Everything you need to know about casting spells, mixing up elixirs, andmaking...

Previous ed.: New York: Barricade Books, c1996.

Possibly the most comprehensive book ever published on one of the world's oldest, and most terrifying, legends. The vampire is one of the most potent and enduring symbols of the supernatural, as deathless as Bram Stoker's perennially popular creation Count Dracula. As this entertaining and encyclopaedic work reveals, vampires were around for centuries before Count Dracula appeared. Legends about vampires are found in folklore throughout the world, dating back to ancient times and over the years they have never lost their power to inspire fear. Combining erudition with readability Leonard Ashley presents vampire lore from around the world, gathering together many unexpected facts about the dead and 'undead', about hangings and summonsings, and reports of manifestations that cannot be lightly dismissed. Whether you are incredulous, sceptical or simply curious you will find this darkly enjoyable survey irresistible. Its listings of films and books make it a valuable resource for fans while its wealth of rare illustrations are fascinating.

Filled with plenty of hexes for just every purpose, from a general souring of ones life to causing baldness and even death. The spells within this book should only ever be used when they are justified. This is not for the frivolous practitioner who throws hexes on people for no reason. With over 100 hexes, a few protection and un-hexing recipes this book is everything you've always wanted, but were too afraid to ask about.

A grand survey of the world’s death and afterlife traditions throughout history • Examines beliefs from many different cultures on the soul, heaven, hell, and reincarnation; instructions for accessing the different worlds of the afterlife; how one may become a god; and how ethics and the afterlife may not be connected • Explores techniques to communicate with the dead, including séance instructions • Includes an extensive bibliography of more than 900 sources from around the world Drawing on death and afterlife traditions from cultures around the world, Mark Mirabello explores the many forms of existence beyond death and each tradition’s instructions to access the afterlife. He examines beliefs on the soul, heaven, hell, and reincarnation and wisdom from Books of the Dead such as the Book of Going Forth by Day from Egypt, the Katha Upanishad from India, the Bardo Thodol from Tibet, the Golden Orphic Tablets from Greece, Lieh Tzu from China, and Heaven and its Wonders and Hell from Things Heard and Seen from 18th-century Europe. Considering the question “What is Death?” Mirabello provides answers from a wide range of ancient and modern thinkers, including scientist Nicholas Maxwell, the seer Emanuel Swedenborg, 1st-century Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna, and Greek philosopher Euripides, who opined that we may already be dead and only dreaming we are alive. He explores the trek of the soul through life and death with firsthand accounts of the death journey and notes that what is perceived as death here may actually be life somewhere else. He reveals how, in many traditions, ethics and the afterlife are not connected and how an afterlife is possible even without a god or a soul. Sharing evidence that consciousness is not simply a product of the brain, he offers a strong rebuttal to nihilists, materialists, and the Lokayata philosophical school of India who believe in the “finality” of death. He explains how specters and ghosts are produced and offers techniques to communicate with the dead as well as instructions for an out-of-body experience and the complete procedure for a séance. With an extensive bibliography of more than 900 sources, this guide offers comprehensive information on afterlife beliefs from the vast majority of cultures around the world and throughout history--a veritable “traveler’s guide” to the afterlife.

This big, informed, witty, and entertaining book, actually several books in one, covers all the aspects of the secular holiday unlike any other. Only the exhaustive is interesting. - Thomas Mann HALLOWEEN HISTORY AND TRADITION, THE JACK-O- LANTERN, TRICK OR TREAT, HOLIDAY FOLKLORE, MASKS AND VARIOUS COSTUMES, HALLOWEEN BUSINESS, HALLOWEEN AROUND THE WORLD, HALLOWEEN PARADES AND PARTIES, HALLOWEEN RECIPES AND PARTY IDEAS, HALLOWEEN STORIES AND OTHER LITERATURE, HUNDREDS OF BIG AND SMALL SCREEN DELIGHTS FOR YOUR WATCHING AT HALLOWEEN WITH A FULL, CASUAL, GIANT ANNOTATED FILMOGRAPHY, & COMMENTS ON HORROR IN ARTS OF YESTERDAY AND TODAY.

Psychic Soap: 4 parts Lemongrass + 3 parts Bay + 1 part Cinnamon Come and See Me Oil 5 drops Patchouli oil + 2 drops Cinnamon oil + Olive oil base Over the years, Wiccan High Priestess Marilyn Daniel has collected hundreds of recipes for her craft. Responding to repeated requests for her secrets, she has compiled them here for the first time in this comprehensive reference of more than 400 magical tips and recipes - covering everything from beauty treatments to healing salves to tasty treats. In addition to advice for buying, storing, and blending essential oils (always stir clockwise), Marilyn reveals her secrets for making incense, bath salts, soaps, ointments, potpourri, ink, and more. Readers will learn how to make a Tuberose Bouquet for attracting love and Air Oil for clear thinking and overcoming addiction, as well as how to incorporate their pets into spellcraft. Kitchen Witchery includes a wide variety of cookies, breads, wines, and other magical foods, and Marilyn serves up her famous recipes for goodies like Sabbat Cakes and Wiccan Handfasting Cake, and drinks such as Nettle Ale and the Milk of Isis. And should a witch find herself in the middle of a recipe with a missing ingredient, she can find a worthy substitute in the extensive list provided. Kitchen Witchery also includes a helpful reference list of magical correspondences and a glossary of herbs and their folk names.

Have you ever rubbed a frog on your freckles? Trivia fans and fun fact fanatics will adore this fascinating, flickable encyclopedia of superstitions! Richard Webster presents over five hundred of the most obscure, curious, and just-plain-freaky superstitions of the Western world. Discover batty beliefs about baldness, beans, and the Bermuda Triangle, and peculiar practices regarding hiccups, hearses, and hunchbacks. From modern myths to centuries-old lore, The Encyclopedia of Superstitions offers a wealth of wonderfully weird beliefs on just about every topic you can imagine: Holidays Birth Death Weddings Colors Gemstones Trees Flowers Fairies Weather Numbers Animals Birds Insects Household Items Zodiac Signs Gambling The Human Body Food Praise: "[T]his reference makes for compulsive browsing."—Publishers Weekly

LIVING LANGUAGE is 25 essays on many aspects of a big subject. It is authoritative, by the long-time president of The American Society of Geolinguistics (ASG). ASG was founded in 1965 by Mario A. Pei for the study of language in action in the modern world as it affects culture, commerce, politics, personal and national identity, and indeed the whole macrosociolinguistic picture. ASG publishes the journal Geolinguistics and holds an annual international conference and it publishes the proceedings of participants from Europe, Asia, Australia, Central America, US, UK, etc. From those and other sources along with some brand new materials here is a variety of essays, presented in a familiar style, chiefly on American and British English but also English as the world’s second language, and more. This book is wide-ranging, wise, witty, opinionated, deeply researched, useful, & controversial.