Product Description

Selling more than 300,000 copies, this popular guide to the Craft has been helping a new generation of Witches-those practicing or wishing to practice the Craft on their own-for over a decade. Filled with Silver RavenWolf's warmth, humor, and personal anecdotes, To Ride a Silver Broomstick introduces the science and religion of the craft.
• New cover • New interior design • New edit • Updated artwork

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40658 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780875427911
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
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Amazon.com Review
Silver RavenWolf is one of the most widely recognized names in circles of witchcraft, and with good reason; she has written some of the best guides to contemporary Witchcraft available. To Ride a Silver Broomstick is a handbook aimed at the beginner, and doesn't get bogged down in history, dogma, or gender roles. It is a workbook for the individual, whether one is a solitary practitioner or part of a coven, that covers the basics of the craft--from useful vocabulary to setting up an altar--and briefly delves into more advanced concepts such as astral projection and telepathy. To Ride a Silver Broomstick may not be the most comprehensive single volume on the subject of witchcraft, but RavenWolf focuses on the aspects most important to a beginner, and keeps her introduction to the craft approachable and easy to follow. --Brian Patterson

From the Publisher
        Every so often, a book has a special spark. That is the case with To Ride a Silver Broomstick by Silver RavenWolf. Sure, it is an excellent source of information on Witchcraft, but it's also much more. It is a personal book that shares RavenWolf's heart and soul. And that is one of the reasons I believe this book has become so popular.
        RavenWolf tells some amazing stories in here. Her description of her first experience at a clothing-optional festival is hilarious. Her frustrations during childhood while searching for her spiritual path are touching. Her tale of a woman who assumed that the help she received from RavenWolf may have been the cause of a health problem (it wasn't) leads to thinking about modes of healing and the importance of the mindset of the person being healed.
       What an incredible delight this book is! Not only is it personal and fun to read, but it also presents its facts so effortlessly that I was surprised at just how much information there really is in this book. She covers all of the basic theology, including the God and Goddess and the celebratory Wheel of the Year. Most of the book, however, is focused on magick. She gives numerous rituals and rites, and shows how to design your own. She also gives many spells that anyone can work. Other topics include healing, the Tarot (including timing, a rarely discussed subject), color and candle magick, and much more. I especially liked her lexicon of Witchcraft words. Knowing these terms would make a person more comfortable at any Pagan gathering.
      I really hope you will consider getting this book. I have no doubt that you will find it enchanting and entertaining as well as astute and wise. I know you'll love it!

About the Author

Silver RavenWolf (Pennsylvania) is a nationally recognized leader and elder of Wicca, and through her writing has been instrumental in guiding the future of one of the fastest-growing faiths in America today. The author of seventeen books, she has been interviewed by The New York Times, Newsweek Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal, and her work has been featured in numerous publications, including Bust Magazine, the Baltimore Sun, the St. Petersburg Times, the National Review, Publishers Weekly, Body & Soul Magazine, and Teen Lit Magazine. Her many titles include the bestselling Solitary Witch, Teen Witch, To Ride A Silver Broomstick, To Stir A Magick Cauldron, To Light A Sacred Flame, American Folk Magick, Angels: Companions in Magick, Silver’s Spells for Prosperity, Silver's Spells for Protection, Silver's Spells for Love, Halloween, and the Witches’ Night Out teen fiction series. Her new book Hedge Witch is forthcoming from Llewellyn in September 2008.

