Gay Witchcraft: Empowering the Tribe [Paperback]

Christopher Penczak (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Author and "gay shaman" Christopher Penszack created an outstanding and groundbreaking resource for the gay Wiccan community in this thorough and heartfelt guidebook. Despite the fact that homosexuals often found spiritual nurturance and respect within the Wiccan cultures of the past, modern day practitioners usually avoid any discussion (or even acknowledgement) of gay witchcraft. Thankfully, Penszack not only breaks the silence, he does it with grace, clarity, and enormous integrity. When speaking to spell-casting ethics and the laws of magick, Penszack emphasizes the Wiccan Rede: "We believe in the Rule of Three, meaning all you do comes back to you three-fold, or three times as strong as your original intent," he explains. "As a result, all your intentions, even if directed at someone else, eventually return to you, so keep your intentions with the highest of morals." From this foundation of causing no harm, Penszack gets down to the nitty-gritty of gay witchcraft, such as meditation techniques, animal totems, altar-building, auras, spells, and invocations. His writing stays tasteful yet candid as he delves into the tantra-like section on "Sex Magick" where he suggests spells and activities to encourage connection and healing (including a "soul baring" exercise of massaging and/or licking a partner’s chakra path and then maintaining eye contact during orgasm). Penszack sprinkled many fascinating facts into this magick manual. For instance, he offers a list of "queer positive deities," including Adonis (often invoked for lesbian love spells) and the Native American/Inuit goddess Sedna (a gynandromorphous creation deity). He also provides an extensive bibliography and list of online resources. --Gail Hudson

From Publishers Weekly

Witchcraft has plenty to offer the homosexual community, according to Penczak (City Magick), a self-proclaimed gay shaman. Not only does it have a strong history of tolerance for homosexuality; it actually has a rich tradition of homosexual involvement and esteem. After finding shame and persecution in the Catholic Church, Penczak fled to the Wicca community, where he found "a sense of belonging... to my own spirit." This is one of the only books on the market that delves into the fascinating historical roots of gay witchcraft while also providing homosexual-specific advice on spells and rituals. One of Penczak's strengths is his broad-reaching wisdom when it comes to love and sexuality. Most of his guidance could be relevant to practitioners of all sexual orientations. What witch isn't interested in knowing a few spells and potions for creating more trusting, loving, passionate and spiritually nurturing relationships? Who wouldn't love to soak in a "healing heart" bath with pinches of lavender, rose petals, catnip and rosemary? Yet Penczak also stays true to his niche-often returning to particular sexual and romantic concerns unique to the gay and lesbian community. It's only when he occasionally gets into anatomically detailed discussions about men loving men (in the tantra sexuality section) that he excludes lesbian readers. Overall, Penczak fulfills his promise-finally offering homosexual readers a sensitive and sexually appropriate manual for the study and practice of witchcraft.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 265 pages
• Publisher: Weiser Books; illustrated edition edition (June 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578632811
• ISBN-13: 978-1578632817
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #695,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Miss This Book!, August 1, 2004

By	T. Jackson (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gay Witchcraft: Empowering the Tribe (Paperback)

This is the best book I have ever read on Wicca and the key to unlocking this spirituality for me. I have been interested in Wicca and paganism for a long time and just sort of dabbled, but never got too involved. I even had pagan friends and went to pagan events, which were beautiful, but I could never seem to find my own connection. Most of the books I would pick up on paganism just didn't speak to me or seem too interesting, even though I felt Wicca to be closest to my own spiritual nature. I tried Dragon wicca and gothic wicca, and both left me cold. After moving to the Northwest last year, I discovered New Witch magazine at a local bookstore, which I think is a great publication! Ads in that magazine led me to this book, Gay Witchcraft. Christopher Penczak writes in a way that is very enjoyable and conversational as if he is sitting there speaking with you. He takes you through witchcraft in an enjoyable, step by step manner that brings everything together and gradually makes sense as part of the whole. I had always had a bit of misgiving about witchcraft because I had trouble believing there were zillions of deities just out there floating around in the sky somewhere. Now that I've been reading this book, I understand that isn't really what witches believe and have a clear understanding of how it all works. A good friend of mine who is pagan said I would know my path when I found a book that not only "clicked" with me, but that it should cover things like working with energy, grounding oneself, etc. This is the basis for the first part of the book, learning how to work with energy and get oneself in the right energetic state before even attempting to work on more complex things like spells. No wonder so many people are turned off by witchcraft, most books make it sound like you can just light a candle, mumble a few words and your spell will come true. That isn't the case, it takes a lot of focus, energy and hard work, like most things. Although this book is written for gay practitioners and creates a great comfort level for us, I believe it would be a useful book for anyone getting into wicca and wanting to know how it all works and how to put it together. I don't know if it's coincidence, but since I've been working with this book, a lot of things in my life are starting to go the way I want them to. Even things I never thought would happen are happening. And I definitely, finally feel connected to something spiritual, which is giving me newfound inner strength and confidence, I even quit smoking! Thank you, Christopher, thank you, thank you, blessed be!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm glad I found this book, June 16, 2005

By	LTO (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gay Witchcraft: Empowering the Tribe (Paperback)

This book is unique among books on paganism. It's unique not so much for its specifically gay content, but for its down-to-earth, common sense approach. Far from being a fluffy and pretty lure to witchcraft, it actually gets down in the trenches and addresses issues of real daily life. I very much appreciated the vulnerability of the author; he includes experiences and struggles in his own life. I also appreciated the emphasis on personal growth and honesty with oneself as prerequisites for deeper levels of spirituality. Rightly, the author reminds the reader that genuine spirituality requires hard work and difficult (but fruitful!) self examination. This book, 'gay' or not, is definitely a cut above many other beginning witchcraft books.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Promising - but not, essentially, delivering., April 26, 2004

By	Roselyne (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gay Witchcraft: Empowering the Tribe (Paperback)

I was quite excited when I saw this book - hey, a book about wicca that specifically adresses gay people. Sadly, the issues that I expected to see in this book (Gay deities? Polarity, or not? Specific handfasting rituals? Politically inclined gay/lesbian pagans, and how this affects their faith?) were not really present, or only skimmed over.

This is a fantastic book for a gay or lesbian person who is new to Wicca, and wants the basic facts. It welcomes into the religion, and takes into account their different sexuality. But it's still a Wicca 101 book - for anyone who has read Starhawk, or Cunningham, or even Ravenwolf, this is a replay with a few brief mentions of 'gay' Wicca. At that point, your best bet (and my suggestion) would be to get a basic wicca book (Starhawk's Spiral Dance is my personal favorite) and to check out your local/University library for specific information as to bisexual deities and religious approaches. Check out Renaissance literature, in particular - the Zeus/Ganymede romance attained epic proportions. Boswell's analysis of early Christian religion also includes some information about pagan religions. Or just read feminist spirituality and environment books - they generally acknowledge lesbianism.

Frankly, I'd be incredibly interested in a 'Gay Wicca' book that isn't also an introduction to the religion. There are many of us who are priests and priestesses, and have been for years - it would be nice to have books adressed to us, as well. I'm probably going to have to write that, however, if I actually want to see it printed.