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The Witching Year: A Memoir of Earnest Fumbling Through Modern Witchcraft | Diana Helmuth

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Honest, pragmatic, vulnerable.
Subjectively, I can say, as an atheist who has previously dabbled in neopaganism/Wicca, there was a lot of relatable content in here.
But there were also a multitude of experiences and thoughts that stretched my credulity: I couldn't follow the author in all of her reasoning, interpretation, anxiety, over-thinking, and what appeared to be emotional trauma, occasionally leaking out during her practice. 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? This is a writer recounting many excerpts from a year and a day exploring the religions associated with Witchcraft as well as the practice of Witchcraft, reading and interviewing, doing spells and rituals and attending seasonal celebrations and community events. 5d

Robotswithpersonality 3/? But it's also a memoir of this woman reflecting on her (lack of) relationship with her deceased father and the shared life with the atheist boyfriend she lives with as they continue to support each other, both struggle to find a more satisfying living situation together, transitioning from the quarantine to the new reality of an ongoing pandemic, her people-pleasing tendencies, and how this all spilled over into her explorations of Witchcraft. 5d

Robotswithpersonality 4/? I loved the writing, it's good, memorable and often funny, not always in a self-deprecating manner.
Helmuth retains a grounded sensitivity to issues of cultural appropriation, racism, history of colonialism, gimmick/snake oil/consumerism which can creep into the craft and religion, as well as raising some points specific to a more recent look at Wicca: the limitations provided by older texts' emphasis on the gender binary of the God and 5d

Robotswithpersonality 5/? Goddess, the maiden, mother, crone dynamic, the orthodoxy and intricacy of ritual that is theorized to have a linkage to many early practitioners having a Judeo-Christian organized religious background, the widespread acknowledgement that this is a tradition created in the twentieth century, with no historical proof of ancient linkage points, as much as earlier symbolism has been cited/borrowed, which the author reckons with at length. 5d

Robotswithpersonality 6/6 It's an odd paradox, to watch a belief system and magical craft arguably structured around more religious freedom and individual empowerment cause such frequent quandaries in a person who went looking for spiritual fulfillment, specific answers, but the journey of exploration is authentic, and I appreciate the book for holding steady in this regard, relaying the doubts and discoveries as they unfold.

⚠️Animal death
5d

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