Spring 2023: The Sword

Welcome to the first volume of the fourth edition of Femme Occulte. This year, spring has been allowed to wait a little longer so that the fruits of past labour can fully ripen in our astral garden, setting the stage for new thematic paths of firmly rooted plants and new seedlings. 

What exciting paths will we venture down this year? We will be exploring the world of ritual tools, both in the traditional sequence and in the variety of other approaches to magic(k). The first tool, which also graces the spring cover, is the dagger, or sword, a common symbol of the element Air (or also Fire, but more on that later). You will learn what other tools related to Spring and Air we use in our many ritual journeys.

Swords cut throughout this issue. We can find them among the treasures of Tuatha de Danaan, in the leaf shapes of two plants that have been researched and attuned to, fern and rosemary, or in illustrations by a Czech artist who goes by the name Raven from the North. There is space for other tools, too: a broom, pins, a raven mask and a protective gorgonian. Spring also belongs to snakes, not only on the head of the gorgon Medusa.

In addition to this central altar-ish theme, we will continue the fetchcraft we started last year and walk through it with the daimon on our shoulder, tarot stories, trees of the season, recipes, incense practice, and card oracles.

A fresh breeze brought a seedling from the background of traditional Polish witchcraft to the editorial office. She opens her work with the theme of magical practice recorded during witch trials. As an element of communication, Air also gave us the idea of interviews with representatives of Czech lodges, the first of which can be found in the pages of this very issue.

We wish you a pleasant reading!

Contents:

RITUAL TOOLS Tools of Air

TREASURES OF CELTIC MYTHOLOGY Swords in Celtic magic

FETCHCRAFT Walking with a Daimon on your Shoulder

INDO-EUROPEAN TRADITION Gorgon Medusa as a Symbol of Protection

RITUAL TOOLS Raven Mask

ANTIC MAGIC Snake Symbolism

COMICS Magic of Pins

HERBALISM Plants of Swords

TREE OF THE SEASON Rowan

GATE-KEYS Astral Broom

FOLK MAGIC Polish Witchcraft in the Records of the Witch Trials

INCENSE Sacred Incense

RECIPES Spring Recipes

CZECH LODGES Minor Thelemic Abbey

TAROT Princess of Swords

ORACLE Olam Sefirot

80 pages

B5 (9.9 x 6.9 inch / 25 x 17.5 cm)

FSC certified paper

Digital print

Perfect-bound paperback 

Full-colour photography and illustrations

Scented to enhance sensory experience