Customer Reviews

Gay Witchcraft: Empowering the Tribe

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the best book I have ever read on Wicca and the key to unlocking this spirituality for me. I have been interested in Wicca and paganism for a long time and just sort of dabbled, but never got too involved. I even had pagan friends and went to pagan events, which were beautiful, but I could never seem to find my own connection. Most of the books I would pick up on paganism just didn't speak to me or seem too interesting, even though I felt Wicca to be closest to my own spiritual nature. I tried Dragon wicca and gothic wicca, and both left me cold. After moving to the Northwest last year, I discovered New Witch magazine at a local bookstore, which I think is a great publication! Ads in that magazine led me to this book, Gay Witchcraft. Christopher Penczak writes in a way that is very enjoyable and conversational as if he is sitting there speaking with you. He takes you through witchcraft in an enjoyable, step by step manner that brings everything together and gradually makes sense as part of the whole. I had always had a bit of misgiving about witchcraft because I had trouble believing there were zillions of deities just out there floating around in the sky somewhere. Now that I've been reading this book, I understand that isn't really what witches believe and have a clear understanding of how it all works. A good friend of mine who is pagan said I would know my path when I found a book that not only "clicked" with me, but that it should cover things like working with energy, grounding oneself, etc. This is the basis for the first part of the book, learning how to work with energy and get oneself in the right energetic state before even attempting to work on more complex things like spells. No wonder so many people are turned off by witchcraft, most books make it sound like you can just light a candle, mumble a few words and your spell will come true. That isn't the case, it takes a lot of focus, energy and hard work, like most things. Although this book is written for gay practitioners and creates a great comfort level for us, I believe it would be a useful book for anyone getting into wicca and wanting to know how it all works and how to put it together. I don't know if it's coincidence, but since I've been working with this book, a lot of things in my life are starting to go the way I want them to. Even things I never thought would happen are happening. And I definitely, finally feel connected to something spiritual, which is giving me newfound inner strength and confidence, I even quit smoking! Thank you, Christopher, thank you, thank you, blessed be!

In this volume, Christopher Penczak synthesizes his personal gay life experience with his knowledge of Wicca tradition, but as he clearly states in the introduction, this is not a scholarly book just for reading. His intent is to empower his gay brothers and he encourages us to experiment with and to try the dozens of meditations and exercises he presents throughout the book.

The book is divided into three parts. In Part One, History and Mythology, Penczak presents an account of pagan history as it relates to witchcraft in general and gay witchcraft in particular. He begins in prehistoric times and ends with Arthur Evans, Harry Hay, Michael Thorn, Greg Johnson, Sparky Rabbit, and others who have worked to reclaim the Wicca tradition for gay men. The section covering gay positive deities is encyclopedic and multicultural including ancient Roman and Greek deities, Mayan, Chinese, Celtic, Hindu, Native American, and deities of other traditions.

In Part Two, Tools of Our Tribe, he presents the hands-on tools used in the witchcraft tradition. He begins with internal tools (meditation, visualization, and concentration), and goes on to animal guides, altars, the home, preparation of "the temple of your body", and covens. The last section of Part Two presents beginning concepts in ritual, including casting and releasing the circle.

Part Three, Empowerment-Love, Sexuality, Healing, and Ritual, is the true heart of the book, covering seven chapters and more than 135 pages. Here Penczak deals with spells and magick, and their use in love, sex, and health. In the last chapter he makes some of his most important statements. First he points out that his book is only a beginning, a point of departure for the magical life. He encourages readers to explore other pagan paths and find what works best for them. Then he discusses the importance of integrity and commitment, particularly as they relate to integrating magic into all aspects of life. Special attention is given to self-acceptance, relationships, and activism.

The book concludes with a helpful bibliography and a listing of online sources.

For those of you looking for a basic introduction to gay witchcraft, this is a good book to read and experiment with. It is also an excellent view of how one gay man intergrates paganism with his own life experience, and serves as a model and inspiration for anyone interested in doing the same.

