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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Few I've Bothered to Read Twice, April 2, 2001
This review is from: Wicca: The Old Religion in the New Millennium (Paperback)
I have more books on the Craft than any sane person would keep. The useless ones I get rid of. This is one of the few I've actually read more than once. It contains quality material and makes an excellent first or second book for somebody new to the Craft. Vivianne takes Wiccan tradition seriously, and doesn't cheapen it by making wild & unsubstantiated claims. She introduces her own material and names it as such. This book is complete. Rituals, directions, poems & liturgy. Everything you need but a coven, a calling and a connecttion to the Goddess. Not only does this book describe Wiccan practice, but it describes it in sociological, historical, and psychological context, too. It is an example of applied Jungian theory. She uses the psychology of Carl Jung to explain the sense behind magic and Craft rituals. She bats around phrases like "Our Gods are the archetypal forces which inhabit the collective unconscious." To the question of "Are the forms of the Gods 'real'?" she answers first with a quote of Jung "they are images of contents which for the most part transcend consciousness." and then adds "what lies beyond the images is a divine reality ... true experessions of the nature of the divine translated into human terms." This book contains a great deal of Craft practice, along with solid, original thought. Index, footnotes, a bibliography and a glossary round it out. A magnificent effort--more than earns its five stars! Every Witch ought to have read this book at least once!
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
easily one of the better and most informative books on Wicca, July 29, 2000
This review is from: Wicca: The Old Religion in the New Millennium (Paperback)
I first read this some time ago when investigating Wicca. I still think it's one of the most candid and accessible reads for the newcomer to the topic. Given the number of not-so-good, me-too books out there on the topic that we saw published in the 90s, it stands out even more.Its strengths are a matter-of-fact style, a balanced and pretty unbiased portrayal that doesn't try to make a political statement, and the large volume of information it offers. It is a sophisticated book that talks a lot about history, about initiatory experience, and about perceptions of divinity. The only flaw I can readily find is that it is a bit dry; just as its cover doesn't look like Tinker Bell, neither is the style. I can hardly mark Crowley down for this, but it's worth mentioning because it could affect the reader's interest. Will appeal most strongly to the serious seeker with mature tastes in reading who is looking to be informed rather than entertained.
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28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wicca the way it should have been all along, November 2, 1999
This review is from: Wicca: The Old Religion in the New Millennium (Paperback)
Of all the books on Wicca that I've read that are written by pagan authors, this is by far the most detailed, intelligent and honest one of all. Unlike other pagan authors, Crowley does not hide behind that fabricated rhetoric presented by other authors. What I'm referring to is "true witchcraft" and the "witches do this" and "witches do that" attitude. She is perfectly comfortable with admitting the truth, that while Wicca does employ many rural European folk customs, it is essentially a modern religion, compiled in the fifties, and has no diffinitive connection with any specific historical pagan cult or sect. She even talks a little bit about how muddled much of the neopagan community is with the way, to most people, Wicca is just an ego game, they like how it feels to be able to call themselves witches. She talks about getting away from that, getting away from the obsession that so many practicioners have with proclaiming themselves as witches only to satisfy their egos, and also making sure that you're not just trying to live up to the public's perception of what a "real" witch should be for the sake of drawing attention to yourself. Crowley has a Ph.D. in psychology, and it shows. The chapters releating to the inner self and so incredibly detailed that had this book gained more attention, a lot of "look at me, I'm a witch" crowd could've been eaily scared off and the Wiccan community would have finally been brought to a respectable level. But tragically, it's for that reason that this book, despite being the absoulute best out there, it not amoung the more popular. It seems that most neopagans would rather induldge themselves in fabricated psuedohistory(Raven Grimassi) worthless spells and cutesy rituals(Cunningham, Ravenwolf) and biggoted teenie-bopper spellcraft(Buckland) than they would like to do something real, something that means something, something that they will take with them in life. But until that day comes, there are at least a few authors(Kenneth Johnson being another notable name) who are on the right track.
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by Vivianne Crowley
by Pauline Campanelli
