Gallimaufry: It’s Traditional

¶ When an ill-informed blogger writes that “Wicca Attempts to Control Life” on a right-wing site, commenters weigh in. The gist: (a) religion has nothing to do with politics or (b) all religions are bogus. It’s nice to see street-level libertarianism thriving.

¶ Maxine Sanders’ new autobiography Fire Child: The life & Magic of Maxine Sanders, ‘Witch Queen’ is on my to-read list. She says the first mid-1990s draft was it badly written, self-indulgent and absolute rubbish. And then she adds something that is true of all memoir-writing:

When I did start work on Fire Child there were details that were not recorded in my magical diary and should have been. However, magical life is often repetitive and would have proved boring to the reader. On reflection, the differences between memory and diary entries made fascinating personal analysis.

Update: Another reviewer discusses some inconsistencies in the book but still recommends it.

¶ Volume 3 of TYR Myth-Culture-Tradition has been published, and I am just starting to read it.

This third issue is a big one, 530 pages, with articles such as Nigel Pennick on “Weaving the Web of Wyrd,” Joscelyn Godwin on “Esotericism without religion: Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials,” and Christopher McIntosh on “Iceland’s Pagan Renaissance,” plus many pages of book and music reviews. Impressive.