Dark Moon Mysteries: Wisdom, Power and Magic of the Shadow World [Paperback]

This is an excellent book for the person who has moved beyond the "fluffy-bunny" aspects of current alternative spiritualities like Wicca and neopaganism. From the first page, the reader is asked to challenge her basic perceptions that "dark" means "bad". The author contends, quite rightly, that until we embrace the "shadow-masks" within, we cannot be complete human beings. Tapping the archetypes of the "sage" and the "crone" for inspiration, the author uses a wide variety of journaling exercises, guided meditation and artistic projects to get the reader to open her spirituality to the untapped power that we bury.

My only quarrel with this book is that it should come with a tape of the meditations already prepared. This seems to be a common problem in the alternative spirituality publishing industry. The tapes could be marketed separately or it could all be offered as a package. I highly recommend this book to anyone who recognizes that they _have_ a dark side and want to get to know and understand how to use it.

When I first saw this book on the shelf, my first thoughts were, "Oh no, another book about casting dark and evil spells". However, upon flipping through it, I found it to be quite a different story. Upon taking it home and actually reading it, I found it to be a wonderfully different outlook on magic and the psyche.

While Timothy Roderick does follow Wiccan principles such as the Rede ("Harm none"), this is a far cry from the usual light-and-faerie-dust fare of many Wicca books out these days. He uses Jungian archetypes, psychology, and historical mythology (with liberal quotes from the master of mythological studies, Joseph Campbell) to delve into the shadow self of the psyche and bring about healing and acceptance of this darker side of one's human nature. This does not mean that he is condoning evil or negativity...but is merely showing the reader how to get to the shadow self and work with it to help deal with negativity instead of supressing it.

The format is a step-by-step process in which the reader is introduced to an aspect of the shadow self through a guided meditation with a fairy tale for an example, then rituals are given for each new moon to further enforce what has been learned. Later in the book, more advanced workings are introduced.

Timothy's writing style is easy to follow and very straightforward while still being lyrical and very intelligent at the same time. One won't find white light workings here, but as we are reminded in this book, everyone has a dark side and balance is not achieved without working with it as well.

...but there's just not enough meat to it. The book is split in three parts. The first part is basically psychological and about claiming your "dark side". Throughout there are fairy tale inclusions a la Women Who Run With The Wolves and messages from "The Sage". My biggest problem is how Roderick uses many different definitons for your shadow which often conflict and contradict each other. He says your shadow is the part of your personality that you keep completely hidden from everyone including yourself. Then it is destructive actions that all can see. Then it is simply living in a way that run counter to your society's norms. I was so distracted by trying to reason out what Roderick was trying to say, and it seems like there is something worthwhile there, that nothing ended up resonating with me emotionally. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I could make this mean something to me and trying to get something out of it. Another problem I had was that it seemed Roderick was writing for an audience that had never done any self-analysis whatsoever or had delved at all into the darker side of spirit. I can't help but feel that most of that intended audience would not seek out this book. Those that might be attracted to it may find it too redundant or simplistic.

You do have to be into new-agey, pseudo-shamanic activities to enjoy this. There are many guided meditations and arts and crafts activities incorporated. For example, first you are told to create a physical mask that represents your shadow self (I drew a sheild instead), then you make a bracelet with rattles to wear and shake whenever you catch yourself doing something negative (I adapted this into wearing a black hair band on my wrist and snapping it accordingly). Then there are parts describing the negative aspects of Wiccan-type workings, such as to the four directions, the seasons, moving widdershins, making a magic mirror, banishing spells. This can all be found in other books and won't be new to anyone except beginners. There are several pages for appendices, with lots of unused space for padding - natch. Here there are such items as recipes for "dark" oils and incenses. Wisdom oil contains cinnamon, myrrh, and lavender - buy why? Why are these ingredients used? This is what I want to know when I'm told to use them. That's not here. There is however a note to buy Cunningham's book on the subject, from the same publisher of course.

If this all sounds like it might work for you, go ahead and buy it. It's not bad to have if you can get it for a big discount, simply because having all this information in one place can be a good reminder to acknowledge these energies. Otherwise, I'm sure much more detailed information can be found elsewhere.