Customer Reviews

Witchcraft: The Old Religion

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

 

 

This is the best book on Witchcraft I have ever read. Instead of presenting the beliefs and practices, it presents the history and substance of the religion. Because it is not a "Wicca for beginners" book, but rather a "Wicca for outsiders," the information within is completely free of fluff. It is also highly critical of Christianity, which is refreshing in this age of selling short your beliefs in order to avoid sounding offensive. This is the best book I have seen as far as asserting that Wicca actually HAS a historical basis.

I can not recommend this book highly enough for the seeker of truth in Witchcraft.

I found this book many years ago at a store in Tampa Florida. Before, I had always been interested in the Occult. When school assignments on book reports were due, I'd always gravitate toward Occult topics.They fascinated me and I wanted to share them with the class so they'd not be afraid of the dark.

Raised in a Christian household I was fed the standard lie. Witchcraft is of the Devil. It's evil and shall damn my soul. I never quite accepted that, because I always felt a kinship with nature. Then, long after I'd moved from that house and on my own in Florida, I was browsing a bookstores shelves and the spine of this title, stationed on the bottom shelf in the Witchcraft section, literally jumped in bold orange colors, right to my attention all the way from down there.

I knelled down and drew the book out from between the stacks and saw the cover depicted here at Amazon. I sat there on the floor of that shop and read to the second chapter without realizing how many pages I'd turned or the time that had passed or that I was very possibly blocking the way for others to walk around. But it was a lonely shop that day and there were few people there.

I bought the book and read it straight through before the end of the night. But before I'd left the shop, during the purchase, the cashier told me that if I was interested there was a Witchcraft study group close by and accepting new students for a class to begin in a few days time. I took the name and number of the High Priest teaching the course. Ron Parshley, also known to the Craft as Lord Sylvanus. )))O((( Goddess Rest His Soul. (http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usfl&c=passages&id=3719) And it was after that, that I claimed the name I'd always felt was truth in my spirit. Witch.

If you are a seeker of the true light in what Christian lies has attempted to obscure within the darkness of their deceit, read this book. And free the truth of the Old Religion.

"We Are Everywhere." And then some. ;)

Martello was writing in the trenches during a time when repression was rampant towards those on the fringe. His unadorned demonstration of his distaste for those who would attempt to ban him from his beliefs is readily noted in his acerbic remarks. If your looking for potions and spells you won't find it in this book nor will you find knitted together "history" of witchcraft and wica. What you will find is what it was like in the early years in the United States to practice openly a religion/belief that was regarded as evil. What you will read is the history of a practicing witch in the face of adversity. Well worth the read to get the true insight without the "new age" fluff and bright blessings or the catty smugness of posuers using words like "quaint" when remarking on Martello's recollections of those early years.

This book was recommended to me by a craft longtimer and I enjoyed the read and learned several interesting new facts that I was not aware of. It is a quick read and not a long book. I will definitely recommend it to new craft members in the future.

This book is highly opinionated and NOT for the closed minded.It states the true history of witchcraft as a religion and spiritual practice, not what christians have deluded themselves in thinking it as.It brings up many facts to provide support for it's controversial subject matter.This is a book that is educational and a true test for christians saying witchcraft is evil.

Dr. Martello's vitriolic asides concerning those he dislikes are occasionally amusing, and the memoir dimension of some of the chapters is quaint. A reference work, however, this is not. The sprinkling of factoids one finds are overwhelmed by undisciplined, apparently unplanned, highly biased writing. There has to be a better book out there.