Goth Craft: The Magickal Side of Dark Culture [Paperback]

Raven Digitalis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 2007

"Goth Craft is a sexy and serious A-Z of dark culture's collective tribal identity. More than just a demented 'Preppy Handbook' for a different era, Goth Craft goes beyond  mere fashion, taking readers deep into the magical currents of this emerging subculture. Fascinating."
—Richard Metzger, host of Disinformation and editor of Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide To Magick & The Occult

When Paganism and Goth culture collide, prepare for a powerful blend of independent thought and magickal tranformation.

Learn how to channel dark emotions, express yourself magickally through the dark arts of clothing, hair, makeup, body modifications, and choose appropriate Goth music for ritual. Try some spellcasting on the dance floor.  Discover the workings of shadow magick, death energy, and blood magick.

Find out what draws us to the dark side.

"Don't let your assumptions fool you — Goth Craft is a lovingly written and carefully researched piece of work. It covers the intersection of Gothic subculture and Pagan spirituality from every conceivable angle, and manages to be both fun and eye-catching along
the way."
—Michelle Belanger, author of The Psychic Vampire Codex and editor of Vampires In Their Own Words

"An insightful, honest, and spiritual exploration of the intersection of Witchcraft and Goth."
—Christopher Penczak, author of the Temple of Witchcraft series

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Many people associate Goth with either the Columbine massacre or Marilyn Manson. But Digitalis, a neo-pagan priest, provides readers an opportunity to expand their horizons about Goth culture by starting with the basics: What is a Goth? Digitalis not only provides a history of Goth culture, but also includes a cheeky, fun catalogue of Goth types (complete with corresponding photographs) that span the spectrum—from CorporateGoths and Fetishists to MopeyGoths and PerkyGoths. Goths are dark witches, Digitalis explains, who practice the magick of the Middle Path, the balanced path between light and dark that includes intense, sometimes unpleasant magickal workings, but should not be confused with black magic. The remainder of this handbook is devoted to witchcraft—from rituals to a glossary of tools—Goth-style. Digitalis also spends a good deal of time advising readers how to handle sadness, suicidal thoughts and frequent crying, even suggesting traditional therapy as a way through Dark Emotionalism. Perhaps most fun for the uninitiated is Digitalis's thorough guide to obtaining Goth style with advice on clothing, the all-important makeup and piercings, among other things. Primarily, Digitalis wants readers to understand that Contrary to popular belief, doom and gloom does not penetrate every aspect of Goth culture. (Sept.)
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Review

"An insightful, honest, and spiritual exploration of the intersection of witchcraft and goth culture not only for those who have a foot in each of these worlds, but also for those explorers on one side, seeking to know the ways of the other." ???Christopher Penczak, author of the Temple of Witchcraft series -- Christopher Penczak "book blurb"

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 316 pages
• Publisher: Llewellyn Publications (September 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738711047
• ISBN-13: 978-0738711041
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #450,092 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Raven Digitalis (Missoula, MT) is the author of a number of metaphysical, occult, Pagan, and spiritual books on Llewellyn Publications. He is a Neopagan Priest and cofounder of the "disciplined eclectic" shadow magick tradition and training coven Opus Aima Obscurae, and is a radio and club DJ of Gothic and industrial music. Also trained in Georgian Witchcraft and Buddhist philosophy, Raven has been a Witch since 1999 and a Priest since 2003, and has been an Empath all of his life. Raven holds a degree in anthropology from the University of Montana and is also an animal rights activist, black-and-white photographic artist, Tarot reader, and is the co-owner of Twigs & Brews Herbs, specializing in bath salts, herbal blends, essential oils, and incenses. He has appeared on the cover of newWitch and Spellcraft magazines, is a regular contributor to The Ninth Gate magazine, and has been featured on MTV News and the 'X' Zone Radio show.
www.ravendigitalis.com
www.myspace.com/oakraven
www.facebook.com/ravendigitalis

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Raven Digitalis: the smeared mascara on the face of Dark Paganism, March 28, 2008

By 

Lisa Abney "PoSt mOrtem sTaR" (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Goth Craft: The Magickal Side of Dark Culture (Paperback)

