Magical Techniques

Rating:
Summary: Another gem from Draja
Review: Draja Mickaharic has come out with a new book. I have spent the last week checking it out and I have found it a fascinating tome. Like everything else he writes, this is a book that is short on hyperbole and long on practical recipes.

In previous books Draja Mickaharic, an eastern European magician who has long lived in New York, has published titles on various aspects of practical magic from the various cultures with which he has rubbed shoulders in the Big Apple. He has written on practical European magic, hoodoo, and his own brand of both kitchen magic and necromancy.
Everything bears the mark of his no-frills practical nature. In this book he draws a lot on Afro-Cuban, especially Palo traditions.

These magical practices and recipes, he will be quick to point out, are the kind of things one learns from haunting botanicas for years and having beer or coffee with paleros and root workers, not the sort of material that comes from initiation. That being said, it is well worth the read.