Adapt and thrive. That’s the message traditionally-trained Craft practitioner Draco has for readers. Rather than withdrawing to practice time-honored rituals in secret, she encourages modern witches to open their windows, explore their neighborhoods, put a pot of herbs on their kitchen window sills, light a candle, and summon their ingenuity.

Carefully distinguishing her practice from Wicca, she encourages modern witches to care less about worshipping nature with elaborate rituals, and to focus instead on developing a personal relationship with the physical environment. She thinks of herself as a caretaker, rather than a manipulator, of the natural world. There’s a lyrical quality to her writing which lifts the reader into the modern magical world she describes. She provides basic information about herbs, magic pouches, talismans, pagan holidays, spells, and pathworking. More importantly, this is a handbook for restoring sanity to an overcrowded and cramped urban lifestyle. The magic ingredients are creativity and fun. Consider displaying it with books about herbs, urban birdwatching, city parks, and Feng Shui. 

With the number of books available nowadays that address the solitary practitioner, it’s surprising to see how very few of them focus on one concrete common fact – that most of us witches (or pagans) do not live in a small cottage in the countryside, surrounded by fairy-tale forests and herbs. That many of us live in flats, inside blocks, in the middle of the city. If you are lucky enough, you’ll have a small house with a garden. If you are even luckier – and your job allows you to do so – you’ll live in the suburbs. Even though most of the books mention that likely possibility, they do it in a rather ‘patronising’ way – IF one cannot go out to gather herbs, there’s the ‘possibility’ to use those in our kitchen. Personally I consider that that’s showing the reader that “it’s not very nice” but “it should work”, making him or her not appreciate what she’s using and regarding it as a “second hand element” (and we all know how important it is, for our practice, the feeling we put into something.) In Traditional Witchcraft for Urban Living, Melusine Draco dedicates the whole of this small volume to address this situation. Mainly offering a useful way to develop our Craft practice in what she describes as “an hostile environment” – instead of just stating the obvious inconveniences that we have. The surprising bit is that she doesn’t achieve this through the seeking of ‘exceptions’, of ‘country-like’ places in the city – she encourages the witch to rediscover the city, to look into it, and to change her (or his) attitude rather than getting stressed by the daily noises coming from the street. In short, she encourages us to make the best of what we’ve got. She guides us to small places in our city or our own house that may have been overlooked. In each chapter she also offers a useful exercise related to the subject. For more read http://wiccanrede.org/2013/11/review-traditional-witchcraft-for-urban-living/ ~ Alder Lyncurium - Wiccan Rede, http://wiccanrede.org/2013/11/review-traditional-witchcraft-for-urban-living/

Have reached the magic 10+ customer reviews on both amazon sites for this title SR 18/9 ~ Customer reviews, amazon.com and amazon.co.uk

Soarsondragonson amazon 2014 I received this book from the publisher sometime at the end of December or the beginning of January, and I have to say that it was the best book on Paganism I have been handed to in a long time! I will more than gladly give this book 5 stars! Raymond Laroseon amazon January 2014 I think this book read very well - lots of interesting lore and facts making the life of an (sub)urban witch easier. Access to herbs, reconnecting with nature and so on. The writing is very pleasing to follow, no matter where you are from or where you live. This book is perfect for all! I actually live in a more rural area than the intention - but so much information applied to me and my style of the craft. And as far as the strictly urban information, it's perfect for when I travel to large cities! Very surprised by the 1 star review from someone because they "don't live on an island." This is an exceptional work. David D. Salisbury amazon September 2012 I don't often write reviews, but I very much enjoyed this book. We are coming into a time when more people are looking to Old Ways to support their spiritual and/or religious work. For the urban practitioner, it can feel limiting to not have access to hedges, forests, and lakes. Traditional Witchcraft for Urban Living is a very practical approach to putting Old Craft practices to use. Witches need information on subjects like this, the challenge us to go beyond notions of what we perceive as limiting. Witchcraft accepts no limits and this work is proof of that. Claudia Loureiro goodreads March 2016 In Traditional Witchcraft for Urban Living, Melusine Draco dedicates this small volume to address this situation. She offers a useful way to develop the Craft practice by stating the obvious inconveniences. The surprising bit is that she doesn't achieve this through the seeking of "exceptions", of "country-like" places in the city - she encourages the witch to rediscover the city, to look into it, and to change the attitude rather than getting stressed by the daily noises coming from the street. In short, she encourages everyone to make the best of what we've got. She guides us to small places in our city or our own house that may have been overlooked. In each chapter she also offers a useful exercise related to the subject. Plain, simple language and not boggled down in a lot of detail that is distracting and hard to follow. ~ Goodreads and , Amazon

This book offers a starting point for how to do this in a modern city environment. It is very much about my own kind of magic, the kind I try to write about in A Bad Witch's Blog – practical witchcraft for the real world. I recommend this book for any witch who is struggling to find their magical way in the big city.