Scan barcode
briarsandbramble's review
5.0
My mom had this book when I was younger. High school maybe? I bought it in a moment of yearning to re-live a part of my life I missed. I tried reading it repeatedly but was too tired always. I finally pushed through this month and I’m glad I did. It’s a great beginner book but even I found good tips in it. The correspondences in the back of the book are great and make it a nice reverence book. I’m honestly surprised I never see this author suggested to beginners whereas people are quick to suggest Scott Cunningham for pretty much everything. Her writing is detailed and offers tips and tricks that are generally useful. The only thing I really disliked was the: “well my mom taught me this but she wasn’t Wiccan” mentioned repeatedly but I see that if I wrote a book about a topic I knew a lot about I would likely mention family or friends often as well and let it slide. I’m honestly curious where her family teachings stem as they are close to Wicca/Neo-Paganism. Universal truths or did her mom or grandma have some connection to the roots of Wicca? I have no idea but I kept wondering every time she mentioned her family. She also suggested MINERAL OIL as one of the carriers for herbal oils and the section on herbal oils was short and suggested getting another book on it. I remember this being a thing when I was younger so I’m sure it wasn’t just her. She redeemed herself by suggesting looking into medicinal herbalism and the safety of herbs before ingesting them in her tea/tisane section. I wish there was a little more green witchcraft in this book other than small suggestions and correspondences but she has a whole series of books that act like courses for this that I want to get as well. So it makes it a more complete experience once you’ve gone through it all I’m told. I gave it five stars despite the few issues and some “take it with a grain of salt” sections. I think at the time it was published around 18 years ago it would have been absolutely fantastic. Now, a lot of this can be found online in bits and pieces. Perhaps even directly copied from this book. I’m looking at you Tumblr!
More...