Advanced Witchcraft: Go Deeper, Reach Further, Fly Higher

by Edain McCoy

In the beginning everything is fresh and new. Learning how to cast a circle, work magick, compile a Book of Shadows, and honor the God and Goddess on esbats and sabbats can be exhilarating. But once you've mastered the basics of Witchcraft comes the real challenge of living your faith every moment of every day. Living as a Witch is knowing that you are the magick. Advanced Witchcraft doesn't contain any "Wicca 101" information―it assumes that you're already familiar with the nuts and bolts of the Craft. Instead, this book challenges you to think critically about your beliefs and practices, what they mean to you, how they've changed, and where you're going. Along the way you'll also learn many techniques for intermediate and advanced Witches,

Genres: Wicca, Paganism, Witchcraft, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Occult, Religion

336 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2004

Reviews

[White Rabbit · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title is profoundly misleading.

The book is painfully Wiccan in that “I refuse to acknowledge the belief systems of others” kind of way, the prose is tedious and repetitive, there’s very little substance to it beyond the author’s insistence that being a witch (and in particular the Right Kind Of Witch) makes you far superior to others. The majority of page space is spent listing traits the author feels a witch must possess, and asking circular and vague questions the author feels a witch must answer, without any time dedicated to actually discussing or dissecting the benefit of any of these topics or even how to begin “learning” them.

Four chapters in and the only real meat has been a very basic and very introductory nine-step guide to astral projection that you could find literally anywhere. And of course the obligatory list of deities you can cherry pick with zero regard for their actual religions. Again, not really any more advanced than... a thirty second google search that any Wiccan website or witch's pinterest board would provide.

A quick skim through the rest of this book shows out of context diagrams being vaguely shoehorned in to fill space in between passages they have no relation to, and more very basic 101 craft sprinkled in among paragraph after paragraph of the author talking about how great she thinks The True Witch is (and of course, she's a true witch, don't you know).

There are plenty of other sources for beginner witches to look at that won't force you to read through hundreds of pages of the author jerking off.

[Kylie Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This really isn't much more than a 101 book. It has a little in the way of encouragement for the witch who's finished his/her first lap around the block - yes you're on the right path, what your intuition is telling you about the craft is common to other witches, etc.... So I can see it being helpful for those who've only been studying for a short time or haven't had a teacher. But there was nothing that I hadn't already heard in my 10 years in the craft.

[Mica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Advanced Witchcraft is a good book to start with once one has exhausted the lessons from a typical 101 book.

There is a lot of theory and discussion about so-called advanced topics, but not a lot of what to do with those topics. Most subjects only provide a high-level overview. This is not in itself a bad thing. One cannot write a comprehensive text on so many varied topics. This is probably the real purpose of the book: to introduce subjects beyond the beginner stuff to whet your appetite for what lies beyond. Truly there are books that go into greater detail on any subject contained therein.

I would have liked to see more source references throughout the text, but that isn't really Llewellyn's way so I can't say I was surprised by the lacking of it.

Also there were some errors in the diagrams within, but again there isn't any details on how to use those diagrams so any student looking for more in depth information will surely find the correct versions. I'm hoping these are just due to editing errors.

As someone who has had the great fortune of working within a coven and other such groups for most of my adult life, this book offered no new insights or topics. This book may be better suited to the solitary practitioner looking to expand his or her practice. But if you've had several years of training, I doubt anything in the book will be new to you.

[A. J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been doing a lot of reading lately on witchcraft and Wicca and this book is one of the ones I've tried to read.  

It was interesting because quite early on in the book I realized that I wasn't quite ready to read this book. There was much more advanced knowledge than I expected, I guess I was looking for more of a medium level book and hoped that this book would be it.  It wasn't, but it was still an interesting read. 

I think it was good for me to read it, even if I was a little lost at times. Because it showed me the next steps to take, so it was still helpful. There are a lot of Wiccan beginners books and I've read so many of them at this point that they aren't really helpful anymore. But Advanced Witchcraft inspired me to read more books on meditation, more books about nature and auras. 

In the end I didn't finish every single one of the chapters, but I did read a good deal of it. I gave it four stars on Goodreads. 

[Mirhanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty Good

While I don't agree with everything, Witchcraft being so personal, it does give a good grounding. Definitely worth reading, and I'm sure I'll find myself referring back to this one not infrequently.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book and it did not go over the basics like so many books do but stayed true to the advanced practitioner and delved in deeper.

[Kerr Cuhulain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for those looking beyond the usual Wicca 101. Recommend it!