After we ask the Goddess to help us find a job, we need to actually do the work at that job. We may create a little altar-in-disguise in our cubicle, but that’s not enough. In Witch in the Boardroom, Australian Witch and businesswoman Stacey Demarco (www.themodernwitch.com) tells how to use magic to achieve success and prosperity in the corporate world without sacrificing our spiritual beliefs. She begins with a very brief history of how the Goddess disappeared from Western civilization and in a section called “The Goddess Has a Bad PR Day” repeats some of the old myths our coworkers may have heard (and may believe) about us—nonsense like witches use body parts in their cauldrons and are in league with Satan. After each myth she states the truth: those body parts are the names of herbs and we’re still fighting that Satanic label, though, she continues, today we’re coming back into the public eye in a more positive way. Demarco has written a book an MBA student can love. “Witches have always been good for business,” she says, and today we’re using the same transferable skills that people used to survive and thrive in earlier times. These skills include planning, crisis management, communications, customer relations, and dealing with harassment. Section 3 gets down to the nitty-gritty of business, beginning with business applications of initiation. A business witch can use a initiation ritual when (1) she is beginning a new project and needs to ensure her own full attention and commitment, (2) when she is changing identities (compared to shapeshifting) to move into a new job or another field, (3) when she completes a degree or takes a significant step up the corporate ladder, and (4) when she’s working to gain team support or a sponsor for a big project. There’s a shadow side to initiation, of course. “You must be prepared to change,” Demarco says, and “what you have moved from [may be changed or] gone. This happens when we evolve to a new level” (pp. 105-06). Using case studies based on her work with real businesspeople, Demarco gives spells and other work for abundance, contracts, promotions, salary increases, bids, and attracting new clients or staff. Next comes shapeshifting—assuming and/or adjusting to a new business role—where we learn spells for justice, protection, and invisibility. Witch in the Boardroom concludes with a section on passing on your tradition, magical leadership, recharging our energies. This book is highly recommended. ~review by Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D. by Stacey DemarcoLlewellyn Publications, 2005 pp. 263, $14.95
