A Witch Alone

[Esiris]

The book by Marian Green has some interesting things in it- I was wondering if anyone had gone through it completely or if anyone wanted to work through it with me in the thread? cat_sweatdrop  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

It is s**t, set it on fire.  

[Esiris]

Sanguina Cruenta

It is s**t, set it on fire.

Why?  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

Esiris

Sanguina Cruenta

It is s**t, set it on fire.

Why?

There are several problems I have with this book.

Problem the first: the history is beyond the most terrible Ravenwolf history. Why is this? because she specifies. She'll give a detailed description of something people apparently did 3000 years ago to worship the goddess but not bother to say where this occurred or who the people were or where she found her information.

Problem the second: no content. She pisses on about the air and so forth but there's nothing there. She'll give you an exercise like "cast a circle every day for a week" but doesn't actually tell you how to cast a circle. I mean, if a person picked up this book hoping to learn something, they are s**t outta luck. The one small effort to explaining this she made was to suggest you walk around in a circle rhyming. No actual instructions re: casting a circle were given - unless she thinks rhyming will cast a circle. Which is crazy.

Problem the third: She assumes you'll feel the same way as her about everything. She'll describe a way she feels at a particular time of year, and you are expected to feel the exact same way. It's weird.

Problem the fourth: constant discussions about the "witches of olde". She'll tell you on the one hand to do stuff exactly as they did, and on the other to recommend all this crap that old-school witches would never even have thought about.

I think the part that annoyed me most was that it was recommended by so many people as an excellent book to work through and, history issues and fluffiness aside, there's no actual substance to those exercises. It's not actually possible to work through it because she doesn't tell you how to do anything.  

[Esiris]

Sanguina Cruenta

There are several problems I have with this book.

Problem the first: the history is beyond the most terrible Ravenwolf history. Why is this? because she specifies. She'll give a detailed description of something people apparently did 3000 years ago to worship the goddess but not bother to say where this occurred or who the people were or where she found her information.

Problem the second: no content. She pisses on about the air and so forth but there's nothing there. She'll give you an exercise like "cast a circle every day for a week" but doesn't actually tell you how to cast a circle. I mean, if a person picked up this book hoping to learn something, they are s**t outta luck. The one small effort to explaining this she made was to suggest you walk around in a circle rhyming. No actual instructions re: casting a circle were given - unless she thinks rhyming will cast a circle. Which is crazy.

Problem the third: She assumes you'll feel the same way as her about everything. She'll describe a way she feels at a particular time of year, and you are expected to feel the exact same way. It's weird.

Problem the fourth: constant discussions about the "witches of olde". She'll tell you on the one hand to do stuff exactly as they did, and on the other to recommend all this crap that old-school witches would never even have thought about.

I think the part that annoyed me most was that it was recommended by so many people as an excellent book to work through and, history issues and fluffiness aside, there's no actual substance to those exercises. It's not actually possible to work through it because she doesn't tell you how to do anything.

It looks to me like the problem is that she inherited some bad information from the "All witchcraft survives from the old days and is part of this one witchcraft religion" era of paganism. sweatdrop  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

Esiris

It looks to me like the problem is that she inherited some bad information from the "All witchcraft survives from the old days and is part of this one witchcraft religion" era of paganism. sweatdrop

Certainly part of it, but not the only thing. I mean Valiente inherited the same bad information but I always recommend her, because she's practical and intelligent and has some good information also. Green essentially just has feel-good nonsense. I mean she can make you want to go out and do things, but because she doesn't give you any practical guidance or instruction, at all, there's no real point in reading it. No reason to be inspired when you can't do anything with it; you'll just end up frustrated and annoyed.  

[Esiris]

Sanguina Cruenta

Esiris

It looks to me like the problem is that she inherited some bad information from the "All witchcraft survives from the old days and is part of this one witchcraft religion" era of paganism. sweatdrop

Certainly part of it, but not the only thing. I mean Valiente inherited the same bad information but I always recommend her, because she's practical and intelligent and has some good information also. Green essentially just has feel-good nonsense. I mean she can make you want to go out and do things, but because she doesn't give you any practical guidance or instruction, at all, there's no real point in reading it. No reason to be inspired when you can't do anything with it; you'll just end up frustrated and annoyed.

I guess it wouldn't be bad if it was used along side a specific tradition or by someone who already has a path to work with.  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

Esiris

I guess it wouldn't be bad if it was used along side a specific tradition or by someone who already has a path to work with.

What use would it be in that situation? I mean I have a path to work with, and I was reading through it looking for more ways to expand my practice and deepen my experience, etc, and basically to refresh myself with exercises. But there was nothing in there that was at all useful to me, even with a system of my own to fall back on. The exercises just aren't developed enough to be of use to anyone, and the rest of it is dross, so you'd skip over it anyway. If all you want is feel-good nonsense, you can get that anywhere, and it only remains feel-good nonsense until you run into one of her horrible "facts" and it no longer feels good. It's just nonsense.

I mean... I read through about 2/3 of it or more before I finally gave up out of frustration. There's just nothing to it except for the silliness; it sort of promises good things in the way it begins but never delivers.

Honestly I'd just return it to the bookstore or library and get something else instead.