The Craft of the Wild Witch by Poppy Palin - Book Reviews - The White Goddess

The Craft of the Wild Witch by Poppy Palin

The Craft of the Wild Witch
Green Spirituality & Natural Enchantment
by Poppy Palin

Pages: 336
Published by Llewellyn Worldwide.
Dimensions: 23.1 x 18.8 x 2.3 cm

The Blurb

'A Poetic Guidebook to The Green Spirited Path.

Wild witchcraft is a magical, free spirited philosophy that embraces nature. It resonates with those who yearn to express their inherent spirituality in a joyous, meaningful manner; who sense their wild heart and soul nature; who know there is beauty, magic, and meaning in the world if only we want to find it. It is a magical path for those with poetry in their souls.

Evocative and compelling, Craft of the Wild Witch reveals how to practice a form of witchcraft that is both wild and free. Within these pages you will discover the wildwitch's way of seeing and knowing, how to discern one's suitability for the wildwitch's path, and the fundamental themes of green spirituality.'

Included in the book are-'rituals, chants, seasonal prayers, tree meditations, spell weaving, other-life memories, trancework, the Fey and Otherworld Companions, pathworking, herb helpers, sacred intent and safe practice.'

The Craft of the Wild Witch by Poppy Palin

Well, it's taken me a while to get through this book for a few reasons.

I've picked it up, put it down, picked it up again etc..

It is quite a considerable size book to work your way through - and it is certainly packed with stuff (described above) - some of which I've found useful and inspiring-some of which not so. It's taken a lot of thought at times - which I think is a good thing.

The book is generally a guide to the 'green spirituality' that the author herself practices and has considerable experience in and this does come through in the text-mental note *guidebook - guide being the keyword - not necessarily 'how-to'.  I do think that when reading it is important that one keeps this in mind.

Important when reading many kinds of pagan books-however, I found particularly so in this case as the author can be very moralistic at times.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, it can be challenging - simply that we will all experience differences of opinion here.  Don't get tied up in guilt because your practice doesn't aspire to be as altruistic as the author (as it comes across on occasion).  It also seems sort of strangely out of place when looking at certain aspects such as The Fey, and some Land Spirits who are far from moralistic in the sense we are.  Mine, I found, varied quite considerably, at certain points!

Still, there is a lot to learn from this book for those interested in beginning to connect with the land around them, from the land spirits they may encounter, to the initial practices of protection.  There are some traditional concepts covered like that of spirit familiars and guides and questioning/verifying of same. Though at times these concepts seem a little hidden in new age terminology (imho).

What I really enjoyed was some of the wonderfully wild poetry that infuses most pages and is so often typical of those with a connection to the land.

I think the book overall for me made some very poignant points, and inspired a more poetically creative approach to my own path of green spirituality-despite the fact that mine differs considerably from that of the authors.

If it makes you think - and leads you to look and explore further then that's a good thing to my mind. What it may well do, if you aren't used to doing it, is open your eyes to some of the things you may well find around you, and begin a new way of looking at things. Introduce you to new ways of working (e.g. pathworking).

As for Wild Witchcraft - well, I'm not altogether sure this is that Wild. I would focus more on 'A path towards green spirituality'.

[A Review by Pyewacket]