Monday shopping.

Today I did not have to go into the studio (I am on an on-call basis this week) and so, since the weather was good, decided to venture to Kitsilano. I needed to go to Lush to buy my face soap (I use Angels on Bare Skin) and I wanted to stop at David's Tea for more Secret Weapon.

Since I'd already taken the bus across town, I figured I may as well take the loser cruiser a few more stops and visit Banyen. See if anything new and interesting had come out. Also I needed a new notebook.

Well, I found a notebook no problem. Looked at some of the new titles - 'Spells for Tough Times' by Kerri Connor looked interesting, and I sort of poked at DuQuette's Masonry book and some sigil stuff by Frater U.D. The thing about sigils is that once you know how to do them there's no real point in reading another book on them, is there? I mean... like candle magic, it's pretty goddamn simple.

DisInfo's 'Pop! Goes the Witch' was marked down to ten bucks. Still not worth it.

I wound up just buying the journal, some beeswax candles, and a nice round soapstone incense holder since I'd just bitched about my dollar-store one. New one was a whole four bucks, and it looks much nicer.

While browsing, it occurred to me that what I really wanted was a copy of 'Wild Mind' by Natalie Goldberg. I'd started reading my father's copy the night before my grandmother's funeral. But I didn't want to pay full price for it, since it didn't seem vastly different from her other books on writing.

So. I walked down the block to Kestrel Books where I found not one but two used copies. I also found a copy of "Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation" and "Drawing Down the Spirits" by Kenaz Filan and Raven Kaldera. The latter I already own, but I can donate the used copy to my mom's store since the distributor doesn't seem to stock Filan's stuff. 



I like to check up on pagan/magic books. I suppose I do it for the same reason everyone else does - to see if something new exists to inject a little novelty or inspiration into my own practice. But very often what I wind up walking away from my shopping trips is not a new book at all, but rather a reminder that I need to inspire myself and just sit down and do the damn work.