This book rests on the shoulders of my wonderful magical teachers, especially Susan Carberry and Isaac Bonewits. It is unlikely I’d know much without them. This book is also a gift to me from everyone I’ve ever worked magic with or worked magic for. Every spell has taught me something important. I cannot begin to enumerate every spell I’ve done or every magician I’ve worked with!
As a start, I owe thanks to every former and current member of Rowentrye Coven, Stormcircle Coven, and Coven of the Dark Waters. I owe thanks to innumerable women with fertility concerns, soldiers who needed protection when going off to war, job seekers, cancer patients, AIDS patients, and others who reached out to ask for help. Asking for help is brave, and I thank you.
I particularly acknowledge Joseph Hull and Orien Rose Laplante. These two wonderful people survived devastating, horrific accidents as children—survived in part due to the hard work of many dedicated magic workers—and have grown up strong. Seeing them now gives me faith in the work I do.
I also acknowledge my wonderful son, Arthur Lipp-Bonewits. He gets a checkbox for a bunch of these thanks—I worked fertility magic for myself in order to get him, he was the subject of a number of spells at various points in his life, and he was a participant in spells as well. As a teenager, he faced an illness so thorny and complex that it took six different doctors and three different spells before he could get diagnosed and treated. He’s also an expert on angels, and I reached out to him when angels and archangels were mentioned in this text.
Naturally, I also need to acknowledge the writing part of this process. My editors Elysia Gallo and Andrea Neff are everything editors are supposed to be—people who make writing better, and sometimes make it possible.
I also thank the wonderful group of people who were present for a ritual dedicated to Brigid performed in February 2016. At that time, this book was about 80 percent done, but I was facing an uncharacteristic writer’s block and was just stuck. I opened myself up to Brigid’s creative energies and promised to dedicate the completed book to her (which I have done).
Finally, to my beloved spouse, Melissa. Not just because I love her, nor because she’s perfectly fine with me spending long evenings ignoring her so I can write, but also because our relationship is the result of not one, not two, but three spells. First, we each performed a spell to find a partner. Then we met each other and became friends, not recognizing who we were to each other or that we were the answer to those spells. Then we met other people and decided, separately, that they were the partner asked for in the spells. Finally, I performed another spell, at the end of which my “friend” came for a visit, and the rest is history.