Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
Psychic Witch: A Book Review

Psychic Witch: A Book Review

Last updated on: March 31, 2020 at 3:00 am by John Beckett

Psychic Witch: A Book Review 2020-03-28T19:58:21-06:00 John Beckett

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick & Manifestation

by Mat Auryn
published by Llewellyn – February 2020
264 pages
Trade paperback: $18.99, Kindle: $11.49

Psychic Witch is the book 13-year-old me was looking for when I was searching the shelves of my local bookstore trying to find something to help me “expand my mind.” I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but it was the only language I had in rural-suburban Tennessee in the mid-1970s. If this book had existed then, it would have been just what I wanted: something teaching psychic skills and operations in a straightforward, hands-on, non-religious way.

Fellow Patheos Pagan blogger and author Mat Auryn doesn’t waste words. On page 1 he says “psychic and magickal power is our birthright.” Like all other innate talents, it’s not distributed evenly throughout the population – it comes easier for some than for others. But also like other innate talents, what you do with what you have is what matters most.

One who may not have been as naturally predisposed to the occult has the potential to surpass those who do have this orientation yet never work at enhancing it.

The first chapter covers energy, brainwave states, affirmations, and the sense of childlike wonder that helps us see what we’ve been trained to not see by our materialist culture. Chapter 2 covers meditation, and Chapter 3 teaches grounding, centering, and basic energy manipulation. Multiple practical exercises are woven into the text: you read about a concept, then there are step-by-step instructions for putting it into practice. If you like diving in and learning by doing, you’ll love Psychic Witch.

Chapter 4 covers extrasensory perception and how to develop the five “clairs”: clairvoyance (clear sight), clairtangency (clear feeling), clairaudience (clear hearing), clairgustance (clear tasting), and clairalience (clear smelling). This chapter has 18 exercises, most of them between a third and half a page. Chapter 5 covers purification and shielding. These are basic skills that anyone who practices magic in any form needs to develop.

Mat Auryn at Austin Witchfest – March 2020

This would be a good time to talk about Mat’s roots as a psychic witch. In the Dedication he thanks the four largest influences on his path: Silver RavenWolf, Christopher Penczak, Laurie Cabot, and Devin Hunter. It would be hard to find four more influential witches from the mid-1990s to today.

Laurie Cabot’s Power of the Witch was the first book I read after I discovered Wicca and started down the path that would bring me to where I am today. While the exercises in Psychic Witch are Mat’s, I can see Laurie Cabot’s influence in them. So I can tell you they work, some because I learned similar techniques from Laurie’s books, but others because I took her principles and used them in ways that made sense to me. It’s clear that Mat did the same thing.

The longer I practice the more I see this: someone writes about something I’ve been doing for years. Sometimes we had similar sources, but more often we had similar circumstances and came up with similar solutions separately. In biology this is called convergent evolution.

But also, Carl Jung said “people don’t have ideas. Ideas have people.” Good ideas – like many of those in Psychic Witch – often have multiple people. Mat Auryn presents these ideas in his own way, a way that is very easy to follow.

The second half of the book is where Mat and I start to diverge. Like many modern witches and Pagans, he talks about the upper world, the middle world, and the lower world. Two years ago – in response to a comment by Devin Hunter – I wrote Unpopular Pagan Opinions: I Don’t Believe in the Three Worlds. I see two worlds: this world and the Otherworld (which may be many Otherworlds or may be one Otherworld with many realms).

I’m less opposed to the idea of a three-part soul: the Lower Self (the animal soul and the unconscious mind), the Middle Self (the conscious mind), and the Higher Self (the spirit, the God-soul). This concept is grounded in the psychological work of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and it’s common in many magical traditions, especially those with roots in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s proven to be useful, especially the related concepts of soul alignment and true will – I have no issues or concerns with any of the exercises in this section.

But in describing the Middle Self, Mat says “the Middle Self is a name used for our mind and is the aspect of ourselves that differentiates us from other animals.” I’m not comfortable drawing a qualitative distinction between humans and other animals. Chimpanzees – our closest genetic relatives – are more like us than most of us care to admit, in both good ways and bad. So are our more distant cousins. We have bigger brains and the capacity for language – that’s about it.

At the end of the day Mat is a psychic witch and I’m a polytheist priest. Our metaphysics are similar but they’re not identical. Who’s right? Or at least, more right? We have no way of knowing.

Who should read Psychic Witch?

An alternative subtitle for Psychic Witch could be “a beginner’s guide to psychic perception and energy work.” It’s the best book I’ve found for that purpose.

It’s more focused than Silver RavenWolf’s To Ride A Silver Broomstick and more straightforward than Laurie Cabot’s Power of the Witch. The closest comparison I have is Thorn Coyle’s Evolutionary Witchcraft, but I would recommend starting with Psychic Witch and then using Evolutionary Witchcraft as an intermediate resource.

As a polytheist priest, I would prefer beginners start with something that builds a polytheist worldview: Irish Paganism by Morgan Daimler, or my own book The Path of Paganism.

But 13-year-old me wouldn’t have cared about building a polytheist worldview. I just wanted to “expand my mind” and learn some basic hands-on magic. I suspect most readers of Psychic Witch feel the same.

They won’t be disappointed.

Llewellyn’s publicity department dropped the ball and didn’t send me a review copy, so Mat gave me one of his books at Austin Witchfest. Mat is a friend and I hope Psychic Witch sells a million copies, but my responsibility in a book review is to the reader. If I couldn’t give it a good review, I’d conveniently forget to review it. This is my honest assessment of the book.

Previous Post

March 29, 2020

Why I Pray For an End to the Coronavirus

Next Post

April 2, 2020 A Modern Pagan Guide to Cursing

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Books Community CUUPS Druidry Foundations and Context Gods and Goddesses Magic Myth Nature Ritual Spiritual Practice Theology Travel Uncategorized Videos

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the first high priest of Israel?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Caleb Moses Aaron Joshua