ONCE UPON A DREAM: Preparing for Autumn Studies

 

As summer wanes to a welcome close I am making preparations for the autumn season.  I start my final term at Oxford University next month and I will be studying until December when my course finishes. Although the academic year usually runs from September to the following July, most universities also offer an alternative program of January to December studying, for those who wish to start a bit later. This is ideal for the shorter courses such as the kind I am undertaking. 

I have recently received my required reading list from my Professors for this coming term and so I have already ordered the textbooks from Blackwells. Sadly, my local branch of Blackwells closed down a couple of years ago, so I now have to order from them online, which isn't quite the same. I used to love wandering around the store, browsing the shelves. It was a great way for new books to find me.  I am looking forward to getting a head start on the core text and reading around the topics that we will be covering this term. I've also bought myself a new Oxford notebook ready for Michaelmas term. I love stationary shopping at the end of summer. It's so nostalgic, giving all the back-to-school vibes as children and adults alike prepare to return to a more scholarly way of life. 

In addition to my Oxford studies, I am also writing new projects for my publisher too, so it is a very busy time. It isn't always easy juggling my publishing work and my Oxford course work and assignments, but I'm managing. The hardest part is when the deadlines clash and I have to get both a book and a major assignment in on the same day! That takes some quite serious planning and time management. Of course, there are days when I wish I could just curl up with a book and read, but for the most part I am enjoying being so busy. It's nice to be working on new books and its interesting to write assignments and essays. I enjoy both types of writing, both commercial and academic. Each has its own challenges and it is nice that I have the chance to develop these two authorial voices, because many writers go one way or the other.  I am lucky enough to write both. 

As I am spending so much more time in my study lately, I have decided that I want to make it more autumnal, so I have been on the hunt for a few pieces to make the space as cosy as possible. I want to bring in more witchy and dark academia vibes and so, to that end, I picked up a few little bits to dot around the room. First, I got a set of autumn leaf string lights that I plan to fix around my bookcases. Then I got an autumnal witch cushion to place in my buttoned leather desk chair, along with a cosy throw that has autumn leaves and pumpkins on it. It will be lovely to snuggle into during the colder days and dark nights when I'm up late writing or studying. 

I love having candles flickering around me as I work, with the shadows dancing on the walls and along the spines of my books creating a cosy, magical atmosphere that I find quite inspiring. I write better in the dark, by candlelight. So I was delighted when I found a tealight holder shaped like a witch's hat! It's so cute and whimsical and it looks lovely when its lit. I keep this on my desk as I write, along with a spooky witch's hand candle holder that holds a small tinned candle from Upturned Cauldron, in their Poison Apple fragrance which is perfect for September.  I love their candles and I have a few of them. Bewitched Pumpkin is my favourite, but I also like Mermaid Tears which I believe is new to their collection this year. I have this burning in my bathroom and it smells amazing! Its like the scent of a rock pool by the sea.  They also do some fun wax melts shaped like vampire teeth too, so they are definitely the place to go for seasonal scents to fill your home with witchy atmosphere. 

The dark season has always been my favourite time of year. I hate summer and I am always glad to see the back of it. I much prefer dark nights, foggy, rainy days and golden leaves, followed by the crisp cold days of winter. To me, there is nothing nicer than being outside on a chilly autumn or winter's day, then coming in from the cold to a cosy library, or a comfy chair pulled up to the fireside, and settling down to read spooky books by candlelight, with a cup of hot chocolate beside you. It's just the best season!  

So I plan to spend this coming weekend, listening to Duran Duran's wonderful Danse Macabre vinyl album and preparing my study for a long dark season of writing and studying, putting out all my new things. I want to have everything in place by the time Michaelmas term starts in a couple of weeks, so that I have a magical, autumnal library to escape into on chilly days, when deadlines are looming and I am deeply absorbed in new projects and assignments.  I love working from home, I have been enjoying my studies at Oxford all year long and so I want to just hibernate in my study and see what magical new books and scholarly essays I can conjure up. Its going to be a very productive dark season and I simply can't wait for it to begin! 

Autumn Blessings!

Marie x

AD: Some of the items mentioned here were sent as gifts for the purposes of review.

WRITER'S DREAM: My Moon Magic Tome!

