Inspiration Books

I purchased this item as a gift for a creative musician I know. The size is convenient to carry, the pages are professional music manuscript pages, and each page includes quotations from well known musicians talking about what inspires them. Ideal for jotting down musical ideas as they occur, or noting musical phrases from compositions heard. I was pleased that the gift was so pleasing.

it's a full time job writing songs and watching kids and caring for scummy, so please buy the book!

This helped me write music so easily. I would simply give it five stars!

It was a gift from my roommate when I was a music major in college. It definitely doesn't add up to simply buying staff paper when composing, transposing, and all that fun stuff. However, I found this book extremely valuable when I was just trying to organize all of my songs that I was recording at the time.

My only complaint - and one that I saw in another review - is that there is simply not enough room for some of my longer songs/lyrics. There is a lined area in the back, though, where I have been able to add additional verses to songs or notes.

I bought this because I thought it would be full of staff paper with little quotes on the side every now and then.

What I got was a book of fancy, overpriced lined paper with boxes for guitar chords. I bought two of them (Musicians and Lyricists, because I am a trumpet player as well as a songwriter) and now I'm losing money to ship them back!

If you are looking for a notebook with staff paper in it, DO NOT PURCHASE THIS BOOK, NOR ANY OF THE SIMILAR BOOKS BY THIS PUBLISHING COMPANY. If I wanted lined paper, I would have gone to OfficeMax.

I love the book. The writer is a little narcissistic at times, but the lessons are worth learning. The client stories and comments are worth reading. I highly recommend this book and a related by called Karmic Relationships by Charles L. Richards, Phd

I really enjoyed this book. A little too much about the author at first (I guess relevant to explanation). Very easy to follow, not a lot of mumbo, jumbo. To sum it up...helpful in understanding karma.

If I want something for myself and materialize, shall we say.... mmmmm... oh, $100.00, I have taken that away from someone else. No, I don't think so.

The author has spirit guides because she is one of the few delightful folks who are worthy. No. I don't think so.

Upon closer examination, I have determined that I am not worthy of keeping this book in my collection. Furthermore, I will not trade it off to a used book shop, because I don't want this to fall into the hands of another unsuspecting reader.

I wouldn't want that negative act to shape my future or anyone else's.

I have read this book carefully and thoughtfully. I find the author sincere and honest in how she uses her talents as a stewardship, which the author is doing here. I find this book helpful because of the real life stories she shares. It's a way to get a grasp on karma, one of the laws of the universe that many people do not understand. I have weighed her writings carefully and I think that in one case----the one about the hundred dollars-----could have been presented a little better. To visualize something a person wants, to create it non-harmfully depends on a couple of basic things. The need must be integrous. And two, the energy put 'out there' will not necessarily create negative karma if one adds "In the Name of the Highest Good". What this means is that a person is cognizant that harm may come from what is being asked for. In that case, if the item does not show up, then it would be harmful and the universe is being allowed to operate in harmony with the request and the laws. In a well known book about Kabbalistic Magick, the author writes that there are three types of magic. White. Grey. Black. In White Magick, the seeker is seeking to improve their spiritual lives without directly affecting others on the outer planes. In grey, the intention is honest and the outcome is for the personal self in gain, but not necessarily for the spirtual Self. In black magick, this is a mistake, one not necessarily intended to do harm, but in which harm has come. In this example by the author, a person 'puts out there' that he wants $1,000. It comes eventually, and he gets it through the death of a relative through a will. In the Name of The Highest Good would have prevented this. A few of the ideas seem to be coming from personal opinion, such as only a few gifted people have spirit guides. Such ideas can be taken with a grain of salt. However, I feel that this book is highly valuable through it's real life explnations of how the law of karma works in everyday life.

I agree with much of Morgan of the Lakes review. This author seems very egotistical about her gifts and I think it negatively clouds the information she provides in this book. Karma basically is a balance of experiencing or a reaping of what we sow as the author seems to explain it and gives a fair amount of examples of clinets shes counseled that have had karma return to them. But, I think this is a fairly simple understanding of karma and stops the reader from fully understanding what it is especially if they are a beginneer to so called "New Age" material. The author also states that when you ask the universerse for somthing, in her example, a hundred dollars, that you will be taking somthing from someone else and that little evil goblins would take it from someone needy to bring it to you. I always had an understanding that the universe was unlimited in its resources and noone has to loose in order for you to gain. The fact that the author stated this in her book simply makes me feel that I wasted my time reading the book and that the material isnt very evolved in itsself.
I reccomend reading a couple of matthews books from Suzy Ward for a more enlightened insight into issues such as karma etc