Where is the dark spirituality in this book other than
trying to make your self look like a uber-goth? I
couldn't find it. (However one star for a nice layout)
Dark spirituality is more than just
the trapping of the "costume" you choose to wear. It
IS who you are. If you are looking to find real
information and guidance look somewhere else , this
book is nothing more than Wiccan basics with splash of
Hot topic thrown in for good measure. And it's a real
shame ,quality books on dark paganism aren't easy to come by
and that's why I figured I give it read. I did do a
bit more research on Mr. Raven Digitalis and it seems
as though his brand ( and yes I do mean commercial
paganism ) is stacked with contradictions. Dark
energies are not commonly associated with light and
love , they are the polar opposite. While much
happiness and fulfillment can be found in Dark
Paganism, it takes more than just eyeliner and a
love for spookiness.

If the dark path is right for you the information will
come- from somewhere else.

I recommend :
"Out of the Shadows" by John J.Coughlin,
"Crossroads" by Greg Crowfoot
"The Witching Way of Hollow Hill" by Robin Artisson
"The Pillars of Tubal Cain" by Nigel Jackson
"Strange experience;: The autobiography of a hexenmeister"
by Lee R Gandee
"Ceremonial Magic & The Power of Evocation: A System of Personal Power"
by Joseph C. Lisiewski
"Cunning-Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic" by Emma Wilby
or as a gentle start you could even try Konstantions.
But don't think you're going to walk way from this book with a real
understanding of Dark spirituality

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It has to be a hard subject to write about since it is so varied, but..., September 2, 2008

By 

Ulalume Jones "Creative Gal" (Between Nothing and Nowhere) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Goth Craft: The Magickal Side of Dark Culture (Paperback)

This book confuses me. At first, it seems to want to explain how some goths are pagan. Fine and good, but then, like other reviewers have said, the first 80 pages read like a field guide for those wanting to be goth. First, pick a type of goth you want to be and maybe you will even get one with the required music, so you don't have to think for yourself. Next, pick a religion or magic system. You picked GlamGoth Asatru. Congrats! Then again I am one of those older goths, oh-no. I'd be smack inbetween many catagories of goth: Faerie goth (because I like neofolk and I guess that's fairy), Romantigoth, Victorian Goth, Trad Goth, Casual goth and Sophistigoth, but wait I like industrial music too. That's the problem with these young whippersnapper gothlings...they all want to put you in a box. Why can't goth just be goth? I mean when I was in high school in the late 80's, we had punks and new wavers or ha ha, New Romantics. They were doing it to be anti-fashion, now it's a fashion, ta-duh. So now, you have to classify yourself under 100s of goth groups or subgroups, along with the music therein.

So what does paganism have to do with this? Yeah color me confused and I run my own Dark Paganism blog. I tend to use words like dark or goth to draw people in from the millions of hits on the internet they could get from just typing in pagan or goth. It gets you there faster and covers two bases. I am not sure if the people illustrated in this book are pagan. It seems so, but I am not really told.

I mean, the author being a bit young himself, has the huge task of merging a whole subculture into another one and trying to come out with an unified philosophy of sorts. A philosophy he constantly has to put "some but not all" into, which is nice because then I can't dislike him. Even his name is sort of funny, but he justifies it proudly. Moxie. He gets one of the stars explaining how to take angry emotions and make them positive. Some goths have had bad childhoods, some but not all. It is nice to have someone explain this in a way that is transformative. So there's a star for that. Do you want a silver or black star?

Not to Nickpick, but I do think it is so funny when the author puts down people who think Siouxsie and the Banshees are "Sushi and The Banshees" (a totally made up and not that funny joke) only to spell Siouxsie's name wrong a few pages later. Now that's funny! And then, the author says NotGoths listen to Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, yet point out goths listen to them too. I know the goth clubs in Southern California play both. This probably mattered more to me when I was in my 20's or was less into neofolk, maybe neofolk's balancing me out.

Anyway, on to Gothic Makeup styles. No, no, don't come up with your own style, this book will tell you how to do it so you don't have to! I do disagree with other's comments on here that the piercing chart is silly because I have read gemstone books which tell you that piercing your ears and wearing certain stones will help you with this or that. I won't be on him for that.

