Customer Reviews

Self-Initiation for the Solitary Witch: Attaining Higher Spirituality Through a Five-Degree System

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In Self Initiation for the Solitary Witch, there is no hype or hooplaah --no urging or pressure to "...do it my way". Shanddaramon just succintly offers possibilities for growth and development as a witch. This book serves as a guide, for both the novice and the seasoned witch, offering methods through which one may expand one's scope, practice, or method of living. Life is a process; i.e., continuing development involving many changes. In life each person may consciously choose a destination or goal that is as individual as the human thumbprint. Thus, there can be no single road map -no 'one size fits all' method of living or spiritual development. Each person's respecitve 'Path' is already defined deep within the self. Shanddaramon offers a degree system that is adaptable to the specific 'Path' a witch may walk as he/she creates and recreates the self per his/her own particular image as life unfolds.

This book is written using easy to follow verbiage, and structure. The contents are presented clearly, and succinctly. And although there are some other books that have these same qualities, and content, the big difference comes from the fact that the information presented, is not given as a formulae to follow, but as a guideline from which each person can choose and pick to find, by themselves, their correct path to follow. Great read, lots of accurate information, a most have for any beginner or older practitioner.

Shanddaramon simply did a wonderful job with this book. I love it. Of all the books I have read, this one clarified everything that had me steeped in confusion in all the other books. The author uses his own coven's initiation system as a basis, and gives us five degrees to work toward. When he explains things to the reader, he tells us when he is giving his own definition that may not be the same as most other practitioners, and I liked that.

The First Degree level takes up half the book. It is by far the one with the most information. It gives detailed explanations of all the main aspects of Paganism - the Wheel of the Year, elements, correspondence charts, astrology, divination, the whole shebang. But what I loved so much was how everything he wrote tied everything back to the Wheel of the Year and the elements. Often, he didn't have to say it, but it was obvious to the reader it was there. And because Shanddaramon did this, I understand the reasoning behind many of the things practitioners do much more clearly.

That's all I am going to say. Buy this wonderful book, if you are new to the study of Paganism - you won't regret it!

Combine a Wicca 101 book with a man that likes to rant about HIS personal journey along a five-degree system, and what he ended up discovering and believing, and then you have this book. If you have a chance to find this in a store, take a look at just how long the chapter on the First Degree is (it's HALF the book!). This first degree is almost entirely devoted to Wicca 101 information, which is only explained, it seems, in passing. In the rest of the chapters/degrees, there wasn't much practical how-to. Just a vague reference to "study more" or "read more on this topic."

I'll give you a direct example from the book:

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Item 38. The Aura.
Purpose: Learn about this field of energy for healing.
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See what I mean? Now, granted, not every Wicca 101 book has time to devote to every avenue of hooey-fooey that's out there. But he certainly takes his time re-emphasizing the elements, what they represent, and how to work them into just about every magickal working. Why is this so one-sided?

A few other things:
1. This guy needs a new editor. Some sentences sounded like total gibberish.
2. He's got an obvious agenda about what the reader should be "learning" in their journey.
3. He's obviously the kind of Pagan that likes dressing up and making up incantations in his new agey apartment than serving the Earth by recycling or doing anything practical.
4. He's obsessed with convincing the reader of the righteousness of becoming a "spiritual person" with "higher goals and desires."
5. It's all very Buddhist/Hindu in its philosophical leanings. Rise above the worldly. Be a higher spiritual person. Transcend your desires. That sort of thing.

Alright. Now that I'm done bashing the hell out of this book, I'd like to say that the premise itself is attractive. That's why I bought it after all. The idea that the Wicca priesthood/training could be organized into a cohesive system of degrees was appealing, if idyllic.

After all, very little of the "new-to-Wicca" community these days is organized. This system could be a starting place for those wishing to learn more about the religion -- if the system were taught by someone who knew what they were talking about and was truly flexible about what his students believed, it could actually work.

I'm so impressed with this book, I'm basing my book of shadows on it. This is the book for you if you live in an area where you can't find any Wiccan teachers. Plus, it allows for your own preferences, opinions, the time you spend studying and beliefs. I love this book! Thumbs up!

This is truly a great book and a must have for all beginning Wiccans. Although I haven't finished reading this book, so far it's been great. Full on info on just about everything you need to know to advance your Wicca skills. Blessed be.

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere then this would be a great book to add to your collection. The author gives you ideas and a system of how to go about learning what you need to know if you want to self-initiate. However, everything is according to the Northern Hemisphere and there is no mention that if you live in the other half of the world you might want to consider turning things around.

A classic mistake is explaining that deosil means to walk clockwise. It does not. It means to walk in the direction of the sun's path from east to west. In the Southern Hemisphere that is counter clockwise. Things like this are important to get right as it is very possible that someone reading this book and following may not be aware or the regional bias of the author.

For this reason I give the book 3 stars - a half way mark because its only really relevant to half the world.

I was hoping for a book more about Witchcraft than Wicca. All the stuff about degrees and priestesses made me wonder why it is about being a solitary witch. There is good in the book as well. Don't buy this book if you are looking for basic Witchcraft, or if you don't want to hear anymore about Wicca. On the other hand if you like Wicca this is the book for you.

If you're a newbie and need a set agenda on what to practice to get you to a decent level of magical and initiatory attainment, this book is a nice place to start. The idea is to take you thru the five elements and give you an opportunity to both follow a system yet give you enough flexibility to allow yourself to grow at your own pace.

One of the smallest (thankfully) sections is on the subject of ethics and frankly I think the author has heard the cry of the well seasoned practitioner to get on with the business of Witchcraft and forgo all the regurgitated arguments on how ethical a Witch needs to be. Sadly though the author does follow parrots favorite comparisons at how the ethics and belief in karma are intermarried but again it's a brief regurgitation so the bile does not rise up all that far in one's throat.

One of the other sad parts of this book is how the author continues to pass on misinformation regarding colors and in particular the color "black". In here the author seems to jump on the karma beleaguered bandwagon with this color being `absorption'. Ugh! Why can't the author simply explain that black should be reserved for when one has to do not-nice things to someone and to use your best judgment before resorting to using it? Leave it up the discretion of the reader to make that distinction and not give out duck billed platitudes as guidelines. Frankly by watering down the color black by naming it for such useless thing as `absorbing negativity' when in fact, White is best for the transformation of such energy, the author is passing along erroneous information.

Conversely beginning on page 157, we see the burgeoning seeker is taught the rudiments of opening their psychism in `The First Steps of Psychic Work'. I have to applaud the author on his choice of methods to introduce the neophyte into the realm of psychism. Too bad though he did not include as many exercises as I would have liked to have seen in the book

The best thing I liked about the book is his section on Group Dynamics. Now this is a section that everyone who wants to start a study group or egads a coven should be forced to read! The section does mention that differing personalities can be conflicting within the group as well as how to deal with conflict and how to advise properly.

All in all, I give this book a rating of three stars as it does offer some decent material that's very well worthwhile for the Novice to learn from as well as some rudimentary basics on running a group be it for discussion or working. While the index is fairly comprehensive, the Suggested Reading List suffers from the same old books mentioned in every Wicca 101 book and most of the books mentioned are just that, 101 books themselves. Maybe one day the author will wake up to the fact that there are other books that are more advanced and on the intermediate level.