Charms, Spells & Herbals
American Folk Magick
by Silver Ravenwolf
Book Review: American Folk
Magic
by Randall Sapphire
American Folk Magick is
Llewellyn's new title for what used to be known as Hexcraft: Dutch
Country Magick. While I've never seen this book under the original
title, I suspect that not much beyond the cover and title pages have
changed as the left page headers still say "HexCraft."
I like this book. Silver
Ravenwolf has written a fairly straightforward beginner's book on
the art of Pow-Wow. Pow-Wow is a magickal system brought to America
by settlers from the Rhineland area of what is now Germany to
Pennsylvania. I've always thought Ravenwolf was in her element when
she talks about magick. This book proves my point. Her explanations
are clear, and for the most part seem to be complete. I believe her
style of mixing anecdotes with instruction works far better with
magick than it does with religion.
As Pow-Wow is primarily a
healing system, several chapters of American Folk Magick are devoted
to Pow-Wow methods of healing. Other chapters cover tools, warding
magick, divination, cursing and banishing, hex symbols, and even the
"dark" side of Pow-Wow (which seems to be its generally misused
ceremonial magick connection).
While I consider this one of
Ravenwolf's best books, I do have two real problems with it. First,
the author intermixes her theory that Pow-Wow is actually a version
of the Old Religion disguised by a Christian overlay in with
material on the history of Pow-Wow. While the author's speculation
in this area is interesting, I believe it should have been kept a
bit more separate from the history. Second, instead of providing
instructions on one of the more well-known and interesting parts of
Pow-Wow, the "hex symbols," Ravenwolf simply refers the reader to
another Llewellyn book for this information. One more minor problem
is that while she sometimes provides both Christian and Pagan
versions of chants and spells, she often only provides Pagan
versions. This is true even when it seems obvious that she converted
a Christian version into a Pagan version. This makes the book
somewhat less useful than it could be to a Christian wishing to
learn the system.
I find Pow-Wow a fascinating
magickal system. If you are interested in it, Ravenwolf's American
Folk Magick is one of the few books in print devoted to the subject.
It's probably the only one readily available.
American Folk Magick: Charms, Spells & Herbals
Author:
Silver Ravenwolf Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Llewellyn
Publication date: December 1998 ISBN: 156718720X
More Information:
http://www.ecauldron.com/cncbook.php?asin=156718720X
This review is one of
hundreds of reviews of Pagan, Wiccan, occult, and metaphysical books
in The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's Books and Reviews section at
http://www.ecauldron.com/bookstore.php.
Randall Sapphire is the
founder and co-host of
The Cauldron: A
Pagan Forum (http://www.ecauldron.com/),
a popular Pagan Interfaith web site and message board. He is also an
editor at
The
Cheap Web Hosting Report (http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/)
and webmaster for a number of other sites.
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