Why we are passionate about this?

We are Witches. Real Witches, doing real magic, casting spells, and weaving webs. We are Amy Torok and Risa Dickens–the co-creators of the Missing Witches project, researching what it means to be a Witch. Together, we have put out almost 300 podcast episodes and published two books and an oracle deck of cards: Missing Witches: Recovering True Histories Of Feminist Magic, New Moon Magic: 13 Anti-capitalist Tools for Resistance and Re-enchantment, and The Missing Witches Deck of Oracles: Feminist Ancestor Magic for Meditations, Divination and Spellwork. Our first book appeared on VICE Magazine’s list: The Best Books for Starting an Occult Library.


We wrote

Missing Witches Deck of Oracles: Feminist Ancestor Magic for Meditations, Divination, and Spellwork

By Amy Torok, Risa Dickens,

Book cover of Missing Witches Deck of Oracles: Feminist Ancestor Magic for Meditations, Divination, and Spellwork

What is my book about?

We created the Missing Witches Deck of Oracles to bring real, historical magic-makers into the realm of contemporary divination. The…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Initiated: Memoir of a Witch

Amy Torok and Risa Dickens Why did I love this book?

Part memoir, part guidebook for the modern Witch, Amanda Yates Garcia’s Initiated is one of our all-time faves–the brave, bold, and vulnerable tale of how the author stepped into her calling. We love how this book is teeming with Amanda’s humanity.

Her honesty about mistakes and triumphs led us through an emotional journey that never claims to have all the answers. She is determined to seek out the truth in witchcraft and remind us that the personal is political AND magical. We both developed major crushes on Amanda while reading Initiated.

By Amanda Yates Garcia,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Initiated as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An initiation signals a beginning: a door opens and you step through

Amanda Yates Garcia's mother initiated her into the goddess-worshipping practice of witchcraft when she was thirteen years old, but Amanda's true life as a witch only began when she underwent a series of spontaneous initiations of her own.

Descending into the underworlds of poverty, sex work and misogyny, Initiated describes Amanda's journey to return to her body, harness her natural power, and finally reclaim her witchcraft to create the magical world she envisioned.

Peppered with mythology, tales of the goddesses and magical women throughout history, Initiated stands squarely…


Book cover of Red Tarot: A Decolonial Guide to Divinatory Literacy

Amy Torok and Risa Dickens Why did I love this book?

In this book, Christopher Marmalejo entranced us with a singular take on investigating tarot cards through a queer and Indigenous lens. Exploring cartomancy as a mirror to understand lived experience, Christopher brings to light a practice that is unafraid to confront, listen, critique, and unveil.

We love how Christopher’s personality shines through this thoroughly academic yet approachable description of tarot cards and their uses. Reading it filled us with hope for a future of liberation and ideas of how we can make that happen.

By Christopher Marmolejo,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Red Tarot as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Designed to be used with any deck, Red Tarot is a radical praxis and decolonized oracle that moves beyond self-help and divination to reclaim tarot for liberation, self-determination, and collective healing.

For readers of Postcolonial Astrology and Tarot for Change

Red Tarot speaks to anyone othered for their identity or ways of being or thinking—LGBTQIA2S+ and BIPOC folks in particular—presenting the tarot as a radical epistemology that shifts the authority of knowing into the hands of the people themselves.

Author Christopher Marmolejo frames literacy as key to liberation, and explores an understanding of tarot as critical literacy. They show how…


Book cover of Tarot for the Hard Work: An Archetypal Journey to Confront Racism and Inspire Collective Healing

Amy Torok and Risa Dickens Why did I love this book?

As the title suggests, this is not just a book but a Workbook. With knowledge and curiosity, Maria Minnis’s book is written from a place of great generosity of spirit. Still, it demands that we take action as we confront racism and inspire collective healing. 

We can sense her love of the cards and her view of them as a safe place to return to in times of need. As Maria takes us through the archetypes of the Major Arcana of the Tarot, exploring reality and metaphor from an unapologetically Black perspective, she gives us useful and practical exercises to help foster our own growth and understanding.  

By Maria Minnis,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Tarot for the Hard Work as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“An important and profoundly edifying book. . . . Perhaps the most important tarot text that will define this decade.” — Benebell Wen, author of Holistic Tarot
 
Tarot for the Hard Work is a provocative exploration of the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana that re envisions these archetypes as beacons that illuminate the various ways racism takes root both in ourselves and in the world. Author Maria Minnis, with compassion and wisdom, shows us how these insights can be turned into self-awareness, self-love, and positive social action.
 
“Tarot for the Hard Workis a tool for passionately demolishing structural oppression.…


Book cover of Postcolonial Astrology: Reading the Planets through Capital, Power, and Labor

Amy Torok and Risa Dickens Why did I love this book?