Customer Reviews

A realistic introduction to Witchcraft.
Having read many of the reviews, you can tell which reviewers of "To Ride a Silver Broomstick" are coven-based Witches. Having seen a recent survey on the Witches Voice web site, I can say with certainty that the great majority of practicing witches in the U.S. today are NOT in Covens, but solitary practitioners who have no teachers, and no guidance as they begin. This sort of "this-is-such-a-schmucky-book-because-it's-not-written-by-Raymond-Buckland-and-doesn't-revolve-around-a-coven" talk should really be left to the more mainstream religions. In the Craft, all paths are paths to the Goddess. It's also not realistic; most of us can't find people willing to teach us, and may not feel comfortable even if we could. Buckland's books are great, but they don't speak to Witches who are outside the coven group. (I also didn't know there were such things as "real" rituals...are my rituals less real because they're written by me and not by Buckland or Gerald Garner? That sounds remarkably Medieval Roman Catholic Church-like to me....) For those of us who are not lucky enough or choose not to be in a Coven, this book is a strong foundation, provided it's used correctly. If you simply read through it quickly, it will be informative, but it won't function as a basic course in Witchcraft. If you choose this as your main text (and there are other books that will be equally good depending on who you are), then you should really follow it closely to get the full effects: buy your notebook, take your time, do your exercises, and most importantly...READ the supplementary texts suggested at the end of most chapters. Read them between your chapters in "Broomstick". They will give you more insight and enhance your study, and will also give you ideas of the directions you want to take as you grow. If you do this, you will find yourself better prepared to tackle the mountain of information available on the Craft. I know I sure did.

Life is too short to spend time on this book
This book contains nothing of worth that hasn't been said already and better. I am concerned that so many of these reviews say that it is good for beginners. Why learn something that you are going to have to unlearn later? Be wary of something that is too easy. Better books are Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon, Stewart Farrar's What Witches Do, Stewart and Janet Farrar's A Witch's Bible, Raymond Buckland's The Complete Book of Witchcraft, Starhawk's The Spiral Dance, and Scott Cunningham's Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner. If you read those books you will be able to see just how poor Ravenwolf's books are. Don't waste time on cotton candy when there is steak and potatoes out there.

Not bad at all...
If you glanced at the trashy cover-art and title and found that they put you off, or if you simply didn't like the idea of buying a book by somebody called Silver RavenWolf (a name reminiscent of a bad night playing AD&D) then you might be quite surprised - "To Ride..." is a well conceived and thoughtfully presented title on Witchcraft, paganism and the occult that is worth the money and actually deserves to be read.

Beyond the cover and the title already mentioned, which is more or less Llewellyn's fault as the masters of gaudy sensationalism, "To Ride..." is a comprehensive study of what it takes to practice solitary, and refreshingly non-dogmatic Witchcraft. RavenWolf really knows her stuff and writes in a clear and friendly fashion, often boiling difficult content down to the level of the non-specialised reader (which is why people say she has a childish style - an accusation they probably wouldn't level at Donald Michael Kraig for doing exactly the same thing).

Beyond that, however, what RavenWolf excels in is enthusiasm, and it is certainly contagious as you itch to get started with her book. From page one, admittedly after skipping the dreadful fairytale account of The Charge (which really IS bad AD&D - yuck), the text pulls you in and motivates you to think carefully about Witchcraft and the occult, while encouraging you to get your feet wet by trying the practices out. In that sense, RavenWolf ranks among the very best occult authors from whatever field, as getting people motivated enough to claw their way out of the armchair is two thirds of the battle. The other third, of course, is to then get people to think beyond their limits but we can only expect so much here - it is Mr Crowley, after all, who still has the market cornered on that one.

What I would suggest is that if Witchcraft has caught your fancy and you are looking for a good introduction to it then you should start right here. Personally, I would rather do that than begin with a title by the late Scott Cunningham, who despite his growing status as a neo-pagan saint, actually wrote introductory books about Wicca/witchcraft and natural magic that do only half as well as this one. I mean, at least Raven Wolf doesn't chuck slushy greeting card sentiments across every page (only some of them) while also recognising that gush and content aren't really the same thing at all.

On the whole this is a very neat little book but it still suffers from the trend of seeing nature as 'nice' and 'fwuffy' (sic), which is present in a lot of neo-pagan texts. To balance it out, I would try working with something harder and more holistic, like the Shamanic magick of Jan Fries (which doesn't sugar-coat the natural world at all) or maybe even by reading "Last of the Medicine Men" by Benedict Allen to get a fuller idea of what working with nature really means to people who CAN trace their lineage back across dozens of generations. If you still think the forests and the wilds are 'pleasant' after that then good luck to you! If, on the other hand, you see something that people cut from RavenWolf's cloth have missed then welcome aboard - the bus heading for a firmer spiritual contact with the natural world is loading now and getting ready to leave the station before sundown.