Scan barcode
A review by jessdone
The Door to Witchcraft: A New Witch's Guide to History, Traditions, and Modern-Day Spells by Tonya A. Brown
4.0
This book is good, but wasn't what I was looking for. I think it tells a great story and sets a good atmosphere or tone for someone to start opening themselves up to practicing witchcraft, but the history section seems to lie by omission.
It's a red flag when historic witch hunts are connected to the practice of witchcraft because it's well known most, possibly all of the victims of witch hunts were not witches. The practices these people claimed witches partake in don't reflect historic or modern practices. Mentioning the popularization of the Malleus Maleficarum and calling the event the European Witch Hunts instead of the burning times would be more historically appropriate and would reflect a better understand of how these events have culturally shaped the term witch as opposed to an event that actually hunted witches.
Mentioning Margaret Murray is necessary, but I think it's irresponsible to speak about her impact on the history of witches without also speaking on how her work was factually rejected by the academic community. For sometime elements of religious Neo-pagan witchcraft and witchcraft as a history were pulled from her academic work even though scholars had debunked her work. Murray created a romantic mythology some forms of witchcraft rest on, but it holds no basis in history.
Since I was primarily looking for history, folklore, and mythic basis and this book lacks transparency in its presentation of history, it wasn't a good fit for me. Still, its well written, has good structure, and offers a nice overview of different techniques witches may use in their practice. I would recommend it a beginner.
It's a red flag when historic witch hunts are connected to the practice of witchcraft because it's well known most, possibly all of the victims of witch hunts were not witches. The practices these people claimed witches partake in don't reflect historic or modern practices. Mentioning the popularization of the Malleus Maleficarum and calling the event the European Witch Hunts instead of the burning times would be more historically appropriate and would reflect a better understand of how these events have culturally shaped the term witch as opposed to an event that actually hunted witches.
Mentioning Margaret Murray is necessary, but I think it's irresponsible to speak about her impact on the history of witches without also speaking on how her work was factually rejected by the academic community. For sometime elements of religious Neo-pagan witchcraft and witchcraft as a history were pulled from her academic work even though scholars had debunked her work. Murray created a romantic mythology some forms of witchcraft rest on, but it holds no basis in history.
Since I was primarily looking for history, folklore, and mythic basis and this book lacks transparency in its presentation of history, it wasn't a good fit for me. Still, its well written, has good structure, and offers a nice overview of different techniques witches may use in their practice. I would recommend it a beginner.