Everything Under the Moon

Okay, I've never accually read his books, but I've looked him up. He is one of those cool-as-f*cking-hell authors that have mixed reviews. The descriptions I've read of his books really appeal to me-- Very dark without being evil (yeah, typical rebel teenage interests, lol). But before I buy one of his books, I want to know if he really is a reliable source.

I have one of his books and I like it. He seems reliable to me. Nocturnal Witchcraft was the first witchcraft book I ever got. Unfortunatly, I fell into the fluffs but I'm better now. I'm going to sell her books or give them to the library.

yeah, I read some excerpts from his books on amazon.com and he seems to know what hes talking about. I'm definatly picking up a couple of his books when I can get to town. And to those who don't know who he is...

www.konstantinos.com

Hmmm... Konstantinos appealed to me when I was about 16-ish, I think, mostly because I had a thing for goth-looking men at the time. I no longer have his books, but I do recall his rituals etc being rather good (except for the fact that he once practiced ceremonial magic, and thus has kept the rather long and complicated formats).

His good-dark, good-light, evil-dark, divisions seem kind of laughable, like some sort of role-playing game, and the tone of his books is like, I'm sooo dark, sooo gothic, and I was like, that's soooo lame. One book (I think it was the Gothic Grimoire ) had a disclaimer on it because it 'included a spell that involved the use of the spell-caster's blood' and I thought that was just hilarious, I mean, ooooo the dark side of Llewellyn...

Yeah, his books aren't great (in my opinion, though he seems sincere enough in his interviews) but his rituals and other magical exercises are good. Of course, you could just go to his bibliography (which are better than most Llewellyn books) and see the classic occult texts he took them from. He's a fan of Franz Bardon's Initiation into Hermetics....

Cheers,

Semjaza
FFFF

He's not on my list of recommended authors. Frankly I think he is simply trying to market a special brand of fluff to the Goth community. If you take out all of the "nocturnal" stuff, it's not much different than a lot of the other less than well written 101 books.

-Lark-

His book "Summoning Spirits" doesnt seem like a 101 book to me. In fact I dont mention it to newbies at all. I am sure many people have gotten themselves into trouble with that book.

I can't say as I'm impressed with this author. A friend has Nocturnal Witchcraft and I've looked through it a couple of times but couldn't bring myself to read it fully.

I'm sorry but nothing he writes about is truly Dark. The rituals, information, spells etc. that he writes about are just the same stuff you can find in any other book produced by the Pagan pulp mill *ahem* publishing industry. It's just fluffy bunnyism in goth colors.

What I really resent is that he's reduced the Dark to cheap melodrama. Maybe in his personal practices he is a little more respectful and honest but his books reek of an attempt to cash in on the mystique of the Dark.

Hearthwitch.

Something that bothers me as well about this Light/Dark division of Wicca that he uses. Wicca and Witchcraft are about balance, about being comfortable dancing in the shadows and crossing back and forth from Light to Dark. If you limit yourself to one or the other you lose half of what Wicca is all about. There is no such thing as "nocturnal Wicca" any more than there is "daylight Wicca". There is just Wicca.

-Lark-

Once more, wise words from our Elder. I have to admit, I have not heard of this gentleman but I will now be wary. I had planned on expanding my library a little this week (Either with a second Judika Isles book or something on Asatru as I feel a need to study in that direction at the moment.) but I will be a little more cautious now.

BTW. Lark, I looked up woad thanks to your sig. Is it hard to come by now a days or is it something I will have to go "specialty store" for?

BB.
WW.

Off topic for a sec...

I hadn't noticed your sig before WolfWitch pointed it out... I love it! I should start telling my hubby that, he's Scottish anyway.

Accually, since the initial post, I've bought both Nocturnal Witchcraft and Gothic Grimoire. And to be honest, I love them. I really don't see him as "fluffy bunny goth" like every seems to be saying. He just incorporates his lifestyle into his writings. Most of his rituals seem so "out there" because thats how hes most comfortable doing it. He draws from ceremonial magic, chaos magic and wicca, and in doing so, he puts his own little dark twists into it to both make in easier for him, and others like him, to connect to the divine powers at be in a unique way, as apposed to many others now that are all sunshine and rainbows, and also, in doing so, he doesn't stray from the facts (like many so called "wise wiccans" *cough*ravenwolf*cough*.

To the point, I think he is simply wonderful. Also, I plan to purchase Nocturnicon as soon as possible.

Personally, I thought his <i>Speak With the Dead</i> was good.
He has data there I've never seen before.

The data he provides in thought provoking and seems genuine. He puts his money where his mouth is, and seems to do the research. I wouldn't start a student with his stuff, but it's good reading. I have used some of his excursuses in this book to help a friend who has strong talent a necromancer with good effect.
Even some good advice for record keeping... even for some one with visual difficulty!

I haven't read any of his other books, so I can't say what those are like.

I'm very new to researching Wicca, but Nocturnal Witchcraft is the first book I've ever actually bought on the subject, and it seems alright. I don't have anything to really compare it to, so I can't really say, but it seems okay. A little advanced for me, but still okay.

My friend recently got his 'Gothic Grimoire' book and I think it's really great. (Unfortunately it goes along with 'Nocturnal Witchcraft', which has now motivated me to get it back THIS school year!) Anyway, I'm hoping to buy his book on Vampires. I would like to dispell some of the myths. Oh Hell! I want all of Konstantinos' books!!!!

My friend J has Konstantinos books and he thinks highly of them. I'll need to borrow them and see for myself - but he dosen't waste money on rubbish, so I expect them to be good. I 'll report when I've read up. Hi Haley. How you?