Book Question~

[ravensong]

What do the poeple in this community think of the book "The New Book of Magical Names" by Phoenix McFarland?

It's the first book about magical names that I've come across and I'm wondering if it's good or not. Good as in accurate :) It's a Llwellyn book so that made me a little leery...

Any comments appreciated :) Thanks!!

Comments

[misspinkfyre]

i haven't heard of the book so i'm not sure, but I do find that some Llwellyn books are pretty decent.

[ravensong]

Hmmm there are a few Llewellyn books that are ok but...alot of them that I have run across have inaccurate information or are geared towards the "fluffy bunny" crowd.

[tea_holic]

Actually, what kinda calls to me about this post is completely different. I was thinking about magickal names, and I was thinking of adopting "Amethyst Moonwillow" since it seems to fit me and I really like it. I settled on thinking about it more. Then you post this on a book about magickal names and your username is willowmoon... I'm a-thinkin' this is a good sign on my part, so thank you! haha

I've never heard of this book, but I've heard of the author, obviously. What exactly is the book about? (I'm lazy, haven't had my tea, and thus don't feel like looking it up on Amazon on my grandma's slow computer at the moment. XD)

[ravensong]

I've never heard of the author myself outside this book, what else does she write?

Essentially it's a book of magical names and their meanings/associations. The first chapter also seems to tell what time period they came from (Romantic, Victorian, etc).

To me, adopting a magical name is not exactly something you take lightly so thought on your name is a good idea. Also looking for signs is a good thing too :)

Also: amethyst crystals rock!! They are my favorites :)

[tea_holic]

I'm not really familiar with her works, but I've heard of her. I think through a Cunningham book, actually. That doesn't help haha

I definitely don't just want to rush into a magickal name like "OH I LIKE THAT AND THAT AND I'LL USE IT!" But there have have been signs, so I think I'm on to something. Right now I'm "trying it on" for lack of better wording. XD

Amethyst has ALWAYS been my favorite stone! Even long before I had the realization that purple is my favorite color. Weeping willows are my favorite trees, I've always felt connected to them, and they seem to have may properties that resonate with me. And the moon... it fits and who doesn't love the moon? lol (Plus, it also goes along with the Goddess, has properties that resonate with me, etc, etc.)

[ravensong]

It's funny because I was thinking about taking Amethyst Willowmoon as my magical name :) Go figure!! But I'd still go by Willow to most people just because that's how they know me now...

Amethysts rock though!!!

[tryst_inn]

I guess I'm just disgruntled by the idea that we need an entire book about magical names.

[pinkpolarity]

I'm curious, why are you disgruntled by that?

I'm a name geek, so I guess I think anything about names and naming is to the good, so I'm interested to hear a negative about it.

[tryst_inn]

It just seems so needlessly complicated for what I would think is a fairly simple thing. What can one say as far as guiding someone for a few hundred pages worth?

[pinkpolarity]

It's mainly a book of names, their associations, and what qualities one might seek if they take that name. It's kind of a Pagan version of a baby name book, only for adults. And with rituals in the beginning oriented around naming and taking a new name.

(And it's funny, I've had a ton of different names over my lifetime, some religious, some not. And now when I'm asked to choose a username I can't think of anything that really suits. I've got this book, maybe I should read through it again.)

[brock_tn]

If you need a book to tell you what your magical name is supposed to be, you're Doing It Wrong.

It's another Llewellyn book that fosters a superficial approach to practice. I'd put a "Meh!" here, but that utterly fails to convey the depths of my disdain for the whole idea.

[ravensong]

Ha, trust me I don't need a book to tell me my name. I know what my name is, I came up with it on my own without needing a book. I was just thought it was interesting that there was a book on magicla names.

As saya_bella said, I too sometimes use name books to come up with character names, especially when doing period pieces. I wasn't trying to use a book to come up with my own name. No book can tell me that. Can it make suggestions? Sure, but ultimately I feel like a name is a personal thing and a person should come up with it on their own without outside help.

Also as I told someone else, I do try to steer clear of Llewellyn books just for the reason that I've come across several that are inaccurate and not worth the money.

Re: ranty rant

[ravensong]

I don't have a problem with the publisher Llewellyn. I do have an issue with inaccurate information being presented and confusing someone who's new. I am grateful for those editers/writers/etc. If it wasn't for them then I wouldn't know most of the stuff I know today as I've read Llewellyn books since the beginning. However, as I said, some of them are inaccurate and that annoys me.

I don't boycott Llewellyn--only books that are inaccurate :) (However the book in question was actually a library book so...)

Re: ranty rant

[eirwen_moon]

Thank you, I couldn't have said it better myself. People are so critical or anything that they consider "fluffy", and that has always bothered me. I mean, the Craft is all about the balance between light and dark, and for every Dark Goddess underworld journey visualization, there is a more light-hearted, fun, "fluffy" counterpart. I wrote an article about this once, called "Why it's okay to be fluffy sometimes", I don't know what happened to it though. For a time, I was really anti-fluffy, and sort of went out of my way to avoid lighter stuff, and although I had some good introspection and learned a lot, ultimately it became depressing and hindered my meditation and rituals. Not because it was dark/shadow work, but because it wasn't balanced by the light.
So anyway, this is me agreeing with shizznit25, in a really long and ranty way.