boopointeshoes's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
4.75
librarian_nic's review against another edition
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
cryptidbf's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Overall this is a pretty helpful book for fighting for your rights. However, I would like to add that the author seems to not talk about cultural appropriation and closed practices very much. She uses smudging but doesn’t acknowledge that its a closed practice and works with hoodoo/voodoo. She says that witches like circles because we associate it with female genitalia and feminity which is simply not true. Despite that there’s some helpful rituals and spells inside.
leiaslegacy84's review against another edition
4.0
A fun and engaging intro-level look at inclusive, feminist witchcraft, which I as a beginner appreciated. It offers many options on how to create a spiritual practice that feels right for you and includes the voices of women and femmes from many traditions. I appreciated that like many newer, more socially-conscious witch resources, it emphasizes the importance of not appropriating from closed practices like Indigenous American traditions (i.e. using sage to purify the space), voudou, candomble and the like. It is not terribly in-depth but is an excellent jumping-off point on your way to discover more.
leahrosereads's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
This was a pretty fascinating witchy book. There were definitely some great takeaways here that I'll be able to use in my own practice.
I didn't like the ABC aspect here and felt the ideas were all over the place here.
I didn't like the ABC aspect here and felt the ideas were all over the place here.
holmesstorybooks's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this one!
I liked the spells and the layout. I really liked the illustrations as well. I don’t generally like hexes for my own personal practice, but I did appreciate the collective or communal nature of this book. The author invites lots of other practitioners to contribute their own spells and so by the end of the book, you have 20-something spells by lots of different people, and, in a way, if you are a solitary witch, you have your own coven.
I found lots of people’s books, zines and talks to listen to or read as a result of this, which I appreciate sometimes more than the book itself. I found this was a little light in its tone, a little easier than I wanted it to be. I wanted more grit, or more depth, or more explanations for each chapter, but it still feels like a good beginning.
It seems witchcraft books only fall into one of two categories. Absolute beginner, or super difficult to read and digest text. I love that the author acknowledges that feminism, white supremacy and other social justice issues are inexplicably linked to witchcraft. This isn’t super preachy, it gave me a lot of solidarity and a lot of joy to read. I read one ‘letter’ of the witchcraft alphabet a night and found it best to savour it.
The other thing that I found a little inaccessible for me was a lot of the spells referenced African voodoo or Santeria type spells. As someone that is trying to be as ethical as possible, to stay in their lane and not appropriate marginalised cultures who often had their sacred practices outlawed or compromised in some way, usually by archaic laws, some of these spells don’t really fit my practice. But that’s okay! They don’t have to. I love that this book exists and I don’t want it to change or fit me personally in any way, but some of the spells I just won’t use.
I’m curious to read more of the author’s work.
I liked the spells and the layout. I really liked the illustrations as well. I don’t generally like hexes for my own personal practice, but I did appreciate the collective or communal nature of this book. The author invites lots of other practitioners to contribute their own spells and so by the end of the book, you have 20-something spells by lots of different people, and, in a way, if you are a solitary witch, you have your own coven.
I found lots of people’s books, zines and talks to listen to or read as a result of this, which I appreciate sometimes more than the book itself. I found this was a little light in its tone, a little easier than I wanted it to be. I wanted more grit, or more depth, or more explanations for each chapter, but it still feels like a good beginning.
It seems witchcraft books only fall into one of two categories. Absolute beginner, or super difficult to read and digest text. I love that the author acknowledges that feminism, white supremacy and other social justice issues are inexplicably linked to witchcraft. This isn’t super preachy, it gave me a lot of solidarity and a lot of joy to read. I read one ‘letter’ of the witchcraft alphabet a night and found it best to savour it.
The other thing that I found a little inaccessible for me was a lot of the spells referenced African voodoo or Santeria type spells. As someone that is trying to be as ethical as possible, to stay in their lane and not appropriate marginalised cultures who often had their sacred practices outlawed or compromised in some way, usually by archaic laws, some of these spells don’t really fit my practice. But that’s okay! They don’t have to. I love that this book exists and I don’t want it to change or fit me personally in any way, but some of the spells I just won’t use.
I’m curious to read more of the author’s work.
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