Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Great book. You really can’t go wrong with anything written by Raven Grimassi.

Raven Grimassi is one of my long time favorite authors to read on the topic of witchcraft and I am delighted to see one of their works that I had not gotten to enjoy yet . This edition will be a wonderful resource on the shelves of many witches for years to come.

Note: I received a free unpublished proof of this book, for a limited time, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.

Of all the books on witchcraft and magic I’ve read in the past year, this one has actually been one of the most useful in understanding modern beliefs around witchcraft, though I do not believe in them myself.

From the beginning, this book is somewhat similar to the books I’ve reviewed by Frater Barrabbas in that it chiefly concerns Wicca, or at least a very Wiccan form of witchcraft. This is where my first issue with the book comes in—while Grimassi claims that the framework he discusses in this book does not have to be Wicca, it is still entirely based on Wiccan theology and practice and any tradition created from this framework will still be very much tied to Wicca and other similar forms of modern neopaganism. If someone is genuinely trying to start from the ground up, this book will not be helpful. As I’ve said about multiple other books at this point—”Wicca” or “Wiccan” should be somewhere in the book’s title or subtitle, since Wicca and witchcraft are not the same. While the Wiccan community frequently uses “tradition” to talk about what other practices might call a “denomination” or “lineage”, “tradition” can be used in many other ways, so it’s not clear that Grimassi is using the term in the Wiccan sense.

The first chapter talks about the “enchanted worldview,” which is useful in that it actually talks about some of the core beliefs behind Wicca. A lot of modern beginner books are notorious for not having a lot of concrete information on the beliefs behind witchcraft, other than mentioning that people who call themselves witches usually care about nature and usually aren’t evil. Granted, this initial section is not terribly detailed, but that’s fine. I also appreciate that Grimassi discusses the changes in Wiccan thought and practice from the 60s and 70s through to the 21st century, and aims to go back to the source material. On one hand, I have issues with the way that Wicca randomly cherry-picks stuff from different cultures, makes ahistorical claims, and does so in a generally disrespectful manner. That said, if we accept that Wicca is problematic and put that aside for a moment, I do think that people who join a religious movement should follow the actual tenets of that movement. Many Wiccans not only sign onto a religion that steals stuff from a bunch of different cultures, but manage to compound the issue by claiming that Wicca “lets you do whatever you want” and wilfully change and manipulate its original tenets, while continuing to steal even more stuff from even more other cultures and religions, often with little to no understanding of any of its true significance. While the creators of Wicca are not harmed by people appropriating their religion the way people from marginalized cultures are, the whole phenomenon goes to show that a lot of people who join Wicca really don’t have respect for anybody’s intellectual property, traditions, or reasoning behind things. If someone wants to change Wicca for the better to be less disrespectful, more historically accurate, whatever, that’s fine—but that person would still, in theory, need to have a good working knowledge of the structure of Wicca as it currently stands. Personally, I do not believe in Wicca, nor do I even believe in metaphysical things in general despite finding them interesting to read about, but I think it is important to respect the cultures and beliefs of others, and to have some sort of continuity, reasoning, and framework behind one’s beliefs, which many modern Wiccans do not.

The second chapter concerns building one’s own tradition. I think it is a bit strange to have a book on this topic that assumes the reader does not know very much up front, because anybody who is creating a Wiccan tradition has presumably been fully initiated, practicing for years, and probably teaching or instructing some as well, based on my understanding of how these religious groups work. Fully-initiated people will already know all this stuff, and somebody who is just getting started is not going to want to create a tradition—they will want to join one. This book seems to be more aimed at people who are creating their own framework for Wiccan-inspired neopaganism that uses the same basic framework but doesn’t include the knowledge and practices learned by initiates. Which is fine, I guess; many people have done just that, and as long as they acknowledge that their practice is different from the stuff that formal covens are doing, then that can work as a practice. Again—I don’t really have a horse in this race since I don’t believe in these things, but I think that honesty about your beliefs and practices, including where they come from and where they fit into the bigger picture of traditions and practices, is important, and calling something “Wicca” when it’s only loosely-inspired by it is somewhat misleading.

The third chapter on finding one’s pantheon is where I start to have more issues with the book. First of all, I am aware that the God/Goddess pantheon of Wicca is a modern invention based on various misunderstandings and fabrications of history. I am temporarily putting that aside for a second because at the end of the day, I don’t have a problem with people believing in modern inventions so long as they acknowledge them as such. However, some of the advice in this section was questionable, even from that perspective.

First of all, while Grimassi acknowledges, to some extent, that Wicca is modern, he does not do a great job of citing what is modern and what is not. He often mentions “old stories” or “historical times” without specifying which region or time he speaks of. For instance, there are several times when he mentions particular Greek and Roman deities or myths that inspired Wiccan mythology and theology, but doesn’t say anything about them being Greek or Roman! While I realize that the Wiccan interpretation of ancient mythology is somewhat different from the original, I think that Grimassi should at least cite where these ideas are coming from so that readers can better understand their context, and also, you know, give credit where credit is due.

