Title: Morbid Magic : Death Spirituality and Culture from Around the World
Author: Tomas Prower
Publisher: Llewellyn
Release Date: September 8, 2019
Pages: 360
Book Source: NetGalley
“Written with a mix of reverence, approachability, and deadpan wit by a funeral industry insider, Morbid Magic is the first multi-cultural guide to death spirituality and traditions from all over the world and from different historical eras. Tomás Prower presents an impressive array of topics, including each culture’s views on the hereafter, mourning periods, the deceased’s legacy, handling of remains, and more.
Discover the lore and magic of death, both on the physical and spiritual planes. Explore hands-on activities, spells, and prayers that will open your eyes to new practices. Experience personal stories and anecdotes by modern people from various regions and religions. This fascinating book makes death a more approachable topic and helps you understand and utilize the profound wisdom of cultures around the globe. From Judaism in the Middle East to shamanism in East Asia, Morbid Magic presents an amazing, in-depth look at how the world deals with death.” – Amazon
Kim’s Review
This is a great overview to various death magics and customs from all over the world. Morbid Magic would be a wonderful addition to anyone’s magical book collection or if you are interested in learning more about different cultures approaches to death and dying.
Death has been a fascinating topic for many people over the years and I am no exception. While I have read about and knew most of the customs for Europe and South America, I learned a lot of interesting new tidbits in regards to Asian countries, North America, and Australia. The one that will stick with me forever and will be great in conversations is the Funeral Strippers. Yes, strippers. For that alone, you need to purchase Morbid Magic to read about it.
What’s great about having overviews for all the countries is if certain things really interest you, Tomas Prower includes lots of links and bibliographic notes where you can look up more details. Spells are also included, although I don’t think I’ll be trying any of them. But they might be of use to you.
And what I thought was a great bonus was in each chapter you get a take away of a thing you can do to help your transition into death easier for those around you or for yourself. Some of the suggestions were; questioning why things are done the way they are and see if you want to do something different, make sure to let everyone know what you want done with your body and things, letting people know what you think of them before they die, and many more ideas.
While some of the suggestions may seem like no brainers, it is still nice having a guide to help you along.
Prower also included other people’s stories on how death has touched them in their lives. It’s always interesting to me to see how other people deal in a certain situation. And just as a reminder that death shouldn’t be feared since it’s a natural part of life and happens to everyone.
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