Reviews

What We Knew in the Night: Reawakening the Heart of Witchcraft by Raven Grimassi, Deidra Catero

carriedbythecosmos's review against another edition

2.0

I read more than half of this but ultimately set it aside for books I wanted to read. This book places itself as one that is retelling history and practices that have long been forgotten to modern witches but the idea of this is just false. The author talks about witchcraft as this one thing, and the lack of power in some modern witches as stemming from forgetting to follow passed down traditions and practices that are 100% necessary to fully embrace your power. By the second chapter, I really understood that this was a book for New England witches and possibly Wiccans.

This book makes the huge mistake of completely ignoring so many practices that alter as time changes because they've had to acclimate to survive. These practices ignore the changing geography and setting of our world, and in a way just makes you feel guilty or less than if you don't do these things exactly like the author's path was. It makes it seem as though you will not reach your full capabilities as a witch without these steps.

But I simply don't buy it. I gave it two stars because I could see some of the practices being empowering but all in all this just isn't a book for my journey. Also, placing yourself as an authority on all witchcraft without stipulating that you mean all New England traditions or Wiccan traditions sets up readers with false expectations.

amyct's review against another edition

2.0

Did not enjoy this book, however I powered through to attempt to uncover the knowledge behind the arrogance. I do not like being told what to do as a person or a reader, and did not enjoy being told at the beginning how I should read this book. I tried very hard to regard the sexism as his historical recounting instead of as a personal view, however it became harder and harder to do so.

mslundstrum's review

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

I found this book interesting to read, but I found there were some elements that just weren't for me. I appreciated that this was essentially the authors own traditions, probably created and cultivated within his lifetime (he passed last year), I found his lack of reference within the text to be a little...annoying. Though he did make his references known at the end of the chapter, I would have liked footnotes explaining his reasons for his statements. I didn't get a whole lot of why about his beliefs within this tradition, why he felt the way he did, just a lot of what he believed and felt. Which is fine, and may be fine for others. But I guess I was looking for some sort of look into the Grimassi's mind on how he came to these decisions. Maybe its in his other works, which I will check out eventually. It was well written, very heartfelt, and I liked his interpretation of ritual. But I don't think the tradition it for me, specifically.