Dolnick, Barrie 1960-

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DOLNICK, Barrie 1960-

PERSONAL:

Born June 17, 1960. Education: University of Wisconsin, degree in business administration.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Harmony Books, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. E-mail—execmystic@aol.com.

CAREER:

Writer, consultant, astrologer, and tarot card reader. Worked in marketing in London, England, and New York, NY; founder of Executive Mystic Services, 1993.

WRITINGS:

Simple Spells for Love: Ancient Practices for Emotional Fulfillment, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 1994.

Simple Spells for Success: Ancient Practices for Creating Abundance and Prosperity, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Julia Condon and Donna Limoges) Sexual Bewitchery: And Other Ancient Feminine Wiles, illustrated by Julia Condon, Avon Books (New York, NY), 1998.

The Executive Mystic: Psychic Power Tools for Success, HarperBusiness (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Donald Baack) How to Write a Love Letter: Putting What's in Your Heart on Paper, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Simple Spells for Hearth and Home: Ancient Practices for Creating Harmony, Peace, and Abundance, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 2000.

(Illustrator) Vivienne Flesher, Zodiac Memory Book of Days, Galison Books, 2001.

Instructions for Your Discontent: How Bad Times Can Make Life Better, foreword by Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance Press/Scribner (New York, NY), 2003.

Minerva Rules Your Future: Goddess-Given Advice for Smart Moves at Work, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 2003.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Astrobabe: The Planetary Powers of Romance; Dreambabe: Understanding Dreams—and Using Them to Make Your Dreams Come True; Karmababe: Deciphering Your Karmic Code for Your Best Possible Life.

SIDELIGHTS:

As a child, Barrie Dolnick was told she had psychic powers, an idea she rejected for many years before she investigated alternative methods of achieving happiness and success. In the meantime, she earned a business degree and spent years in marketing in both London and New York City. Finding her life unfulfilling, Dolnick responded to a friend's suggestion that she meet with a respected metaphysics teacher, which she did, changing Dolnick's life forever. She effectively blended her business skills with astrology, tarot card reading, and other occult and nontraditional methods in assisting hundreds of clients through her Executive Mystic Services.

Dolnick has also written a number of bestsellers, including Simple Spells for Love: Ancient Practices for Emotional Fulfillment. The book offers "recipes for romance," noted Ralph Novak in People, and as Patricia Monaghan commented in Booklist, there are "excellent chapters" that address how one's own self-esteem transfers to others and how one should allow time between relationships. Monaghan also pointed out Dolnick's observation that love often comes in unexpected ways.

Dolnick shows that spells are not just for love with her Simple Spells for Success: Ancient Practices for Creating Abundance and Prosperity. The volume includes forty spells, and each chapter begins with a personal story. The author proposes that although readers should set goals, they would be wise not make them too rigid. She writes that it is belief in a greater energy that creates success. Rapport's Lisa McKevitt said that the book "is well-penned, easy-to-follow, and pleasing to the eye, as well. And the premise hits a note of truth."

The office supplies list in The Executive Mystic: Psychic Power Tools for Success consist of spells, amulets, herbs, feng shui, crystals, dream interpretation, the use of tarot and astrology, and understanding the influence of the moon and the colors that one wears. The volume includes chapters on power animals, psychic dreamscapes, and zodiac archetypes. Of this work, Jilly Welch wrote in a review for People Management that Dolnick's views are that "properly harnessed energy can help people visualize successes, enhance their self-confidence, protect them from the office's 'emotional toxicity,' and relate their job to a wider concept of fate and meaning." Welch noted that many of Dolnick's suggestions are "rooted in a common-sense understanding of people's motivation and feelings that deserve more attention in a business world that is too locked in to capitalist ideas of success and happiness." But Welch added that such terms as "the seeing eye" and "karma" would be more acceptable to the business world if they were called by their more mainstream names, intuition and emotional responsibility, respectively.

In Minerva Rules Your Future: Goddess-Given Advice for Smart Moves at Work, Dolnick suggests that business people invoke the deity in times of need, which Library Journal contributor Graham Christian saw as "appealing … especially for those who are not comfortable putting Jesus in that role." The book instructs the reader on using the sun and moon signs to understand talents of which they are unaware and drawing on the essential elements of earth, fire, air, and water for strength and direction.

Dolnick has written other books that advise on the writing of love letters and using spells to enhance the place in which one lives. She continues to write her self-improvement books for those who wish to improve their lives, loves, and careers.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Across the Board, April, 1998, Matthew Budman, review of The Executive Mystic: Psychic Power Tools for Success.

Booklist, February 15, 1995, Patricia Monaghan, review of Simple Spells for Love: Ancient Practices for Emotional Fulfillment, p. 1037; February 15, 1996, Barbara Jacobs, review of Simple Spells for Success: Ancient Practices for Creating Abundance and Prosperity, p. 971; February 1, 1998, David Rouse, review of The Executive Mystic, p. 885.

Library Journal, May 1, 2003, Graham Christian, review of Minerva Rules Your Future: Goddess-Given Advice for Smart Moves at Work, p. 122.

People, February 13, 1995, Ralph Novak, review of Simple Spells for Love, p. 36.

People Management, November 26, 1998, Jilly Welch, review of The Executive Mystic.

Rapport, April, 1996, Lisa McKevitt, review of Simple Spells for Success, pp. 18-21.