{"id":367,"date":"2005-01-28T16:43:00","date_gmt":"2005-01-28T16:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=367"},"modified":"2005-01-28T16:43:00","modified_gmt":"2005-01-28T16:43:00","slug":"367","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=367","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

In defense of “spell books”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jason Pitzl-Waters<\/a> blogs http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/story\/160\/story_16005_1.html”>BeliefNet’s article<\/a> on the proliferation of Wiccan spell books.<\/p>\n

My response to this proliferation? A big “So what?” In fact, I would say that writer Carl McColman’s<\/a> statement here lacks historical perspective:<\/p>\n

Indeed, if one quality of recent Wiccan literature is worth noticing, it’s the instructions on casting spells. This seems reasonable enough: after all, aren’t Witches known for their magic-making abilities? Gardner and many other writers on Witchcraft tended to discuss spellcraft only as a single aspect of a greater spiritual whole, but the trend in publishing in the last 10 years has been to emphasize spells while marginalizing the spiritual and religious elements of Witchcraft.<\/em><\/p>\n

Publishing has its fads, and this one simply reminds me of the late 1960s-early 1970s, when do-it-yourself magic books starting popping in supermarket checkout aisles as well as bookstores. Paul Huson<\/a>, anyone? Sarah Lyddon Morrison<\/a>? Sybil Leek<\/a>? Elizabeth Pepper<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Some people came to the Craft through those books; some of them even say, “It all started with a book I found in the supermarket check-out aisle.” You might learn more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps McColman simply has not been around long enough. His mistake might lie partly in taking Gerald Gardner’s writings as normative and in assuming that everyone who came to the Craft came wanting a “religion.” He himself admits that his own interest is in Christo-Pagan-Celtic mysticism, a Victorian creation itself, but that is another story.<\/p>\n

So who could be upset? Only those who crave respectability, those who want to be invited to the interfaith council luncheon.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In defense of “spell books” Jason Pitzl-Waters blogs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-367","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13198,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13198","url_meta":{"origin":367,"position":0},"title":"The First Wiccan Book Published in India","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 7, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A little more than twenty years ago, in the preference to his landmark study of contemporary Pagan Witchcraft, The Triumph of the Moon, the historian Ronald Hutton wrote that \"the unique significance of pagan [sic] witchcraft to history is that it is the only religion which England has even given\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"India\"","block_context":{"text":"India","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=india"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/ANI-20221216115613-300x205.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":457,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=457","url_meta":{"origin":367,"position":1},"title":"She Went among the Witches","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Waterbrook, Random House's evangelical-publishing operation, has announced Wicca's Charm: Understanding the Spiritual Hunger Behind the Rise of Modern Witchcraft and Pagan Spirituality, a new journalistic survey of Wicca in America.From the Web site:Hundreds of thousands of people practice Wicca and other forms of modern Pagan spirituality in America today, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Wicca\"","block_context":{"text":"Wicca","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=wicca"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0877881987","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5365,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5365","url_meta":{"origin":367,"position":2},"title":"Pentagram Pizza: An ‘Apocalypse’ for Witches","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 From Scarlet Imprint, Peter Grey's Apocalyptic Witchcraft. In its review The Daily Grail said, Grey sets out to explicate a perspective on the familiar symbols and stories of witchcraft in the West which has little truck with the formalities of scholarship, the sensibilities of the Wiccan paths or the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"pentagrampizza","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/pentagrampizza.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6351,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6351","url_meta":{"origin":367,"position":3},"title":"Judy Harrow","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Judy Harrow, one of the most influential East Coast American Wiccan priestesses and a damn fine writer too, is no longer with us. You can read tributes at The Witching Hour blog, on a Facebook page, and elsewhere, I am sure. From The Witching Hour: As an author she contributed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Wicca\"","block_context":{"text":"Wicca","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=wicca"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1170,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1170","url_meta":{"origin":367,"position":4},"title":"Priestess Honored by Cherry Hill Seminary","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Judy Harrow, Wiccan priestess and teacher, has been honored by having Cherry Hill Seminary's online library named for her.Don't go looking for the libary yet--it is under construction. And it will be entirely digital, since Cherry Hill offers primarily online classes.CHS blurbs thusly:A Wiccan priestess since 1977, Harrow founded Proteus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1550225197","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1097,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1097","url_meta":{"origin":367,"position":5},"title":"Book Posts in the Works","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I am spread a little thin these days, and the below-zero (F.) weather the last few days threw some complications my way too.Two book reviews are in the works. Here are the previews:\u2022 Stewart Farrar: Writer On A Broomstick, The Biography of Stewart Farrar by Elizabeth Guerra. Workmanlike biography of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Druidry\"","block_context":{"text":"Druidry","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=druidry"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}