What's Next After Wicca? Non-Wiccan Occult Practices and Traditional Witchcraft

by Sophia diGregorio

Wicca is the most accessible and acceptable form of witchcraft in existence in English-speaking countries today. It can be a doorway to the the riches of the occult or a trap for the mind and spirit, depending on how it is approached and the knowledge with which this is done.

In "What's Next After Wicca?" the author answers the question she often heard from her metaphysical bookstore customers who had studied Wicca, but felt dissatisfied with it and wanted to learn more about the subject of witchcraft, in "What else is there?"

This book represents the opinion of the author after 25 years of experience in the occult and several years of owning a store that was, also, a networking center for neo-pagan groups. It is written in an informative, yet conversational style, just as she would speak to friends and customers who would ask for her opinions about witchcraft and the occult.

It includes a discussion on the origins and the present state of Wicca, other alternative religions and philosophies including Satanism, Luciferianism, Germanic Occultism, Gnosticism and traditional witchcraft. Throughout are recommendations for other courses of occult studies, including a categorized bibliography.

This is not a spell book or a manual on how to do witchcraft.

Genres: Wicca

76 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 12, 2012

Reviews

[Cherico Mcintosh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I hadn't wasted time reading this

It could have used a proofreader. There were paragraphs set randomly where they didn't belong and left me confused. Speaking of which,most of this book left me confused and annoyed. The author sounded so judgmental about those who didn't share her beliefs, at least that's how I feel. The resources in the back is the only useful part of the whole book

[Kitty Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sophia diGregorio purports to explore alternative options to Wicca in this brief primer to alternative religions; the title refers to an apparent progression of those who first become interested in alternative religions due to Wicca's public influence, then branch out into less well-known areas of belief.

This would be interesting, but her choices of exploration are seemingly arbitrary and sporadic; Satanism - LaVey only - enjoys a long section explaining the tenets, then a Norse-based and German-based religion, with a few others mentioned but not looked into.

Additionally, there are so many errors and typos that it makes reading this nigh unbearable. One pet peeve of mine was that every single time she used "also", she prefaced and followed it with a comma. So a sentence that would read fine without a comma, also, those that would not, had unnecessary commas.

What should have been a valuable look at alternative religions that aren't Wicca is too brief and too error-ridden to be useful.