The Witchs Way: A Guide to Modern-Day Spellcraft, Nature Magick, and Divination by Shawn Robbins

The Witchs Way: A Guide to Modern-Day Spellcraft, Nature Magick, and Divination Reviews

• 
  Anna

  The near childish tone was annoying at first. But they truly lost me the second they mentioned the importance of "learning from our elders" and put Helena Blavatsky's name on the list. Blavatsky. Founder of the Theosophy Society, and mother of Nazism through the creation, perpetration, and / or popularization of things such as the Root Race Theory (from which New-Age and Neopagan understanding of nonsense such as Atlanteans, Lemurians, and even the concept of Aryans descend- all of which should be thrown in the gutter and killed for good).
  
  

  "As authors, we also believe that we who promote the Wiccan way have a responsibility to learn from our ‘peers from the past,’ who laid a foundation of writings and teachings to grow upon. This includes the likes of Aleister Crowley, Helena Blavatsky, Scott Cunningham, Raymond Buckland, Robert Graves, Éliphas Lévi, Stewart Farrar, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, Owen Davies, George Pickingill, and Gerald Gardner, just to name a few. These people greatly influenced modern Witchcraft".

  
  Learning from Gardner and Crowley and Jeung and plenty of her cohorts is honestly bad enough half the time- though I don't crow about it as much, nearly as often. Mostly because because they arguably had a much harder and more measurable impacts on Paganism, even if we're still trying to correct course from the damage many of them caused. And because we can all pretty much agree at this point (outside of annoying occult dudebros, anyways) that they were unsavory and not to be looked up to as people in any regard, and we should be actively dismantling the more unsavory elements of their work.
  
  But unironically including her name in particular (though she's far from the only problematic one) on a list of "Elders" to look up to and learn from as source... Worse, insisting that people have "a responsibility" to do so... Is flat out outrageous and unacceptable given everything. Especially considering the amount of damage she's done, and what her theories in particular gave rise to; the only thing that should ever include Blavatsky's name is repeated reminders that she is the mother of Nazism, and that her and the Theosophy Society at large are largely responsible for the most foundational theories which drove the creation and spread of Nazism.
  
  Especially including any of them without any warnings what-so-ever about the fact that many of these people were incredibly unsavory people who did inexcusable things and held inexcusable ideologies- many of which we're still fighting against in Paganism today; and without any notice that learning from them should be relegated to knowing our history (and its bad elements) rather than looking to them as people and inspirational figures for magical guidance and continuity.... Is the highest level of irresponsibility a Pagan author can show. And this really tells me all I need to know about the authors and how they view our history and its figures, and their willingness to gloss over it or romanticize it.
  
  There are much better Elders out there to look up to than romanticizing a bunch of Victorian twats, anyways; I'm taking a hard pass on this one and I highly recommend the rest of you do as well.
• 
  Nicole Westen

  It was a decent read, although the last quarter or so of the book really bothered me, which is why it's two stars instead of three. This is kind of a primer for witchcraft, touching briefly on a lot of different subject and giving short examples. The last quarter, or so, starting with the divination chapter, bothered me. It mentions physiognomy, which means inferring someone's personality from their physical features. I've studied a lot of history books, and what I know for sure is that the eugenics movement was born out of this idea that personalities or characteristics showed in the physical body. There was an effort by scientists to categorized the facial features of a 'criminal', as in, all people who go on to commit crimes have these physical features. And then there's also the fun Victorian era idea that women have smaller skulls, therefore women must be less intelligent than men because they have less space in their heads for brains! It's a very old European idea, and you see it in a lot of fairytales, this idea that personality traits are reflected physically, with the whole ugly=bad and pretty=good. The other part that I disliked was the intuition part. To me, it overly encouraged emotional thinking, which isn't always the best way to have relationships. And the idea that 'this person made me feel bad, therefore they are a bad person' has been one that has caused me a good deal of trauma and grief in my life, as an autistic individual. Many times in my childhood I would unwittingly say or do something that would hurt someone else's feelings. Of course I never intended such a thing and I would immediately apologize and try to explain what I had meant, only to be met with 'you hurt my feelings, and if you didn't want to hurt my feelings then you wouldn't have done what you did. So because you did what you did you obviously wanted to hurt my feelings'. There was also a section on interpreting body language, which the entire time I was reading I was thinking '... or they're autistic...' at the end of every description. Like not making eye contact means the person is hiding something... or they're autistic. If someone is sweating heavily it means their anxious or really stressed... or they have hyperhidrosis and their body just produces way to much sweat. The chapter did encourage introspection, which I liked, but the suggestions that you take your emotional response to someone completely at face value was a little troubling to me, because I know where that kind of reaction can lead and it isn't fun.
• 
  ✩ amalia ✩

  I would give this book a 3.5 rating.
  It’s most definitely better than wiccapedia.
  
