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Of Witches: Celebrating the Goddess as a Solitary Pagan
People who are drawn to the pagan way or the way of the Craft are often alone, with many questions about who and what they are, and about lifestyle. This book engages readers in a dialogue that will help them understand the Wiccan path. Thompson talks about making a personal Book of Shadows, working with rituals and spells, working in the Circle, the witch within, and understanding the Goddess, the Earth Mother energy that is behind all that you do.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 1993
5 people are currently reading
140 people want to read
About the author
Janet Thompson
346 books7 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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August 22, 2018
As is the standard of the New Age section, this book has a lot of things which it regularly fails on from inaccuracies to generalizations to racist undertones to outright slurs, gender binarism, heteronormativity, questionable views on mental illness, etc. One of the biggest things that this book diverges from the New Age section on is empowering the readers to experiment in spellwork. I want to highly this particular point in the introduction of this review.
“Whatever way a spell comes to be, its effectiveness is totally reliant on the person performing it. I have included spells in this chapter that I designed and I can assume you, they work! They worked for me and if you use them with the right intentions, they will work for you too. You can modify them for your own work, as you need. They are not gospel, but are presented here as a suggested method.”
(p. 42,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“The method of creating new spellwork is unlimited. I have used a leaf, cactus needles, pens, coins, jewelry, and even a cassette tape. You not only have an incredible variety of plants and herbs available, but any object that suits the purpose. The thing to keep in mind is what you are trying to achieve with your spells.”
(p. 43,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
That is really, truly the first time I’m seeing this in print. I cannot stress the power by which this particular book provides people to invest in themselves and their own practice.
But let’s discuss some of the problems in this book, generally.
Problems with the Author’s Sources and the Author’s Credibility
This book is the author’s “thesis” on witchcraft, which I have to say this book fails peer review as someone who is also in witchcraft. This book is the author’s point of view or opinion on witchcraft, as well as a large look into the author’s view on the deity that the author primarily worships (because the God is often an understated or last minute thought). It is not an educated or well crafted discussion about witchcraft as a whole. I’m pretty sure that’s why this book was printed by Weiser publishing and not in an academic article.
“This work (the thirty original pages) started out as a thesis. I enjoyed writing and the only aspect that I found tedious was searching out sources for all the things I had written from memory.”
(p. xii,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
Honestly, this begrudging for requiring sources is truly an academic failure on the author’s part. The book, true to statement, lacks almost any kind of citation for any fact. Occasionally the author will provide a citation, to show that they are capable of doing so. However, that citation is usually reserved for a book recommendation rather than as a way to build up the factual content of the book. The author will generalize facts, relying on the phrase of “paleolithic humans” and other generic statements with no concrete evidence. It shows that the author dislikes sourcing their material.
It is hard work to provide citations and sourcing for material being used, no one is denying it. That’s why academic works are so rigorously reviewed and checked, because in academia a thesis could be the foundational point for many other theses that continue in the same line. There is a responsibility by the author to get things right, and to understand that the material they are producing is not just for themselves.
So the author finds themselves needing a way to justify their material without using citation. The only way the author could do it is to use their education and degrees as a fall back for their knowledge source. In this conversation, the educational degree of importance here is religious studies and anthropology (which is one of the reasons why a lot of the “founders” of the modern occult movement were amateur anthropologists, Gardner was one). The author does not have this degree. In fact, the author spends time “covering” up their educational degree until the very last page of the book:
“My degree from university is in the classical tradition and in philosophy.”
(p. 3,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
verses
“She holds a B.A. In classical and medieval folklore with a minor in philosophy from the University of Windsor.”
(p. 141,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
Which I understand that other readers may be inclined to give this author a pass on based in those degrees, but that’s certainly not what I’m going to do. A thesis about folklore and/or a conversation about philosophy is certain not the same as a discussion of a wide ranging set of religions and secular practices that encompasses witchcraft.
At this moment, I’d rather that the author lean heavily on the fact that the author is a participating member of their religion rather than their educational degree. I feel that would be a much better qualification than an educational degree that’s not relevant. But the author also lacks in this particular department as well. Instead of having this conversation about the author’s personal experiences and emphasizing the individual experience that this author has, the author instead uses generic terms about their initiation rites and their degree in order to establish themselves as creditable. The author references their degree with almost no content about why a particular initiation or why a particular amount of time in their religion gives them the experience to talk largely about this particular topic. It would be a much easier time if the author did not rely on their title (which I cannot confirm exactly which tradition branch this author is initiated in based on their own content) to justify their content.