 

"Many people never get to know me. They fear me, for I am the witches they burnt at the stake...But I am also wisdom, forbearance, darkness and rest. I am the powerful magic of a long-lived witch. I am the depths of winter and the darkness of midnight on a waning moon. I am all these things and more."

from the Crone of the Moon meditation.

Publication day is always an exciting time and no matter how many books I have written over the decades - well over thirty books to date! - that feeling of excitement never wanes.  It is especially thrilling when a new book is so beautifully presented in a stunning collectors edition.  So I was eagerly anticipating the release of my newest book Moon Magic, which is a companion volume to my ornate The Book of Spells that came out in 2022.  As part of the Mystic Archives series, these books are designed to become treasured volumes, loved as much for their beauty as for the magical content they contain.  These books are hefty hardback tomes of magic, with stunning foiled cover designs and metallic page edges. They always make me think of the kind of books you might find in an old esoteric library, so I am delighted to have now written two volumes for the Mystic Archives series.  

I was writing Moon Magic in the depths of winter last year, tucked up warm and cosy in my study, spinning out magical verse and prose in a way that I haven't really done before. Lunar magic is a topic that I have written about in the past, but it was nice to be able to revisit the subject and expand on it for this larger book. With a decent word count I was able to explore various aspects of moonlore, from deities and spells to lunar animals and moon fables. I could also go into more depth in terms of manifesting with the moon, including looking at what doesn't work, such as imitation!

In exploring various moon fables, such as white ladies and ghost soldiers, I was also able to touch on topics that many books of lunar magic never mention but which have always fascinated me as a reader and a practitioner.  In addition, I was able to include a quotation from Christina Rossetti's poem Goblin Market, which is an old favourite of mine. It was tremendous fun to write and to create a tome like this, and the design team at my publishing house have done a fantastic job of illustrating my words with stunning silhouette art that gives the book an otherwordly vibe.

As a writer it is always great fun when I get to stretch my authorial wings a little bit, moving into slightly different literary territory and working in a very intuitive way.  I have no idea what I'm going to write until I actually sit down and start writing and to find a publisher and editor who support this way of working is a rare gift.  Most editors want detailed plans for the book before they will commission it, but my editor trusts me to just get on with the writing, allowing me the creative freedom to take my work in slightly different directions from the one that is most expected. 

Moon Magic was no exception and my favourite aspect of working on this book was in writing the guided meditations. This was when I felt at my most creative. What started out as three simple meditations for the three phases of the Triple Goddess, grew into something much bigger! I found that I could allow my imagination to conjure up fairy-tale visions, some drawing on my own personal experiences of magical moments I have had in the Scottish Highlands over the years.   Once the three goddess meditations were written, ideas kept bubbling up and other characters and deities kept demanding the same attention! I knew I wanted to include a whole chapter dedicated entirely to this kind of work, creating gentle and ethereal paths to personal insight and enlightenment, and so the Moon Meditations chapter came into being. It is a natural progression on my usual work, being a form of prose fiction with a magical twist.

I used fantasy storytelling techniques to bring these visions to life, so that readers might enjoy escaping into a meditation that is not only insightful, but imaginative and enchanting as well.  I wanted them to be fun to use in a ritual space. The meditations themselves are presented in a charming fairy-tale way, meaning that when you turn to that chapter, each work of prose is presented as its own unique tale. Its like reading a magical storybook! 

I couldn't be happier with it and I am very satisfied with the finished result. Writing fantasy meditations is certainly something I plan to continue doing in future books too. It is incredibly liberating to be free to spin out fantasy tales, turning them into useful tools of self-discovery. It is also a very natural development of my own writing, moving closer to a prose fiction style, while still maintaining the down to earth tone of register and informative work I'm known for. 

Who knows, maybe one day I'll get to write and publish a book entirely made up of spiritual and whimsical guided meditations. In the meantime, I am having great fun incorporating this style of fantasy prose into my current books and my head is brimming with ideas!  I'm really happy with how this collectors edition of Moon Magic has turned out and I hope that people enjoy reading it and using it in their ritual practice. 

In this spellbinding tome you can follow the guided meditations as a Seeker of the Old Ones, into the enchanting world of my imaginings and see what wisdom waits for you there. I'll meet you in the Lunar Glen!

BB Marie x

AD: Moon Magic by Marie Bruce was published on August 1st 2024 and is available now in hardcover and digital formats.