Customer Reviews

The Pagan Path: The Wiccan Way of Life

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

 

 

Long-time practitioners of the pagan life-style will probably find nothing new in the book. For those who are interested in an overview of the pagan community, this book is one of the most articulate, mature, and complete introductions I've seen.

Those looking for volumes full of cutesy drawings or listings of love spells are advised to look elsewhere. Those looking for and intelligent overview of the pagan path will be hard-pressed to find a better one.

This is not a book to give you a complete how-to on spells, charms and hexes. Nor is it filled with new and exciting information or revelations for well-established pagans. What this book is, in my opinion, is a well thought out and clearly explained book on Paganism, it's growth from its resurgance back in the 60's to its development in the 90's and extrapolates the ongoing changes that will occur into the next century.

This is the book I recommend to those who are not in the pagan community but want to know more without having to deal with a lot of confusing jargon, spells or rituals. A must read for non-pagan parents, friends and loved ones.

This book is a well-done and intriguing survey of the beliefs and practices of modern Pagans, and is of interest to Pagans and non-Pagans alike. If you're looking for a simple (but not simplistic) introduction to what Pagans do and believe, this is a very good place to start; the Farrars and Bone present their material in a non-threatening, accessible manner.

This is not a "how-to" book; for that, check out the Farrars' classic "A Witches' Bible", among others. It examines many of the questions that Pagans have been asked many times over the years: the history of modern Paganism, relations to community and family, the existence of Paganism in a society that is predominantly Christian, and a good deal more. It should be noted that the main geographic regions covered are the United States and the British Isles (especially Ireland, where the Farrars live), as well as touches on continental Europe, Australia, parts of the Americas and Japan. This emphasis will probably not surprise most of those familiar with the movement.

The chapter on choosing Paganism as a spiritual path is excellent as well, with some words of caution regarding joining a group and some notes on solitary practice.

Overall, it's an interesting book that illustrates how Paganism has grown, particularly since the 1960s, and that has the potential for generating a lot of discussion, both inside and outside the Pagan community.

This book was recommended to me by a person whose opinion I generally trust, but I found The Pagan Path to be disappointing at best, and annoying and offensive at worst. A few issues:

1. The authors' flippant assumption that what THEY believe is What All Pagans Believe, an example of which can be found in the following quote which comes very early in the book:

"...If there is an ultimate Creative Intelligence, there can only be One; so difficult as it may be for some people to accept, all sincere religions worship the same deity, however they envisage It, and are therefore all different paths to the same truths."

While I do not have a problem, in general, with the belief that "All Goddesses are One Goddess and All Gods are One God," (and, to go further, The God and the Goddess are One), this version of Monotheism-With-A-Pretty-New-Dress is NOT paganism. It is Wiccan, and the Farrars are Wiccan, and it would have been best if they'd accepted that and stuck to writing about Wicca, instead of trying to explain all of paganism in their terms.

Throughout the entirety of the book, the authors throw around terms like "god/deity-forms" "the ultimate" and "archetype," which are just fine, only to polytheists (who make up a lot of the pagan community, whatever the authors may think) it's fairly offensive. I'd love to see the look on a Heathen's face if you told them that the World Tree is really just a "metaphor" for "levels of consciousness."

2. They seem very confused about how they feel about monotheism. It seems that on one page they're blaming JCI for all the world's ills, and on the next they're defending monotheism as being "just like us." In fact, they seem unable to stop talking about Christianity for almost the entire book, even having a whole chapter dedicated to why Pagans DON'T believe in Satan (which is firstly totally unnecessary and secondly not even necessarily true.) They also tend to complain about Patriarchy (this is, after all, a neopagan book) but then make statements that are absolutely soaking in Patriarchal ways of thinking.

That said, the book does have a few useful chapters - though the book is a bit dated, the chapter describing a variety of organizations isn't totally without merit. And I admit I got a chuckle or two from the joke chapter.

All in all, I would say that if the authors of this book had been honest with themselves and with themselves and titled it "The Whiccan Path," or maybe, "The New Age Path," I imagine it would have been perfectly fine. I wouldn't have read it, but their real target audience still would have, and I'm sure they would have found it fairly useful.

This book is good to gain some knowledge of the wiccan/pagan community around us.Presents summarys of pagan paths, additudes, and organizations. a good book to ease a someone new into the realm of the people involved in wicca and paganisim.

If you are like most Pagans, you have probably read earlier books by Janet and Stewart. This book was a thorough disappointment. I know that they can do better - we in the Pagan community have all have seen them do better. Now it seems that with this book they have just run out of steam. I have most of their books, the "Witche's Bible Compleat", "The Witch's Goddess" and the "Witch's God", "Eight Sabbats for Witches" along with "What Witches Do". These books are all informative and passionate about the Craft in their portrayal of pertinent information, etc. My question is: 'just *what* did these Witches actually **DO** when putting this book together - other than to regurgitate earlier information from the aforementioned books?" After reading this book one can only come to the ineveitable conclusion that they certainly did not actually *do* much at all for the writing of this book.

For those of us who have been involved in the Pagan community, and to new comers as well, this book holds nothing new.

While this book contains some basic information on modern paganism, it also contains paragraphs of the following form.

"It can possibly be argued that the patriarchal period was an inevitable stage of evolution, when emphasis on the left-brain function was needed to conquer the laws of the material universe, from the practical mathematics of Ancient Egypt and the first scientific thinking of classical Greece to the technological revolution of this century. But even if that is so, patriarchy has outlived any possible justification; further progress, even technologically and certainly socially and economically, demands a balance of left- and right-brain functions; so obsolete patriarchy, fighting to hold on to its dominance, must be conquered and supplanted."

Page 13, The Pagan Path, The Wiccan Way of Life, By Janet & Stewart Farrar and Gavin Bone

This passage is given with no supporting evidence and is in direct conflict with other "Tolerant" attitudes of the book. Additionally, throughout the balance of the book, the authors continue to take pot shots at the Christian, Muslim and other Patriarchal religions. This attitude both cheapens and deeply undermines both the basis of this book and the pagan religions these authors purportedly espouse.

I have grown tired of this type of slander and back stabbing and would recommend this book be added to the list of titles to be hurled away with great force.