Well, it took me a night to read it. But it's going to take a lifetime to get totally, it's that simple; yet that complicated and powerful. I mean Dr. Hiatt imparts something genuinely wonderful and she makes no bones or psychobabble (as another reviewer accurately calls it) about it. And the bibliography, it is wonderful. Especially including Julian Jaynes' masterwork on consciousness "The Origins of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" and James Allen's masterwork on spiritual epistemology "As a Man Thinketh" and her enlightened use and takes on these works in her book. Thus, I say objectively here that this book is a great buy in every way. And not only that, it is superiorly and tightly researched, written and illustrated (with examples as well as contextual analogs and diagrams.) But that's only the tip of the iceberg. She literally takes all the "mystery" nonsense and mythological foolishness out of hypnosis and mental science. It's like a quote from a case-history in Claude M. Bristol's classic book "The Magic of Believing", sure you know there is a Niagara Falls, and you've seen the 8 x 10 glossy pictures of the falls, but when you actually see it, it's genuinely overwhelming and awesome.

Captain Josh.

Marta Hiatt gives you all you need to know to create for yourself a life you'll love getting up in the morning to live.

No psychobabble, technobabble, or egobabble. Straight and to the point techniques you can use right now to create the life you want.

Even if you are already where you want to be, you will learn so much about how you work mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually, you will be empowered to start on a dime to make changes happen for you should your find your circumstances altered by life, like the death of a loved one, loss of a job, home or physical ability/ies.

Magic ways really do exist and Ms. Hiatt tells you how to do a number of things that will empower you in ways you can't even imagine. Sure, there are other magic books out there. I don't know about you, but when I finished them, I still felt I was in the same place I was when I started. Sure, I picked up a tip or two, but nothing like Hiatt's instructions. Do this and get that result. Sound simple? It is. All you have to do is do it. I am doing it. I wish for you the motivation to do it as well. Are these ways magic bullets? They are the closest thing I have ever found.

This book is a combination - New Thought meets Freud. The author describes how our conscious and subconscious minds interact to determine our lives and health. Unfortunately, the psychology overshadows the spiritual.

The description of quantum mechanics is clumsy. Chapters on hypnosis, consciousness, and the body/mind connection are long-winded and dull (I felt like I was sitting through Psych 101 again). Much of it was unnecessary - is there anybody out there who still doesn't know that we need to reduce stress, eat nutritious foods, and get exercise in order to be healthy? Of course our mental attitude plays a role.

The book was disappointing - it's a rehash of old news. If you are familiar with Ernest Holmes, Napoleon Hill, Wallace Wattles, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Allan Cohen, Stuart Wilde, Victor Boc, Louise Hay, etc., you will find very little new meat in this book. I was particularly troubled by the chapter on prosperity; much of it seems to be taken nearly word for word from other authors.

Instead of this book, I recommend "The Power of Your Subconscious Mind" by Joseph Murphy. "Self-Hypnosis" by Alman and Lambrou, and "Your Heart's Desire" by Sonia Choquette are also good choices.

Marta Hiatt writes in the tradition of the great 20th century metaphysicians like Dr Joseph Murphy, Florence Scovel-Shinn and Catherine Ponder, but her style is thoroughly updated for the 21st century and her work is firmly grounded and integrated in psychology - she also draws on the experience she has acquired as a marriage and family therapist.

In the first part, The Evolution Of Consciousness, she explains how the mind works, while the second part provides Techniques For Transformation such as affirmation, self-hypnosis, imagination, visualization and the goal of it all: cosmic consciousness. A rich array of helpful affirmations are provided, plus the best ways of using them, and there's a chapter on proper nutrition, stress and exercise.

The appendices include detailed information for relaxation plus suggestions for self-hypnosis. There are apposite quotes and bibliographic references throughout the text, as well as an extensive bibliography and index, and the book is well-illustrated with figures explaining various aspects of consciousness.

The secret to success is learning how to transform one's inner landscape so your life fulfills your highest promise. This book, a classic of the genre, informs you how to do this in an intelligent but easy-to-understand manner and is the best I have encountered in quite some time. I highly recommend it.

Having read many "self help" books, I must say that this one definatley stands out from the crowd. Specifically, the author clearly and persuasivley makes the case for living with self-esteem. She states that one should treat one's self (and this includes what one says to one's self in one's head) as one would treat a loving friend. I have yet to see this idea expressed so throughly and convincingly. I highly reccomend this book; it can do wonders for your life!

