Each page of Ancient Spells and Incantations holds verses adapted from text unearthed through extensive research—grimoires, letters, and trial transcripts from across the ages and around the world. Many of these were tucked away in university libraries not easily accessible even to one actively in search of them. Enid Baxter Ryce painstakingly researched this collection, finding fragments from across the centuries.
Translating some from Latin and Old English herself, Enid has made the spells accessible to today’s witches. What was once whispered or chanted, spiraling in cursive, or carved in stone, still echoes like a song. The words that survived connect us to that ancient magic, and we can feel the truth and power.
As we marvel at these ancient magical words, we think of our ancestors. Thanks to them, scraps of papyrus, shards of pottery, secret books, and hissed recipes can, hundreds of years later, still show themselves to those who seek them.
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Enid Baxter Ryce is a writer, artist, and filmmaker who has exhibited at museums internationally, including the National Gallery of Art, the Getty, and the Arnolfini. A descendant of three Salem witches, she comes from a long family history of natural magic practice. Enid has an MFA in visual arts and studied at Cooper Union, Yale University, and Claremont Graduate University. She won the Elizabeth Kray Prize from the Society for American Poets when she graduated from Cooper Union. Enid is currently working on the Getty Foundation Art x Science Initiative project “From the Ground Up: Nurturing Diversity in Hostile Environments,” a forward-looking ethnobotanical study undertaken as the basis of a forthcoming exhibition and an accompanying publication at Armory Center for the Arts. She is the community engagement director and a curator for the Philip Glass Center for Art, Science, and the Environment. Her latest film, War and the Weather, featuring the music of Philip Glass, premiered at the National Gallery of Art Theater in Washington, DC. Enid’s work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Artforum, ArtReview, the Los Angeles Times, and many other publications.
New Zealand