Second, even if one is worshipping an existing pantheon from a practice that they belong to or that is open to everyone, it often doesn’t make any sense in the context of said practice to focus on a “main” God and Goddess. I guess one could kind of focus on Zeus and Hera or Odin and Frigg while also worshipping the rest of the gods, since those cultures did sort of see those gods as “rulers” or “mother and father” to some extent, but not all religions work that way. Also, a lot of Wiccans don’t even follow that sort of logic, and instead place Pan and Artemis/Diana, or sometimes Pan and Hecate, into the roles of God and Goddess, for their own reasons based in Wiccan theology. While Grimassi warns against the possible issues with pairing a God and Goddess from different pantheons in the sense of the two not getting along—which is a valid concern, if you believe these beings exist—he doesn’t recognize that this practice often makes no sense from a religious perspective either. Not only can this be massively disrespectful to the cultures these deities come from, since it is not common practice in the vast majority of them to pair them with a “spouse” from another culture’s religion, but it doesn’t make sense even in the context of similar deities from religions that work similarly. For instance, some of my ancestry originates in Ireland, Poland, and Shetland, a largely-Norse island off the coast of Scotland. Since practitioners are encouraged to investigate the practices of their own ancestors, and many European polytheistic practices are open religions, someone like me could definitely incorporate Irish, Slavic, and Norse pantheons and religion into their own practice if they believed in these deities and wanted to worship them. That doesn’t mean that they could just stick, say, Odin and Morana together in a ritual and expect that arrangement to make good ritual sense! These deities still come from different cultural contexts and have associated roles and associations that will not necessarily mesh together with deities from other traditions, particularly as they each have a position that is complemented by others in their own pantheon.

That said, I suppose if one stuck with the core Wiccan idea of the God and the Goddess, and didn’t try to incorporate other belief systems that follow different logic, then this chapter’s information could be helpful to those who are genuinely seeking to understand the core of Wiccan theology. Many books do not go very deep into the God and the Goddess and their roles and lore in Wicca, and this book actually gives a somewhat good account of that.

The fourth chapter is on the Wheel of the Year. I still have problems with Grimassi’s failure to cite the sources of these ritual days and how their interpretation in Wicca is often different from the way they were originally interpreted in, namely, Celtic culture. Most of these traditional festivals were very different from their modern, Wiccan interpretations, which have been shaped somewhat by Christianity and general New-Age assumptions that aren’t reflective of historical reality. That said, he does do a good job of explaining how they connect within the Wiccan framework, unlike many authors who just say that such-and-such happens on a certain day and has to do with X topic. He also explains the Wiccan mythology and theology behind the Wheel of the Year, which, again, many authors don’t explain very well.

Chapters five and six are about creating rituals and ritual patterns. Grimassi gives good, illustrated explanations of how Wiccan ritual functions and how the pieces come together. He doesn’t just tell you to “do what you want” and he explains the significance of these symbols and ideas within a Wiccan framework.

Chapter seven is on initiation, and I have the same problem with this section that I had with the whole constructing-a-tradition thing to begin with. Someone who is already knowledgeable enough to start their own tradition has already been initiated, likely several times in a three-level tradition. They aren’t going to come up with something totally new. I suppose this work on the “core” of initiation (and other concepts) will help to separate elements unique to one’s own tradition, like Feri or Alexandrian, from general ceremonial elements common to many traditions, but again—someone starting their own tradition is usually building off of the tradition they have already been initiated into, and will almost certainly be using those same core elements. For a comparison, just because things are done a bit differently in different Protestant denominations of Christianity doesn’t mean that there won’t be certain elements common to most Protestant services.

The eighth chapter is about creating a Book of Shadows for one’s tradition, including the sorts of things that should go in it, and the ninth is about correspondences and how different sets might be used by different groups. As someone who doesn’t really have a horse in this race, I didn’t have any personal opinions on the information presented here, other than that I suppose it would be useful for someone who was already familiar with one way of doing things to see that there are other ways of doing them.

The last chapter is on “crafting the patterns”, or putting it all together. Again, having never been a member of any sort of clergy or leader of any sort of religious group, I can’t really speak to how helpful this book would be to somebody actually trying to do this. The last few chapters contain full versions of Wiccan myths and some group and solitary rituals that are common to many groups, given in a straightforward and instructional manner.

Overall, I thought this book was informative for people who don’t believe in Wicca or neopaganism but are curious to read about the core elements from somebody who is knowledgeable on the subject. This was a refreshing read given that so many authors will completely bend, ignore, or rewrite some of the rules of Wicca, which kind of misses the whole point of, you know, a religious practice, which is supposed to have rules.

That said, I don’t think it would be terribly useful to someone with enough experience to start a tradition, unless they were genuinely not very knowledgeable about their tradition’s commonalities with others, or had already read some of Grimassi’s other work and wanted to read his take on various matters.

