Question by prairiecrow: Fellow Wiccans and Pagans, what books concerning your religion display a bad grasp of history?
Hello all:
Fellow Wiccans and Pagans, what books concerning your religion display a bad grasp of history?
I’m just rereading “The Great Cosmic Mother: rediscovering the religion of the Earth” by Monica Sjöö and Barbara Mor, which proposes to be a general overview of “ancient matriarchies”, and I’m struck all over again by the rampant wackiness of it all AND the appalling grasp of history it displays. I consider myself a feminist, and find that particular book to be interesting primarily as a portrait of the obsession some feminists have with TEH EBIL PATRIARCHY, to the point where they make up history whole-cloth to support their theories.
I’ve certainly seen other books concerning Wicca that have a horrible grasp of history in general. What books have you read that made you go, “:-P, well, I’ll never recommend THAT one…”?
Thanks to everyone who takes the time to respond.
Best answer:
Answer by Corey
As someone who is nominally a ____ reconstructionist, that is my biggest complaint about most of Wicca and related branches of neopaganism. I’m not the most scholarly in my beliefs, but I don’t go obfuscating researched material with syncretic wishful thinking.
Give your answer to this question below!
Urban Voodoo: A Beginner’s Guide to Afro-Caribbean Magic by S. Jason Black, Christopher S. Hyatt in Books
I’m sorry, you can’t self-initiate into Voodoo or Vodou. Nothing is “triggered” by practice, and spells are not a necessary part of it either. Magic is Hoodoo or conjure, not Voodoo or Vodou.
Voodoo You Love? Book & Kit by Amy Helmes
VOODOO DOLLS DO NOT WORK LIKE THIS.
Dr. Snake’s Voodoo Spellbook By Doktor Snake
No. Just no. Vodou is a religion, not OMG MAGIC AND CURSES.
The amount of crap out there about Voodoo and Vodou/Vodun is ridiculous.
“TEH EBIL PATRIARCHY” lmao, that’s hilarious. 😀
Well, I’d have to say Ravenwolf’s “Solitary Witch: The Ultimate Book of Shadows for the New Generation” and Grimassi’s “Italian Witchcraft: The Old Religion of Southern Europe” (I feel like I always mention this book whenever a question like this is asked :P) for sure. I’ve heard Edain McCoy is really bad history-wise, I have one of her books (“Sabbats”) and knowing how bad her history has been before, I take everything she says with a very large grain of salt.
All of the original followers of paganism are long dead. It is screwed up because everyone that came later is trying to reinvent what they think paganism is from their own view point. But the reality is that there is no way to really reconstruct it as the religion used to be.
I’ve seen far more non-Wiccan Dianic Pagan books do this, Starhawk’s work for instance, than actual books on Wicca, and Gardner’s work displays some rather regrettable history, but taken in the context of his age, his background and what Britain was like in the decade after WWII, it’s understandable.
Basically, what I’ve witnessed is a physical movement of where Wicca is allegedly from. So, Author A says Wicca is Western (Continental) European, and Western European scholars come out and smack them down, then Author B says Wicca is an ancient Irish faith, and Irish Scholars come out and smack them down, then Author C says Wicca is an ancient Italian religion, etc.
It’s actually the Italian one that currently galls me the most, as I am married to a 1st generation Italian American (NB: One whose parents came to the US from Italy) and I hear the perceived insult when talking to the inlaws, and when I was last in Italy (05) I was pretty much called on the carpet for it and had to do one of those “I am not responsible for my government’s policies” thing, only it was along the lines of “I am not responsible for other Wiccans, especially ones I disagree with, making crap up about you.” If it goes the way of the Irish and French claims we’ve got to wait 2-3 more years before some scholar completely debunks the claims, leaving people like me who only know enough to say “hey, that does not gel with what I’ve experienced,” to be ‘voices of question,’ (Sort of like voices of reason, only with the power only to go ‘do you have proof for your claims,’ as opposed to going ‘here is the proof your claims are bunk.’)
As I’ve said before, there is so much bunk now that all I ask of any author is that they don’t plagiarize, manipulate their readers, or claim to speak for all Wiccans.
When I see phenomena like the crowds chanting for blood 24/7 around the house of accused baby-murdering ‘Tot-Mom’ Casey Anthony’s parents’ house, I really ask myself if we’re falling back into the Dark Ages again. “Kill the Witch! Kill the Witch!”
Not exactly in line with your question, but it does bring to mind the classic short story by Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”. In this case, literature uses history to warn, showing conformity and hysteria for what it is. And where prejudice comes from, that is, from within us. Lucky to find the link to the whole thing below…do have a look.
Well, I am aware of historical inaccuracies in Starhawk’s initial publication of the Spiral Dance. In the revised version published ten years later she makes corrections based upon better historical and anthropological review as well as advances in these fields themselves.
I’ve run across much misinformation, but what is more troublesome is conflicting information that is hard to independently confirm or deny by your own means, which, I am sure, is what many authors run into in writing these books. The fact is that our history was intentionally subverted, and that makes history a more obscure thing for us in comparison to more dominant religions. The victors write the history.
I’m not Wiccan, but I do recognize that my tradition has Wiccan influences, as well as ones from the Faery Tradition and from Z. Budapest, a Dianic witch. I don’t think Starhawk ever claimed to be Dianic; she actually describes them as separatist.
It is hard to determine which books are good books that are not fully about ritualism and that are not for Wiccan introductory purposes. These are the ones I find in stores the most in my area, which is why I have resorted to shopping online. This is not to say that I will not read Wiccan literature, but that much of what is available is as such.
Blessings.
A number of Starhawk books (It’s not just Spiral Dance that has problems….and her reprint still has plenty of doozies in it)
Anything by Edain McCoy (Witta, anyone?)
Early authors like Gardner and Valiente, although they were the victims of believing the wrong authority (as opposed to more recent writers like Starhawk, McCoy and others who clearly ignore advances in scholarship)
A book called Book of Shadows by Migene Gonzalez-Wippler, which Llewellyn sent me for free and which was so bad that I emailed them lamenting on their complete lack of even the most basic fact checking….and at that point I hadn’t gotten past the Introduction.
My review here: http://wicca.timerift.net/books_review.shtml#migene
There are a lot of people trying to make money
off of women and the feminist movement. They
write a lot of bad books about the history and
religion of the Goddess, etc…. which is a real
shame because the religion of the Goddess is
a wonderful thing, when properly understood
and practiced.
My group considers the goddess Cybele to
be the most accurate classic representation
of the primordial Great Mother Goddess, so
I’ve read just about every book on Cybele
that there is. The ones by pseudo-scholars
Lynn Roller, Maarten Vermaseren, Philippe
Borgeaud and Will Roscoe are total rubbish
and really suck. They repeat secondary
source misinformation, perpetuate harmful
and inaccurate stereotypes, and present
absolutely no genuine insights into our
religion.
Blessings,
Jean
Crow, too many writers are making this stuff up off the tops of their heads. You ARE correct, one NEEDS to actually READ the old manuscripts and actually discover what was going on in those ancient times. Speaking from the BACT viewpoint, the works of Nennius, Gildas, Malory, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Talieson, De Troyes, and the manuscripts of all the anonymous writers of those times are ALL important sources which can lead to amazing discoveries of what REALLY occurred during those times. The truth is in all of that,yet it is hidden and shrouded in the language of Christianity of the times. Christianity of that era was VERY steeped in magic and Paganism. Yet the Christians are so much in denial of ALL of that. The so-called Holy Relics were used as magical talismans, spell workings and tools of divination ALL through that era of History. BUT, one needs to actually READ those texts and ignore the subsequent commentary of the so-called academics who comment from the Christian perspective and examine them with PAGAN eyes in order to SEE what is written within those pages. But to place credence upon modern writers who may or may not have done their homework is the same as allowing a migrant driveway company apply seal coating to your driveway. You only get what you pay for. The pay is the work that YOU put into doing your OWN research. Do a cursory job and you get work that is of low quality, do a good job and the results are a LOT better, But too many folks are unwilling to wade through all of the Old English and Middle English or Welsh of the texts to make the attempt to learn and understand. That is how we have come to this situation, in which charlatans are able to pull the wool over the eyes of other folks who are also unwilling to do THEIR homework.
Brightest Blessings,
Raji the Green Witch