  In general i believe that reading Wiccapedia, The Good Witch’s Guide and The Witch’s Way, in this exact order, could be a good thing to do but you must not get discouraged from the first book.
  
  Wiccapedia is perfect for beginners, and i don’t mean beginners who know a lil something.. I mean BEGINNERS beginners. People who don’t know anything and need a book to start off with.
  I didn’t completely feel comfortable reading it because, yes, i was a beginner, but i had my basic knowledge about almost everything and i thought that the book could give some kind of different insight on various topics so at the end of the day i found myself being very underwhelmed.
  
  But i continued reading, going over the other two books too and i actually found myself actually getting engaged with the information i had.
  
  In conclusion: I recommend you read the books in the exact order i gave before! But, you can definitely read them however you want.
  The Witch’s Way is a little more theoretical, i liked it, it talked about different things and explained everything in a way that every beginner would enjoy so.. if you’re looking for this kind of thing then go for it!
  
• 
  the bard

  idk how to feel... the art was absolutely stunning, but the actual content of the book is debatable. a lot of the rituals and beliefs are strictly wiccan, and doesn't leave much room for non-wiccan witches. there's also an ungodly amount of typos to the point of confusion, but ig i'll let that slide. there were some gems in here, but overall this book was mediocre.
• 
  Carrie (The Butterfly Reader)

  I like the info inside but hate the little errors. They drive me insane.
• 
  Emmalee Wilson

  What an informative and intriguing read! I had a lot of fun reading this. I had many discussions with my husband and friends pertaining to its material and I’m grateful for the better informed knowledge it provided! I did notice all the grammatical errors and they were annoying. Plus I did start to get bored 3/4 of the way in but finished out strong! I feel as if I understand my loved ones and even myself a little bit better. This is not something I would normally read but I plan to use it as a reference through out my life! Excited to learn and read more about this material and other practices/beliefs!
• 
  Kaylin Retzlaff

  This book offered a lot of diversity in content. I found lots of value in research with this book. It’s definitely one I will refer back to. Highly recommend this book to anyone curious about witchcraft. It offers a wide range of topics and gives resources to delving deeper and many of the topics that they only scraped the surface on.
• 
  Dani Rae

  Meh. Just another regurgitation of every single other "beginner witchcraft" book out there. Save your money.
• 
  Vanessa

  ⭐ 4/5
  
  informative book for baby witches such as me. it teaches you things such as wicca and modern-day spellcraft but also the different gods/goddesses, angels, cupids and spirit guides
  the magickal aspects and meanings the flowers, herbs and certain trees have to help with your spells. the book also guides you through divination, what is means, what different kinds there are and how to practice divination.
  
  i found it very helpful to read through this and learn new things. ofc you won't remember everything at once so using tabs or using the index is a very handy way for me to easily look back at certain pages and reread them!
• 
  Megan

  This book is perfect. There are a few grammatical errors here and there but other than that, this book is perfect. Even if you aren't a baby witch, this book is for everyone. I finished reading it ages ago and I still use it weekly. It has lists of herbs and their uses. It has chapters dedicated to divination. It touches base on different types of witches. It also lists some gods, goddesses, and angels and how to call upon them. The book contains different spells for different situations. In the back of the book is a Q&A for commonly asked questions which makes it perfect for beginners. No matter what type of witch you are, there is something in here for EVERYONE! The authors of the book also clearly understood that everyone takes a different path with witchcraft and that everyone does things differently. They offer different methods for different rituals and spells. This was the first witchcraft book I ever bought and it is perfect. I can not recommend this book enough.
• 
  Ley

  While there is a lot of useful information in here, I think a beginner would find this book very confusing. The tone of finality is present throughout, the authors stated things as fact that were more a matter of opinion. While this book is more advertised as a witchcraft book, this definitely conflates Wicca and witchcraft throughout. I did find some interesting information in here, would be good for an upper beginner or intermediate learner. I did find the FAQ to be super informative but I would have preferred it to be at the beginning of the book. I think it would have made more sense because a lot of it was the basics of Wicca and witchcraft, things that people ask about all the time. Definitely a worthwhile read if you're interested in witchcraft and want to learn more beyond absolute beginner information.
• 
  Peanut Butter Jelly

