Book Review: Metal Never Lies (Review by Edward Phipps)

Metal Never Lies is a book by Sam 'Bo' Thompson covering the use and manipulation of common metals. It starts by describing Sam's journey into learning about these metals from a complete novice to becoming an expert in blacksmithing and their magical metal application. We are surrounded by metal but how many of us think about what properties these metals possess? This fantastic book explains what Sam has learned about metals, learning with rudimentary tools going all the way to using professional blacksmithing supplies. What I find to be one of the best elements of this book is midway through when we are given the same tools that Sam started with. Many of these are made from common household items that we all have access to. As a magic practitioner I found all of this fascinating and enlightening. From beginning to end this book has everything anyone needs to start their journey in manipulating metal and using it to amplify pre-existing magic practices. Metal never lies should be a staple within anyone's magical library and ritual tool set. We are surrounded by metals. If we learn what they mean, how they can be augmented, Sam's sense of humor and easy going nature come through in his writing making it easy to read and comprehend. He has a way of simplifying the magical process to be easy to comprehend and follow. 10 out of 10 and added to my home library.

Informative Witchcraft Blogs

  • Celestial Contemplations: Energetic Astro-Report for May

    April arrived like a spark to dry tinder. She was fast-moving, fiery, and impossible to ignore. But May walks in with a different swag. This month invites us to slow down enough to notice what is growing, what is stabilizing, and what deserves our long-term devotion. With the grounded steadiness of Taurus blending into the quick-witted curiosity of Gemini, May encourages intentional movement over reactive change. It is less about chaos and more about conscious course correction. The keyword for May 2026 is REALIGNMENT.

    That said, May is not a quiet month. Between two Full Moons, Pluto turning retrograde, and several potent cosmic gateways, the energy remains intense and deeply transformative. If April felt like an unexpected punch to the gut, May offers the clarity, accountability, and perspective needed to understand how the fight began in the first place so that all parties can move towards resolution.

    It feels fitting that the month opens with the fire of Beltane and the emotional depths of a Scorpio Full Moon. This is a dramatic entrance, but a necessary one. By month’s end, a second Full Moon- a rare Blue Moon in Sagittarius- arrives to complete the story, asking us to release what no longer aligns- and step forward with greater truth.

    May 1 – Scorpio Full Moon + Beltane

    The month begins with a deep exploration of personal values, power, and emotional truth. The Scorpio Full Moon can bring breakthroughs, endings, closure, and revelations about what has been hidden beneath the surface. Intuitive people may receive powerful insights through dreams, synchronicities, or moments of sudden knowing.

    Collectively, there may be increased attention to themes of secrecy, financial entanglements, psychological insight, and systemic power structures. In Scorpio, hidden motivations become harder to conceal

    Scorpio asks us to examine the beliefs we hold about ourselves and the world. Which stories are still serving us? Which narratives were inherited through fear, shame, or survival? This Full Moon invites emotional honesty and the courage to reclaim power we may have unconsciously handed away. This is further amplified Mercury’s conjunction to Chiron- Today- words have the power alchemize to transform old wounds.

    Paired with Beltane, the ancient fire festival of fertility, desire, passion, and life force; the day carries potent energy for transformation, ritual, and renewal.

    May 2 – Mercury Enters Taurus

    After weeks of mentally fiery energy, Mercury’s move into Taurus helps communication become calmer, slower, and more grounded. Thoughts may feel steadier. Conversations become more practical. This transit supports making plans, organizing finances, and speaking with intention rather than urgency.

    Witch Tip: To channel the energy of Taurus throughout the month, carry a small stone, coin, or herb sachet in your pocket. Hold the chosen talisman and imagine yourself feeling grounded while making important decisions. Trust you will be held in safety no matter the outcome.

    May 4 – Mars in Aries Square Jupiter in Cancer

    This transit brings momentum, ambition, and emotional drive. For some, this transit may cause emotional volatility and defensiveness. There is motivation to act, but also the potential to overextend or react impulsively. Use the energy to move forward with confidence, but avoid pushing beyond your true capacity. Act from a place of care and compassion for yourself and others.

    Witch Tip: Before acting, place one hand on your heart and one on your belly. Ask: Is this urgency, or true readiness?

    May 6 – Pluto Retrograde in Aquarius

    Pluto, ruler of transformation, death and rebirth, power, and the subconscious, begins its retrograde in Aquarius. Over the next several months, we are invited into deep restructuring of power- both personally (internally) and collectively (externally).

    For many, this retrograde will highlight where growth has become stagnant, where old identities are no longer sustainable, and where dead weight must be pruned. Transformation begins to occur rapidly, but also becomes quieter, more internal. Over the next six months we will undergo a reorientation of power and truth. What has been externalized now asks to be met within. In Aquarius, themes of technology, AI, social systems, community dynamics, and collective progress may take center stage. Expect rapidly accelerating technology, consciousness, humanitarianism, and calls to reform for social good.

    Those with placements in Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius may feel this transit more strongly. Speak up for your needs from a place of grounded truth. You know what feels right.

    Witch Tip: Sweep your front door outward with intention. As you sweep, whisper: Only what aligns may remain.

