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Teen
Witch, by Silver Ravenwolf.
Review by Morgan Akasha
Rated 2.5/5 |
Well, so
the cover may look a little try hard - the illustrator was
probably some old fart who thought that was "cool"
teens today… but it you can get over that, you will find this
is a pretty good book for beginners.
Apart from the way too many
ridiculous spells taking up the last half of the book, the
first half gives a nice brush over and introduction to Wicca.
This is probably the book that you want to "bring home
to your folks", it has a nice Introduction just for parents
and another just for teens.
It starts of explaining what
the craft is, and what it isn't, goes over the principals
(with an explanation of them all) and gives a brief on the
laws and where witches get their power. I don't feel that
her explanation of "where witches get their power"
really explains much. Ravenwolf mentions that it is do to
with the "cone of power" which is love, creativity
and spirit, but… to a beginner, that just doesn't iron out
the creases.
She goes on about the persecution
of witches in the burnings times, but I don't have much confidence
in her sources, luckily it only takes up 2 pages. She has
a really good "witches do's and don't" page which
rules out a lot of the many misconceptions about witches.
And that is the end of the introduction.
Now here is the part that I
recommend to beginners, and it's "the Basics of WitchCraft"
section. It explains who are witches, who can become witches,
traditions and beliefs like reincarnation, the cone of power,
daily devotions, the magick circle, secrecy and symbols. It
goes over the book of shadows, dedication and initiation,
the high priestess and high priest, Sabbats, Esbats, sacred
space, circle casting and Altars. The next part is dedicated
to Ritual. It has a basic outline for a general ritual and
explains all of the steps. It then goes into magickal correspondences
for days of the week and candle colours. It then steps through
and explains a few different types of rituals and answers
teen questions about rituals.
Then Silver Ravenwolf turns
her focus on explaining magick. Here she points out that if
you don't know the fundamentals of magick - the spells wont
count for anything. She goes on about prayers, Singing and
musical instruments (to raise energy), invocation and Evocation,
Magickal day dreaming, Meditation, Types of magick (petition,
sympathetic, colour, candles, cord and elemental) and some
more correspondences. She explains the use of magickal alphabets,
checking your path, devising a spiritual plan and explains
why magick doesn't always work. Ravenwolf is a mother of 4
teenage daughters so she has decided to bring up the topic
of a common problem -drugs and alcohol, and especially how
they don't mix with magick, she explains why witches don't
mess with negative energies and how magick is balance. She
ends this topic with basic witch rules to stay on track.
The 5th section is spells,
as I mentioned before, there sure is a lot of them. In between
the spells Ravenwolf explains timing and the rules of love,
healing, prosperity and abundance, psychic power and wisdom,
protection magick. She ends all that with "fun spells",
but I just skipped that part.
Then the last section (the 11th) talks about once you have
been practicing for a while and have dedicated yourself to
the craft how you should explain to your parents and to others
that you are a witch. It also talks about dealing with discrimination,
furthering your learning and lastly a suggested reading list.
All in all, this book is an
easy read, a great introduction to the craft, but for those
who like to do it their way, and are past the entire brief
over stuff, this book isn't for you. You might like to read
over some of her adult books like "to ride a silver broomstick",
"to stir a magick cauldron" and "to light a
sacred flame" (ok... maybe she was strapped for book
titles). I rate this book 2.5/5.
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