My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Since the 1980's the face of Wicca has changed greatly. During the 60's and 70's much of it was coven based and the publications on Wicca were rather rare. In the next millennium most Wiccans are solitary and practice the religion by themselves. Solitaires will perchance attend workshops and public celebration. Most of their knowledge comes from book. Scott Cunningham, one of Raven's students, helped bring about that change. Author Raven Grimassi recognizes and validates this change at the same same time he recognizes and validates the older traditions and roots of the craft. Surely Wicca is changing. I for one have no access to a coven and many people find covens to require to much involvement. Some of us want a group so we can band together and grown together. It is never a good idea to go through spiritual growth in isolation. Many people are now forced into creating their own tradition, something I consider very valid inlight of how Gardner invented or created his tradition and from what I have read while studying chaos magick theories.
I took some notes while reading this book. I was rather taken off guard when I learned that there are many Wiccans who are eschewing the practice of magic and keeping Wicca to just a spiritual religion. No less I did take a few notes on this book. Gnome= Earth, sylphs= air
Salamander = fire. Undines= water.
Watchers or guardian are a race of spiritual being that watch over man kind.
Other world is place of elves and faery races while the underworld is abode of the dead awaiting rebirth. Much like Summerland. Gods have there own dwelling place.
Two types of magick. Raised Magick is generated from within and drawn magick comes from outside the material realm.
Astral realm is where thought are transformed into material. A thought form is etheric substance bound to thought. A strong will, empowered visuization draws Astral substance to itself.
Thought forms once completed travel to the elemental realm which consists of earth, fire, water, air. Once absorbing qualities needed then it heads to the material realm.
Space between the worlds occurs when circle Is cast. Is between spiritual and material realms.
Outside of my notes which covered magic and Wicca in general, the author gives the reader vital information on how to get started in building their own tradition. The importance in finding a theme with which to build your paradigm which could include agricultural themes, other worldly themes etc. Raven also tells us to research the different mythologies ie Greek, Celtic, Mesopotamian, Egyptian so we can choose one to work with. He advises against matching deities across different mythologies as this may short circuit any action we are doing. Plus the deities themselves are known not to like such things. It even wise to be careful how you pair up deities from the same tradition. There is a full overview of tools and what their symbolism is along with a full complement of correspondences regarding herbs and stones. This books gives you the building blocks for creating your own tradition along with how to construct your own book of shadows.
The appendices are great. They have sample sabbat and lunar rights in both group and solitaire format. Definitely a great book. Raven Grimassi always produced top notch stuff.