An almost too simple invitation to an otherwise complex topic so highly advocated by people so influential as Pankaj Ghemawat, Nancy J. Adler and Orly Levy ... the topic of developing of a Global Mindset! Global Mindset is the ability to handling very complex cognitive challenges in a cosmopolitan world - this takes Personal Leadership! In the book `Personal Leadership' you are as reader invited on a voyage that - if you allow it, will change your efficiency as leader in Global context... enjoy!

The word "Leadership" in the title of this book is the Trojan horse that suggests that those who are in or want to be in leadership positions order this book off the Internet and drag it within their mental and emotional gates. Reading it, we wake up to the fact that the leadership the authors speak of has nothing to do with (and everything to do with) leadership in the normal sense of the word. The key is the adjective that precedes it, i.e., "personal." The book is actually a presentation of a self-development methodology or spirituality of being and doing that consists of two principles (mindfulness and creativity) and six practices or steps for cultivating those principles.

The authors represent a training enterprise, Personal Leadership Seminars, LLC, whose programs are delivered by experienced interculturalists using the methodology described in the book. The methodology itself is a combination of humanistic psychology, spiritual disciplines and philosophia perennis that bloomed in the late 1960's and has continues as a subculture in the USA as well as abroad. There are no surprises here, just a well knit set of mental and emotional disciplines and an invitation to a community of support.

If not new, what is the currency of such training and a book about it? The key is, as the authors point out, practice. A bankruptcy of ethics and spiritual discipline as well as the deep desire for it has resulted in a search for fundamental well-being that has led many into extremes of religious fervor where self-immolation and Armageddon are seriously embraced and encouraged by the so-called political, religious, and military "leaders" of the day. So, Personal Leadership proposes an alternative set of spiritual practices aimed at bringing about awareness of self, one's internal and external environment and how the "others" live in them for us so that our responses are creative rather than destructive, real rather than stereotypical, affirming rather than conflictual.

We might say that "leadership starts at home" in the sense that enlightened leaders in politics, business and organizations will do well to have their personal act together if our world is to find its way out of the wars and destruction that much of its current leadership has presented it with.

But it is not only leaders who need personal leadership, in the sense that following the crowd and the demagogue is as much a part of the problem as are those who maladroitly direct the world scenarios. It is trite but true that people get the leaders they deserve.
So there is a set of values here that eschews knee-jerk certainties, "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!" The silver bullet is practice, practice, practice. Shakyamuni's dying words are reputed to have been, "Be a lamp unto yourselves."

Today's psychologically-honed expertise for economic and political manipulation is not going unobserved. Naomi Klein in her recent book Shock Doctrine how a runaway economic paradigm enables political and financial leaders to manipulate populations through fear and misinformation. Psychologist Clotaire Rapaille, in The Culture Code points out how people around the world live and buy as they do behaving according to predictable culture codes, largely driven by unexamined unconscious urges--the lizard brain. In other words, great careers and great fortunes are to be made if the blind can be encouraged to invite the blind to lead them, and are satisfied with the cake crumbs that fall from their masters' tables. Whether one blows the whistle on these practices or strives to make a buck off them, the effect is the same, more of the same, more of the same...

This book shows us a way of stepping outside the maelstrom. It is long overdue, particularly in the sense that the intercultural field has largely ignored psychological and spiritual factors in the development of intercultural competence in personal development. This negligence has to a great degree contributed to the irrelevance and ignorance of intercultural work for religious, now become political contexts.
Personal Leadership is evidence that the Buddha and the Tao and Fritz Perls are still pointing the way to enlightenment for those willing to take the steps to seek it. The payoff of personal leadership is in the experience itself, as the many personal accounts of self-engagement in the book illustrate--the book is worth reading for these alone. Coming to see the self and the world more directly and clearly is empowering, but there is no cheap grace. Fortunately we learn to drag ourselves kicking and screaming, leading ourselves to places in and life where we have not been before.

In a sense, this is a book that I didn't know that I was waiting for until I read it--an impetus to do more and better of what has made me do somewhat well in directing my own life and enriching and empowering those around me.

"Letting this book into my psyche" strongly reminded me that Moses, Jesus and Mohammed have left great spiritual traditions with powerful disciplines for development that unfortunately lay dormant but capable of being aroused even in those whose starting point is fundamentalist and authoritarian. Who will have the creative flash that will lead to taking greater benefit from sunnah, theosis, the Exercitia Spiritualia and the halakah etc., in those traditions that so many people feel themselves a part of, the empowerment rather than the opiate?

