Book Review: The Spellcasting Picture Book by Diana Rajchel

The Spellcasting Picture Book by Diana Rajchel

The Spellcasting Picture Book: Visual Tools for Grown-Up Magic (2^nd Edition) by Diana Rajchel is a practical collection of examples showing how experienced magickal practitioners can use creative drawing as a method for casting spells.  The author shows how easily this technique can be performed using materials that are at hand or easy to obtain.  The focus is more on distilling intent and relevant symbolism than prescribing complex ritual techniques and shows that magick need not be complicated.

The book covers a wide variety of purposes relevant to modern practitioners: love, developing psychic skills, creativity, grounding and centering, protection, attaining specific goals whatever they might be.  Examples of visual spells are from the author’s own workings without a lot of how-to explanation.  This is not a recipe book of spells as much as a portfolio of artistic spell examples.  Readers are expected to create their own unique art-spells following their own intuition in the selection of text, images, and colors to include.

Those who wish to explore visual magic techniques further will find lots to learn from Austin Osman Spare, Andrew Chumbley, and Jan Fries just to name a few. Creating sigils, mandalas, and even assembling altars are another way to learn more about similar techniques.

The Spellcasting Picture Book is a great introduction to the practical methods of straightforward artistic spellcasting and will inspire you to try it yourself if you haven’t already.  It’s available in both printed and ebook form through the author’s website at http://dianarajchel.com/spellcastingpicturebook.html