Reviewed by Bob Barzan in White Crane Journal

I was quite excited when I saw this book - hey, a book about wicca that specifically adresses gay people. Sadly, the issues that I expected to see in this book (Gay deities? Polarity, or not? Specific handfasting rituals? Politically inclined gay/lesbian pagans, and how this affects their faith?) were not really present, or only skimmed over.

This is a fantastic book for a gay or lesbian person who is new to Wicca, and wants the basic facts. It welcomes into the religion, and takes into account their different sexuality. But it's still a Wicca 101 book - for anyone who has read Starhawk, or Cunningham, or even Ravenwolf, this is a replay with a few brief mentions of 'gay' Wicca. At that point, your best bet (and my suggestion) would be to get a basic wicca book (Starhawk's Spiral Dance is my personal favorite) and to check out your local/University library for specific information as to bisexual deities and religious approaches. Check out Renaissance literature, in particular - the Zeus/Ganymede romance attained epic proportions. Boswell's analysis of early Christian religion also includes some information about pagan religions. Or just read feminist spirituality and environment books - they generally acknowledge lesbianism.

Frankly, I'd be incredibly interested in a 'Gay Wicca' book that isn't also an introduction to the religion. There are many of us who are priests and priestesses, and have been for years - it would be nice to have books adressed to us, as well. I'm probably going to have to write that, however, if I actually want to see it printed.

Words cannot express what a wonderful find, and gift this book is to the gay community.
Gay Witchcraft: Empowering the Tribe by Christopher Penczak is an incredible addition to anyone's magickal library. Filled with practical, and easy to understand information this book also provides information for gay-lesbian-bi-and Transgender Pagans like no other book has. No fear in picking up the "gay Wicca book" like that written by Bruce K. Wilborn here. This book integrates homosexuality with the practice of magick and has tools for self empowerment, healing homophobia, and a coming out ritual! If you don't check this book out gay or straight, you're missing out on so much!

Gaywolf

I thought this book had some really great concepts mixed in with junk. Some of the junk was rather innocuous or just not interesting to me and other ideas of his carry potential for real harm.

Sometimes these concepts would bump right up against each other. I really liked his discussion about sex on page 186. He says "Whenever you have sex with someone, you make an energetic connection. That connection can last years after the relationship ends." It gave me a whole new perspective on sex...that a sexual act can avoid transmitting disease and still be quite unhealthy for us emotionally and spiritually. He mentions that we should not enter sex except from a place of unconditional love, and that this is generally easier to do when we only have one partner.

Yet at the same time, he waters down his previous statements on the next page when he says "This is not a conservative call to monogamy if that is not your path. I think of the sacred prostitues of the Goddess in ancient times, male and female, having many sexual partners and using that experience to heal and transform". And here I am thinking to myself....how many gay men who have lots of parners are capable of "healing and tansforming"? 1 in 10,000? I think the number is so rare that it's not worth mentioning.

The example above is one of several like that in the book. Sometimes I think the Wicca religion drifts too far into the mindset of 'anything goes'. Humans need some hard and fast rules because otherwise we will delude ourselves into thinking we are spiritual when we are really just being selfish.

There is some really great stuff in this book. Just use discernment and beware when he gets wishy washy. Don't let yourself think the laws of the unviverse don't apply to you.