I loved the book. Some of the concepts were familiar. When I read the original authors, I found them too abstract. The way that the authors laid out the principles and practices so clearly and practically with exercises converted all that abstraction into a useful tool. I thought of a least one situation where I could apply it immediately. The authors were very open and generous in sharing personal stories. Congratulations on this significant achievement.

This book is a key to understanding how to build effective multicultural organizations. It is a must read for every leader in all organizations - including corporate, government, education, and non-profits.
This is a book for "our time" and includes an easy process that is important to practice on an on-going basis. This process is the key to making a difference in the world.
Dr. Ann C. Schauber, Professor Emeritus, Oregon State University

There will likely still be a place, and an important place, for cultural dimensions, value descriptions, and generalizations about cultural difference for decades to come. Yet such knowledge-focused tools are only a small part of the cultural competence equation and can be rendered futile when not matched with the right mindset, skills, and behaviors.

Personal Leadership helps address this need. It rests on the powerful premise that intercultural development is a lifestyle and daily practice--not simply a skill you get taught in a cultural training course--and offers a new approach that transcends a focus on specific cultures or limit to training or teaching environments. As such, it is an approach synonymous with and symbolic of the intercultural work of the future.

I HAD SEEN THE LISTINGS ON SOUNDS TRUE FOR ADYASHANTI...AND NEVER REALLY TOOK THEM OR HIM SERIOUSLY.....FINALLY, MY CURIOUSITY GOT THE BEST OF ME AND I BROKE DOWN AND PURCHASED THIS, AS WELL AS, ALL OF HIS OTHER AUDIOBOOKS LISTED HERE ON AMAZON....I AM ABOUT HALFWAY THROUGH THIS SET OF CD'S AND I AM VERY HAPPY I PURCHASED THEM....I HAVE BEEN OVERWHELMED WITH MEDITATION AND DISTRACTED BY THE "PRESCRIBED ROUTINES" SET FORTH BY A LOT OF TEACHERS....AND, I HAVE POOR POSTURE....ADYASHANTI HAS A NUMBER OF REMARKS REGARDING POSTURE THAT WERE LIBERATING TO ME...AS WELL AS, COMMENTS ON MEDITATION, WHAT MEDITATION IS...AND WHAT MEDITATION HOLDS FOR US...AGAIN, I AM HAPPY I BOUGHT THIS....AND, I'M LOOKING FOR THE ARRIVAL OF HIS OTHER AUDIO CD'S I HAVE PURCHASED ON AMAZON..

I think this is a great book that describes the essence of Adyashanti style meditation and highly recommend it to those interested in a more open less concentration based meditation. Those of you that have listened to or attended satsangs with Adyashanti will have heard everything in this book at one time or another. The beauty of the book is it brings all his teachings on meditation together in short succinct chapters each one explaining a simple point in some detail. When experimenting with the meditation style as questions arise, which they undoubtedly will, one can easily pinpoint the chapter that may help answer the question.

I teach anger management and depression classes for a hospital and have been looking for some meditations on CD to bring to class. I got this three CD set today, and went right to the meditation on the third CD called "Allow Everything To Be As It Is." I listened to it once to see if I could use it- because if it had any overt spiritual references I wouldn't be able to- and then took it to class to play for them. It worked out really, really well. I especially appreciate the wisdom and technique demonstrated in allowing the listener to let go of the meditator in the meditation. This practice makes so much sense to me. I imagine I will be back with more appreciation of this CD set after I have experienced the rest of it. It is just that I liked it so much, and my class liked the meditation we did so much I just couldn't wait to tell you!

Adyashanti has the gift of simplicity and clarity with a dash of humour. He makes room for a breath of fresh air, flexibility and life to enter our space with what he offers in this lovely book. He shows us how to trust ourselves and turn within to what is already and always present.

Innocence, purity, authentic and grace are words that come to mind when I think of Adya. He is truly a gifted and inspiring teacher.

I resisted in getting this book because I thought it was a rehash of Emptiness Dancing. But it is not at all. His "True Meditation" seems to expound the true meaning of Dogen's Shikantaza that I've read about elsewhere.
Short because it's to the point, and I found the CD good for listening to one section at a time as if listening to a Dharma talk in zazen.

