This book focusses on beginnings. The author is very thoughtful in laying out fundemental concerns a beginning practitioner should be honing in on, looking out for, and starting to explore. There are not, as some have noted, recipes and formulas, and parts of the book are perhaps dated. That said, there are plenty of other tomes written containing such things, and the thoughts nearly always remain accurate with the times if one bothers to open one's mind about the subject matter.
I had it rated as 5 stars, and elsewhere I think I may have rated it 4, so 4.5 seems fitting. The last half star is because it does become a reference book at times, and for beginnings that is not necessarily a good thing. I've read this over a span of years, and parts of it I have read many, many times. Namely because she does such a wonderful job breaking down the blunt aspects of practicing: be healthy, mind who you trust, learn yourself within and without... I just don't see many other works scratch the itch Amber scratches in some of these departments. ( )

The book has some very good practical exercises. The book is somewhat dated. ( )

The book emphasizes magic's spiritual potential over its practical application. I'm guessing this is why the book isn't much of a magical "cookbook"—the author hasn't spent much time writing up one-size-fits-all spells for you to chant thoughtlessly. But over the course of the entire book, this left me wishing Amber K would slow down on discussing ethics, improving your health, the three-part model of the self, balancing the elemental star, etc., and go into further detail on how to sense energies, more elementary practice on magical fundamentals, and so on. ( )

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0875420036/ref=nosim/002-3893804-8284851?n=2831... ( )