Everyday Enchantments: Musings on Ordinary Magic & Daily Conjurings by Maria DeBlassie – Review by Jennifer Gordon

Everyday Enchantments: Musings on Ordinary Magic & Daily Conjurings by Maria DeBlassie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Both inspirational and empowering ‘Everyday Enchantments: Musings on Ordinary Magic & Daily Conjurings’ by Maria DeBlassie is an original and unique non fiction book. It had me intrigued from the front cover and by it’s title and by the time I had read through the chapter headings I was hooked. The novel consists of a collection of varied essays written by the author, each essay is designed to inspire the reader to look at life and the everyday things in a different light. The essays remind us to escape into the ordinary, and to find beauty in a simple cup of coffee or in the rereading of a favourite novel. The book is a “study in what it means to live deliciously, joyfully, magically”, and “it’s an invitation to conjure your own bliss”.
I don’t think there could be a better time to be reading this book as the population as a whole is dealing with and living with the dreaded Coronavirus and are all in various stages of ‘lockdown’. Myself and my family due to ill health have been in ‘Shielding’ here in the UK since March so, if ever there was a time or a need to have, a “little more magic in our lives”, I think it’s now.
Even though I had never heard the term ‘natural mysticism’ before, I read this book with an open mind and I think any reader who does the same will benefit in some way from reading this book. I think every reader will find a particular chapter more or less appealing to them and will find more meaning in one essay than another, making reading this book a personal experience. I particularly liked the chapter, ‘The Bookshelf’ and the chapter titled, ‘Letting Go Of Past Lives’ I found particularly poignant personally.
This is a book that you can pick up and put down, you can either read it a chapter at a time or swallow it whole, I have also found myself returning to it and flicking to a particular chapter to read it again. It’s definitely made me think and it’s also made me smile, before I read this book I would have said that I didn’t really believe in magic but now I think, as DeBlassie, says, “we all need a little magic in our lives”.

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