Power of the Witch: The Earth, the Moon, and the Magical Path to Enlightenment by Laurie Cabot, Tom Cowan Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.99 You Save: $7.01 (47%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.92 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Power of the Witch: The Earth, the Moon, and the Magical Path to Enlightenment
Book Review: Love and Hate It
Summary: 5 Stars
It's impossible to criticize this book without talking about the amount of good information that is in it. So much, in fact, I feel it deserves five stars and should be a prerequisite to all those studying Witchcraft. It is a MUST for those delving into the physics of magick. This woman is guts incarnate - and carries forth her image of the world powerfully and majestically. It is her personal strength and her unusual approaches in the book itself that impressed me.My problem is not the usual with Laurie Cabot. She does start the book out with something along the lines of, "When you see me walking down the streets, you know I am a Witch. I dress like one." Some people interpret this as fluffiness. It's my understanding though, that her attitude and the attitude of many of the Salemites have created an open atmosphere through this demanding differentness. I see nothing wrong with magickal separatism, in which one diverges from society and chooses to reject the customs of the current age.
My main problem is a thread of female chauvanism that is carried from lots of other books into this one. I don't think believing in a prehistoric matriarchy is sexist anymore than believing in a posthistory patriarchy is. It is the manner in which it is approached. And Ms. Cabot approaches witchcraft as a religion centered on women with its roots in cultures she describes as the golden ages many mythologies and fairy tales talk about. She goes on to say these societies had women in positions of power and "men presumably held second-class status." She parades these matriarchies as the absolute creme of the crop of societies without any attention to any downfalls this kind of monogender rule might have.
Also, some of the language used ends up showing this same attitude. An example is, "priestesses adorning themselves with crescents and adorning their priests with antlers." As if the priests did not have their own power in the Old Religion. Even in the literal interpretation of the Wiccan History Myth, authors such as Starhawk theorized that Witchcraft was primarily patriarchal in the middle ages, hence Murray's ideas of the "Devil" actually being "the God" or the "Man in Black" so many trials described.
It's disappointing because she demonstrates such an open-mindedness about most subjects. She talks about watching out for those in witchcraft who view power as dominance over others. Isn't this sort of extremist feminism the same? Should the female's power come from subjugating the male's? I wish she would have analyzed a way to increase true masculinism rather than droning the echoes of so many books of the past, which wish to stamp it out.
I don't view Witchcraft as a women's religion, but as a nature religion which incorporates magick. In nature, there are two forms of everything. Although one side may play a significant role, the other side, no matter how small the role, plays equally significant. God is equally significant to Goddess. Man is equally significant to Woman. Yang is as important as Yin.
Also, she gets carried away sometimes, but there is no great genius without a touch of insanity. In short, read this book, but decide which parts are right for you.
Book Review: The Best
Summary: 5 Stars
Over the past 5 years or so i have read a LOT of books on this subject and this is definately one of the best.Informative, accurate, interesting and in depth, it covers everything from basics, to complex physics. A must have for all those who are interested in pagan based religions.
Book Review: Best of them all...
Summary: 5 Stars
This was the first book I read on Witchcraft and I have yet to find one to match it. I have a pretty good size library on Wicca/Witchcraft now, and most are very good, but none have given me the understanding and insights that this book did. When I read it, SO MUCH came into focus!!!
For those who wish to ground their knowledge and experience of Witchcraft with scientific understanding, I highly recommend it, and all her books.
Book Review: Please don't go here!
Summary: 1 Stars
This book is just awful. Written at a fourth grade reading level but I would not recommend it for children. It is just disappointing. It seems it was written in a rush and not researched at all. If you want a beginners book or something on the basics or informative, don't read this.Book Review: It describes a Universe which makes sense to the Witch!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am convinced, more and more, that this important work found its way to me as the answer to a prayer. Simply because, when I first embarked upon this Path, many of the books spoke of spells in a rather dodgy manner. One "popular" author simply adressed this by staiting, "You have to believe in spells for them to work" and left it at that, without giving the reader any reason "to believe"! How aggrivating! I was almost ready to drop what we call "spells"...at least before this book found its way into my heart. Laurie Cabot uses science and the latest developements in theoretical physics, and physics in general, (which are all proported by such illuminaries as Einstein, Niel Bhor and Stephen Hawking, etc...) to discuss how spells work. Her book describes a Universe which makes sense to the Witch! For this, alone, it is worth the purchase of the book! Her description of The Science Tradition of Witchcraft is fully grounded in fact, as revealed by her bibliography and such authors as Michael Talbot, Fritja Capra, F. David Peat, Itzhak Bentov, PhD. Fred Alan Wolfe and John Gribbin, etc... While her non-"Wiccan" history is certainly very well grounded in fact, her Wiccan history stummbles on the very odd occasion (only once, or maybe twice, as I can currently recall). But, we must take into account the date in which it was printed- in fact, the date in which it was written, as the 2 are usually off by a number of years. She may, very well, have been told something by a Gardnerian Witch, from the Gardnerian Book of Shadows, and neither of them were the wiser. However, 10 years has elapsed since then. She is always very well researched.
Interestingly enough, the British version of "Power Of The Witch" is apparently being sold commercially throughout the US as its current printing! Although, I must say, I am a little baffled by the current cover-art. Call me a critic, but...I just don't "get it"! Also, the sub-title is different than the original US publication, which was "The Earth, The Moon, and the Magickal Path to Enlightenment." However, I must admit, I am more partial to "A Witch's Guide to Her Craft".
To sum it up, if you have ever wondered how/why spells work- I can't recommend this book highly enough! Also, if you've wished to explain how spells work to a student, using a logical, rational, left-brained approach, the same applies! Because, to briefly quote the author, "The Science Tradition draws on both ancient wisdom and the latest in theoretical physics. Using science as an approach to Witchcraft gives my students a solid grounding on which to stand. Some teachers in The Craft present our practices & beliefs in terms of art or religion or psychology or mythology, and these have their merits, but at some point the student wants to know 'how magick works'. Science is our country, it is where we feel at home. ...Science describes a world that makes sense."
Actually, what's most fascinating is that one of the authors whom her Tradition draws upon is F. David Peat, who is reknowned for "Synchronicity", which at its most basic level states, "coincidences that are so unusual and so psychologically meaningful they don't seem to be the result of chance alone." Thus, what I have seen at the tail end of last year, and at the beginning of this year (indeed from various Craft Elders within recent months, whom also happen to teach similarly) is that a variety of Pagan books being published also use quantum physics/mechanics to teach what we refer to as "spells". I haven't seen this since the publication of "Power Of The Witch"! How extraordinary!
This book deserves 5-stars, and more!