Wicca For Life: The Way of the Craft-From Birth to Summerland [Hardcover]

Raymond Buckland (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 342 pages
• Publisher: Citadel; 1st edition (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806522755
• ISBN-13: 978-0806522753
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,192,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In 1962 I came to the U.S. from England, where I'd written comedy scripts and was personal scriptwriter for a popular British comedian. Interested in the occult for over fifty years, in the past forty years I've had over forty books published (fiction and non-fiction), with nearly two million copies in print and translated into seventeen foreign languages. I've received awards for my work and had books featured in several national book clubs. I was Technical Director for movies, working with Orson Wells and William Friedkin (director of The Exorcist). Of Romany descent, I'm an authority on Gypsies and have written several books on them. I've lectured at colleges and universities and been the subject of articles in newspapers and magazines: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, New York Sunday News, National Observer, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Look Magazine, Cosmopolitan, True, and others.

I've appeared on national television and radio talk shows and been on BBC-TV, England, RAI-TV, Italy, and CBC-TV, Canada. I appeared extensively on stage in England and played small character parts in movies in America. I taught courses at colleges and universities and have been a featured speaker at conferences and workshops. I'm listed in reference works including Contemporary Authors, Who's Who In America, Men of Achievement, and International Authors' and Writers' Who's Who.

Latest books are The Weiser Field Guide to Ghosts, The Spirit Book, Buckland's Book of Spirit Communications, Wicca For One, and Cards of Alchemy. A DVD version of my Wicca video has also recently been released: Rebirth of the Old Religion. A prolific author, I'm currently working on my autobiography. Today I live on a farm in north-central Ohio. Photo Credit: Gregory Ford

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Everything Book on Traditional Wicca, January 4, 2002

By 

Boudica (Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wicca For Life: The Way of the Craft-From Birth to Summerland (Hardcover)

Raymond Buckland is best known for "Uncle Buckey's Big Blue Book" which has been a staple in the community for years. He is a respected author and voice within our community.

His newest release "Wicca for Life" seems to be Mr. Buckland's new version of the "Big Blue Book" and is presented in a much more dignified and sedate package than his famous "blue pentacle" covered book.

The material has matured also. Mr. Buckland covers everything from the history of witchcraft to initiations to spells and rituals to death. There is a lot of new material here that was not in the blue book. The craft is brought into the 21st century and Mr. Buckland is just the person to do it.

It is well put together, simply explained, and covers a lot of ground. Though the book appears at first to be a handbook for the beginner, it reads more like a reference book for those who are already walking the path. Mr. Buckland still approaches Witchcraft as a religion of "initiation" and there is no differentiation between Wicca and Witchcraft. But his theology on Wicca is solid. Mr. Buckland has always been a Traditional Wiccan, with his own brand being a variation on the Gardnarian Tradition. While the book is geared towards the traditional, there is a lot to read, absorb and learn from in this book for anyone walking the Wiccan Path.

The hard cover version is lovely, nicely bound, lovely jacket art. The book does contain illustrations, and there is even music for traditional tunes if you are musically inclined.

I could see this book eventually replacing "big blue" on library shelves, and it would be a good choice. I did enjoy reading this one, and would recommend it to both beginners and seasoned travelers.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Three stars -- with some qualifications, November 16, 2003

By 

River (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wicca For Life: The Way of the Craft -- From Birth to Summerland (Paperback)

I've never read "Big Blue," so I'm not as familiar with the style and background as some of you may be, and perhaps some of my comments will be repeats in that vein. (Perhaps not -- this IS a different book.) Anyway, forewarned. =)

That said, WICCA FOR LIFE seems to be a very comphrensive and informative volume. It's full of information that will help you out if you're just getting started, but does not "talk down" to you if you've been with the "Old Religion" for a while already. Much of the suggested wording for various rituals is elegant and meaningful, something I don't find in a great many books about Wicca. WICCA FOR LIFE is about just that: how to live the tenets of the Wiccan faith in all life situations, from birth to death to initiation of children, and most especially how to effectively create and celebrate a hereditary family coven, which is an interesting idea and a neat thing to focus on, although I don't know how many extended families are all Wiccan -- in my experience that's rare.

Unfortunately, the book DOES talk down to non-Wiccans, and to Wiccans about non-Wiccans. It refers to them as cowans, a term I (and others) feel is slightly derogatory and unnecessary. It probably isn't intended that way, but it feels almost cruel. The tone can also get a little sanctimonious -- Wiccan families are more open than others, Wiccan children are better-adjusted than others, etc, etc, etc. Maybe that's true sometimes, but I know for sure that faith isn't the only factor in parenting or in growing up, so blanket statements like that aren't really justified. I was not raised Wiccan, and I think my parents (Christians) were and are wonderful role models. I plan to raise my own children Wiccan, but I will be happy to have their Christian grandparents share their own love and wisdom with my children.

The history in the book is also rather faulty. It doesn't go into depth, but it frequently mentions how Wiccans in "the burning times" wrote down their rituals in books of shadows and how they passed on the information to chosen children, etc. First of all, Wicca is a new religion. There were certainly pagans who went "into the closet" when you could be ostracized or worse for not being Christian, and Wicca does use some beliefs and practices from ancient (notably Celtic) pagan religions, but Wicca itself has only been around since the early-mid nineteen hundreds. Second, the "witches" who were burned were not what we Wiccans refer to as witches or Wiccans today. Some of them may have been wise women and men who were looked upon with suspicion as being "pagan", but for the most part the Inquistion and like horrors were political mechanisms, concerned with a "witchcraft" that was basically a reversed Christianity, and their victims were usually Christian people whose neighbors were harboring a grudge. Third, the author refers to witchcraft and Wicca as the same thing. Not all Wiccans and witches think this way.

In spite of all that, I liked the book, and I'd recommend it for its incredible amounts of accessible and helpful information. Just talk it with a big 'ol grain of purifying salt.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wicca Lite for Tonight, March 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Wicca For Life: The Way of the Craft-From Birth to Summerland (Hardcover)

With this book, Ray Buckland returns to writing Wicca books after a long absence. Buckland is best remembered as the - I'm a Gardnerian Witch, no wait I'm a Saxon Witch, no wait I'm a Scottish Witch, no wait I'm a Gypsy, author and Witch.

With Wicca for Life, readers are introduced to a basic overview of Wicca. Not a bad book for beginners.