An American Covenant: A Story of Women, Mysticism, and the Making of Modern America

by Lucile Scott

A history of mystic resistance and liberation and of five women who transcended the expected to transform America.

For centuries, women who emerge as mystic leaders have played vital roles in American culture. For just as long, they’ve been subjugated and ridiculed. Today, women and others across the nation are once again turning to their mystic powers to #HexThePatriarchy and help fight the forces that seem bent on relegating them to second-class citizenry.

Amid this tumult, Lucile Scott looks to the past and the stories of five women over three centuries to form an ancestral spiritual coven: Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans; Cora L. V. Scott, nineteenth-century Spiritualist superstar; Helena Blavatsky, mother of Theosophy; Zsuzsanna Budapest, feminist witch and founder of Dianic Wicca; and Marianne Williamson, presidential candidate and preacher of the New Age Gospel of Love. Each, in their own ways, defied masculine preconceptions about power.

A scathing queer feminist history and a personal quest for transcendence, An American Covenant opens our eyes to the paths forged by women who inspired the nation in their own times—and who will no longer be forgotten or silenced in ours.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Feminism, Spirituality, Biography, Historical, Memoir

299 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2020

About the author

Lucile Scott is a Brooklyn-based, Kentucky-raised writer and activist. Her first book, An American Covenant: A Story of Women, Mysticism and the Making of Modern America (Topple/Little A) was published in 2020. Their work has been featured in outlets including POZ magazine, TheBody.com, The Advocate, VICE, New York Magazine, Literary Hub, and more. Her plays have appeared at New York City theaters including the Cherry Lane, IRT Theater, Theater for the New City, and more and at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Reviews

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian]

I'm gonna DNF this one for a few reasons. First, it's just too American-centric for my interests (which is fine, and also expected given the title). But second and more importantly there are too many red flags I saw just from the introduction and skimming through that make me worry this book's perspective is an essentialist, transmisogynist witchy feminism. Witchy feminism, YES! Transmisogyny and gender essentialism, NO! I haven't read enough to confirm, but I'm not gonna waste my time when I've got other Halloween reads ready to go. [EDIT: According to the author she is against transmisogyny, and there is a section further on in the book which specifies that which is great! She left a comment giving that info below which I accidentally deleted. Erg, Goodreads delete buttons are below the comment boxes not above. Whoops]

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fascinating read this is! Scott has examined the lives of five American women considered mystics. You might be loosely familiar (or more) with one or more of them (Marianne Williamson and Marie Laveau were the two I knew). Scott has taken things a step further by adding context. Her personal journey is also interesting but, to be honest, less so than that of these leaders. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good and educational read.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delight this thoroughly researched and emotionally honest book of feminist history is! I was completely engaged by the author's personable writing style and easy way of distilling immense knowledge without feeling pedantic or slowing the pace at all. I would gladly read any other topic Lucille Scott decides to do a deep dive on; even as someone who has read about several of the figures in this book, the author still taught me something knew and graced me with a more real, flesh-and-blood portrait of these unique and historic women.

[Ellen Goodlett]

Fascinating look at five female spiritual leaders in America’s history who are often overlooked by dint of not belonging to more mainstream religions. Any practicing USian witches, pagans or spiritualists looking for a dive into the background of New Age as we understand it today would likely find this interesting!
Personally I appreciated how the author wove her historical research into her own present day experiences/quest for connection.
There were some sections where a deeper look at other cultural connections/backgrounds would have helped broaden the book’s scope, especially when it comes to Marie Laveau. Lumping Voodoo/Vodou/Hoodoo in with other more recent spiritualist tradition feels disingenuous, since that is an entirely separate religion with a rich history of its own. More commentary on the way this and also many Native practices were appropriated in service of or to lend more credibility to (primarily white) New Age practices would have also been helpful, as that’s a really needed discussion right now.
But overall I enjoyed this as a basic historical primer, and I do look forward to reading some of the founding texts cited within in the future.

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book is written like a documentary. I wasn’t use to this kind of book/writing so at first it was slow for me. After getting use to it, it went a lot smoother and I really enjoyed it. She was very thorough in her research. I found this book very interesting and learned things that were never taught in the history books. If this book starts out slow for you don’t give up.. Keep on reading to the end, you wont regret it. I’m looking forward to reading more books by this author.