    May 14 – Mercury Cazimi

    When Mercury aligns directly with the Sun, clarity often arrives. This can feel like a mental reset after confusion or uncertainty. Insights come quickly, communication sharpens, and decisions become easier to make. Pay attention to ideas, conversations, and revelations around this date. Today is likely to bring the highest point of clarity we will experience this month! Notice and pay attention. Remember, It’s all connected.

    Witch Tip: Keep a notebook nearby all day. Cazimi messages often arrive quickly and do not repeat themselves. You’ll want to remember the details of any sparks that come your way.

    May 15–17 – Algol Gateway

    As the Sun aligns with the fixed star Algol, themes of shadow work, feminine power, survival, and reclamation rise to the surface. Algol has historically been feared, but many modern astrologers understand it differently: not as evil, but as the strength born through transformation.

    Old anger, grief, betrayal, jealousy, or shame may emerge for healing. You may clearly see where you have tolerated disrespect, silenced yourself, or diminished your own authority.

    This energy can feel visceral. Stress may show up through tension, headaches, exhaustion, or emotional intensity. Conversations may become raw and revealing. Relationships built on suppression may feel strained.

    Algol asks an important question: What if your anger is not the problem, but a messenger? When honored consciously, rage can become boundaries, clarity, movement, art, activism, and change.

    Witch Tip: Place your palms on the earth or floor and exhale sharply three times. Let excess energy leave through the hands. Then ask: What boundary wants to be born through me?

    May 16 – Taurus New Moon (Mars Meets Chiron)

    This New Moon offers a welcome reset. After the emotional intensity of early May, Taurus invites us back into the body, into the senses, and into the long game. When Mars meets Chiron here; we are supported in healing from a place of embodiment.

    Witch Tip: Channel this energy by asking yourself, what makes my body feel safe? What makes my body feel present? Listen to your body and then do the thing.

    Themes of money, relationships, self-worth, and stability may arise. You may be faced with two paths forward and asked to choose the one that offers sustainability rather than immediate gratification. Slow choices made now can have lasting benefits.

    Witch Tip: The energy supports healing wounds and planting seeds today. So why not do the same in your magickal practice? Plant a seed- literal or symbolic. Write an intention on paper and bury it in soil. Water it as you nurture the goal.

    May 17 – Mercury Enters Gemini

    Mercury enters one of its home signs, increasing mental speed, curiosity, communication, and creative thinking. With Uranus involved, the energy becomes electric and innovative.

    Expect fresh ideas, unusual conversations, breakthroughs, and a desire to think outside the box. This is excellent energy for writing, networking, brainstorming, and solving problems in new ways.

    Witch Tip: Speak one affirmation aloud in the mirror three times. Gemini works through voice and vibration.

    May 17–18 – Venus and Mars Change Signs

    Mars enters Taurus while Venus enters Cancer, shifting the relational landscape significantly.

    Mars in Taurus slows the pace. Rather than charging ahead, we are asked to build steadily, protect our peace, and act with consistency. This can feel like a welcome relief after Mars in Aries intensity.

    Venus in Cancer softens the heart. Relationships may seek greater emotional safety, loyalty, and care. We may feel more sensitive, nurturing, and aware of our emotional needs.

    Together, these shifts support building trust, creating stability, and honoring boundaries around care and reciprocity.

    Tune in: What needs to be nourished in your life? What needs your attention/ intention? Where are you feeling called to love others?

    Witch Tip: Cook something nourishing for yourself or someone you love. Cancer’s cozy energy deeply supports kitchen/hearth magick- so this is a perfect way to channel and share the nurturing vibes.

    May 19–21 – Alcyone / Pleiades Gateway

    As the Sun aligns with Alcyone, one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades, a softer but deeply penetrating portal opens. This gateway is associated with intuition, ancestral connection, emotional truth, and shadow healing.

    If Sirius is considered a spiritual sun, Alcyone is often called the Shadow Sun—the light that reveals what has been hidden within us.

    This energy may arrive through dreams, tears, memories, synchronicities, and subtle inner knowing rather than dramatic external events. Old grief, abandonment wounds, shame, or sadness may surface to be witnessed and healed.

    Many people feel closer to ancestors, passed loved ones, guides, or unseen support during this gateway.

    Witch Tip: Place a glass of water beside your bed and ask for gentle guidance before sleep. In the morning, pour the water outside in gratitude.

    May 20 – Gemini Season Begins

    The Sun enters Gemini, shifting us from Taurus earth energy into mutable air. Life speeds up. Communication increases. Curiosity returns. Ideas begin circulating rapidly.

    Gemini season supports learning, writing, speaking, teaching, networking, travel, and creative collaboration. It also asks us to recognize duality within ourselves: body and soul, logic and intuition, human and divine.

    With Uranus strongly involved this season, many will be called to speak more authentically and live more honestly.

    Witch Tip: Pull one tarot card each morning and ask: What truth wants language today?

    May 26 – Mars in Taurus Square Pluto in Aquarius

    This can be a tense transit that exposes power struggles, frustration, or situations where we feel blocked. Yet pressure often creates breakthrough.

