Slavic Sorcery: Shamanic Journey of Initiation

by Kenneth Johnson

Until recently, few scholars were even aware that a Slavic Magickal tradition still existed. Kenneth Johnson's book presents his true-life experiences in Russia with the living practitioners of this ancient magickal discipline. It also serves as a course in authentic shamanic practices. Readers can learn about the mythology and lore of the Slavic peoples, and there is material on festivals, cosmology, the gods, Otherworld spirits, and ancestor beliefs.

Genres: Paganism, Occult, Magick

224 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1997

About the author

Kenneth Johnson has been a professional astrologer for forty years. He holds a B.A. in Comparative Religions from California State University Fullerton. He obtained his Master of Arts in Eastern Studies (with an emphasis in Classical Sanskrit) from St. John's College, Santa Fe.
A leading figure in the study of myths and archetypes and their importance to the art of astrology, Kenneth is the author of numerous books and magazine articles, including the well-known Mythic Astrology series (with Arielle Guttman) and Mansions of the Moon: The Lost Zodiac of the Goddess, a study of the lunar zodiac of India. A close student of both Western and Vedic astrology, he has been the managing editor of the Journal of the American College of Vedic Astrology and a frequent contributor to The Mountain Astrologer.
A serious researcher of the culture of the Maya, both ancient and modern, he has spent months with indigenous teachers in remote parts of Guatemala and is the author of Mayan Calendar Astrology: Mapping Your Inner Cosmos, Jaguar Wisdom: An Introduction to the Mayan Calendar, and The Mayan Prophecies: The Renewal of the World 2012-2072.
Throughout the years, Ken has developed a unique approach to the art of astrology, blending contemporary practice with ancient insights. Astrologer, researcher, and writer, Ken lives in Taos, New Mexico.

Reviews

[Trunatrschild · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author states that he is going to Russia to learn about the dregs of witchcraft in the villiages of Russia, well, if you make that a preface for a book, why don't you do that? He goes to the city and stays in the city and follows around some guy to a city PARK who is mostly interested in hinduism. He uses terms like Prana(va) and etc. difficult to believe the guy had much idea of his own culture cept that he knew the mythology, he was more interested in yoga and other New Age Hindu terms and the author seemed stuck on that archetype thing where one deity is the same as another.
Also, don't write about a subject that you know nothing about. This author continually drops the word Neolithic and it's very obvious that the ONLY thing that he knows about the Neolithic came from a Marija Gimbutas book... which means it's all fantasy. I thought I'd scream if he said "The Neolithic Goddess Culture" more than once a page.
Another seriously irritating thing was when he'd be taught about some spirits, he'd write in a very self righteous manner that "they're really deities" as if us westerners can be told that they're spirits, but we know better. I wanted to slap him, what an idiot.
I'd KNOWN that it was a Llewellyn book but I'd hoped that it was early enough to be before the "LLewellyn, Publisher of Utter Fluff" period.
I know from reading other stuff, that he was fairly spot on about the mythology, but that's pretty much all the book was, travelogue and mythology and new age fluff and very importantly, it did not contain anything 'dark'.

[Sylvie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book! It cuts between chapters about the author's experiences attempting to find ~authentic contemporary slavic pagan practices, and between chapters about pre-Christian (& parallel-to-Christian) slavic mythology and traditions and history. I rolled my eyes a lot at the chapters where it's about contemporary practices, because I had very little patience for mystic woo at the time I was reading this, though I found the clash between the author's attempt to find ~authentic ~pure Slavic paganism and all the people he encountered's insistence upon some syncretic thing of generic East-Asian mysticism, Slavic paganism, and pseudo-scientific New Age stuff rather hilarious. But the chapters about slavic mythology is really where it was at: I always lamented as a teen that I couldn't find any resources for Slavic mythology, and always regretted that I knew so little about my ancestral practices. So it was great reading about those, particularly from the perspective of someone actively interested in it from more than just an academic pursuit.

Sadly this is another one of those books that I didn't manage to finish - I had to give it back to the library or risk further fines. But I'm hoping to get a chance to finish it one day.

[Ravenstone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very much a get attention book. Not deep enough or scholarly enough.