“I am a High Priestess of Third Degree in Celtic tradition. My teacher and initiator achieved Crafthood from a Priestess of Celtic hereditary lines.”
(p. 3,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Therefore a person holding a third degree-”
(p. 71,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Part of the teaching into third degree deal with the direct link to a person through his or her eyes. I remember this teaching well and I gain an overwhelming understanding of someone as I link with them. … The third degree is the final level of knowledge in many wiccan traditions.”
(p. 92,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“A practicing witch since childhood, Janet Thompson has been a Wiccan High Priestess for twelve years.”
(p. 141,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
This is a very generic statement across the board about themselves, a lot of people are Third Degree Wiccans. AThird Degree Wiccan specifically means that they can take the place of a High Priest or High Priestess in ritual and act alone in ritual. It doesn’t mean what the author is trying to force the reader to understand (ie: a member with authority that not the same as other members of the religion). The author does make reference to Alexandrian and Gardnerian traditions on page 1. I can only assume that the author is not a member of either of these particular traditions due to the phrasing. Therefore could not be vetted through the means that I would normally use to vet an author’s degree.
In addition to that phrasing, I noticed while I was reading through the book, that some of the content and explanation of why certain things are shown the way they are in the religion is not accurate based on my understanding from Elders of both the Alexandrian and Gardnerian tradition whom I have vetted. Furthermore, the author seems to step away from the Gardnerian tradition quite a bit:
“I have compared the openings of my own [BoS] and the Gardner version and have found that the essence is the same. I use an example the often referred to charge that Gardner was “obsessed with ritual scourging.” I for one do not personally care for the manner in which the scourge is discussed in the original documents.”
(p. 70,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
And quietly the author mentions the following:
“I am an Ancestral Witch by birthline, and my relationship with the origins of my family are deep within me. On the maternal side, I claim Craft through solid Celtic lineage.”
(p. 2,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
Though none of the book talks about the ancestral tradition that the author is alluding to, and is primarily a wiccan based book. So I’m not sure why the author felt the need to bring this up unless it was one of the last calls to legitimacy as an expert that the author was trying to dig into.
Regardless, I am not part of your tradition and most people who are reading your book for the first time are not as well. And you are not an initiated member of mine, therefore I have no need to recognize your status, title, or lineage as a reason for why you are an expert when you are speaking of witchcraft, “of witches” generally. This conversation already started with us being, quite literally, equals. So I will judge your merits without giving you a privilege you have not already earned and have already taken steps far away from by saying what you did academically.
Problems with Christianity / Framing the work around Christianity
One of the big problems that this author has with talking about witchcraft is that the author feels the need to compare it to Christianity. It’s almost as if the religion the author is speaking about needs another religion to justify it’s existence.
The author largely ignores that a great portion of witchcraft practices are syncretic with Christianity or have Christian based ties. Instead of using this as an opportunity to talk about that form of witchcraft, the author chooses to build up the discussion framing it in with Christianity about why the author doesn’t feel that they need to provide sources and why they are “not taking it easy” like other religions “do.”
“[Searching out the sources] reminded me of the idea of asking a Christian to source and footnote the Lord’s Prayer.”
(p. xii,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Being an active and practicing witch takes time and effort. There really is no such thing as a Sunday witch.”
(p. 1,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Just as a Christian finds peace, through faith, witches find peace through Wicca.”
(p. 3,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Representations of the Horned God existed millennia before the Christian Devil. Therefore, the Pan of paganism cannot be the Satan of the Christian belief.”
(p. 9,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Human beings must have something to believe in or we die. Atheists believe that this is what is and there is nothing beyond. Catholics believe in the abilities of the Saints. Muslims have faith in the fact that Allah is creator and empowerment. We Wiccans must have faith and believe in what we do. Without the ability to believe in something, we are left with a less than positive outlook, thus creating (by ourselves) the atmosphere in which to breed dismay.”
(p. 32,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“However, most of us do lead an unchristian life because most Wiccans are not Christian, but then again neither was Jesus. We follow the moral axioms that were set forth by Jesus in the most fundamental way. Most Wiccans that I know follow the way of Jesus better than some Christians I know. the interpreters of the Bible and other holy documents, have confused and made complex the idea of achieving peace and joy in the world. Wiccans try to lead a life of tolerance and understanding but our ways and customs are not what a Modern Christian might call‘Christian.’“
(p. 120,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Yule and Christmas are celebrated hand in hand in many Wiccan households and the traditions for the two are very similar, mainly because the pagan aspects were borrowed from the Yule Sabbat for the Christian Christmas.”
