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A review by ashleyhouse
Toil and Trouble: A Women's History of the Occult by Melanie R. Anderson, Lisa Kröger
2.0
I've settled on a three for this book because my interest came and went throughout the different parts of this work of non-fiction.
My interest in this book was sparked by learning about women throughout history that were labelled as "witch" because they were challenging the status quo. I really enjoyed the beginning of the book, and perhaps my favorite section was about the Public Universal Friend. I also really enjoyed the end of the book, when it discussed the advantages and disadvantages of witchiness being more mainstream. I loved the quote in the section about Sparkly Kat: "If the West is a construct, if the concept of whiteness is a story that we keep telling in order to reinforce it, then we can choose different ways of telling stories while beginning to heal the trauma of those original stories that privilege the West and whiteness" (p. 269). There is so much to discuss there!
That leads me to one of my disappointments with the book - the brevity of some topics. I know it's meant to be an overview of many things within occult history - I'm just disappointed that I couldn't have learned more about paganism, connection to the environment, the Satanic Panic, and women religious leaders. Personally, I do not identify as a pagan or witch - I'm an open-minded, non judgemental, believer in everybody's place in the world, love your neighbour as yourself kind of Christian (we do exist - the right wing "Christians" are just louder). I believe religious practices and beliefs have to evolve over time in order to overcome the awfulness of the world. We have so much to learn from each other. Perhaps this wasn't the right book in order to learn more about what I wanted to learn about (if that makes sense). Also, while interesting for a bit, I became kinda bored in the middle of the book because it just felt like the same thing over and over about psychics and debunking their practices.
Anyway, if anyone is still reading at this point, and would like to point me towards some interesting reading about pagan beliefs regarding our connection to the earth or early women healers or leaders, that would be greatly appreciated!
My interest in this book was sparked by learning about women throughout history that were labelled as "witch" because they were challenging the status quo. I really enjoyed the beginning of the book, and perhaps my favorite section was about the Public Universal Friend. I also really enjoyed the end of the book, when it discussed the advantages and disadvantages of witchiness being more mainstream. I loved the quote in the section about Sparkly Kat: "If the West is a construct, if the concept of whiteness is a story that we keep telling in order to reinforce it, then we can choose different ways of telling stories while beginning to heal the trauma of those original stories that privilege the West and whiteness" (p. 269). There is so much to discuss there!
That leads me to one of my disappointments with the book - the brevity of some topics. I know it's meant to be an overview of many things within occult history - I'm just disappointed that I couldn't have learned more about paganism, connection to the environment, the Satanic Panic, and women religious leaders. Personally, I do not identify as a pagan or witch - I'm an open-minded, non judgemental, believer in everybody's place in the world, love your neighbour as yourself kind of Christian (we do exist - the right wing "Christians" are just louder). I believe religious practices and beliefs have to evolve over time in order to overcome the awfulness of the world. We have so much to learn from each other. Perhaps this wasn't the right book in order to learn more about what I wanted to learn about (if that makes sense). Also, while interesting for a bit, I became kinda bored in the middle of the book because it just felt like the same thing over and over about psychics and debunking their practices.
Anyway, if anyone is still reading at this point, and would like to point me towards some interesting reading about pagan beliefs regarding our connection to the earth or early women healers or leaders, that would be greatly appreciated!