbs, plants, flowers and trees appropriate for them. Appendix C is basically the same thing, but with the appropriate stones. Appendix D continues the theme, but refers to the appropriate deity, While each of these appendices is short, they all give a good base for continuing your own investigations. The final appendix is Ms. Morrison's personal version of "The Book of Law" (not The Book of the Law by Aleister Crowley). These 83 "laws" are drawn from Gardnerian and Alexandrian sources. They have been reworked and restated, but they still give a feel for the structure of the Craft as it first emerged into the public view. As with so many "Books of Shadows" which have been published over the years, there are some good things, some bad things, and a lot of mediocrity in between. And as it is, as it must be, a personal statement of beliefs, it isn't possible to judge it as far as content goes. One's personal beliefs may be compared with others, but not judged against them. Having said that, I would not recommend this book for the beginning student, who has no personal contact for training. It is not clear why things are done the way they are in some places. There is a tendency on the part of beginners to accept things without reservation. And, without explanations being given, there is a danger of simply falling into a habit of doing things a certain way without thinking about why they are done. For the more advanced student who is looking for alternate ways of doing things, it has a place. It is not a great book, but it could be useful in the right circumstances.
Review submitted:	14 March 2004

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Title:	The Craft Companion
Author:	Dorothy Morrison
Publisher:	Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN:	0-7387-0093-2
Pages:	240 pages
Copyright:	2003
Reviewer:	Mike Gleason
Contact Information:	gleason.mike[at]comcast.net
Category:	Wicca
Review:	This is, obviously, a companion to her previous book The Craft. This is intended to be used as a journal. It combines spells and magickal ideas, and can help the beginner to get in the habit of recording spell results in a single place. This is the true basis of a Book of Shadows. The "How to Use This Book" in the front helps the reader to remember what sort of information should be recorded (when and where, as well as moon phase, etc.). Having laid out the basics of what needs to be recorded, and encouraging the user not to be limited in what is recorded, she includes the "long" version of the Rede of the Wicca (although without giving any background on the source of it). She then sets off on the format of the remainder of the book - one page for a spell, blessings, etc., followed by a blank, lined sheet for recording information. The spells and information are wide-ranging, from ways to determine if your lover is true to you, to a morning thanksgiving prayer, to a spell to be rid of mischievous spirits, to a daily prayer. It includes an extremely short list of deities, as well as an index so you can find any particular spell, etc. There is no need to follow any particular order in the use of this book, and that may be one of the most unusual aspects of it. The thing I really like about this book, and the thing that makes it the easiest to use, is the lay-flat binding used. When you open the book, there is no need to work at keeping it open to the page you want. Do you need this book? No. Will you find it convenient? Probably. Is it worth the $14.95 cost? That is for you to decide. Personally, I'm glad I got it.
Review submitted:	14 March 2004

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