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so moved by this book! I love the combination of forgotten women's histories, connections between mysticism and activism and her intimate personal stories. I'm into witchy things so I expected to love it, but I never planned to recommend it to my best friend who scoffs at all things occult! This queer woman is breaking apart societal cliches about female power to expose a much more expansive idea of womanhood (inclusive of trans and gender queer identities) in relationship to finding power and changing the world.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest this book threw me through multiple loops. I didn't quite expect it to be part memoir, but those elements did tie the chapters together. Though, the beginning is something else and I questioned what I was reading and why many times. However, powering through that, I learned a lot and enjoyed the book.
It's set in to different parts with three chapters about each person with anecdotes and stories from the author sprinkled in. I quite liked learning about these women and their stories. The author offers some insight into the stories of their lives calling on the different sources and how one person might write it one way, while another writes did differently. One source will be more correct and you have to look at who is writing it and why they might write it as such. I enjoyed Scott bringing attention to that in the story.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in witches, mysticism, or modern-ish witch history in America.

[Brenda Shirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took forever reading this book because I liked to look up the history mentioned and read more on that topic/era, before I continued.

It was well written and informative. I loved all the rich history and tales that passed on through witch culture.

[JLR · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this was a difficult book to review for a variety of reasons but I’ll do my best.

The actual information about mystics, witches, etc. in American history is well-researched, interesting, and quite frankly important in addressing the erasure of females and/or LGBTQ+ in America’s history of faith and practice. I didn’t know many of the people profiled in the book and learned a lot about them.

However, the author’s random interjection of her myopic, self-centered, and arrogant anecdotes were extremely off-putting. I found myself deeply engaged in a profile of an historical and then all of a sudden it transitions to a Brooklyn flea market or sensory deprivation tank in CA for no reason other than for the author to insert herself. It didn’t read as her personal journey if that was the point - it read as attention-seeking.

And the last profile nearly destroys the credibility of the whole book. A privileged, pandering, self-help author featured on Oprah and GOOP (gag) has no place with these other historical figures - and that’s even with giving her credit for Project Angel Food which is obviously important.

[Cari · Rating 4 out of 5]

An American Covenant: A Story of Women, Mysticism, and the Making of Modern America is part memoir, part history lesson; with an overall theme of spirituality, feminity, and individuality. It details the lives and legacies of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, 19th century spiritualist medium Cora L.V. Scott, Theosophical Society co-founder Madame Blavatsky, activist/witch Zsuszanna Budapest, and New Age speaker/Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson. It was extremely interesting to see the effect these controversial, "outside the box"-thinking women had in shaping the America we know today. (My personal favorite was of course Marie Laveau and I got goosebumps picturing her wading into the dark waters of Lake Pontchartrain underneath a full moon.) I also enjoyed the author's personal reflections on her own spiritual journey and how she demonstrates the ability we all have to take back our own power.

[K. L. W. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was looking for insight into the attitudes of the current/younger generations towards feminism and being female in all its related aspects.
I'm a product of the feminist movement of the 60s/70s and wanted to see how my generation's experiences related (or didn't) to current thought-movements.
The books level of writing, as if barely out of jr high and without prose, literary form or other elements of a polished and thoughtful author, so distracted me (to be polite) that i did something i have almost never done - reached my min 50 page limit, reassessed things, and then deleted it from my library completely. I wanted to like it, very much want to learn and comprehend where the evolution of our young minds has brought us in 50 years, but this book doused the fire that has been driving me to learn and understand.
There has to be something available, written at an educated level that would open my eyes as to where we are and how we've gotten there.

[Marcella · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories of these women were fascinating! It’s a sort of historical account of their lives and impact but told so intimately And powerfully that I couldn’t stop reading. Then, when the author tells of her own experiences exploring mysticism in our country, I was sucked into this other world I didn’t know existed. Amazing.....Also so inclusive of all kinds of American experiences, gay, straight, trans, immigrants, people of color. I finished reading it and was left with a hope for our future that I truly needed.

[Suze Fields · Rating 1 out of 5]

A terribly bad book that did start on a good idea, but the author was not only incapable of checking her bias at the door, but also took the chance to try and insert herself into the story. Loads of gaslighting, favoritism in her writing cast an indelleble stain on the text, where you can't but doubt every single world. It just gets amplified when she grants more credibility to fantastical stories that are hard to believe (even if she notes after pages of fantastical stories "or so her myth says"), while she quickly clashes and diminishes the claims of the critics.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put American Covenant down, and I still can't decide which part is better-- the sharply textured narratives of Marie Le Veau, Cora Scott, Helena Blavatsky, and Maryanne Williamson, or the author's own personal stories. Each part of the book amplifies the others in a super moving way. I've never thought about the idea of an ancestral coven before. But I now I want to know who all is in mine and everybody else's!!!!

