The reader gets stories and information about the moon and topics introduced by the author. Not a book that would give the reader spells or rituals, but there is one ritual at the end of each chapter.

Another gorgeous book from this duo! This book looks at each new moon of the year and pairs it with a narrative, concept, idea, and/or ritual. I love the way this book is written and how you can read it all at once or space it out over a year and read it with each new moon. This book feels like a tool for me and is a must have!

This wasn't at all what it was described as. There is a lot of very pointed history and many anecdotes and stories, and then there is some kind of witchy angle. However, it doesn't come together and it doesn't flow well.

The idea is great, but the execution wasn't what I'd hoped. There were some good things in there like the historic parts that added some extra knowledge and information behind many of the personal anecdotes. I think it might have been better to either choose witchy or everything else, or, to try and relate and combine it all in a more edited and flowing way.

An interesting, thought provoking and well thought that teach how to work with the phases of the moon and list a series of spells that i found interesting and easy to follow
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I love moon magic and this is a lovely and informative book to help focus on magic during the new moon.

Great book and very informative. Grateful to have in my collection.

Thanks to NG and the publisher for allowing me access to this book.

Very helpful book to learn more about the Moon and how to work with it and the phases better. A lot of good information rather you are an expert or a new beginner.

Powerful. A great book about thinking about magic and how it can shape the larger economic and political world.

The title of this books seems to misrepresent the content. I was excited about reading a book about new moon magic. There were so many different stories, i didn't really find them relevant, they didn't keep my interest and i didn't find them interesting. There are some interesting historical facts. You can see the authors have lots of passion. This book was just not for me, it didn't have the magic i thought it would.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the idea of magic-making for each of the new moons. I was just distracted by all of the intertwining of the stories in between the magic-making. But the idea of the book was pretty nifty if I must say so. Fairly good read! I voluntarily read this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I received an advanced reading copy in exchange of an honest review. Recently I've been leaning towards learning about Wicca and paganism, and because of that, any book that seems to relate to those topics even remotely is a book I'm interested in reading. What I learned while reading New Moon Magic, which I thoroughly enjoyed, is very interesting and something that I will definitely be incorporating to my life from now on. The moon is very powerful, even scientists agree, but it has this magic to it that makes it captivating.

This is a lunar magic book like no other I have read. I really appreciate it being centered in the world we live in and not…how to say this…some sort of idealized magical but essentially generic world. I have to say I like those books too, but it's nice to be surprised by something so very different. Perhaps it was pitched as a book on lunar energy, but make it progressive and fiercely, unapologetically feminist. It is important to see the historical underpinnings that we share, both as witches and as human beings, and I love that they do this in a book about moon magic.

It is very dense, which I don’t think is a bad thing, but I understand what some of the other reviewers meant. It’s not the easy reading promised in the title, New Moon Magic, but it is every word of the subtitle: Anti-Capitalist, Pro-Resistance, and I love this word: Re-enchantment. That said, after a while I had to skim a bit so I could take in the flavor of the whole thing to review it. I started w/ the new moons closest to the date. I loved that knitting featured in the discussion of the Aries moon (why do so many of us love the yarn arts??), although I have to say I don’t resonate with knives the way they do. However, I loved the next moon, the Taurus new moon and all its connection to the body. My reading speed picked up from here.

My favorite passage that was so well written was detailing Audre Lourde. If you’re familiar with her work, it’s like hearing a fresh version of a favorite song. If you’re not, it will make you put down everything and do a deep dive.

This is not obviously a book for everyone, yet I believe everyone could get a lot of this book. I am so grateful for Netgalley for making this available as I think it might have been one that would have slipped from my attention had I not read it here.

I didn't enjoy this at all. There was a lot of really interesting history which could have been interesting but it felt like it was dumped and not curated in any thoughtful manner. Very heavy content that needed to be lightened up to be received.

This is a lovely read, and something to have in hard copy. Gently interweaved with quotes and story-telling, it's a wonderful foray into a magical world.

4 stars

While I admit this isn’t really what I was expecting out of this book, I did find myself getting swept up in each chapter essay. Some areas felt overly verbose like the authors had a word count to meet, but it was at least consistent throughout. I liked that each chapter felt super focused on the topic explored, even if I sometimes felt it was a bit long. I did like that the rituals were so targeted and adaptable within each chapter. I guess I thought that this was going to be more heavy on the praxis side of things and less narrative. Though the authors are able to get their point across and make the energy of the new moon from their perspective abundantly clear to the reader.

