Riches for Witches starts out with an intriguing question: Can you handle the abundance and prosperity that is your magical inheritance? However, unlike many "plastic shamans" who use such a question as a lever to shame the reader into feeling unworthy, Cundy is a stunningly positive force for manifesting abundance within your life.
Grounded within a magical practice utilizing the power of the four elements -- Earth, Air, Water, and Fire -- the reader is offered chants, actions, and meditations to create a life in which we can do what we want. As Cundy says, "It is the ongoing work of constantly checking in with yourself, correcting your course, and moving forwards. YOU are the work in progress creating and manifesting all the time. (Introduction)" Throughout the book anecdotes from the author's life supports their words and illustrate the points being made.
The book is divided into three sections. The Part One builds the foundation through discussions and work centered around learning to describe wealth.
The first chapter has us considering just what we mean by an abundant life. All good magic starts with clearing the way for our intent to be realized. And it can never be cookie cutter. For one person it might be the ability to have time and resources to create art, for another it might be to pay the bills and have money left over and still another would see it as having excellent health. What I consider abundant is not the same for you, how can it be? This chapter also addresses how we learned many of our thoughts and feelings about abundance from our family of origin, and often must clear away that dross before we can move forward.
Chapter two considers wealth in many areas of our life: health, relationships, creativity, money, and self worth. Chapter three invites the reader to consider the abundance found within the natural world. With chapter four we begin to work with the heart to engage in loving practices that heal and nurture. Chapter five shifts our focus to using our imagination to plant and nurture the seeds of prosperity. Chapter six was a bit "out there" for me, but I think I'm in a minority. The focus here is on working with helpful spirits, what the author calls magical masters. Chapter seven incorporates tarot cards in various ways. In chapter eight we are introduced to the Irish poet magician Amergin and begin to work with him. The foundational section concludes in chapter nine as we learn to work with the moon and its phases.
Part Two layers in practical work to support our manifestation. In chapter ten we are shown ways to clear away anything that interferes with our ability to live an abundant life. In chapter eleven we incorporate the energy of the "dark" half of the year (autumn and winter). Chapter twelve deals with working with Deity. Chapter thirteen adds in a perspective of working specifically with warrior energy, a long-time personal practice of mine, but one most are unfamiliar with. This section ends with work involving the sun, again a bit unusual for many witches.
Part Three begins by having us acknowledge our money mindset and how it is, and isn't healthy. The work done in Part One comes back to us in this section. Chapter sixteen talks about disempowerment, specifically that suffered by women and witches because of our long history of healing. Chapter seventeen looks at our worklife. Eighteen at marketing, which Cundy describes as "the Witch’s way of putting out into the world what they create." Ninteen describes practices to use to open one's heart to abundance. In chapter twenty we learn about ways to engage even when suffering from grief and loss, a natural part of the evolution of our lives. How can we manage when we only want to shut ourselves away from the world? Chapters 21 and 22 discuss using our gifts in service and the practice of sharing our abundance as a practice to increase the wealth of the world around us. Finally, chapter 23 is a celebration of all we have achieved.
I could go on at length, but I think you can see how this is a dense book with tons of information. I honestly can't think of a single topic having to do with abundance and prosperity overlooked by Cundy.
I appreciated the myriad ways Cundy offers to the reader as ways to describe, manifest, and recognize abundance and prosperity within our lives. Reading, tarot, Deity, chants, pathworking, nature walks . . . there is something for everyone. As a special touch, the pathworkings and chants are available through Cundy's website, professionally recorded.
This is a magnificent book, one that we all need.
~review by Lisa McSherry
Author: Sheena Cundy
Treehouse Magic, 2023