(p. 134,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
Is this a witchcraft book or is this a book made to be a criticism and comparison of Christianity? Does the author assume that this is the only religion outside of witchcraft that exists that people can convert away from despite listing others? Why are we spending so much time on it but not addressing a clear assumption that the author is making?
Christianity is something that a lot of new age pagans and occultists have to address in their own way. A lot of us, myself included, grew up in some form of Christianity. So I’m not denying that the author doesn’t have some reason to make that assumption. There’s a lot of things that we can talk about with regards to why we left Christianity. Whether that’s because of abuse, because of the conditions endured, because of the teaching of the church, because of the failings of leadership in the church, or any number of other reasons.
Actually addressing the topic of people who have been in other religions, especially in a book where you spend time discussing how “open Wicca is for people to join,” is frankly a really good thing.
But… not like this. This is petty and passive aggressive, and doesn’t redress the failing of Christianity at all on any level.
Instead of having conversation about what faith means to a witch (or what finding peace means) the author expects you to understand the correlation. Instead of having a conversation about ethicals and morals, we have a conversation about how witches are “better at being Christians” than “actual Christians.” Instead of having a nuanced discussion about the origins of one of the major deities of Wicca, we have a conversation about what that deity is not.
It’s not the first time Satanism is brought up with the Christian understanding of Satanism either. I understand that the Satanic Panic was just tapering off at this point when this was published, and that witches did not want to get “mixed in” with that particular Panic, but there are Satanic witches. Instead of having a conversation about forms of witchcraft that use Satanism, we have a quick bus run over Satanists.
Conflating Wicca with Witchcraft
“Families can be separated by miles and lifestyles, but they are still connected. So are witches. Like it or not. We are children of the Goddess and therefore are under her tutelage.”
(p. 5,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
While witches are all logically “the same” because we’re all people. We are as varied and as different as all humans are. We do not all practice the same thing, the same way, or with the same beliefs and ideology.
Not every witch is “under the tutelage” of The Goddess, let alone any deity. There’s a lot of configurations of witchcraft, some of the ones I have already listed above. But some of them include other forms, like atheistic and agnostic witchcraft. Some of them lack any religions or religious flavoring whatsoever, such as in secular witchcraft. But also there are nearly tons of pagan forms of witchcraft religions which do not use the Goddess in any capacity. Ditheistic witchcraft is not specifically necessary to be a witch. But the author spends a great deal of time on this.
Why? Because to the author, this is the only form of witchcraft that can exist. Any other forms are unheard of. It shows a lack of knowledge about the community at large that the author cannot think of any other forms but the one that they themselves are practicing.
“The eight words of the Wiccan Rede are the only dogma of the Craft. If the witch, in daily life, can continually follow this law then he or she is, indeed, a powerful witch. These words however, must be kept in mind not only in one’s actions towards people, but must be part of one’s thoughts as well. All negative or evil be it thought or deed - will come back threefold and must be worked out at a future time. Witches do not want to deal with return negativity, so few generate it. As with all balancing systems, if a human is inclined to good or virtuous behavior, then this, too, will return to the sender.”
(p. 7,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“This is the essence of the Craft; to be in touch with our fellow humans, to get in touch with the lunar and solar cycles, and to return to harmony with Gaia.”
(p. 8,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Harming none is a grave responsibility to the witch. Every negative thought and deed returns to its sender. Therefore, to ensure a peaceful future, the witch must be positive in the present.”
(p. 41,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“I don’t think that a witch who is aware of the Mother, and Her gifts to us could be comfortable contributing to the financial goals of a company whose works commit acts against the Mother.”
(p. 123,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“If you ask witches if they were drawn to the Old Religion as children, a vast majority will say yes.”
(p. 126,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“There are really no words to express the joy and peace of Wicca. We are practitioners of a religion far older than any of the organized faiths better known today.”
(p. 128,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
One of the biggest failing in this book is the totally lack of self awareness to the people that exist within the author’s community. The author spends a great deal of time, almost near constant reminders every few pages about the “harm none” wiccan rede. (Which the author often misuses and misunderstands) The author does a lot of damage to the community as a whole by making the concept of what makes up a witchcraft practice by shooting down on normal human behaviours. Negative thoughts? Negative deeds? What the hell does that mean?
