"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.
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