Informative and well written but not what I was expecting and although i tried it just didn’t keep my interest

A compelling argument to fight against capitalism by engaging in lunar living. Very educational and informative but a little heavier than I was expecting. Not necessarily my style of learning about the topic and I wish there were more practical tips.

Thankyou to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this ARC.
This is a useful resource to new witches.
I did find this book to be interesting.
Thankyou again.

New Moon Magic
13 Anti-Capitalistic Tools for Resistance and Re-Enchantment

Risa Dickens and Amy Torok

Witches are trending. It’s not hard to understand why if you think of a witch as someone with the power to make their own fate. Of course, that’s all of us, really. But in today’s culture, it doesn’t often feel that way. The damage done by a patriarchal, capitalistic mindset is felt by so many, from the rise in burnout to the proliferation of people with mental health issues.

Witches have gone from being the persecuted to being the rebels. Leave it to two of them to take on the resistance to the violence of capitalism.

The book grows from the concept of praxis – actions, craft, practices that help us do in line with what we believe. The coaching world might call it values-based action. In New Moon Magic, the praxis is revolution through enchantment, calling on a connection to the more-than-human world, whether that be ancestors, spirits, or plants. At a minimum, this book can ground us, assure us we aren’t alone, remind us of what we have been taught to forget. At its best, it’s a call to action.

Each of the 13 chapters, titled for one of the full moons plus the Thirteenth Moon, is dedicated to a tool such as dancing, music, gardens, and art – tools that can help us “conjure forth our power to resist and re-enchant. That’s what adds depth to this book. It’s not a screed about resistance, it’s an imagining of resistance through wonder and awe. Refusing the violence and oppression of capitalism helps us reimagine what a society, even a capitalistic society, can look like. These tools help get us there.

The story behind each of the tools is told through historical events and people. We see their power in how they’ve been used to shape our world and how they can be relevant and useful today. In Moon Magic, the history is strongly – and deliberately – feminist.

…that is, not just a history of women but of women’s ideas, their spiritualities, their rituals, their methods of forming and healing communities. Approaching a feminist history of ideas means making space for knowledge that comes from different ways of being in different kinds of bodies.

From Hildegard in the 12th century and Audre Lorde to Brené Brown and Terry Tempest Williams, theirs are the stories not only of disruption but also deep caring and joy. They lend weight to the tools and give us shoulders to stand on as we begin this new journey – that really isn’t so new.

As much as the history enlivens the practices, in some chapters, it can get dense. I nearly gave up on the book in Chapter 1 on Needles and Knives. The history was too long and the metaphor of sharp edges and cutting things out of your life felt thin. But the authors find their rhythm quickly and by Chapter 4 on Dance, the relevance and connection to resistance is not only clear but powerful.

Many, if not all, of the Chapters present tools that were once forbidden, demonized, or somehow seen as a threat – dancing, certain types of music (think rock-and-roll), mathematics and science, potions and herbal practices, divination, and especially relevant now, women’s bodies.

There’s a suggested Ritual for practice at the end of the chapters as well as an Incantation. This engages us, nudges us into reverence and awe, helps us take ownership.

There is magic in connection, in feeling our way towards a culture that values people over profit, in resistance that seeds equality. This is magic as a call back of our own power, a conjuring of joy and caring.

At the end of the Dance chapter, Risa Dickens tells the story of dancing with a Witches’ besom, not a broom but a tool for spiritual sweeping, the night before taking her driving test after failing many times as an adult. Amy sent her a sing spell, “Man in Motion,” from St Elmo’s Fire.

That night I played it loud and danced laughing in dizzying circles with my besom, all around the living room, sweeping my fear of failure, my frustration with myself, and all the misogyny from past inspectors that had tripped me up... And it’s a silly story, but every time we make our own lives better, we liberate our power to re-enchant the world.

“This is a book of tools,” the authors write, “for collectively deciding out fate.” If that’s witchcraft, more please.

This was a thoughtful book that featured reflections on each new moon - with a theme for the moon of that zodiac symbol and in-depth discussions. I really liked how the authors used both historical and more modern-day individuals to discuss what that respective theme and new moon could mean for an individual and how to draw inspiration from the work of others. I also enjoyed how the authors called out areas for white and non-marginalized witches to do more research and to recognize the work of Black activists and others. I think this book is a good meditation for anyone looking to broaden their relationship with their craft. A good way to read this book would be to read the chapter associated with the month’s zodiac sign and then reflect on it and complete the associated ritual (or one of your own). This way you can get a lot out of this book over the entire year and absorb it all in your own practice. 4.5/5 due to the shear density of the material that can be prohibitive to some newer readers/witches.