I'll give him the other star for the elemental part where he lists music along with the other traits of the element. Amusing. I am not sure how much I believe it, but it's an original idea. The sex, drugs and rock and roll chapter is funny to me. I guess if you are goth, you gotta be into SM too. Ok, I know a lot of people like this and have been to their parties, so count me in as well, I guess. The author is probably smart enough to know if people are open minded enough to be gothic or pagan, or both, then sexual openness isn't that far behind.

Oh yeah, what's up with this naming Gothic, Gothick? It's a bit much. As far as I can see, only about 50 pages or so of this volume can be used as Gothic Magick, which is a hell of a lot more than other Gothic Wicca books I have read. There are some pages on death work and blood work, the author seems to know what is going on in history for the most part. It really isn't anything you couldn't get if you read something by Leilah Wendell as far as the death work goes. But then the tool section is just the same Wiccan tools with no gothick-ness added. Raven does pick out a lot of magick from different sources, like the lemon magic part of the Aradia. I'd rather see him do his own thing though, since his original ideas, like the element music stuff, is rather good. Not great, but good.

I guess if you were 21 and just getting into a club scene and wanted to have a style guide to goth coupled with a spiritual guide to your religion if you happened to be pagan or a magician, this would be the only book you would need. It covers everything, almost too much. It is too cut and dried, this is Ubergoth, this is Babydoll, etc. But to me, it's a hard subject to write about without getting criticized for it. I don't think people who are in the goth scene or over 25, especially if they are well read, will get much out of it. At that age, you have experience in clubs and with others of like mind and that experience explains it to you.

If you are over 30, you are probably an Ubergoth and don't get what the kids like. So don't even try. It's pretty though, give it that and it's funny that all the goths made sure to get their photo credits, because that is what is important these days. Kidding. It's surely more sophisticated than anything I've read from Konstantinos or Brenda Knight, in regards to the goth pagan scene in general, which is saying a lot since Raven is a lot younger than either of them. It's refreshing in one sense, but annoying in the other.

I am bumping this up to 3 stars because I forgot he had part of a chapter devoted to "giving thanks", which I felt is very overlooked in modern pagan books, be it gothic or not. It always seems like books call down god and goddesses, spirits or what have you, ask for something, but then, once it is given, the ritual caster never gives anything back. I mean, you should give offerings BEFORE you ask for something, but at least this book steps in the right direction there.

I look forward to reading this man's work 10 years down the road.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful first publication from a promising new author, August 21, 2007

By 

Lupa (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Goth Craft: The Magickal Side of Dark Culture (Paperback)

This is one of those books that had the potential to be either really good, or abysmal. Fortunately, Raven managed to stick to the former, avoiding a trainwreck of trendiness and black-dyed fluff.

If you're unfamiliar with the Goth subculture beyond a few outward trappings, this book will give you a solid introduction to the whys, hows, and manifestations of what it is to be Goth. However, like the introductory material on witchcraft that he presents, Raven manages to avoid dogma and snarkiness. This will make Goth Craft a particularly good guide for teens and early twenty-somethings who are just getting into both the Goth subculture and witchcraft, though people who are more established in one community or the other shouldn't turn away, either.

What I really liked about this book was the fact that it doesn't shy away from potentially controversial material. The ritual use of drugs, sex (vanilla and otherwise) and gender issues are some of the topics that are covered in a respectful, intelligent manner. Raven also includes a good collection of rituals and spells aimed at the appreciation of the darker end of the spectrum of life, and provides some refreshing ideas to work with. He also shows the magic in "everyday" elements of Gothic culture, including conscious application of makeup and clothing, and the use of dance for reaching altered states of consciousness.

I would consider Goth Craft to be primarily 101 level material, but it's on the higher end of 101-there are explanations of common pagan symbols and correspondences filtered through a Gothic worldview, but there's also a good collection of further resources. And I learned quite a bit about the Gothic subculture that I hadn't known before. So while the target audience seems to be younger folks in the Goth community who are interested in witchcraft, I suggest giving this book a chance if you're interested in a darker approach to magic that is well beyond the ooga-booga spookiness and sensationalism that some prior texts have fallen prey to.