The author does not fully understand how to appropriately address ethics or morality within a witchcraft practice. But instead uses vague threats in order to shame people into acting a certain way. “Virtuous behaviour.” Rather than a specific conversation about what those behaviors are, rather than a specific nuanced conversation about why people would be motivated to act in a certain way.
The author relies on this old trope of the New Age section. “the bad stuff will get you if you’re bad” to “if you’re bad, you get bad.” It’s childish and is reflective of a larger conversation that should be had in the community about what people are trying to prevent people from doing and how murky those waters of ethics can be.
Heteronormativity / Binary Genderism
“The Maiden is huntress at the time of Beltane,
Fires burn on hilltops ablaze,
She chases the King Stag, a babe to obtain,
A Child for the Goddess, the Mother to raise.”
(p. xv,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“The athame is also the representative of the male force of the All. In the symbolic Great Rite, the athame is lowered into the cup (the symbolic female force) to enact a spiritual or cosmic intercourse. […] One confusing aspect of the symbolic Great Rite is that, during the ritual, the priestess holds the athame and the priest holds the cup. This is done to stress the representation of positive and negative polarities on the etheric planes. The entire reasoning behind this ritual is the emphasis of the equality between the sexes and all opposites in the Craft.”
(p. 20-21,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“By setting the pentagram out in this manner, we see that the God and the Goddess are gender representations of the All in the Celestial plane…”
(p. 107,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
The author neither spends the time nor converses about the actual Lore between the Lord and Lady of the British isles and the mapping between the ritual structure. Instead, it’s just “a given” that you understand why these are important. The Lord and Lady of the British isles follows a specific calendar schedule where the two progress through the year to a certain stage of life, have sex, and rebirth themselves.
Author you wrote this book to explain witchcraft, right? So explain it!
The reason these are gendered, and the reason why the priestess holds the athame (which is not confusing once you’ve explained it) is because there is a constant equivalent of the gender expressions throughout the ritual in Wicca.
To put two male things (for instance) together would unbalance the ritual’s energy with having too much male energy on “one side” of the ritual. It’s why these tools are gendered.
(whole review on my website)
“Whatever way a spell comes to be, its effectiveness is totally reliant on the person performing it. I have included spells in this chapter that I designed and I can assume you, they work! They worked for me and if you use them with the right intentions, they will work for you too. You can modify them for your own work, as you need. They are not gospel, but are presented here as a suggested method.”
(p. 42,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“The method of creating new spellwork is unlimited. I have used a leaf, cactus needles, pens, coins, jewelry, and even a cassette tape. You not only have an incredible variety of plants and herbs available, but any object that suits the purpose. The thing to keep in mind is what you are trying to achieve with your spells.”
(p. 43,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
That is really, truly the first time I’m seeing this in print. I cannot stress the power by which this particular book provides people to invest in themselves and their own practice.
But let’s discuss some of the problems in this book, generally.
Problems with the Author’s Sources and the Author’s Credibility
This book is the author’s “thesis” on witchcraft, which I have to say this book fails peer review as someone who is also in witchcraft. This book is the author’s point of view or opinion on witchcraft, as well as a large look into the author’s view on the deity that the author primarily worships (because the God is often an understated or last minute thought). It is not an educated or well crafted discussion about witchcraft as a whole. I’m pretty sure that’s why this book was printed by Weiser publishing and not in an academic article.
“This work (the thirty original pages) started out as a thesis. I enjoyed writing and the only aspect that I found tedious was searching out sources for all the things I had written from memory.”
(p. xii,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
Honestly, this begrudging for requiring sources is truly an academic failure on the author’s part. The book, true to statement, lacks almost any kind of citation for any fact. Occasionally the author will provide a citation, to show that they are capable of doing so. However, that citation is usually reserved for a book recommendation rather than as a way to build up the factual content of the book. The author will generalize facts, relying on the phrase of “paleolithic humans” and other generic statements with no concrete evidence. It shows that the author dislikes sourcing their material.
It is hard work to provide citations and sourcing for material being used, no one is denying it. That’s why academic works are so rigorously reviewed and checked, because in academia a thesis could be the foundational point for many other theses that continue in the same line. There is a responsibility by the author to get things right, and to understand that the material they are producing is not just for themselves.