Chicken Soup for the Dieter's Soul helps to keep me in the right "mind set" to keep on keeping on with the weight loss project. We all know that the most important part of dieting is getting the head on straight, and this book helps to keep me inspired! Good buy!

I expected this book to be like most of the other books written about angels & supernatural beings. I was pleasantly surprised. This book is well written and has a good balance of research & personal experiences. Each chapter was thought provoking & worth spending a few moments to process & internalize. I would recommend this book to any person of any faith who wants to learn more about the true nature of angels.

I got this with the intention of practicing digital painting, and it is so worth it! I've read reviews (here and other sites) of people saying that they had trouble with the CD, that images were "missing" or files wouldn't open. Here's what I have to say about that: I have Vista, and thus far have had absolutely no problems with opening or reading files. Yes, the files are HUGE (the characters are mapped as Photoshop layers), so it takes a second or two for them to open. As for "missing" files, as the book explains, and the CD shows, some of the specific character traits are filed under other character titles. Overall, this is a completely fun and useful tool . . . it allows me to create wonderful characters (I can't draw at all!) in no time. I would highly recommend this as a source for other computer artists and anyone else with a basic knowledge of working with Photoshop (or Elements) layers.

I'm surprised at the other negative reviews. This product is exactly what it says it is, "manga clip art." There are some very helpful step-by-step directions about how to use digital image editing software to provide a variety of coloring and shading styles, as well as a fairly wide selection of clip art components in different styles and poses. I have had the product for over a year and have had no trouble with the CD. I will say that the files are quite large, though, so you need enough memory to be able to work with them.

Needless to say I was very excited when I bought this product. Not being a very good drawer, I saw this program as an answer to my inability to create in this very popular art form. Well, I'm sorry I spent the money. Everything worked fine for the first figure. After that, the CD file would not react to any command given to it in photoshop. I don't know what the problem was ( it's possible the files corrupt with age )but I literally spend hours trying to figure out what was wrong. I just gave up.
Stay away until something better turns up!

If you've always like the manga/anime art style but can't draw, then this book is for you. Just select different clipart from multiple character files to "create" your own characters. There are some good tutorials within the book, like how to apply different coloring techniques and effects in Photoshop, but individuals who already know how to use Photoshop might find this inadequate or merely a refresher course for what they already know.

On the plus side, there really are a great number of combinations and designs you can choose to create, including monsters, mecha designs, and male/female characters. And if you're short on ideas for character design, this might serve as a source for ideas. However, be wary of this item, as I truly think there maybe something wrong with the disc. Based upon the previous reviewer, I made a backup copy of the original CD, but I am happy to say, my CPU has had no problems reading it so far. However, while browsing through the book and comparing the files on the CD, I noticed that one of the character sets, "Evil Monsters", is missing from my disc. It is annoying to pay full price for a product and not receive everything promised to you... =/

Bottom Line: A good buy for the beginning manga artist and those who don't know how to use Photoshop. I think advanced artists who already know how to draw or use Photoshop might find it inadequete. Hope this review helped any potential buyers.

That's really all I can say. It's not my favorite comic strip (that honor belongs to CALVIN AND HOBBES) but it is the laugh-out-loud funniest. BILL THE CAT LIVES!

The beloved characters all appear. Milo remains well-supplied with nightmares from his anxiety clost, Steve Dallas remains un-supplied with tact or charm, and Opus displays his huge supply of innocent bafflement. Winsome Yaz Pistachios appears a few times, as does Bill the Cat (the anti-Garfield) and Oliver Wendell Jones, computer geek extraordinaire.

The humor is still there, but some of the freshness rubbed off during the quarter-century since these first appeared. Some grey heads will remember Phyllis Schlafly and all the other Reagan-era targets of the Bloom County barbs. The problem with topical humor is that topics change in the real world, but remain frozen on the printed page, becoming gradually more antiquated over time.

No matter. You'll find plenty of timeless humor and maybe a bit of nostalgia between these covers, as well as a reminder of how the early 80s looked to one cartoonist of the era.

-- wiredweird

These strips aren't just funny. They're laugh out loud, roll on the floor, tears streaming down my face, people coming into the room to see "WHAT-are-you-laughing-at?!" funny.

Berkeley Breathed has created a perfect 'toon universe populated by funny and poignant humans, along with funny and poignant penguins, groundhogs, Bill the Cat and purple critters that hide in your closet of anxieties waiting to grab you as soon as you sleep. Breathed was an absolute genius at seeing some topical issue of the day (circa 1984 for this voume) holding it up to the light so that we could see it just the way that he did, then skewering the thing with what would be the humor equivalent of cupid's arrow.

