The Book of Forgotten Witches, Dark and Twisted Folklore from Around the World
Balázs Tátrai
illustrated by Lilla Bölecz.
(Watkins Publishing)
This book, published by Watkins, is a treat to behold. It’s a beautiful tome, in hardback, with an excellent layout that does both the author, Balázs Tátrai, and the illustrator, Lilla Bölecz, proud. A weighty book, with lavish production values, which all adds to your enjoyment of reading it, and intrigues, so you can’t wait to find out what dark and esoteric mysteries will be revealed within its pages
From the offset, this book promises to deliver, and it does! Once you begin to read you can’t, or just don’t want to, stop.
And so it begins, as you are invited into the forgotten and long-lost occult library that still lies beneath the ruins atop Raven Hill. The Guardian promises to take you on a journey to discover the stories of the forgotten witches, deities, demons, spirits, supernatural beings, and so many more from around the world. However, this journey has an added bonus, as it also takes you on a path of personal discovery, as the chapters are all linked to the Major Arcana cards of the Tarot, and also associated to the processes of Alchemy, to help you to reflect and to discover the gold that lies deep within you. Beginning as the Tarot’s Fool, you start your own journey of transformation as you encounter the beings and spirits that relate to the following ten cards and to the stages which take you deep into the mysteries of alchemy.
The book features fabulous illustrations throughout, mostly in full colour, and these add to the sense of meeting the curious beings of the magical worlds they inhabit, which interleave and cross paths with our own. They are not so far away. The magic is there, it still remains within our own world, you just have to look a little deeper to find it.
As we read through, we meet Curse-bringers, Shape-shifters, Survivors, Avengers, Mesmerizers, Well-wishers, Alchemists, Revenants, Nature Witches, and Fate-Turners, with each chapter also inhabited by witches, demons, ogres, spirits, and more. At the beginning of each chapter the supernatural beings featured are given a summary of their place of origin, their powers and stories. At the end of each section is a longer story about someone whose tale illustrates aspects of the tarot card and the alchemical stage, and therefore also relates to the journey of self-discovery this book takes you on. The stories stay with you, you dwell on them before sleeping, and you find elements of them turning up in your dreams. This is the journey of self-discovery which the book promised you at the beginning.
At the very least this book is a great pleasure to read and offers new information about beings you have probably never encountered previously. At the very most it will assist you to find the gold that is the potential within you, as you reflect on what you have read. It is likely that you will imagine yourself in one of the longer stories, and with that sense of identity you will be taken further along your own journey.
Another thing that is so special about this book, is that it opens the door to an alternative view of some of those that have been demonised through the ages. The beings of horror and fear all have their own histories, which have made them what they are. You feel sympathy for some of them as you learn of their own pain and suffering, their losses, the things that turned them and made them vengeful and full of hatred.
This book is a veritable romp through the worlds of witches and their kin, the deities and the spirits, the supernatural beings, the vampires and the myriads of others.
Are you ready to begin this fascinating journey? Then we shall begin...
Essential Information
‘The Book of Forgotten Witches – Dark and Twisted Folklore from Around the World’ by Balázs Tátrai is available now from Watkins Publishing here, and from real and online booksellers throughout the realm.
