Rating: Summary: Not Wicca Review: What RavenWolf is selling in this book is not Wicca. What she's selling is blend of Wiccan-flavored folk magic, new age trends and watered-down Wiccan theology. And hey, if that's what you want your religion to look like, that's great. Good for you. Just don't call it Wicca when it's not.This book is a decent starting point for the study of folk magic--decent, but far from great. The negative points far outweight the good. Her tone is a bit condescending (teens don't need to be spoken to like children). Her information on Wiccan belief is inaccurate, and her historical info is even worse. She seems biased toward an anti-Christian viewpoint, to the point of telling her readers that the Christians in their lives will probably hate them for their newfound Wiccan beliefs. I would not recommend this book to anyone. There's nothing said here that you can't also learn elsewhere. This was my first book on witchcraft, and I spent a while unlearning what I learned from it. Please, if you value your time and your money, don't even bother buying it.
Rating: Summary: Very good author Review: The spells in this book are practical, easy to use and.... they work!!
Rating: Summary: One star is too good for this book... Review: This book is not for those who are serious about their religion or serious about learning about contemporary paganism. This book is for people who like having their beliefs trivialised, sanitised and dumbed-down. This book is not even for beginning witches; it's more depressingly funny than it is educational. Obviously intended to be mass-marketed to teens, this book makes no attempts at providing valuable information. Instead, it focuses on offering a plethora of recipes for spells in an attempt to grab the interest of teens. The spells themselves are not even serious in nature; stopping parents from inflicting harsh punishments on you when you do wrong, getting cute boyfriends and fighting -- get this -- locker elves. On top of offering ridiculous "information" and cheesey spells, Ravenwolf presents a reality of witchcraft that is, in fact, not reality. Her idea and very definition of witchcraft (that which the entire premise of the book is based on) is very limiting and -- dare I say -- inaccurate. This book is not about witchcraft, it's about making money by presenting the author's own ideas as fact in a way that will make teenagers eat it up. In truth, Ravenwolf's 'Teen Witch' is about as representative of modern witchcraft and neo-paganism as Disneyland is to reality. Whitewashed, simplified and often outright incorrect, this book has NO value as a text medium (maybe firewood). Furthermore, when presented from a condescending tone (which we as readers need, since we apparently are not up on par intellectually with the Great Silver RavenWolf) this book should be offensive to any reader and at age. Do yourself a favour and buy a REAL book on modern witchcraft.
Rating: Summary: Another Book of Watered Down Wicca... Review: I've never been a fan of Silver Ravenwolf, this book in particular. In this book geared toward young Wiccans, she displays meaningless spells involving childish poetry to call upon nonexistant spirits. Meanwhile, she provides no other true reference to the main points of the religion. Silver, once again, completely ignores many of the necessities of the Wiccan religion such as acknowledgement of the darker halves of the pantheon such as Sekhmet and the Morrigan. Rather than giving younger generations a new, understandable building block to work upon, she gives them a dellusional world of constantly benevolent, youthful dieties, playful faeries and angels, and poetic, quick chants. Now, certainly the panthenons are mostly composed of kinder dieties, and the other realms, for those who have belief in them, and certainly likewise. However, this book gives you a one-sided view of Wicca that waters it down to a meaningless level and is an insult to the intelligence and capability of the reader. I definitely suggest passing this by and sticking to writers such as Cunnigham, Gardner, Fitch, Grimmasi, and Morrison. They may be harder to find authors, but they provide much better information that actually is /information/, not just a ploy to make money off of your learning stages.
Rating: Summary: Maybe she should write for children. Review: Does this cover resemble the ever popular movie, "The Craft"? When I picked up this book I didn't understand at first that being wiccan doesn't mean everything goes your way. She turned a religion into a game. She makes a mockary of a religion many people hold so sacred. Yes this book may be simple, but that's not what paganism is all about. The harder you have to work for something, the more you learn to appreciate it. I wish she would teach that in her book!
Rating: Summary: Fluff and Crap Review: This book is a waste of time and money. When starting out learning about Wicca, it is important to read a lot, and you will come across good books and bad books. Part of the learning process is to compare and separate the two. This was the first book I read, and even then I didn't like the condensending tone. Ilooked at all the spells, and didn't try them, thank Goddess! That said, I quickly moved onto Scott Cunningham's "Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner." I am embarassed I even spent money on "Teen Witch". Spells and Magick are not to be done lightly. In fact, I do not believe that they should be in a beginner book at all. And the chapter on Spells, with cutesy names such as "The Crabby Teacher Spell," and the "Elf Locker Spell." Really, who is she kidding? More disturbing are spells which manipulate and control other people, such as "Tie His/Her Tongue Spell," "The Bully Frog Banish Spell," "Posies and Honey Parent Love Spell,"The Doodle Bug Love Spell,"Pucker up You Sucker Spell." ("You've told someone a secret, and now you think they're going to run at the mouth....To prevent someone from telling the intimate details of your life, try this spell" Pg 212) This book is embarassing and insulting. As a Wiccan, I can say that it is hard enough to live in a world that treats my faith either as something sinister or a fluff newspaper article around Halloween. I recycled it rather than donating it to a used bookstore. Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish, as the saying goes.
