Magic Maker: The Enchanted Path to Creativity

Witch Wave podcaster Grossman (Waking the Witch) outlines in this pensive outing how readers can use magic to fuel their art. For Grossman, art is itself a kind of magic—an intentional “collaborating with a Creative Force in order to transform” both the artist and “whomever bears witness to the new thing they have made.” More traditional magical crafts can also serve as vehicles for creativity, she writes, noting that tarot decks can spark inspiration or draw out patterns in one’s art (for fabulist author Italo Calvino, tarot was “a machine for constructing stories” and helped him write The Castle of Crossed Destinies), while augury—the interpretation of signs—is a useful means of directing one’s attention to new and fruitful “areas of creative investigation.” Readers seeking step-by-step tips for casting spells or reading tea leaves will be disappointed, but Grossman’s exploration of what it means to create is expansive and inspiring, bolstered by intimate anecdotes of artists’ creative philosophies. For instance, she notes that jazz saxophonist John Coltrane, who saw music as “the spiritual expression of who he was,” framed his 1965 album A Love Supreme as an offering to God and accompanied it with a manifesto that highlighted his view that “thought, belief, and creativity are all connected to the divine.” This is a thought-provoking guide and a joyous ode to creativity’s many mysteries. (Oct.)