[Scout Durwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes! A truly astonishing read, and a wonderful reminder of the political cycles that we go through. Lucile Scott does such an incredible job of weaving together the past, present and future. Wonderful food for thought. Highly recommend.

[Ashlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an awesome, nuanced, and inclusive book! A wonderful tapestry of histories, woven together with the author's personal narratives. An exciting read in the midst of troubled times, that shines new light on the power of resistance & resilience.

[Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scott provides a crucial reframing of American history via the feminist mystics who offered a more expansive view of freedom and justice for all.

[mònica • nightingfae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published on nightingfae's blog

★★☆☆☆½

"History may be written by the victors, but legend remains a free-for-all."

In An American COVENant you see that the United States of America was based not only on the belief that it could be a land of freedom, but also that it could be a land where any human could express their beliefs freely, not fearing to speak their minds aloud. But that at the end it was only a new Europe, where people had prejudices and followed the trends, where slaves were still slaves, were women still had no rights and only rich white men could speak their minds aloud.
And what this book tells us is the story of five women who were out of their times, who spoke their minds aloud not caring that they couldn't because the society would crush them down. Even so, they rose above all and got to be heard. Lucile Scott's goal is to recover their stories from the forgotten side of History and bring them back, giving them the credit they deserve. But Scott chooses these five women because she has them as her "mighty spirit companions", as she calls them.

I understand Scott's point, but I don't quite like how she exposes it. The book is a mix between those five women biographies and Lucile Scott's life experiences that brought her where she is now, being able to say that she's found her spirit companions, calling herself a witch and declaring she's a part of a coven. The latter, I practically skipped, because I couldn't find it interesting nor necessary to get to the point. If you read her life parts you'd feel like you're reading a blog post, which, honestly, this book could have been, not needing to be an actual book. But if you skip them then you'll find a gathering of biographies about five women that what they have in common is a sensitive way to understand this world –and even the other side if you believe in it–, also that they all contributed in giving the feminist movement a new approach, making it evolve and go further, and that, in spite of their stories and achievements, they were erased from History –making necessary a Herstory, giving the deserved importance to women.

What I disliked the most was the fact that it doesn't have any footnotes. I think that an essay, as what this book tries to be –though I'm not sure it is–, should be supported by lots of footnotes, not only a "Notes on sources" section at the end of the book, because in my case, yes, I saw there was that section before reading the e-book, but because it was an e-book I didn't consult it at all, because it's not handy going back and forth whenever you want to make sure that any fact comes from a reliable source. So I missed those footnotes with information.

"There's more than one way to burn a witch."

In conclusion, we should take Lucile Scott's work as a subjective essay about women, feminism and mystics in the USA, how they contributed to the evolution of their country at different times but in the same way, and also how we, as women, are united in the same fight against the patriarchy. But always remember that, even if this book doesn't explicitly talk about it, not all women and not only women bleed. We are all witches in the same coven, little by little smashing the patriarchy.


Thanks NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Tara Clapper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book so much. The first two-thirds of the book are revolutionary, thoughtful, and respectful of the women Scott writes about. It felt like reading about spiritual heritage.

But, this isn’t an empowering, feel-good book. This is about getting excited about white women who end up being transphobic, or unkind to disabled people.

The inclusion of Marianne Williamson was controversial and I respect the author for including such a present, contemporary figure. However, the author praises Williamson’s ability to get people to accept full responsibility in whatever trauma happened to them. I think that in some situations, that’s one of the worst things you can say - especially to an abuse victim. Are both parties sometimes guilty? Sure. Is it maybe bad to put oneself in a tough situation although options are limited due to marginalization or homelessness? Maybe. But the full-on victim blaming is 100% not okay and unfortunately negates the momentum of empowerment that the author created in the book.

I’m glad none of these women are perfect. But the fact that there aren’t better modern examples than a transphobe (“Z”) and an enemy to disabled people (Marianne) makes me doubt the research and obvious passion put into the beginning of the book.

This book does offer other promising primers: it *is* worth buying simply for the Marie Laveau chapter. The way the author weaves the lives of these women around their contemporary social-political environments provides remarkable contexts. Her voice is both tender and strong. She just should have gone with the first three or written the rest of the book about the many fantastic queer practitioners of many races she’d met.

