Customer Reviews

Turning of the Wheel: A Wiccan Book of Shadows for Moons and Festivals

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

 

 

This is one of the few books that I have returned to time and again for guidance on developing rituals for individual and group use.

This book has it all written down step by step for a coven or group on what to do for the sabbats and the moons. I thought it was great.

I must say that anyone who expects to pick up a book of rituals and use them exactly as written may have some problems with *any* book of rituals.

This book is a wonderful guide for a ritual structure, and for meanings behind festivals. We must remembert that Esbats are Goddess-oriented, and Sabbats are God-oriented, for the most part, in that it is celebrating the changes of the Sun as well as the life-death-rebirth cycle of the Sun King.

The Goddess does have her place, as always.

Please remember to read a book of rituals as a *guideline* for writing your own rituals. If you use ones that are written out for you and they do not feel comfortable for you, the magick will not flow properly. Write your own rituals. Use what appeals to you. Paganism is all about individuality.

Also, anyone familiar with the Church of W.I.C.A knows that they do not strictly follow Gardenerian, Alexandrian, or any other "Traditional Wicca" guidelines. Stanley has actually strove very hard to ensure that nothing in his Tradition will "step on the toes" of the Traditional Wiccans. Perhaps this should be labeled more of a "Pagan" BOS. Just remember, Stanley's wife is Initiated into a Mystery tradition, and scrutinizes his books to ensure that he reveals nothing that would break any vows of secrecy.

As an Initiate of Stanley's Tradition, I recommend the books. However, I do not practice his rituals as written, as he specifically encourages experimentation. I hope this is helpful to you.

i gave this book three stars, even though i didn't like it, because there really isn't anything wrong with the book. it just didn't appeal to me, and i thought others might be turned off by the same things.the ritual in this book are supposed to come from the point of view of gender polarity. there is a strong bias toward the heterosexual point of view. the moon rituals give a good balance of the Goddess and the God, but the festivals seem to over emphasize the God.almost all the sabbat rituals revolve around the Sun King. if this aspect of the god doesn't particularly apeal to you than this book will be useless--as it is for me. this is my main problem with the book. the book stresses light, and doesn't give much attention to darkness. the rituals for winter show it as a time of despair instead of appreciating the good things about the season. i guess this path of wicca seems very unbalanced to me--all light, and god and summer.there are two sections for moon rituals. the new moon and the full moon are covered, but not the dark or waning moon. a lot of the rituals are repetitive. they also don't seem very wiccan and perhaps the book should have been subtitled a "pagan" book of shadows... in order to be more accurate.its not a bad book, and i bet a lot of people would like it. in fact the ritual following Inanna's journey to the underworld in the Samhain section was intriguing. And maybe we can afford to have a few books out the stress the masculine to balance those that stress the feminine. but the "flavor" of the rituals didn't appeal to me. if you are more earthy, and less cermonial, more goddessy, more gender-fluid, than this book probably isn't for you.