A book review: A Witch's Guide to Ghosts and the Supernatural by Gerina Dunwich

July 1, 9:02 PMIndianapolis Pagan Issues ExaminerAndrah Wyrdfire

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When there's something strange, in the neighborhood, who you gonna call?  The Ghostbusters?  Yeah, right!  Actually you can hunt down, communicate with, and even exorcise any ghost or spirit yourself, be they good or bad, using Gerina Dunwich's book, A Witch's Guide to Ghosts and the Supernatural.  Ms. Dunwich does an extraordinary job of telling you the differences between ghosts and spirits and shows you just how to communicate with them by giving detailed instructions for a complete seance.

The best chapter of this book is Chapter Two, "True Tales of Ghosts and the Supernatural," where the author includes stories of true hauntings, some experienced by her and some by others, but all very well put together.  I've been scared by ghost stories before, being a member of the Indianapolis Chapter of the Indiana Ghost Trackers, I've even had experiences of my own that could put a chill down your spine, but none compare to what I read in this chapter.

It's clear that she has done her homework.  Her wide variety of topics--including everything from spiritualism, necromantic arts, and possession, to vampires, werewolves, and deities of death and the underworld--leave you feeling as though you need no other guidebook on the topic of the supernatural; she's got it all covered.  I do highly recommend that you still check out the many books available on the topic at your local bookstore though.

My original review of this book, which appeared in newWitch magazine for the Winter/2003 issue, mentioned that the only thing that distracted from the natural flow of the book was the overly verbose section on exorcism, which would have been better as an appendix.  However, I was reviewing the book based on an advance copy of the uncorrected proof, not the book itself.  A finished copy of the book was not available at the time.  Since then, the final draft that was created eliminated the unwanted distraction from the book and that topic was reduced to one paragraph.  It's a wonder how she managed to do that, when the copy I was reviewing had that section as eight pages long.

I will add to my original review by commenting on a section that appears in Chapter Six, "Spells and Sorcery."  The section, "To Summon a Spirit" gives complete instructions on how to summon a spirit using a certain type of ink, what to write and what to write on, other materials to use and how to use them, the best time to do it, and the words to say to accomplish this task.  I certainly can understand why someone would like to perform this type of ritual.  However, it should be said, even though it isn't in this section, that all necessary precautions should be taken should someone decide to perform this ritual on their own and I would never recommend it being done without casting some sort of protection spell ahead of time.

All that having been said, if you're looking for a good book that talks about the supernatural and other issues of the paranormal, this is one of the best ones on the market.