Crafting a Tradition of Witchcraft offers a deep dive into various traditions within modern witchcraft, making it an informative read for both newcomers and seasoned practitioners. I particularly appreciated the detailed exploration of symbolism and colors, as well as the thoughtful guidance on choosing a deity that resonates personally. These sections were insightful and practical, providing tools for crafting a personalized practice.

However, the book does fall into some repetitive patterns, particularly with the retelling of myths and the coverage of the Wheel of the Year. While these topics are essential for understanding the context, their repetition sometimes detracted from the flow. Additionally, the structure could have been improved—certain sections felt disjointed, and a clearer organization would have made the wealth of information more accessible.

Despite these minor drawbacks, the book's strengths lie in its rich content and its encouragement of individuality in spiritual practice. It’s a valuable resource for those looking to build or refine their own witchcraft tradition.

Crafting a tradition of witchcraft is another great book written by Raven Grimassi. This book is a great starting off point when you are forging your own magical path. This book goes over the basics and encourages self discovery and understanding through practice. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in growing their personal practice.

This was a very interesting and enjoyable read. I think this is a perfect book for someone interested in learning about paganism. Factually, from someone who has studied the craft for 20 years, this book is historical and true to the path of a witch. I definitely recommend this to newcomers and those who might be wanting to turn their practice more personal.

Anything written by the late Raven Grimassi is a must read for those wanting to learn more about the craft. Raven Grimassi is an expert's expert, and His book shows you how to build a solid foundation for your practice. It explains the what, who, how, and why of Witchcraft. I think this is the Perfect book for new witches, but also for those who have been around a while might find it useful as well.

This was a pretty interesting read from the perspective of a writer who sometimes writes fantasy. It was also a lot. Creating a tradition of witchcraft sounds like a lot of work.

This is a marvelous book for beginners as well as those more intermediate. The book was extremely informative and breaks, what sometimes can be overwhelming information, simplified.

Definitely need for my shelf

<i>We could plan a murder, or start a religion.
- Jim Morrison</i>

If you've ever fancied starting your own religion, this is the book for you. It's a guide to creating your own pagan tradition (which sounds weird, but I guess all traditions have to start somewhere: there's a great book called [book:The Invention of Tradition|505] about this very subject - but I digress).

Grimassi deconstructs all the elements of a religion: the supernatural beliefs and cosmology, the myths, the worldview, the ethics, the rituals, the spells, the initiation procedures, the hierarchy, even the rules and regulations. It's almost like an academic analysis of witchcraft traditions - but much more readable and accessible than an academic text.

What makes this really interesting to me as an anthropologist (and one who has dabbled in many different occult traditions) is that Grimassi makes no attempt to suggest that any one approach is right or wrong: he leaves it up to you to decide how you want to construct your cult/coven/tradition. For example, the attribution of elements to the four quarters doesn't have to follow any of the traditional systems: you can rearrange it to suit your local environment. Lake to the south of you, mountain to the north? Why not assign water and earth that way if you want?

I'm sure many people will find this book almost heretical, but I was fascinated. It got me thinking about how religions are expressed in thought, word, and deed, and what it would take to create a religion that's rich, consistent, and appealing.

It would also make a great sourcebook for fantasy authors who are trying to create believable religions. It gets you thinking about all the different elements of a religion and how they fit together. What are their seasonal rituals? How do they celebrate life events? How is this expressed in their myths or sacred texts?

A great beginner-friendly intro to the craft that's also thoughtful and well-organized for those who don't know where to start. Excellent overview of the lunar calendar and basic beliefs around the tradition.

A good book for those not quite sure where to begin, and also for anyone intermediate that wants to build upon their existing practice. I liked how this book was laid out and I want to purchase my own copy for reference down the line

Crafting A Tradition Of Witchcraft
By: Raven Grimassi


4 Stars

I feel like this is a book that will be a huge help in my home. Trying to practice as a solitary witch is hard. Books like this help me with the basics, some I know, some I don't. It also helps to build something new for me. I read through the book and can see myself using this often to reference, not to just read one time. Most books like this really help to grow (my spiritual) beliefs. This book was very knowledgeable and will be a great help moving forward.



*I want to thank Netgalley and the author for this book in return for my honest review.*

Stormi Ellis
Boundless Book Reviews

Thank you to NetGalley, Crossed Crow Books and Raven Grimaldi for this advanced copy. I’m pleased to leave the following review:

Crafting a Tradition of Witchcraft is a content rich guide on how to create and maintain a well thought out and well organized practice. I appreciate the author’s experience and credibility which was stated well in the foreword. As an intermediate practitioner of witchcraft, I did find this guide useful and I did learn things I will be incorporating into my practice. I would recommend this book to others who are interested in witchcraft, but aren’t quite sure where to begin. This book could also be used by practitioners of any level as it is always best to look at things from various angles and degrees.