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Practising the Witch's Craft: Real Magic Under a Southern Sky
Telling the stories of ordinary people who have discovered that life is enchanted, this exploration of witchcraft presents the leaders of the movement and experienced practitioners and delves into what it really means to be a witch. Describing powerful rituals and moving magical encounters, these witches discuss working with natural forces, including sexuality and the seasons, and how they craft spells and personal rituals, and use incense and herbs. With insights from many different traditions including Wicca and Paganism, this guide celebrates the pleasures and mysteries of contemporary witchcraft.
- GenresPaganism
264 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 18, 2021
Absolute favorite book on the subject I’ve read so far. Loved all the different authors and their perspectives. A little bit of everything in this book.
April 24, 2011
Douglas Ezzy introduces to us to a host of Australian Witches who share with us their first magical experiences, philosophical beliefs, and lessons in spellcraft and divination. Practising the Witch’s Craft reflects the diversity of Witches in Australia. While some might find its fragmentation of various voices disconcerting, where each chapter moves from personal journal entry, to guide and primer, with little coherence for its sequence, it is on the other hand, absolutely necessary to provide a colourful cross-section of modern paganism in Australia.
Ezzy’s introduction to the book, ‘What is a Witch?’ presents an informative and straightforward overview of the basics of Wicca and Witchcraft. Ezzy’s unpretentious style reveals his genuine appreciation of and respect for his own experiences in Witchcraft, which is a clear breath of fresh air by which to begin the book. However, the air gets denser as the book progresses and only improves slightly towards the later chapters of the book, by which I had long found myself drowning in a sea of hermetic occult references and post-modern narrative styles.
With such a unique opportunity for ordinary, everyday Witches to share their stories with the wider Australian audience, it is no surprise that its contributors embraced their charges with fervour. However, the majority of the chapters presented Witchcraft with a stilted air of importance and intrigue, which in my experience is quite unlike how liberated revivalists of pagan ideals tend to write. There was a recurring theme of referencing old(er) cultures as the source of inspiration to somehow both legitimise and enhance the romance of its practices. Furthermore, it was uncomfortably evident when chapters became platforms for forms of self-aggrandisement that deteriorated the original appeal of the book as a personable, even heart-warming, exploration of the community in which the editor had “come to see life in a new way”.
As previously mentioned, I did not find the diversity of writing styles of the contributors to detract from the book, rather, the assorted collection of stories meant each chapter was a cool pond into which I could casually dip my toes for a brief moment in time and be drawn into the world of its particular author. Some chapters favoured the inclusion of prose to supplement the ‘drier’ details of their beliefs and practices however, it is apparent that the attempts at creative writing in Practising the Witch’s Craft was the book’s greatest weakness and offered little in comparison to the insights into modern Witchcraft that this book sought to provide. The subsequently fragmentary chapters, in what was already a fragmentary book, with which rendered the book more difficult to relate.
I would recommend this book for Wiccans and Pagans who have been practising for some time as an example of the figures out there in the Australian community. I would probably not recommend this book for non-Australians as an accurate representation of Australian practitioners as firstly, this was not the book’s intention, and secondly, it lacks the humility and magnetism to accomplish this task (as those two qualities are so ever-present in us Australians).
Ezzy’s introduction to the book, ‘What is a Witch?’ presents an informative and straightforward overview of the basics of Wicca and Witchcraft. Ezzy’s unpretentious style reveals his genuine appreciation of and respect for his own experiences in Witchcraft, which is a clear breath of fresh air by which to begin the book. However, the air gets denser as the book progresses and only improves slightly towards the later chapters of the book, by which I had long found myself drowning in a sea of hermetic occult references and post-modern narrative styles.
With such a unique opportunity for ordinary, everyday Witches to share their stories with the wider Australian audience, it is no surprise that its contributors embraced their charges with fervour. However, the majority of the chapters presented Witchcraft with a stilted air of importance and intrigue, which in my experience is quite unlike how liberated revivalists of pagan ideals tend to write. There was a recurring theme of referencing old(er) cultures as the source of inspiration to somehow both legitimise and enhance the romance of its practices. Furthermore, it was uncomfortably evident when chapters became platforms for forms of self-aggrandisement that deteriorated the original appeal of the book as a personable, even heart-warming, exploration of the community in which the editor had “come to see life in a new way”.
As previously mentioned, I did not find the diversity of writing styles of the contributors to detract from the book, rather, the assorted collection of stories meant each chapter was a cool pond into which I could casually dip my toes for a brief moment in time and be drawn into the world of its particular author. Some chapters favoured the inclusion of prose to supplement the ‘drier’ details of their beliefs and practices however, it is apparent that the attempts at creative writing in Practising the Witch’s Craft was the book’s greatest weakness and offered little in comparison to the insights into modern Witchcraft that this book sought to provide. The subsequently fragmentary chapters, in what was already a fragmentary book, with which rendered the book more difficult to relate.
I would recommend this book for Wiccans and Pagans who have been practising for some time as an example of the figures out there in the Australian community. I would probably not recommend this book for non-Australians as an accurate representation of Australian practitioners as firstly, this was not the book’s intention, and secondly, it lacks the humility and magnetism to accomplish this task (as those two qualities are so ever-present in us Australians).
January 4, 2014
3.5 stars. I've read this before but many years ago. It is more a set of personal accounts than a reference book. It is nice to find something that is particular to, not only the southern hemisphere but Australia.
April 2, 2010
I had a fab time contributing and hope it is as enjoyable for others to dip in to :)
November 11, 2011
This guy was my sociology lecturer for a few years and he was fucking awesome.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews