The Pagans grew secretive about their rites. No longer did meadows know the sounds of voices chanting the old names of the Sun gods, and the Moon hung unadorned in the nighttime skies. “The Pagan rites went underground when they were outlawed by the newly powerful Church. Near the end of an explanation on the Goddess and God, Cunningham writes “We are the shamans.” No, we aren’t the shamans, the shamans are the shamans, we are the Witches!Ĭunningham mostly avoids bad “Wicca as an unbroken chain” type statements, but he comes close to it on a chapter about the circle and the altar: Witches as shamans isn’t a dominant theme of the book, but it comes up enough to be problematic. But that does not mean the two are related. Wicca is the end-result of many things, and shamanism is not among them. (I hear and see my friends across the pond using the term more often than we Yanks.) Shamanism is more specific than many people believe it is, and the use of therm in conjunction with practices like Wicca feels especially frowned upon in many parts of the world, especially the USA. Issues arise in Cunningham the moment you get to the first chapter, “Wicca and Shamanism.” In fairness to Cunningham, there are no grandma stories in his book, but he does choose to place Wicca’s roots in shamanism. (I write that knowing that your experiences may differ, and I’m looking forward to the commenter that suggests they do everything exactly as Cunningham said to in 1989.) There’s good information in this book, but there’s also a lot of stuff that’s very out of place in the Wiccan world of 2020. His footnotes had me giggling during my re-reading. Cunningham’s prose is warm and inviting, and even funny at times. If you want to practice Wicca right-away this book allows you to do that. He explains things succinctly without a lot of fuss. Cunningham has been popular for forty years because he’s a good writer. Despite the criticisms that are coming your way soon enough, I’d never argue that Wicca is a bad book, in fact there’s a lot to recommend it.

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