Chas S. Clifton

Interesting perspective on the start of Wicca and Paganism in the U.S. and how it was changed by publishers who began a narrative for the Pagan market that "...Wicca had emerged in the 1970s as a sort of spiritual adjunct to the women's movement...that it was founded mainly by women, and that the Los Angeles-raised left-wing daughter of a Jewish psychotherapist - Miriam Simos, better known as Starhawk - was its prophet". This book's focus is on the early days when people were drawn to "... show more religion as an excursus from contemporary life". In the 1970s what began as a magical religion "adopted the additional descriptions of 'earth religion' and 'nature religion', linked to the environmental movement, which was itself politicized. What came from Europe as a "socially radical" but non-political mystery practice was burdened with a Leftist political bend that further changed the religion. It's an interesting read, with strong opinions on what happened over decades of outside influence. For those of us who are drawn to the Craft for the magical and mysterious religion, and have little interest in politics, activism, or consensus process, it illuminates that politics are not part of the Path unless you want them to be. show less

As with most anthologies, the quality of the essays varies. In general, I feel that current historical research does not support the idea that Wicca is Western shamanism--although the outer fringes of Europe may have been influenced by shamanistic practice. That given, some of the essays are more informative that others. Some are rather New Age, wish and make it so. Some are more ethnographic.

A good, solid reference, but with some fairly major and minor errors. Among the minor, count placing hemlock in the potato family, when it is actually in the carrot family; among the major, getting the date of the Reformation wrong. The author also has an unfortunate tendancy to (inconsistently) cite sources of information about a heretic taken only from its opponents (since in many cases their original works are not available), and present them as if they are to be taken at face value; show more however, in other spots, he mentions that these should be taken with some level of question. Overall, however, a good, thorough reference on early Christian heretics. show less

The Encyclopedia of Heresies and Heretics is most useful as a quick resource or a starting point for more in-depth research. It's entries are (mostly) accurate, but the author's biases do seep through from time to time.