Mya Om

Many of us are introduced to the fundamentals of magic through Wicca/Pagan 101 books. The authors of most of these books have to cover a lot of territory in only a few hundred pages. In addition to magic, their books include gods and goddesses, a whole new set of holy days with accompanying rituals, discussions of ritual tools, the basics of esbats, and so on. It's not surprising that many of these topics—including magic—may not be covered in much depth. And so the new witch or pagan ends up reciting spells out of books with only a rough idea of what he or she is doing. It shouldn't be much of a surprise then if the spells fail, leaving the newbie to wonder what went wrong.

Mya Om's book is a 101 book for energy-working: the foundation of magic. With the luxury of an entire book to devote to this one topic, she has the space to go over the fundamentals, starting with exercises to teach the reader how to sense energy, first in him- or herself, then in objects, plants, and animals, the earth, and other people. Only after all that has been covered does she discuss manipulating energy—after all, how can you successfully move energy if you can't sense it? Since sensing and manipulating energy are essential to spellcasting, that becomes the next chapter, including useful suggestions on how to take the spells you find in books and redesign them to be more effective. She finishes off with some miscellaneous techniques, mostly involving shielding, and a pair of guided meditations. This is a good supplement to those 101 books and would be useful to many would-be spellcasters.… (más)