[Nanci · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have liked to have given a 2.5 star review; I received the book as a gift, and probably wouldn't have bought myself a copy as I already knew about most of the women profiled in it.

A rather lofty title for a decently-written equivalent to a TV show’s clip job plus personal moments. The author devotes approximately 50 pages to each of the 5 women she profiles: “Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans”, “Cora L. V. Scott, Rock Star Nineteenth-Century Spiritualist Medium”, “Madame Blavatsky, Cofounder of the Theosophical Society”, Zsusanna Budapest, Author, Activist, Lesbian Witch, and Feminist Goddess Worshipper”, and “Marianne Williamson, New Age Sage and Presidential Candidate”. Interspersed throughout each mini-biography are narratives of the author’s own spiritual journey from Kentucky to NYC and elsewhere (she’s currently in Brooklyn); the book concludes with 30 pages of “Notes on Sources”. Published in 2020, I feel it’s a reflection of the trend of the last decade or so of info being given in bite-sized pieces for easy consumption by the masses. Readers have the option of looking up the books Scott used in her research if they want more substantial details of any of the profiled women.

[madmadmaddy · Rating 2 out of 5]

CW: mention of genocide of Indigenous people, Nazis & anti-semitism

Painfully white and kinda TERFy. The part about "trespassing on my family land" just paragraphs after implying that the author's colonial ancestors actively participated in the genocide of Shawnee people and theft of their ancestral home? Gross, insensitive, and white af. Also, just a FOOTNOTE on HPB's works being appropriated by Nazis? The mere mention of those initials to a Jewish person can trigger a traumatic response due to the ties to genocide and anti-semitism. Gross, insensitive, and white af (x2).

This book lacked any genuine criticism of white supremacy, capitalism, or appropriation of closed Indigenous practices in New Age™ spirituality and american witch culture. Maybe because it was published by an Amazon imprint🤔? But that would be giving the white feminist author the benefit of the doubt.

Anyway, can't recommend!

[R. Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very informative, entertaining, and 'deep' (which is one of Marianne Williamson's favorite words)--and, Williamson is the last Part V of the book by Scott, and not the least. I am particularly attracted to discovering more depths in Scott's book with a second read. I got distracted at times with all the fictional-like and detailed descriptions throughout. That said, I think the 'guts' of the book are still there and with integrity. Lots of truths.

As I sort my thoughts, and especially as I assess the "living" exemplar (i.e., Williamson) of the five that Scott chose for her coven of revolution, I recommend readers may want to look at the vlog video talk I created to explore Scott's working through that's going on in this book: go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muekB...

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book in a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for an honest review. This is not subject matter I would normally purchase a book about. I don't subscribe to many of the author's particular viewpoints, but I found the book informative and interesting. I enjoyed learning about five (six, including the author) that I'd never heard of. It was an informative glimpse into history and the present, and I always love learning more about new things and different ideas. The book was well-researched and well-written. I'm glad I read it.

[Kelly J Applegate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. It was filled with a lot of interesting facts about these various figures in history. I was familiar to varying extents with all of the subjects prior to reading the book. I learned a lot more about them.

Something about this writer's style grated on me, though. Not quite sure what it was. She is a good writer, maybe it just felt, I don't know, disjointed?

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting exploration.

I enjoyed the history of these incredible women. Definitely not what I expected. Even the description of Salem, MA was a shock to me. I spent a third of my 60 years living in or near there and I did Not recognize the city described, I'm getting old!

[Gloria Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and explores a fascinating topic. I came to this book via an interest in feminist history and didn't know a lot about mysticism or the role it's played in American history. I loved learning about it!

[Librarian Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose this book to read, expecting an in-depth analysis of the women leaders of the various spiritual movements in U.S. history This book was definitely not that, but I couldn't stop reading it! I am not sure what I got out of it, but I enjoyed reading it.

[Susan Baranoff · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the "Napoleon Dynamite" of books. I kept waiting for the author to make a point or at least draw a line of continuum through her 5 subjects. I am NOT a Marianne Williamson fan and this book didn't help. Finished it. Meh.

[Ann Jones]

DNF. This is not to say another reader wouldn't love it. So, I will not comment on the reason for my DNF.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an amazing read! I found it extremely educational, and uplifting for woman in general. So much of what we have accomplish has been overshadowed or downplayed.