I had no idea this book was still around. I had picked it up in the mid-eighties, lent it to a friend in the early nineties, and it was gone. I never thought I would see it again. What a surprise to find it again. Immediately, I picked it up and started where I had left off years ago... roaring with laughter. This collection of Bloom County golden oldies is hysterical and clever. The years have been very kind to this strip because it is as fresh as it was during the Reagain administration. Pick up "Toons for Our Times: A Bloom County Book of Heavy Metal Rump 'N Roll" and laugh your rump off!

The first time I ever picked up a Bloom County book at a bookstore in the mall...and this was the book. After a few pages, I found myself having to close the book in order to gather my wits about me, wipe the tears off my face, then attempt to forge farther ahead...usually having to immediately close the book because glancing at the same page instantly initiated another wave of helpless laughter. Had this only happened once, I could have dealt with it as the adult that I believed myself to be...but, since it happened every few pages, I realized myself to be captivated in the tormented world of Opus and friends. Unfortunately (and much to my surprise, I didn't really care), this resulted in more than a few patrons of the bookstore in question to raise their eyebrows in my direction. I would like to thank the kind person that finally joined me (they picked up a copy of their own) and together we chortled together, pausing at times to close our books at our respective pages to momentarily regain our composure. Whimsical, thoughtful, introspective, silly, hilarious, thought-provoking...If you never read another comic, even if you think you're too old for silliness, you owe it to yourself and Berke to read this...and yes, I bought the book!

this is a deep and valuable look into the strega, a witchcraft tradition of Italy. To understand the Well of Year and the Ancient Mysteries that is a part of Wicca, is very good.
My only warn to readers is to statement from the author that Wicca came from the Strega (or, at least, many of it rituals).

Unfortunatly he does not reveal any real secrets of Sicilian Strega. The secrets are still safe. Maybe one day the public will know, then again maybe not. Is this book still worth it? Oh yes. Raven Grimassi is one of a kind with the Italian tradition of Strega (Strega=Witchcraft) He made up his own tradition the Araidian tradition from an older tradition. Here in this book you will learn about the history of the witchcraft of Tuscany and Italy. He teaches about the diffrent aspect of the Goddess Diana. He also teaches about her consort Dianus. He gives out wonderful rituals and spells. He also gives a bit of info on the Lasa and Lare (the fairey folk) and how to make your own Lara and Lasa shrine. This is a good primer on Italian Witchcraft and wonderful for the beginners of the Craft as well. The auther does a wonderful job.

This is a kind of companion piece to R.G.'s Italian Witchcraft. This one has the solitary versions of the rituals, and stands quite well on its own, but I think, if this is for you, you need both books. The two books have everything you need for a complete "outer court" traditional Strega practice, much needed nowadays as geography doesn't allow everyone to become an Initiate. Of course I like all of R.G.'s works, but this one and I.W. are absolute groundbreakers.

It should have been called 'Hereditary ITALIAN Witchcraft, Secret of the Old ITALIAN Religion'. (...)

So one star off for a misleading title, one star off for his bias and a third for small mistakes like the one on page 47 concerning Demeter. This goddess was an earth goddess as demonstrated by her ability to control the seasons and role as harvest mother, NOT an underworld deity. That honor was solely her daughter Persephone's.

However, if you are interested in italian witchcraft this would probably be a great beginners book. The myths are beautiful and unique to anything else I've read and his re-interpretation of woodcuts from 'Compendium Maleficarum' are very interesting.

If you are not interested in Italian Witchcraft, it is a waste of time and money. (...)

Hereditary Witchcraft is an interesting view of an older form of Witchcraft, and how it evolved through time. I enjoyed the author's theories on how the Old Religion survived in altered forms from ancient times. It was great to finally see things in a book on Witchcraft that I've not seen a hundred times before.
Naturally, family traditions will differ depending upon the culture and region in which they were formed. I was pleased to see that nowhere in his book does Grimassi claim that what he presents is the "One True" structure by which to measure all hereditary witches. What Grimassi presents instead is a tradition and type of hereditary, which he knows and has intimate knowledge of. He simply writes about what he knows, believes, and has personally experienced.

Like anyone who has achieved success, Grimassi has his critics. It would be ignorant to compare one hereditary witch to another in terms of authenticity, but this never seems to deter certain types of people.