I'm happy to welcome the lovely Kirsten Weiss author of The Infernal Detective, here to Unraveling Words!
Series: Riga Hayworth Book Four
Author: Kirsten Weiss
Publication Date: May 4, 2013
When Riga Hayworth finds a dead body in her bedroom a week before her wedding, it’s par for the course. When the corpse drives off with her fiancée… That’s a problem.
Riga knows dead. More intimately than she’d like. So when a murdered photographer gets up and walks away, she’s believes there’s necromancy afoot. And when she discovers that several of her wedding guests are under the influence of dark magic, she’s certain. But how can she catch a killer and stop a necromancer when even her nearest and dearest are lying to her?
Murder. The undead. Irritating relatives. The Infernal Detective is a fast-paced, paranormal mystery, where nothing is quite as it seems, and magic lies just beyond the veil.
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About the Author
Kirsten Weiss is the author of the Riga Hayworth series of paranormal mysteries: the urban fantasy, The Metaphysical Detective, The Alchemical Detective, The Shamanic Detective, and The Infernal Detective.
Kirsten worked overseas for nearly fourteen years, in the fringes of the former USSR and deep in the Afghan war zone. Her experiences abroad not only gave her glimpses into the darker side of human nature, but also sparked an interest in the effects of mysticism and mythology, and how both are woven into our daily lives.
Now based in San Mateo, CA, she writes paranormal mysteries, blending her experiences and imagination to create a vivid world of magic and mayhem.
I confess. One of the best things about writing paranormal mystery novels is the research. And lately, my research has been heavy on spell casting.
A spell is a ritual believed to have magical force. The spoken part of the spell is the incantation. But it’s generally believed that the words and the ritual don’t in themselves create the magical force – it’s the intention behind them, intention built and amplified by the ritual.
Typically, a spell caster will start by psychically “clearing” the space and creating a protective barrier for the work. Then the incantation will be chanted, the spell worker will focus on the intent of the spell, and other props or ingredients, such as candles or items representing the elements, may be used to further charge the intention.
Still, no one really knows how spells work, though there are plenty of theories. The psychologically-minded believe that the spell actually changes the caster’s own behavior, and once her behavior changes, the people and things she interacts with react differently to her. She changes, and so does her world.
Then there is quantum physics, which tells us that the observer’s beliefs and expectations affect the outcome – at least on a sub-atomic level. Do a spell-caster’s belief and intention, as amplified by the ritual, have a magical effect at a molecular level?
Dr. Masaru Emoto believed that water might respond to non-physical events. As an experiment, he printed out words and taped them onto bottles of distilled water, leaving them out overnight to see if the structure of the water molecules changed. Photographs taken of the water the next day showed that they did –loving words created gorgeous snow-flake molecule patterns. However, Dr. Emoto concluded that it was his thoughts and intentions that affected the molecules; the words were just the medium.
And speaking of water, in The Infernal Detective, Dead Sea salts are used to break a negative contact and stop a psychic attack. Historically, both water and salt have been used for purification and to block evil (evil spirits are believed not to be able to cross running water). The spell in the final version of my book is simple: intention plus a bath with the salts. But for my first draft, I did dig up an actual spell to cast off any icky energy that might be clinging to you:
Ingredients: Hot bath, 1 Cup Epson or Dead Sea salts and 1 Cup baking soda
Ritual: Hold your right hand over the bath salts and imagine purifying light pouring into them. Pour the salts into the bath and get in. As you pour the water over your body, say:
As this water washes over me
I break contact with all negativity
And visualize yourself surrounded by a purifying white light.
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Giveaway
I think that if you are a true believer and are into it then you can cast a spell.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'd like to think so as well :)
ReplyDelete