So the author finds themselves needing a way to justify their material without using citation. The only way the author could do it is to use their education and degrees as a fall back for their knowledge source. In this conversation, the educational degree of importance here is religious studies and anthropology (which is one of the reasons why a lot of the “founders” of the modern occult movement were amateur anthropologists, Gardner was one). The author does not have this degree. In fact, the author spends time “covering” up their educational degree until the very last page of the book:
“My degree from university is in the classical tradition and in philosophy.”
(p. 3,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
verses
“She holds a B.A. In classical and medieval folklore with a minor in philosophy from the University of Windsor.”
(p. 141,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
Which I understand that other readers may be inclined to give this author a pass on based in those degrees, but that’s certainly not what I’m going to do. A thesis about folklore and/or a conversation about philosophy is certain not the same as a discussion of a wide ranging set of religions and secular practices that encompasses witchcraft.
At this moment, I’d rather that the author lean heavily on the fact that the author is a participating member of their religion rather than their educational degree. I feel that would be a much better qualification than an educational degree that’s not relevant. But the author also lacks in this particular department as well. Instead of having this conversation about the author’s personal experiences and emphasizing the individual experience that this author has, the author instead uses generic terms about their initiation rites and their degree in order to establish themselves as creditable. The author references their degree with almost no content about why a particular initiation or why a particular amount of time in their religion gives them the experience to talk largely about this particular topic. It would be a much easier time if the author did not rely on their title (which I cannot confirm exactly which tradition branch this author is initiated in based on their own content) to justify their content.
“I am a High Priestess of Third Degree in Celtic tradition. My teacher and initiator achieved Crafthood from a Priestess of Celtic hereditary lines.”
(p. 3,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Therefore a person holding a third degree-”
(p. 71,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Part of the teaching into third degree deal with the direct link to a person through his or her eyes. I remember this teaching well and I gain an overwhelming understanding of someone as I link with them. … The third degree is the final level of knowledge in many wiccan traditions.”
(p. 92,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“A practicing witch since childhood, Janet Thompson has been a Wiccan High Priestess for twelve years.”
(p. 141,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
This is a very generic statement across the board about themselves, a lot of people are Third Degree Wiccans. AThird Degree Wiccan specifically means that they can take the place of a High Priest or High Priestess in ritual and act alone in ritual. It doesn’t mean what the author is trying to force the reader to understand (ie: a member with authority that not the same as other members of the religion). The author does make reference to Alexandrian and Gardnerian traditions on page 1. I can only assume that the author is not a member of either of these particular traditions due to the phrasing. Therefore could not be vetted through the means that I would normally use to vet an author’s degree.
In addition to that phrasing, I noticed while I was reading through the book, that some of the content and explanation of why certain things are shown the way they are in the religion is not accurate based on my understanding from Elders of both the Alexandrian and Gardnerian tradition whom I have vetted. Furthermore, the author seems to step away from the Gardnerian tradition quite a bit:
“I have compared the openings of my own [BoS] and the Gardner version and have found that the essence is the same. I use an example the often referred to charge that Gardner was “obsessed with ritual scourging.” I for one do not personally care for the manner in which the scourge is discussed in the original documents.”
(p. 70,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
And quietly the author mentions the following:
“I am an Ancestral Witch by birthline, and my relationship with the origins of my family are deep within me. On the maternal side, I claim Craft through solid Celtic lineage.”
(p. 2,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
Though none of the book talks about the ancestral tradition that the author is alluding to, and is primarily a wiccan based book. So I’m not sure why the author felt the need to bring this up unless it was one of the last calls to legitimacy as an expert that the author was trying to dig into.
Regardless, I am not part of your tradition and most people who are reading your book for the first time are not as well. And you are not an initiated member of mine, therefore I have no need to recognize your status, title, or lineage as a reason for why you are an expert when you are speaking of witchcraft, “of witches” generally. This conversation already started with us being, quite literally, equals. So I will judge your merits without giving you a privilege you have not already earned and have already taken steps far away from by saying what you did academically.
Problems with Christianity / Framing the work around Christianity
One of the big problems that this author has with talking about witchcraft is that the author feels the need to compare it to Christianity. It’s almost as if the religion the author is speaking about needs another religion to justify it’s existence.
The author largely ignores that a great portion of witchcraft practices are syncretic with Christianity or have Christian based ties. Instead of using this as an opportunity to talk about that form of witchcraft, the author chooses to build up the discussion framing it in with Christianity about why the author doesn’t feel that they need to provide sources and why they are “not taking it easy” like other religions “do.”
