The Cyber Spellbook

I recently posted some selections from The Wiccan Web, a wonderfully ridiculous 2001 tome by authors Sirona Knight and Patricia Telesco that told us how to increase the magickal power of our cybersurfing by appealing to ancient gods and rubbing various herbs on our monitors. Many readers asked for more information about this important intersection of technology and utter lunacy, and I'm pleased to report that the well goes much deeper.

The year after The Wiccan Web was published, the same authors teamed up for another manual of new-age advice: The Cyber Spellbook: Magick in the Virtual World. This book continues the good work started by The Wiccan Web: to add spiritual depth to your life by coating it in a thick lather of preposterous magickal horseshit and obsessive-compulsive spellcraft-- oh shit, did you remember to banish the negative energy from that XXL Garfield shirt before you placed it in the sacred dryer shrine?

The Cyber Spellbook is a much more slapdash effort, and quite often fails to uphold the rigorous scientific standards set by their earlier work. In fact, despite billing itself a work of techno-pagan advice, it quite often fails to have anything whatsoever to do with computers. Nonetheless, it's an important manual for any aspiring witch. And now, some brief excerpts:

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