    If conflict arises, ask what deeper truth is trying to emerge. This energy can help us confront what has been avoided and finally move toward resolution. Transparency is required.

    Witch Tip: Do not force locked doors today. Ask instead which door is already opening.

    May 28 – Venus in Cancer Square Saturn in Aries

    Relationship and financial realities may come into focus. This transit asks for maturity, accountability, and clarity around what we truly value.

    Where something lacks reciprocity, structure, or commitment, it may become obvious now. Though challenging, this energy supports building healthier foundations.

    Witch Tip: Make a list titled: What I deserve in love and life. Read it aloud without apology.

    May 29–31 – Aldebaran Gateway / Silver Gate Portal

    As the Sun aligns with Aldebaran, one of the Royal Stars, a portal of heightened awareness opens. This gateway is associated with wisdom, integrity, sharpened intuition, and soul remembrance.

    Some traditions describe Aldebaran as a place of reflection between lifetimes- a threshold where the soul remembers its lessons and intentions.

    This can be a powerful time to reconnect with purpose, consult your Higher Self, and remember that even difficult experiences have shaped your path.

    Witch Tip: Stand beneath the night sky and ask one sincere question. Then listen over the next three days for the answer.

    End of May – Blue Moon in Sagittarius

    May closes with a rare second Full Moon in one calendar month: a Blue Moon in Sagittarius.

    This Full Moon brings culmination, release, truth, and expanded perspective. Something you have been working toward may complete. A chapter may close. You may feel ready to make a bold decision, take a leap of faith, or pursue a new horizon.

    Sagittarius reminds us that growth often requires courage, honesty, and movement.

    Witch Tip: Write what you are ready to outgrow on paper. Burn it safely beneath the moonlight, then scatter the ashes to the wind.

    Final Thoughts

    May asks us to slow down enough to hear ourselves clearly, then move forward with intention. It offers shadow work and healing, challenge and insight, endings and beginnings. It requires realignment and aligned action.

    You may feel pushed to make decisions you have been avoiding, release identities that no longer fit, and step beyond the comfort zone that once kept you safe.

    This month is here to help you grow.

     

    May Hekate Guide us at the Crossroads and illuminate the path ahead.

    And so it is.

    Continue reading
  • Prometheus, Bringer of Fire

    Prometheus, Bringer of Fire

    Fire energy is all around us as we move through the Aries season and welcome the fast-approaching summer season. Fire has been essential to human civilization since before we were even classified as homo-sapiens. The use of fire to cook food, make tools, and warm our homes distinguishes us from other animals. With fire energy comes creativity, innovation, and sometimes rebellion, as encapsulated in the mythology of Prometheus.

    Who is Prometheus?

    Prometheus is the Titan who, along with his brother, Epimetheus, aided in the creation of living beings on Earth. Prometheus would mold animals from clay, and Epimetheus would assign them special characteristics that enabled their survival. Epimetheus (whose name means “afterthought”) begins giving away traits to all other animals besides humans: wings to birds, courage to lions, and so on. 

    When Prometheus discovers his brother has given away all the useful traits, leaving nothing for humans, he is determined to find the greatest gift to give humans. Prometheus travels up to the heavens, lights a torch from the chariot of the Sun, and brings it back down to earth. With the gift of fire, humans derive a myriad of uses: forging tools and weapons to protect themselves and grow crops, keep warm in the cold, and bring light to the darkness. 

    As punishment for bringing fire to humans, Prometheus is chained to a rock and forced to endure an eternity of torture as an eagle (or vulture) is sent to peck out his continuously regenerating liver. Prometheus’s willingness to defy Zeus and sacrifice himself to bring fire to humans is what allowed humans to progress to the civilization we have today. 

    What does fire represent for us today?

    Fire is a force of both creation and destruction: when it scorches a woodland, it also makes room for new growth. Its forces are dynamic and transformative. In esoteric interpretation, fire represents gut instinct, passion, and willpower. Astrologically, the fire signs (Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius) are instinctually bold, expressive, and driven: they are often the rebels, artists, and leaders in society. In witchcraft, it is a tool for destruction, rebirth, manifestation, truth-seeking, purification, and banishment. 

    Prometheus may have brought us the physical element of fire, but luckily, you don’t necessarily need to use actual flames to call upon the element of fire in your spellcrafting. Using those powers of creation and innovation, we can find representations of fire all around us. A simple substitute may be a crystal like carnelian or red jasper (or any red crystal for that matter). An image, such as the Sun in a tarot deck, or a handcrafted sigil can be a good stand-in for fire energy. You can use a knife or any metal forged in a fire, even some gold jewelry would be an excellent representation of the element of fire. 

    To call upon fire energy is to seek the power of creation, boldness, and courage. Prometheus’s sacrifice and subsequent punishment show how important the gift of fire is to humans. In the same way that Poseidon controls the ocean and Zeus has the power of light, Humans have the power of fire. To create and destroy using fire is to exercise our own divinity. May we understand the weight of this gift and use it responsibly. How do you incorporate the divine power of fire into your own practice?

    Continue reading