Customer Reviews

Family Wicca: Revised and Expanded Edition

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I just got done reading the book Family Wicca: Practical Paganism for Parents and Children (the revised and expanded edition) by Ashleen O'Gaea. While the book was not exactly how I thought it was going to be as far as giving pointers on how to raise your children as Pagan.....it became so much more than that to me. I absolutly loved this book! It gave great ideas of what families can do to celebrate the Sabbats and Esbats (Which Mrs. O'Gaea refers to as Suns and Moons) together as well as celebrating passages in life such as...coming of age, Croning, Dedication, and Death. I also find this book a valubale asset for any "family" such as a Practicing group, or Coven. As a matter of fact I have gotten some great ideas of things to do with the Coven I belong to, and would love to do the Queening ritual for the Women's Mysteries group I am in.

The book also deals with some spiritual questions children might ask, and gives pointers on how to go about answering them. There is alot of talk about morals and ethics throughout, which I think is very important. The author also gave alot of personal antecdotes on her past expierences in raising her child on the Wiccan path. (who is grown now, and is no longer Wiccan)

Another great point the author brings up in this book was that even if you raise your child in a Pagan tradition, they may not choose to be Pagan when they are an adult....and that's OK. It's a lesson that tells me the religion the child chooses to follow is no big deal because at least the parent raised them with the best of intentions and instilled a good moral and ethical foundation in that child.

I found out that this same author has another book called Raising Witches: Teaching the Wiccan faith to Children That book goes more indepth on how to teach your children. It has a Wiccan Curriculim for 5 different age groups. The book talks about how children grow and learn so one can teach thier children what is appropriate for thier age level. And I am shure those that aren't specifically Wican can benefit from this book as well, adapting things to suit thier particualr Pagan path. I havent reas this one yet but will be ordering it on Amazon probably after I am done typing this.

In conclusion I have to say that I highly reccomend this book to not only Pagan families, but other types of families as well such as Pagan groups, and Covens. Kudos to you Ashleen O'Gaea, and thank you for blessing me with such wonderful words to read. May you and your family be blessed always!

~Kelly

This is a new and revised edition of the very popular book by this author. I even had a friend comment to me that she had seen this new version and wanted to know if I had read it.

Well, I did. While containing much of the older and basic material, there is much new.

The book approaches whole family practice, and the raising of a child in our belief system. It discusses social, magical, political topics and more, giving us a grounding in our own basic principles so we can easily pass these along to our children.

There is a basic outline of modern Wicca and the family, Sabbats, specifics to raising children in the Craft, answering those questions that you didn't think you could answer, rites of passage, Wheel of the year and more.

The first book was a very good and useful tool for the Wiccan family. This updated version still finds practical advices, good overviews of the practice and Ms. Ogaea's simple yet elegant writing style that makes this a good choice for anyone looking for a guidebook for bringing Wicca into a family practice. boudica

Since this book is titled "Family Wicca" it would seem natural that it would contain practical advice for the family who is studying/practicing Wicca. Maybe I missed something? What I got out of this was a lot of bashing on other faiths and religions in the name of "defending our faith". I felt that she went a bit over the top in trying to protect her child from others who may or may not understand Witches/Wicca which was exacerbated by her insistence that the school her child attended remove all "green warty witch images" during Halloween festivities. I don't make a big deal out of societies view of my religion. My children and I love the green warty witch images because they are meant to be caricatures, not actual representations. My youngest has begun asking questions that I try to answer the best I can, I am as open and honest as I can be with her. However, I was hoping this book would suggest some answers or possibilities when these questions arise. I want to raise my child to understand that this is the path that I have chosen, and doesn't necessarily have to be her path. The author does state that her child no longer practices their faith, I respect that he was given space to choose his own path. I guess I just missed the whole meaning of this book. While it did have it's good points, the author seemed rather preachy and didn't do well with explaining the Family aspect of Family Wicca. It felt more like a really long family newsletter that lacked any real practical application. I will just continue to search and in the mean time muddle through answering those questions as honestly and as best as I can.

The revised, expanded edition of Ashleen O'Gaea's FAMILY WICCA: PRACTICAL PAGANISM FOR PARENTS AND CHILDREN updates a decade-old classic, pairing a specifically Wiccan outlook with tips on family and kids which can be useful for Druids and other new age spirituality followers too. Ashleen O'Gaea is both priestess and mother: FAMILY WICCA comes from her own family experiences and provides answers to questions on faith and values.

This book, while promising to be chock full of information and helpful tips was the most unhelpful book I've ever read. It seemed to me that the author was bitter and missed the "old days" a bit too much. While I'm sure her life is NOT full of regret, it made me depressed to read it, and believe me, I suffered through the whole thing, hoping it would get better. I was disappointed.