"Well its about time" was my thought when Christopher Penzcak's "Gay Witchcraft" rolled out in June 2003. Written as an introductory text, this book provides guidance for members of the gay community who may be interested in exploring the spiritual path of Wicca. And it does so in a way that builds on the works of other scholars and practitioners, in addition to the author's own studies, to provide a reference work that speaks to the unique needs of LGBT readers. In addition to covering the basics of history, symbolism, ritual, and magick, the author provides information on "queer-friendly" Deities and amatory spell-casting, as well as one of the few published chapters expounding the principles of sex magick relevant to queer peoples. I was particularly pleased with the emphasis on the ethics associated with spell-casting (particularly as relates to love magick), which is not always sufficiently emphasized in published texts. Penzcak approaches the subject from the perspective of an eclectic Wiccan, and so not everyone will necessarily agree with everything in this book. And that's okay. The few misnomers that arise in the text are of interest mainly to initiated practitioners of the mystery paths of Traditional Witchcraft, and are not relevant to the intended audience of this book. Generally speaking, "Gay Witchcraft" can be used to augment the information provided by other introductory books (see Scott Cunningham, et al) to give the beginning queer practitioner an understanding of her/his place in the scheme of things. All in all, a good book.

This is the first book I've read by this author and I have to say that he's become one of my favorites since then. Although at the time I read it I was already familiar with the craft I hadn't really know it from a gay perspective. Being a gay pagan I wasn't sure where my place was in the Goddess religion. Females had their place, being the embodiment of the Goddess, and men had their place being her consort. So where do the gay guys belong? Well Penczak writes about witchcraft with a gay perspective that really opened my eyes. He gives lore and magickal work that can be done from a gay point of view- even sex magick. It's hard to read about sex magick when the author uses the male/female model. Although this book has the basics which can get kind of boring, what I love about Penczak is that he incorporates new knowledge that I wasn't aware off. He brings in the gay mythology and writes different perspectives that I never thought of before. I think this is a good book for any gay witch, especially if they are just beginning.

Gay Witchcraft does an OK job on witchcraft and gives it a nice spin that gays and lesbians can connect with in finding a spiritual home. But you would probably be better served learning the practice of the craft with another book, even the author's Inner and Outer Temple of Witchcraft books. My quarrel with the book (hence 4 instead of 5 stars) is I would like to see more on the gay connection with shamanism and witchcraft. In every class I have taken in these spiritual traditions, the students are about 80% women, and, of the 20% who are men, I would say at least 50% are gay. What is it in gay consciousness, or, what is it in witchcraft and shamanism, that draws them together? Also, by no coincidence, the same percentages go for Jungian analysts as a group. Penczak doesn't really address this idea. He writes about the persecutions in the Burning Times. He puts the blame on patriarchy and the Catholic Church in general and Charlemagne in particular. But as John Boswell has pointed out in his books, things aren't so simple. There are saints on the Catholic Church roster who were openly gay. Patriarch was around for thousands of years before the medieval witch trials. I would agree with those Jungian theorists who see patriarchy as a necessary phase in the development of humankind's consciousness in breaking free of the hold of the Great Mother. Of course, in its success patriarchy became oppressive and extreme. And for that male dominance, gays and witches carried the shadow, that which patriarchal society despised and rejected in itself. Hence the Burning Times as an effort to exorcise in the outer world what was so hated in the inner world of patriarchal thinking. Now in this century we are beginning to assimilate the feminine that was rejected so passionately. So gays and lesbians as shamans/witches have a destiny in creating the future of humankind; an importance that cannot be underestimated. We may well come the closest to epitomizing what needs to be integrated into society if it is to survive. We are the embodiment of consciousness that seeks the balance of masculine and feminine.

I just finshed reading this book which does have great infomation for gay,lesbian,transgender wiccans,But overall this is a book for any wiccan who need to expand their minds and be more open to one another. Which is one of big problems in wicca. The rites are simple and does give good examples on how to do a rite if your partner is gay,les,transgender which most of wicca books are very vague and avoids gay topics in the craft.
Since we are in 2003 going on 2004 alot changed since 1956 and even before This book is the beginning. I think anyone who open minded are read this book will help open their minds thus better unity with wicca as whole... enjoy the book

Blessed Be;
Windwalker

This is an awesome book! Easy to understand, and a very practical approach to increasing one's knowledge of the craft. It's even more awesome, because it incorporates aspects of homosexuality and provides those who are GLBT with more insight into the multi-faceted expressions of divinity. Beautiful Penczack, absolutely beautiful.