  I've been interested in reading and learning about witch, wiccan, and pagan since I was in high school. Only this sort of book is hard to come by in most physical bookstores where I'm from. I find it surprisingly informational. I thought it was gonna be one of those books that have like general knowledge? It was easy to read, and each chapter, it explains thoroughly (for me). I'm also very picky on how the typeface & fonts are arranged, and this one is easy to read. I didn't need to slouch so often as well. One thing I do wish the book had was illustrating how the ritual or spell casting will be done? That way it'll be very obvious to newcomers; baby witch & those who are just curious.
• 
  Kayleigh Lawrence

  I've been practicing witchcraft for years and am NOT a babywitch or a beginner. However, I like collecting different books relating to witchcraft because they all have different viewpoints and ideas, which I like. This book was on sale, and I hadn't read it so I decided to try it out. Lots of it was just a refresher but there were a few new ideas & viewpoints I quite liked. Will be a good book to go back and reference. Looks gorgeous on my shelf as well & love the artwork. I don't know how it would be for beginners into this subject, but as a seasoned witch like myself it's a fun read! Was great that it had a place to take notes at the back as well!
• 
  Nicole

  A really great and informitive book, although the connotations and relations it has with the faith of christianity and how naturally the authors make the christian merges with wicca in this book is probably damaging and dangerous to a baby wiccan. Just know if you have read this book as a beginner wiccan, angels and christian connotations are not the be all and end all of wicca! They are not necessary but are fine if thats what you prefer.
• 
  Kas

  Immediately to clarify one thing for people reading reviews to see if it's something for them: despite the title of the book it is mainly about Wiccan beliefs. It also has SO MUCH about Angelic Wicca which I skipped the chapters of entirely because it's simply not my cup of tea at all.
  
  First of all the art, book cover etc is stunning. It's super pretty and I can see why people gravitate towards picking this puppy up.
  
  If it's the first, or one of the first, books you read about Wicca & witchcraft then there is good information to find here but there is many more to find 😉 (and perhaps better information than these almost randomly picked chapters)
  
  Wasn't too keen on what the chapters were about. It feels like an afterthought of the Wiccapedia perhaps?
• 
  Amanda

  This books has a LOT of information. Like, I skipped over a lot of chapters because some stuff just doesn’t seem relevant. A lot of the information seems a little… iffy? I guess? It’s totally Wiccan based so there’s no information about other witch/pagan practices. Will definitely use as a mini reference as it does have a section about the different colors of candles, herbs, numbers etc
• 
  Hollidaisy

  I liked large chunks of this book and just kind of ignored the stuff that didn't resonate. I like the amount of specificity included to use for reference. My main beef is that there were so many errors and typos in this book. Like I get it, editing is hard (it's a large part of my professional job) but we have to try, my guy.
• 
  Orquidia & Lisenya Snyder

  This book is very informative and interesting. I read it for research purposes. The only problem I had with it is the lack of editing. There were words missing, extra spaces found and words in the wrong place. Other than that great illustrations and information.
• 
  Britanny

  I really enjoyed this book and will keep it with me forever. I'm only giving 4 stars because parts of the book were not relevant to me, but it still sounded very informative. I learned a lot from this book and would probably offer it to beginner witches.
• 
  Kari Olfert

  4.5. Great overview if you're exploring the wiccan path..apparently it's not for me and now I know thanks to this book. Has a couple of easy spells to try out if you are without spell supplies ;)
• 
  Sherri

  It wasn't very helpful for me.
• 
  Laura

  I think this is one of my least favourite beginner's guides I've read yet. Less wiccan and more general new age despite having spells and correspondences. Just didn't click with it.
• 
  Kye Hale

  the only reason i’m giving this a 4/5 is because there’s so much you can just skip over or seems a bit useless unless you’re actually jotting things down. everything else is pretty good though!
• 
  josey

  easy book to read!! especially good for beginners but i wish they would have explained some things deeper. overall good book<3
• 
  Carlee Ross

  Feels a little childish for someone who knows nothing about the craft perhaps, but it’s a gorgeous book and my 13 year old loves it.
• 
  Kit

  so useful and the illustration and design is so fucking cute
• 
  Katie

  Diverse in topics, most of the information is great, mostly for beginners in the craft, however, I don’t agree with a good 40-50% of it. Some of the illustrations are beautiful.