Customer Reviews

The Gay Wicca Book

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When I first came across the title "The Gay Wicca Book" by Bruce K. Wilborn three months prior to the books release date, I was excited with the possibility of a Wiccan book for of the gay and lesbian community. I preordered the book and was happy to see it arrive at my door three months later, but my joy was quickly replaced with consternation and disappointment as I began read it. Apparently, what I (and many other readers) thought was a Wiccan book for gay and lesbian practitioners is actually nothing more than just one more beginner's "Wicca 101" book, and not a particularly good one at that. As I read through its 21 chapters hoping to find anything remotely close to what the book's title implies, I found very little of any real value.

Sadly, what the book does contain is often too condensed to be of much use for a beginner, and nothing new is presented that an experienced Wiccan wouldn't already know. In fact, the number of pages in many of the book's 21 chapters can be counted with one hand. The shortest chapter, which is entitled "Philosophy", is only one paragraph long on a single page. The "History" chapter is about 5 pages long. The average number of pages for each of the first 20 chapters is about 9 pages, but the last chapter entitled "Celebrating the Sabbats" is a whopping 63 pages. Here, the author spends time describing each Sabbat that includes a ritual for each. However, for a beginner who might be solitary, the rituals are for groups or covens; and there is nothing in the descriptions specifically for gay and lesbian practitioners. If the beginner is a coven initiate, it is likely that the coven would have a prescribed list of books for the initiate to read that may or may not (probably not) include this book.

The author does mention that he and his partner are gay, but that's the about the extent of what this book mentions for gay and lesbian practitioners. A better title for this book would have been "Condensed Beginner's Wicca For Anyone, As Described by a Gay Wiccan". Consequently, I can only rate "The Gay Wicca Book" with 1 star.

If you are looking for a Wiccan book specifically geared towards gay and lesbian practitioners, I recommend "Gay Witchcraft: Empowering the Tribe" by Christopher Penczak. If you are a beginner, there are many excellent books available that are much better than "The Gay Wicca Book" such as "To Ride a Silver Broomstick: New Generation Witchcraft" by Silver Ravenwolf, "Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner" by Scott Cunningham, "The Inner Temple of Witchcraft: Magick, Meditation and Psychic Development" by Christopher Penczak and "The Spiral Dance" by Starhawk.

Men, why didnt I belive the reviews. Sometimes you still wanna try it out. This book has nothing to do with gay witchcraft. Its a general introduction into Wicca and therefor there are plenty of better books on the market. It doesnt reveal anything new to the gay practitioner and neither to other witches with a little bit of knowledge. If it wouldnt have this faked title, probably one could review it a little bit better (3 Stars) as a general guide into the Craft but so, one feels simply cheated. What a chance lost.....

I have to concur with the other reviewers. Just take your other Wicca 101 books and every once in a while say "And gay people can do this too" and you will have everything this book has to offer. It seemed almost as if he wrote a regular Wicca 101 and then sprinkled things in randomly once it had been finished. Gay Witchcraft by Christopher Penczak looks much more promising.

This really is just another of the myriad of Wicca 101 books that are out on the market. ... The information in here is nothing that you can't find in any other book that is an introduction to Wicca. The saddest part is that the title would lead you to believe that the author is going to take up the concept of gay spirituality and look at Wicca for a GLBT perspective. There are a lot of ways he could have done this. The role of homoertocism and gender variance in the history of Paganism and Wicca. Gay archetypes. Queer frienly deities. Gay energy. None of these issues are addressed. This book is a major letdown.

I had high hopes when I first picked up this book. The gay Pagan community has had a few good authors over the years (Arthur Evans, Randy Conner, and Will Roscoe come to mind), but we have not yet had a text that speaks to us specifically regarding Pagan ritual practices. Unfortunately, this book did not live up to the expectations engendered by the promise of its title. It instead ended up being yet another in a long line of Wicca 101books with very little information on the distinct issues LGBT people bring to the table. By attempting to appeal to the widest possible audience (this "gay" book is also "for heterosexuals looking for an accessible introduction to the Wiccan tradition"), the author lost a unique opportunity to provide a tome of real benefit to the gay community. A pity. There are other problems with the book. For example, the history section still relies on the myth of survival and the myth of the Burning Times, both of which have been discredited by serious scholars, Pagan and mundane alike. The author has also reduced the Wiccan Laws to four "laws," which is bound to rub not a few Traditionalists the wrong way. And he makes some unlikely generalizations, such as that gays are overwhelmingly accepted in the Craft community today. This ignores some remaining deep-seated homophobia (see Ventimiglia's "Wiccan Rede" for an example), including the dismissal of queer covens as not "authentic." And while queer Wiccans may have an easier time of it in the US, there continues to be some resistance from Traditionalists in the UK. In closing, I would recommend that the potential reader to buy a used copy of "Blossom of Bone" if s/he wants to get a flavor of how queer Pagan worship has been in the past and could yet be.