If anyone ever tries to tell you that studying astrology is brainless, send them a copy of this book. We were amazed and astonished by the research and intellect that Alice infused in this work, tackling Euro-centrist history and forcing it open to reveal a praxis for recontextualizing the stars.

This is astrology beyond horoscopes, beyond personality types. We were electrified to read Alice’s view that astrology is a language we can use to communicate and that history amounts to collective memory. This book blew our minds.

By Alice Sparkly Kat,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Postcolonial Astrology as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Tapping into the political power of magic and astrology for social, community, and personal transformation.

In a cross-cultural approach to understanding astrology as a magical language, Alice Sparkly Kat unmasks the political power of astrology, showing how it can be channeled as a force for collective healing and liberation.

Too often, magic and astrology are divorced from their potency and cultural contexts: co-opted by neoliberalism, used as a force of oppression, or distilled beyond recognition into applications that belie their individual and collective power. By looking at the symbolic and etymological histories of the sun, moon, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, Mars,…


Book cover of Poetry as Spellcasting: Poems, Essays, and Prompts for Manifesting Liberation and Reclaiming Power

Amy Torok and Risa Dickens Why did I love this book?

We believe that words are spells and that writing down our thoughts, feelings, and ideas is a form of doing Magic. So we were thrilled to discover this book, co-edited by Tamiko Beyer, Destiny Hemphill, and Lisbeth White, a book that validates and reifies the magic of poetry.

This book opens a portal to discuss the ritual of writing, the radical imagination required for social justice, the alchemy of collaboration, and a slow revolution. We’re enamored with the collaborative nature of the book and how it illustrates that writing and poetry are not just kept for times of solitude but can be ritualized into a community-building praxis to change the world.

By Tamiko Beyer, Destiny Hemphill, Lisbeth White

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Poetry as Spellcasting as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Poems, essays, and prompts to sing a new world into being--Queer & BIPOC perspectives on poetry as an insurgent ritual for manifesting liberation and reclaiming power.

Written for poets, spellcasters, and social justice witches, Poetry as Spellcasting reveals the ways poetry and ritual can, together, move us toward justice and transformation. It asks: If ritualized violence upholds white supremacy, what ritualized acts of liberation can be activated to subvert and reclaim power?

In essays from a diverse group of contributing poets, organizers, and ritual artists, Poetry as Spellcasting helps readers explore, play, and deepen their creativity and intuition as integral…


Explore my book 😀

Missing Witches Deck of Oracles: Feminist Ancestor Magic for Meditations, Divination, and Spellwork

By Amy Torok, Risa Dickens,

Book cover of Missing Witches Deck of Oracles: Feminist Ancestor Magic for Meditations, Divination, and Spellwork

What is my book about?

We created the Missing Witches Deck of Oracles to bring real, historical magic-makers into the realm of contemporary divination. The deck can be used to pull guides for advice, prompts for writing, fortune-telling, or as flashcards for learning about world-builders of Witches and Witchcraft. Each card has a drawing on the front and a description on the back, bringing together the notions of divinatory practice, prayer cards, and history lessons.

In keeping with the themes of our books, Missing Witches: Recovering True Histories of Feminist Magic and New Moon Magic: 13 Anti-capitalist Tools For Resistance and Re-enchantment, these cards remind us that Witches are not limited to fairytales but have inhabited space and time throughout the archives of human existence.

Book cover of Initiated: Memoir of a Witch
Book cover of Red Tarot: A Decolonial Guide to Divinatory Literacy
Book cover of Tarot for the Hard Work: An Archetypal Journey to Confront Racism and Inspire Collective Healing

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Book cover of Locked In Locked Out: Surviving a Brainstem Stroke

Shawn Jennings Author Of Locked In Locked Out: Surviving a Brainstem Stroke

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Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Shawn's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

Can there be life after a brainstem stroke?

After Dr. Shawn Jennings, a busy family physician, suffered a brainstem stroke on May 13, 1999, he woke from a coma locked inside his body, aware and alert but unable to communicate or move. Once he regained limited movement in his left arm, he began typing his story, using one hand and a lot of patience. 

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Locked In Locked Out: Surviving a Brainstem Stroke

By Shawn Jennings,

What is this book about?

Can there be life after a brainstem stroke?

After Dr. Shawn Jennings, a busy family physician, suffered a brainstem stroke on May 13, 1999, he woke from a coma locked inside his body, aware and alert but unable to communicate or move. Once he regained limited movement in his left arm, he began typing his story, using one hand and a lot of patience.

With unexpected humour and tender honesty, Shawn shares his experiences in his struggle for recovery and acceptance of his life after the stroke. He affirms that even without achieving a full recovery life is still worth…


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Interested in witchcraft, divination, and postcolonialism?

Witchcraft 339 books
Divination 29 books
Postcolonialism 24 books