The Book of English Magic

Magic runs through the veins of English history and culture; it has been part of our daily lives from the earliest Arthurian legends to the novels of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and from the Druids to Queen Elizabeth I's astrologer Dr Dee. Yet torn between a fascination with magic and an almost instinctive fear of it, most people have no idea of the central role magic has played in England's past - and still plays today.

Through experiments to try and places to visit, as well as an historical exploration of magic and interviews with leading magicians, The Book of English Magic will introduce you to the extraordinary world that lies just beneath the surface of our everyday lives.

• Learn the Druid tree alphabet

• How to plot a ley line

• How to dowse for water

• How to cast an Anglo-Saxon rune

• How to perform a spell with candle magic

• Learn about alchemy

• Make a herbal remedy

Philip Carr-Gomm was born in London, raised in Notting Hill Gate, and educated at Westminster School and University College London.

He met his first spiritual teacher, Ross Nichols, the founder of The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids, when he was 11. He began studying with him when a teenager, and joined the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids at 18. He studied meditation with Olivia Robertson in Ireland, who later founded the Fellowship of Isis, and in his twenties he founded The Esoteric Society in London, which organised journeys for members to Bulgaria and Egypt, and hosted talks by well-known authors such as Gareth Knight, W. E. Butler, and Arthur Guirdham.

In 1975 his Druid teacher died, and he followed a Bulgarian teacher, Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov for seven years, giving talks on his teachings and helping with the translation and publishing of his books into English. He also travelled to Bulgaria and studied the work of Aivanhov’s teacher, Peter Deunov, visiting Sofia annually for fourteen years, teaching Deunov’s Paneurhythmy dance in England and at Findhorn in Scotland. In his thirties he turned to a study of psychology, taking a BSc degree at University College London and Jungian analysis, with plans to become an analyst. On discovering Psychosynthesis, he trained instead as a therapist at the Institute of Psychosynthesis in London and began a private practice.

In 1988 he was asked to lead the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. He organised the Order’s teachings into a distance-learning course, and edited his teacher’s book with John Matthews. Since that time, the Order has grown to become the largest Druid teaching order in the world.