The Spiritual Magic Of Dolls ♥ Book Review
Lately, I’ve been collecting a lot of books about dolls. If you know me, you know I’m obsessed with dolls of all kinds and spiritual things. So, when I stumbled across The Spiritual Magic Of Dolls by Najah Lightfoot I knew I needed to add it to my bookshelf. A book about magic and dolls? Count me in!
It’s been a minute since I wrote a book review. It’s been a minute since I wrote a book review. Honestly, I’m afraid my opinions may come off as too critical, so I’m not sure how often I’ll be posting book reviews. You let me know! However, for the sake of doll content, I thought I would review some of the doll books I recently bought because there aren’t a lot of adult books about dolls out there, as doll collecting is a pretty niche hobby. But, as an avid reader, when I do find a book about dolls, I go crazy! So, this is for all my doll-loving people out there!
DESCRIPTION
Dolls have been beloved companions and instruments of magic for millennia. They are among the most ancient Egyptian and Roman artifacts. Not only playthings for children, they also provide lifelong comfort and companionship. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, dolls developed therapeutic uses, especially for traumatized children and people with dementia. But dolls also possess a long history as a tool of divination, witchcraft, and the occult. In The Spiritual Magic of Dolls, Najah Lightfoot bridges these two uses—companionship and magic—to enable readers to develop profound magical and spiritual relationships with their own dolls.
Many have beloved dolls displayed on shelves or sitting in boxes. What if you could do more with them? Najah Lightfoot shows you how. Perhaps you still have favorite childhood dolls or have been gifted with a doll or inherited one from a relative or friend. Many people are extremely attached to one or more dolls—this book teaches you how to take that attachment to the next level.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Najah Lightfoot is the award-winning author of Powerful Juju and Good Juju. A prolific writer, she has contributed to many publications, including Taschen’s Witchcraft: The Library of Esoterica, Volume 3. Najah’s magickal staff is a part of the permanent collection of the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick in Cleveland, Ohio. Najah is an in-demand speaker for conferences, events, and workshops. She lives in Denver, Colorado, where the blue skies and the power of the Rocky Mountains uplift and fill her soul.
WHAT I LOVED
After listening to the first part via audiobook on YouTube, I was intrigued and wanted a physical copy of The Spiritual Magic of Dolls right away! The first few chapters were interesting and very insightful. Lightfoot made me think about dolls in a different way, especially the strange, obscure dolls that many shudder at. Despite being a doll collector, I’m also aware that dolls may not be everyone’s cup of tea. I myself don’t particularly love every doll I come across. However, this book made me feel empathy for all sorts of dolls. The creepy, the old, the forgotten dolls, etc. It’s no wonder that some of these dolls end up becoming haunted! Imagine being a loved doll for so many years and then eventually getting left behind as your child ages, only to be left to waste away. I mean, have you all seen Toy Story? It was very fascinating to read. I now look at all my childhood toys and trinkets through a different lens.
In one of the beginning chapters, Lightfoot shares a few of her favorite dolls and gives us the history of the dolls and how she came to obtain these unusual dolls. One of those lovely dolls is the doll on the cover, which is a Shindana Doll whose history is very interesting! The author’s personal doll stories on how they acquired their dolls were very entertaining. I personally loved the story about the doll she found on the sidewalk while she was driving that she had to turn her car around and parked just to pick up the doll! At the end of the book, there are also some doll stories from some of her readers, which I found endearing.
In terms of magic or magick, Lightfoot also explains how to properly bring home a new/used doll and how to integrate them into your space. She discusses how you should introduce your doll to your household members and to your other dolls, especially if they are a special doll. Malevolent and troublesome dolls are also brought up, and why some people have a strong aversion to these types of dolls with a lot of emotional baggage, and how to go about dealing with this type of doll. She even shares a ritual on how to initiate your new dolls and how to work with a doll if you wantto conjure up some magic!
The Spiritual Magic of Dolls led me to discover a lot of dolls who I knew nothing about and made me want to watch the referenced doll media that was mentioned throughout the book. I now have a whole list of doll media that I can’t wait to go through!
WHAT I DIDN’T LOVE
There wasn’t as much discussion about dolls or magic as I had expected. They did mention at the beginning of the book a few ways on how you can work with dolls and a ritual, but that was it! Where’s the magic? I kept asking myself this question. For a book called The Spiritual Magic Of Dolls, you would imagine it to be packed and loaded with magical doll knowledge, especially because this book is written by a magical practitioner with years of experience! So, yeah, I was disappointed with the lack of magic and dolls in a book that’s advertised to be about dolls and magic.
There is a chapter in the book called “Hollywood Dolls” and then the next chapter, “History of Dolls in Magick,” where the author continues to mention dolls in films. Why not mesh them together if you have more dolls in movies that you would’ve liked to add? When she went on to discuss Poppets in one of the chapters, she boasted about the film The Pirates of the Caribbean and the ride in Disneyland rather than explaining the history behind poppets and where they originated from, which I would’ve preferred. In fact, the only reason The Pirates of the Caribbean was brought up in the first place was that one of the characters in the films calls another character a “poppet,” what a stretch!
Lightfoot does this throughout her book and goes on tangents that were irrelevant to the main purpose of the topic. If the author enjoys films or travel, then they should write a book about Hollywood films or a travel diary rather than go on and on about it in a book that’s meant to be about magically working with your dolls? It just didn’t make sense to be. I felt that the subject matter was lost multiple times throughout The Spiritual Magic of Dolls. There would be multiple times when I had to quickly skim just to find how this story is related to dolls, and most of the time, it wouldn’t be until the last few sentences!
There are a few photos scattered throughout the book. However, they’re only in black and white. I’m not sure if this choice was intentional or just a way to opt out of using colored pictures and save money in printing. But I would’ve loved to see the dolls in all their colorful glory! However, this does give the book an eerie occultist vibe, which makes me wonder if this choice was indeed intentional! I wouldn’t say this is a flaw, but just a personal preference, as I love color. haha
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, I learned a lot from Najah Lightfoot about dolls from reading The Spiritual Magic of Dolls and despite it not being the best book about dolls I’ve read (but to be fair, I haven’t read much dolls book, yet!) it was written in a casual friendly tone and it’s like you’re having a conversion about dolls with a friend over a cup of tea and biscuits. There were a few chapters and stories I enjoyed, and this book made me think differently about dolls.
If you’re looking for a book about doll magic or advice on how to incorporate dolls into your magical practice, this isn’t it. The Spiritual Magic of Dolls is a book about someone’s love for dolls and their childhood nostalgia, who also happens to be a magical practitioner. I rated it a 3 out of 5 stars on my Goodreads.
You can purchase The Spiritual Magic of Dolls here
Have you read The Spiritual Magic of Doll?