“[Searching out the sources] reminded me of the idea of asking a Christian to source and footnote the Lord’s Prayer.”
(p. xii,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Being an active and practicing witch takes time and effort. There really is no such thing as a Sunday witch.”
(p. 1,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Just as a Christian finds peace, through faith, witches find peace through Wicca.”
(p. 3,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Representations of the Horned God existed millennia before the Christian Devil. Therefore, the Pan of paganism cannot be the Satan of the Christian belief.”
(p. 9,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Human beings must have something to believe in or we die. Atheists believe that this is what is and there is nothing beyond. Catholics believe in the abilities of the Saints. Muslims have faith in the fact that Allah is creator and empowerment. We Wiccans must have faith and believe in what we do. Without the ability to believe in something, we are left with a less than positive outlook, thus creating (by ourselves) the atmosphere in which to breed dismay.”
(p. 32,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“However, most of us do lead an unchristian life because most Wiccans are not Christian, but then again neither was Jesus. We follow the moral axioms that were set forth by Jesus in the most fundamental way. Most Wiccans that I know follow the way of Jesus better than some Christians I know. the interpreters of the Bible and other holy documents, have confused and made complex the idea of achieving peace and joy in the world. Wiccans try to lead a life of tolerance and understanding but our ways and customs are not what a Modern Christian might call‘Christian.’“
(p. 120,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Yule and Christmas are celebrated hand in hand in many Wiccan households and the traditions for the two are very similar, mainly because the pagan aspects were borrowed from the Yule Sabbat for the Christian Christmas.”
(p. 134,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
Is this a witchcraft book or is this a book made to be a criticism and comparison of Christianity? Does the author assume that this is the only religion outside of witchcraft that exists that people can convert away from despite listing others? Why are we spending so much time on it but not addressing a clear assumption that the author is making?
Christianity is something that a lot of new age pagans and occultists have to address in their own way. A lot of us, myself included, grew up in some form of Christianity. So I’m not denying that the author doesn’t have some reason to make that assumption. There’s a lot of things that we can talk about with regards to why we left Christianity. Whether that’s because of abuse, because of the conditions endured, because of the teaching of the church, because of the failings of leadership in the church, or any number of other reasons.
Actually addressing the topic of people who have been in other religions, especially in a book where you spend time discussing how “open Wicca is for people to join,” is frankly a really good thing.
But… not like this. This is petty and passive aggressive, and doesn’t redress the failing of Christianity at all on any level.
Instead of having conversation about what faith means to a witch (or what finding peace means) the author expects you to understand the correlation. Instead of having a conversation about ethicals and morals, we have a conversation about how witches are “better at being Christians” than “actual Christians.” Instead of having a nuanced discussion about the origins of one of the major deities of Wicca, we have a conversation about what that deity is not.
It’s not the first time Satanism is brought up with the Christian understanding of Satanism either. I understand that the Satanic Panic was just tapering off at this point when this was published, and that witches did not want to get “mixed in” with that particular Panic, but there are Satanic witches. Instead of having a conversation about forms of witchcraft that use Satanism, we have a quick bus run over Satanists.
Conflating Wicca with Witchcraft
“Families can be separated by miles and lifestyles, but they are still connected. So are witches. Like it or not. We are children of the Goddess and therefore are under her tutelage.”
(p. 5,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
While witches are all logically “the same” because we’re all people. We are as varied and as different as all humans are. We do not all practice the same thing, the same way, or with the same beliefs and ideology.
Not every witch is “under the tutelage” of The Goddess, let alone any deity. There’s a lot of configurations of witchcraft, some of the ones I have already listed above. But some of them include other forms, like atheistic and agnostic witchcraft. Some of them lack any religions or religious flavoring whatsoever, such as in secular witchcraft. But also there are nearly tons of pagan forms of witchcraft religions which do not use the Goddess in any capacity. Ditheistic witchcraft is not specifically necessary to be a witch. But the author spends a great deal of time on this.
Why? Because to the author, this is the only form of witchcraft that can exist. Any other forms are unheard of. It shows a lack of knowledge about the community at large that the author cannot think of any other forms but the one that they themselves are practicing.
