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A review by katietapestry
Besom, Stang & Sword: A Guide to Traditional Witchcraft, the Six-Fold Path & the Hidden Landscape by Christopher Orapello, Tara-Love Maguire
3.0
I was quite excited to read this one, as I am a long time fan of the author's podcast Down at the Crossroads. I want to give it a positive review. I quite liked it, but I had high expectations that were not met, especially due to the glowing reviews coming from the elite of online pagan community. If I could give a more nuanced star rating, it would be 3.5 stars.
It's a solid introduction to eclectic, traditional witchcraft that covers all of the basis of craft practice. The book attempts to cover every aspect of witchcraft in a relatively small volume, and unfortunately for me this meant there were a few chapters in the middle covering the basics of herbalism, magic, and divination that I skimmed through, having encountered the material many times before. I am sorry to say, that experienced practitioners will not get a lot out of this book.
The key advertised feature of this book is the focus on connecting with the local landscape - but I was disappointed in this regard, as I was hoping to learn more about the Pine Barrens of New Jersey and the distinguishing features of the authors' Blacktree Tradition. Instead, I felt I was reading a book about a tradition that was still being felt out, with ideas on locality and features such as the Blacktree itself that needed more clarification, or maybe just a bigger wordcount. Ideas on deity seemed sketchy, with a stated rejection of deity altogether but a focus on connection with The Witch Lord and Witch Queen that felt pretty binary and similar to how a lot of witches would relate to 'deity' anyway. Some topics dropped a lot of interesting lore, but how it connected with the tradition was not always clear. Often the book would spend time on stating what it was not, rather than what it was - a characteristic I find in a lot of online discourse to do with 'Traditional' Witchcraft.
This makes it an excellent introductory text as it could act as a stepping stone for those wanting to follow a similar path who have not yet begun their practice. At the end of each chapter is a decent reading list which both reveals the authors' inspirations as well as good further reading on the topics presented. I also really enjoyed the illustrations at the beginning of each chapter which revealed as much to me, I felt, as the chapters themselves about the feel of the Blacktree Tradition. The lunar calendar in particular was inspiring, and I hope this encourages more newbies to stop parroting culturally appropriated moon names and create their own relationship with cycles and the seasons.
The pocket sized broadness of varying topics reminded me of Scott Cunningham's Wicca - but an edgier version that's read a bit of Chumbley, Gemma Gary and Sarah Ann Lawless blogs. If a baby witch wanted a recommendation for a good book for beginners, and they've expressed an interest in something modern and eclectic that incorporates folklore, this would go on the list from me.
It's a solid introduction to eclectic, traditional witchcraft that covers all of the basis of craft practice. The book attempts to cover every aspect of witchcraft in a relatively small volume, and unfortunately for me this meant there were a few chapters in the middle covering the basics of herbalism, magic, and divination that I skimmed through, having encountered the material many times before. I am sorry to say, that experienced practitioners will not get a lot out of this book.
The key advertised feature of this book is the focus on connecting with the local landscape - but I was disappointed in this regard, as I was hoping to learn more about the Pine Barrens of New Jersey and the distinguishing features of the authors' Blacktree Tradition. Instead, I felt I was reading a book about a tradition that was still being felt out, with ideas on locality and features such as the Blacktree itself that needed more clarification, or maybe just a bigger wordcount. Ideas on deity seemed sketchy, with a stated rejection of deity altogether but a focus on connection with The Witch Lord and Witch Queen that felt pretty binary and similar to how a lot of witches would relate to 'deity' anyway. Some topics dropped a lot of interesting lore, but how it connected with the tradition was not always clear. Often the book would spend time on stating what it was not, rather than what it was - a characteristic I find in a lot of online discourse to do with 'Traditional' Witchcraft.
This makes it an excellent introductory text as it could act as a stepping stone for those wanting to follow a similar path who have not yet begun their practice. At the end of each chapter is a decent reading list which both reveals the authors' inspirations as well as good further reading on the topics presented. I also really enjoyed the illustrations at the beginning of each chapter which revealed as much to me, I felt, as the chapters themselves about the feel of the Blacktree Tradition. The lunar calendar in particular was inspiring, and I hope this encourages more newbies to stop parroting culturally appropriated moon names and create their own relationship with cycles and the seasons.
The pocket sized broadness of varying topics reminded me of Scott Cunningham's Wicca - but an edgier version that's read a bit of Chumbley, Gemma Gary and Sarah Ann Lawless blogs. If a baby witch wanted a recommendation for a good book for beginners, and they've expressed an interest in something modern and eclectic that incorporates folklore, this would go on the list from me.