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Book Review of Wicca's Charm : Understanding the Spiritual Hunger Behind the Rise of Modern Witchcraft and Pagan Spirituality

tigerwren avatar reviewed on + 42 more book reviews


This one started out well. The author admits there is a problem with sexism and racism in the christian church. There is some hypocrisy in the pagan community when all the people she interviewed at different public rituals and festivals all say christianity has become so commercialized but then they are encouraged to buy crystals, tarot decks, crystal wands, mass produced incense, spell kits...All true.
After a couple chapters, it became clear, her research was just to go to public sabbat, get an attendee to tell her their weirdest experience in a coven but not why this was done this way. At a Beltane festival, two attendees are talking about a high-schooler who was whipped during her initiation into her parents coven. Since neither of the women telling the story use whippings in their practice, the author theorizes the initiates must want attention.
Near the middle, the author starts pushing parents to get their children counseling or studying the bible together, gentle at first but more insistent as the book goes along.
In the end, I threw it in the burn pile.