“The eight words of the Wiccan Rede are the only dogma of the Craft. If the witch, in daily life, can continually follow this law then he or she is, indeed, a powerful witch. These words however, must be kept in mind not only in one’s actions towards people, but must be part of one’s thoughts as well. All negative or evil be it thought or deed - will come back threefold and must be worked out at a future time. Witches do not want to deal with return negativity, so few generate it. As with all balancing systems, if a human is inclined to good or virtuous behavior, then this, too, will return to the sender.”
(p. 7,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“This is the essence of the Craft; to be in touch with our fellow humans, to get in touch with the lunar and solar cycles, and to return to harmony with Gaia.”
(p. 8,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“Harming none is a grave responsibility to the witch. Every negative thought and deed returns to its sender. Therefore, to ensure a peaceful future, the witch must be positive in the present.”
(p. 41,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“I don’t think that a witch who is aware of the Mother, and Her gifts to us could be comfortable contributing to the financial goals of a company whose works commit acts against the Mother.”
(p. 123,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“If you ask witches if they were drawn to the Old Religion as children, a vast majority will say yes.”
(p. 126,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“There are really no words to express the joy and peace of Wicca. We are practitioners of a religion far older than any of the organized faiths better known today.”
(p. 128,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
One of the biggest failing in this book is the totally lack of self awareness to the people that exist within the author’s community. The author spends a great deal of time, almost near constant reminders every few pages about the “harm none” wiccan rede. (Which the author often misuses and misunderstands) The author does a lot of damage to the community as a whole by making the concept of what makes up a witchcraft practice by shooting down on normal human behaviours. Negative thoughts? Negative deeds? What the hell does that mean?
The author does not fully understand how to appropriately address ethics or morality within a witchcraft practice. But instead uses vague threats in order to shame people into acting a certain way. “Virtuous behaviour.” Rather than a specific conversation about what those behaviors are, rather than a specific nuanced conversation about why people would be motivated to act in a certain way.
The author relies on this old trope of the New Age section. “the bad stuff will get you if you’re bad” to “if you’re bad, you get bad.” It’s childish and is reflective of a larger conversation that should be had in the community about what people are trying to prevent people from doing and how murky those waters of ethics can be.
Heteronormativity / Binary Genderism
“The Maiden is huntress at the time of Beltane,
Fires burn on hilltops ablaze,
She chases the King Stag, a babe to obtain,
A Child for the Goddess, the Mother to raise.”
(p. xv,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“The athame is also the representative of the male force of the All. In the symbolic Great Rite, the athame is lowered into the cup (the symbolic female force) to enact a spiritual or cosmic intercourse. […] One confusing aspect of the symbolic Great Rite is that, during the ritual, the priestess holds the athame and the priest holds the cup. This is done to stress the representation of positive and negative polarities on the etheric planes. The entire reasoning behind this ritual is the emphasis of the equality between the sexes and all opposites in the Craft.”
(p. 20-21,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
“By setting the pentagram out in this manner, we see that the God and the Goddess are gender representations of the All in the Celestial plane…”
(p. 107,Of Witches, Janet Thompson)
The author neither spends the time nor converses about the actual Lore between the Lord and Lady of the British isles and the mapping between the ritual structure. Instead, it’s just “a given” that you understand why these are important. The Lord and Lady of the British isles follows a specific calendar schedule where the two progress through the year to a certain stage of life, have sex, and rebirth themselves.
Author you wrote this book to explain witchcraft, right? So explain it!
The reason these are gendered, and the reason why the priestess holds the athame (which is not confusing once you’ve explained it) is because there is a constant equivalent of the gender expressions throughout the ritual in Wicca.
To put two male things (for instance) together would unbalance the ritual’s energy with having too much male energy on “one side” of the ritual. It’s why these tools are gendered.
(whole review on my website)
June 10, 2011
An early 1993 book, small and simplistic. Overall, a good starter book, but a little meh, for those who have been studying for a while.
February 18, 2012
This book, although nearly 20 years old, gives the beginning witch/pagan tips, info and good ideas for someone who doesn't want to be in a coven. She talks about different types of practice, and although she's opinionated, the writing is tight and makes you want to keep it on the shelves as a good reference.
May 14, 2014
One of the most approachable and straightforward books on intro witchcraft I've read. It feels like you're sitting in her living room chatting over tea but there is so much information that I keep going back.
This is one of my favourites.
This is one of my favourites.
September 22, 2015
My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.
May 20, 2025
I loved this book she really gave great advice. This is a great starter book to add to any open-minded collection.
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