Rating: Summary: Very Basic- For Beginers Only. Review: This book is a very good starter book for really a wiccan of any age. It clears up common misunderstandings about Wicca (ie that Wiccans worship the devil and sacrifice animals) even has an introduction for conservitive parents. With a clear and table of contents and Index Ravenwolf covers, solitarys & covens, the creation myth and wiccan holidays. I did feel she pushed her opions on the spells a bit much even though her intentions where good (considering that any Wiccan with a clear head would NOT recomend a love spell against someones will- she very clearly states moral punishment if you do so- something I've never herd anywhere else). And one huge problem that I had was that Ms. Ravenwolf claimed that Christianity and Wicca can be fully practiced at the same time. (?) Talk about a desperation to get people to join The Craft! I can see being a Christian (like I was) and studing Wicca and using Wiccan prayers and spells to decide if you want to practice Witchcraft or not but I can't see taking both religons on full time. I still celerbrate Christmas and Three Kings Day out of respect for my family- but I think a person could go insane trying to digest both of the religons ideals. Which are usally polar oppisite. All and All: IF YOU ARE A BEGINER OR JUST CURIOUS ABOUT WICCA AND WANT AN EASY READ THIS IS THE BOOK-- BUT DON'T SWEAR BY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating: Summary: Condescending, Sickening and Incorrect Review: I think my rating pretty much said it: don't bother. I am sorry about my other review, I wrote that when I was in the beginning of the book and hadn't finished it yet and hadn't read any other works about Wicca. This book is horrible! It is so condescending; I almost tore it apart. She actually says things like "Finally, a book written on your level and doesn't talk down to you." What the? By saying that she has to write on "OUR LEVEL" for us dummies to understand it she is saying we are too stupid to comprehend her usual "big word, grown-up" style that would make our brains explode. When she listed the 13 Principles of Beleif(s) she wrote one and then below it she wrote "Teen Speak" and translated it for our toddler minds, as if we are not smart enough to understand a simple paragraph. I certainly did and when I read the Teen Speak paragraph, I could actually feel her patting me on the head. Her pathetic attempts at slang were just plain embarrassing and her constantly condescending tone was sickening. She spent way too much time on unimportant subjects without really even explaining them, just ranting, and didn't focus on things of importance. She also did a horribly unprofessional thing: referring to something like "mental programming" without previously saying anything about it as if we already have at least some background in The Craft when she specifically indicated that the book was for complete beginners!!! That has a name: bad writing and really bare experience in The Craft. She also came up with a Teen Seeker Ritual as if she had to dumb it down and make it "teen" for us to do it right, otherwise we might actually die. That was one of the most unprofessional things a person can do when writing. Same thing with the "Teen Esbat" deal. What the? She also made things unclear and vague like when she listed the Theban alphabet. She said in some Craft traditions, first-level students must learn a complete magickal alphabet to translate their entire Book of Shadows into a secret magickal tome. Then she said never translate English to runic as each rune carries a magickal property, but she doesn't tell us if Theban is runic or not. Again, bad writing and bare experience. How are we supposed to learn if we can't write it down and she just said that you might translate the BOS into it and use it in the next couple of spells? I read that page about sixty times, waded through the rest of it, seething, and then gave it to a second-hand metaphysical shoppe. It is also not true that you can be a Wiccan and a Christian at the same. They simply don't suit each other. There are Christians who practice a bit a magick, but Wiccans who are trying to swing one or more religions with Wicca are going to go insane one of these days! Last but by all means not least, most of her history about the Craft and information about herbs and colors and cord magick and almost all of her Spells are wrong. She contradicts herself left and right like nobody's business and I got the feeling like she was hiding something: carefully tiptoeing around subjects as if she didn't want to reveal something when she clearly said there is nothing to hide in Wicca! There are lots of good books on The Craft by the following authors: Ray Buckland Scott Cunningham Edain McCoy Amber K Durina Dunwich Sirona Knight Lauren Manoy Gwenevire Rain Jamie Wood MJ Abadie Theresa Francis-Cheung Teresa Moorey Look those authors and up on this site and stay ... away from Silver RavenWolf!
Rating: Summary: It's great for a starter. Review: I just purchased this book a few days ago, and I must say I like it a lot. I know a lot of reviewers think that this book is awful, but it's very appealing to me. I, being a young teenager interested in Wiccan Witchcraft, know very little about the subject. I think it's written in a way that most teens can understand, and it explains all of the things you need to know if you don't know anything about Wicca. It is not, however, for any Witches who know about the basics, and contains way too many spells. Overall, I think this is a great beginner's book that is full of information and examples.
Rating: Summary: This is a good first milestone for the budding Wiccan Review: I love this book. I love it that she explains circle casting, calling the quarters, the Creation Myth, relesing the circle, general ritual, Esbats, Sabbats, et cetera. I also like it that she shows different altar set-ups of Teens and guides you through a Teen Esbat and a Teen Seeker Ceremony, which I am planning to do. I also love it that she printed the Principals of Beleif and lists of things that real witches do and do not do. Now I am convinced this is a wonderful religion. It has nothing to do with evil at all. This is the only book I have on Wicca, but I am planning to purchase more. The one thing I didn't like about Teen Witch is that she assumed you already knew a few things some places and then explained them later as if she remembered you don't know that yet. That got a little annoying. I would reccomend this book with the New Generation Witchcraft Series and Cunningham's work.
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