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Rating: 
Summary: Learn to truly be one with the earth, and all the elements
Review: I've only had this book for about 2 weeks and I've read it 4 times. Ryall gives a personal account on what the Old Religion was like before the tidal wave of neo-pagan books and traditions. She tells of a "tradition" that is simple, earthy and "tongue in cheek". Don't be thrown off by the word simple, the people of the old country were too busy with farming and community to worry with scholarly persuits and elaborate wiccan tools and ritual, this is still a very BEAUTIFULL way of celebrating the earth and the God and Goddess. I am basically a kitchen witch that follows the religion of witchcraft and have found no need for elaborate ceremonial magic, or supplies. So I was delighted to find information on common household herbs and spices to use in magick as well as folklore and many recipes and beautifully simplistic rituals.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice little book...
Review: Some reviewers state West Country Wicca is fictional, some say it's true: There's actually no way of knowing what went on in the writers town. You can't prove one way or the other. I liked the book, though. I think it could be useful for a lot of people who are tired of some of the overly cerimonial aspects of Wicca. This book contains simple and down to earth rituals and ideas. This book can offer something positive that people can constructivly use. Isn't that what matters?
Rating: 
Summary: A fine work of Fiction
Review: There is not a shred of historical authenticity to this book. The well-known bits and pieces of folklore in the book from the West Country that ARE authentic have nothing to do with any secret "witch" religion. I think that Rhiannon Ryall probably tossed them in to make the other information (that she clearly fabricated) seem more legitimate. Her "old craft" invocations and ceremonies are extremely new-agey, cheesy, pink and fluffy. This is not from the Old West Country. Bad rhymes, lack of meter or structure, the same old tired "secrecy" oaths and ludicrous claims of a very large and organized underground craft-religion in England, and the OBVIOUS Gardnerian loan material all make this one of the least serious books I've ever seen on the craft. Without a doubt, some of the recipes and such may be real, but old wives' recipes from Somerset and Devon are not a "secret witchcraft" that we need yet ANOTHER book about, making silly authenticity claims, to give itself a validity and marketability that it does not deserve. I belong to a Traditional West Country Crafter group. I can promise you that not a single word of this so-called "pre-gardnerian" tradition that Ms. Ryall claims she was taught is from anywhere else but the West Country in her own imagination.
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