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I'm hanging off a cliff

Cliffhangers…love them or hate them? I just finished a book. This in itself is not overly interesting, what makes it interesting is that it ended in a cliffhanger. I had a feeling it was going to happen when at 91% nothing had been resolved. So what is a cliffhanger? Wikipedia explains a cliffhanger as a plot device used in fiction when a situation is unresolved or a character is in a…

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Those feelings when you don't like a book

What happens when you don’t like a popular book? What thoughts and feelings do you go through? Recently I finished reading Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. It has an average rating of 4.31 on StoryGraph and 4.23 on Goodreads. It’s been nominated for and won various awards. I have been recommended it on multiple occasions as a book people thought I would love. So what happened? My review Piranesi’s…

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Welcome to the Book Dragons

As I mentioned in my last blog post, a couple of friends and I started a book server on Discord. What started as three friends wanting a safe space to chill and discuss books has ended in a wonderful cosy space filled with fun and really awesome people. There are so many different ways to interact with people and chat about books. Whether it’s BookTok, Bookstagram, Facebook, Reddit, Discord, or…

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First quarter wrap up

How are we through the first quarter of 2024 already?!? It just does not seem plausible. It has been a hot minute since I’ve done any posting! Welcome back to Renae’s Ramblings! I have been berating myself recently for not having read as many books as I thought I should. Don’t worry, I have snapped myself out of it now. This post has been a big help in that. I finally realised that while the…

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Now for a discussion on refracted light

Because who doesn’t love a rainbow? Colour magic is one of those things you can employ on a daily basis. It is magic you can do quick and easily or take longer with and use it as part of more in-depth practise. I am going to focus more on low spoons colour magic in this post. What is colour magic? Colour magic is utilising the correspondences of various colours to manifest your…

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What is SASS Witchcraft?

You may have seen me mention SASS Witchcraft within the blog before and not know what it means. SASS stands for Sceptical, Agnostic/Atheist, Science Seeking. Witches who prescribe to this niche of witchcraft generally don’t believe in the supernatural properties of being a witch. To put it bluntly, they don’t believe in the “woo” aspect of the craft. SASS Witches are very interested in the…

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Book rating system

It’s no good me writing about and reviewing books when you have no idea what my system is! For all anyone knows a 1 star review for me might be something I’ve actually somewhat enjoyed! This is my general breakdown: ☆ – I thought it was really bad, I likely didn’t finish☆☆ – I finished it but I really didn’t enjoy it☆☆☆ – I enjoyed it, I may recommend it to someone with an interest in the…

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It's a technological world

There is no escaping the technological world. Due to this fact there are a few apps I use for my witchcraft practice. I wanted to highlight some I use and what I use them for. Is there any you use that I haven’t listed? Pop them in the comments so I can check them out! Moon Phase Calendar Moon Phase Calendar is a lovely and simple app which does exactly what it says, it tracks the moon. The…

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Better a witty fool that a foolish wit!

To be or not to be…I’m reading all of Shakespeare! Shakespeare has always been a passion of mine and something I am greatly interested in. I hate to admit it however, I haven’t read as much of his works as I would like. I am now working on changing that. This year I am going to start my great Shakespeare read! The plan is to read 12 plays (one a month) and all 154 sonnets. I am undertaking this…

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A Bookish Year in Review

I did it! I hit my goal!!! I had a goal this year of 30 books for 2023. In 2022 I read 22 books. I was really proud of that as in the last few years I haven’t been reading a hell of a lot. This year I have read a grand total of 50 books! I can’t believe I read that many. I can’t even begin to fathom how I got here. Let’s crunch some numbers I read a total of 55 books, 183% of my start of year…

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Intuition oracle deck, book and journal review

My problem with buying pretty things has struck again! I have had my eye on the Intuitions Oracle bundle for a long time. The artwork done by Craig Phillips is outstanding. I first saw the oracle deck in the local Whitcoulls and then happened across the bundle while looking at the Wildling website for books for my daughter (if you haven’t checked out the Aroha’s Way series before I highly…

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Chapter 7 in which Renae listens to Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Sophie Hatter is afflicted by a spell from the wicked Witch of the Waste which has turned her into an old woman. Sophie believes that the only way to be rid of this spell is to get into the castle which is moving about the hills of Market Chipping where the terrifying Wizard Howl resides. What transpires is a muddle of adventures and realisations that maybe Sophie isn’t all as she thinks she…

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Bookshelf Tour

I finally did it! I have cleaned out and rearranged my bookshelves and I’m mostly happy with it. I don’t have a specific organisational method for my shelving. I don’t have any kind rhyme or reason to the way my books are the way they. All I knew was I didn’t like them like this… The mess…it hurts!!! I’m not even going to show you what the smaller bookshelf looked like before hand I’m so…

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Terrific Tarot Tour

I like pretty pictures. I like these pretty pictures in card form. What this means is I have an abundance of Magic the Gathering cards without knowing how to play and a fair few tarot decks without knowing how to read the cards. I just love petty cards. Tarot is something I am working on however and is one of my birthday intentions for the year. I want to get to a point where I can read the…

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Book fairs are crazy!

Book fairs are fun and amazing and I love them but I have never been to one on this scale before. It was crazy! The Lions Club book fair in Tauranga is nothing short of amazing. It is billed as one of the biggest in the country. This was my first time attending and was in absolute awe and thoroughly overwhelmed at the amount of books. There were, quite literally, tens of thousands of books. The…

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Technically true.

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Swing goes the pendulum

I practise SASS (skeptical, atheist/agnostic, science seeking) Witchcraft and I use a pendulum in my craft a lot. I wanted to talk about using it from a SASS perspective and also give a bit of an outline of how I do it in case others are interested. I suppose you could call it secular pendulum work just as people refer to tarot as secular tarot. A pendulum can be literally any object. Blue…