<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Don't throw your money away on this book
Review: Having taken a class with a real Pennsylvania Dutch Hex sign painter, Johnny Claypoole, and read Silver Ravenwolf's book I am massively disappointed in the book. I am a Wiccan and I'm embarrassed to be associated with this woman.
Not only is this book lacking in basic information about Hex sign imagery, symbolism, and design but it is padded out with irrelevant information about Wicca and dubious stories about her childhood.
On top of that her Hex sign designs are hideous, lacking the grace and simplicity that you see on real Pennsylvania Dutch Hex signs.
Any other book on the subject would be better. I recommend "Pow-Wows: Long Lost Friend, a Collection of Mysteries and Invaluable Arts and Remedies" by John G. Hohman, and "Hex Signs: Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Symbols & Their Meaning" by Don Yoder and Thomas E. Graves.
Rating:
Summary: A Second trashing of a Viable tradition
Review: I am insulted by this book. I'm also from the PA Dutch country and have been around Pow-Wow. It's not all the shiny happy stuff written in this book. It has a Dark Side to it as strong as the healing side to it. Silver presents it in false light. She also does a bigger diservice by removing it totally out of the Germanic Asatru Religion where most of the first practitioners started and trys to make it something Wiccan. If you have a copy of "the long Lost Friend" you are closer to true Pow-Wow.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Usefull
Review: I don't know if this is real Pow-Wow magick, but I like it and it's very usefull. If you are looking for a book that has some history and usefull spells for healing, protection, and banishing, then this book is good for you.This book is for both Wiccans and Christans, but I don't think I will be using the Psalm magick presented in this book. All in all, this is a great book to have. The only thing that I didn't like was that she included a "Hunting Deer" spell. I am a vegeterian and even if I weren't I wouldn't go and kill deer. Although I am glad to hear that her husband hunts deer for food and not a trophy on the wall.
Rating:
Summary: Try it!
Review: I finally found a name to go with some of the "odd" things I learned to do growing up in the Appalachians. For me, this book was an introduction into the craft. It was a gentle lead in from the familiar to the forbidden. I recommend this book above all others to any one interested in the craft for the first time, or any of you pro's interesting in "grass roots" magic.
Rating:
Summary: Try it!
Review: I finally found a name to go with some of the "odd" things I learned to do growing up in the Appalachians. For me, this book was an introduction into the craft. It was a gentle lead in from the familiar to the forbidden. I recommend this book above all others to any one interested in the craft for the first time, or any of you pro's interesting in "grass roots" magic.
Rating: 
Summary: A must for any witchy library or folklore collection!
Review: Pow-Wow is the oldest of the American magic systems created by European settlers; it is practised (Dillsburg, Mechanicsburg, Lancaster, Reading, York, etc.)Like Voo Doo and Santeria, Pow Wow is often mixed with the practices of Christianity. Quakers, Wiccans, Druids and Native Americans will find aspects of their practices here as well. Silver RavenWolf provides background on the history and practice of traditional pow-wow. This comprehensive volume includes everything from charms, spells and the use of herbs to the hexing, cursing, banishing and healing practices of the Pennsylvania Dutch region. Also included are a glossary of hex signs and an overview of Pennsylvania Dutch arts and crafts, and a discussion of Pow Wow foods, German Magick and German and Pennsylvania Dutch recipes. A must for any witchy library or folklore collection!
Rating: 
Summary: It's OK, but look elsewhere
Review: The title of this review ought to say it all. Silver Ravenwolf (i.e., Jenine Trayer)has, in her own way, attempted to tackle the subject of Pow-Wow and hexerei. She does the practice a grave injustice with her incessant wiccanizing. "Ravenwolf" has had timerity to wiccanize such elements as the biblical Psalms and traditional Christian prayers, throwing in for good measure New Agey concepts such as chakras, etc. In spite of her having been taught by a Pow-Wow, Preston Zerbe, she displays little respect for the art. For those who don't have their heads in the sand, it is a well know fact that the wiccan religion (as practiced today) is a mere 50 or 60 years old (and that's being generous). Through out the text Trayer makes stellar comments where she laments that Pow-Wows no longer acknowledge or utilise the "Rede" or "Law of Three". These are thoroughly modern concepts only found in wicca. Within the book she attempts to show Pow-Wow as merely a Christian cover for American witchcraft. Now, hexerei is witchcraft. Witchcraft is a practice, not a religion. As a practice, it can be worked within any religious context. However, Trayer wants everyone to believe that Pow-Wow is "actually" a bastardized form of Wicca (which she obviously believes predates Pow-Wow and other traditional magical practices). While witchcraft can be worked within any religious context, Trayer does Pow-Wow a disservice by trying to make it so generic that it will fit anyone's fancy or fantasy, thereby removing it from its cultural roots. "In the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost" is 'corrected' by Trayer as "In the names of Maiden, Mother and Crone". Prayers to Isis find their way in the text, too. New Age wiccan writers such as Trayer are jeopardizing the survival of true traditional witchcraft practices such as hexerei with their lousy 'scholarship' and historical revisionism. Witchcraft is, indeed, pre-Christian in the sense that *every* art of civilization predates Christ. Witchcraft is as much a skill or art as fire-making, cooking, blacksmithing, basket-weaving, etc. Just because house building, for example, predates the advent of Jesus doesn't make it a "pagan" craft. Thowing out, minimizing, or tokenizing the Christianity within Pow-Wow subtracts form the cultural organic whole of the practice instead of adding to it. Llewellyn Publications and its authors are quite guilty of this manner of cultural rape. It's too bad there can't be laws against this manner of reprehensible 'scholarship' and its publishers. For a truely decent book on Pow-Wow see Karl Herr's book *Hex and Spellwork*. Also, get a copy of Lee Gandee's *Strange Experience: an autobiography of a hexenmeister*. These texts, plus the traditional Pow-Wow books *Long Lost Friend*, *Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses*, and *Albertus Magnus Egyptian Secrets* are invaluable to the study.
Rating:
Summary: faith healing at its best
Review: This book is a great resource on the basic history of the Pow-wow system It covers solid basics on herbs, faith healing, hex symbols, as well as many old remedies well known in this obscure system all in all a great and interesting read
Rating:
Summary: An overall good book
Review: This is one of Silver's better books. It isn't Wiccan, but an overview of a very difficult to research subject. She isn't writing from the perspective of a researcher here, either, she's a practitioner. You can't become a PowWow artist from reading this book, and shouldn't expect to. However, Silver has presented as much information as she could in the limited format she was allowed, with referrals to other works in the bibliography. You can learn enough to want to further your research (although I know a lot of Pagan people won't like to hear that), and possibly find a way to apprentice to a PowWow. You can use what you learn here to enhance your own spirituality whether it is Christian, Wiccan or Pagan. I am using this book as a springboard to further learning about this facinating American Magickal tradition. I am also using the information in it to enhance my own personal Wiccan practice. Recommended!
Rating:
Summary: This is Pow-Wow...NOT!
Review: yes i am wiccan no i wasn't when i wrote my first review on this book this is a magic book that even christians may use it shows the history and much magick of a folk tradition called the pow wow
<< 1 >>
| 
