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Green Witchcraft: Folk Magic, Fairy Lore & Herb Craft (Green Witchcraft)

Green Witchcraft: Folk Magic, Fairy Lore & Herb Craft (Green Witchcraft)

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $10.17
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great book
Review: First off, there are some good things in this book. Ms. Moura describes her personal path in a clear and readable way. And she presents a form of practice that will certainly strike a chord with a number of kitchen witches.

That said, there are many more things that prevent me from recommending this book - especially to beginners.

First, Ms. Moura presents her personal take on witchcraft as the basis for all forms of witchcraft, and blends this form of arrogance with an active hostility toward other religions (especially Judeo-Christian religions). Even though much of what she presents has a strong Wiccan flavor, she twists many elements of modern Wicca, using the problems she perceives from a rather odd mix of misinformation to belittle the entire religion and most of it's practitioners.

The "Craft history" she presents, and threads throughout many areas, is beyond questionable, and leans strongly toward highly imaginative. (It is the same speculative history that is presented in her "Origins of Modern Witchcraft".) While historical speculation is bound to come into almost any witchcraft work, I believe that it is inappropriate to present personal speculation as fact in a work aimed at beginners.

Additionally, Ms. Moura claims to be presenting practices used by simple, common people, but the rituals and spells she provides are more complex than almost anything I've ever seen. They're certainly not the clean, simple workings I would expect in a path claiming a shamanistic style. In addition to requiring inordinate amounts of preparation for very simple workings, she also calls for tools that she never explains or teaches how to prepare or use.

In short, there is little in Green Witchcraft that cannot be found in other "101" type books, frequently done much better. While there may be material useful for someone who has a good grounding in basic witchcraft, and there are some useful - if complex - rituals... the problems with history and prejudice as well as the amounts of basic information missing prevent me from recommending this book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent book for all seekers
Review: I really liked this book. It is a very practical, responsible book. She definitely writes from a "kitchen witch" or a "folk magick" slant.

Chapter 1: The Green - Ms. Moura goes into her definition of Green Witchcraft. She has an interesting family background in that her mother and grandmother had very pagan practices and beliefs while remaining staunch Catholics. She does do some historic tracings but it is mostly a book on what was passed down to her. She takes a definite pantheistic view and deals more with the elementals than any particular aspect of the God and Goddess. She also sees elementals as "whos" not "whats" which to me made a big difference. She is also a solitary so most of the material is written with that slant and the idea that dedicating, initiating yourself is just as "valid" as having it done by an HP.

Chapter 2: Basics - goes into a brief explanation of the sabbats and esbats and how she personally celebrates them. She is one of the first authors I have seen that gives a clear definition of the difference between dedication and initiation rituals. Her explanation (which matches what I believe) is that a initiation ritual is your way of "introducing" yourself and asking for guidance as your learn the basics. You are not pledging yourself to any one path, just kind of saying "here I am". A dedication ritual is one in which you dedicate yourself to a particular path or belief with

full-knowledge of what you are pledging to. She also goes over her ideas of the use of craft names as well.

Chapter 3: Witches and Herbs - goes over the usual herb correspondences, some correspondences for candle magic, one of the few places I have seen information about tree correspondences, color relationships, herbs in rituals, ritual timing

Chapter 4: Green Living - Some background info on how she came to her view of witchcraft, some "core traditions" which include the rede, the Charge of the Goddess, 5-fold and 7-fold blessings.

Chapter 5: Magic - basic components of spell and circle casting, brief pages on runes and divination

Chapter 6: Magical Practices - more divination techniques, recipes for ceremonial oils (altar, annointing, cleansing, consecrating etc.

Chapter 7: Green Rituals: this was the chapter that sold me on the book. She has one of the clearest step by step basic ceremonies that I have ever read. As a solitary, it gets very confusing where, when, and how to use certain tools like wands, athames, brooms, bells, cauldrons etc. Ms Moura walks you through a step by step ritual. She also has initiation and dedication rituals and various others (handfasting etc.) For all of her rituals she gives you candle color correspondences recommended incenses and step by step directions for you to use/improve on.

Chapter 8: The Esbats - full moon and new moon and tool consecration rituals.

Chapters 9 - 16: The Sabbats - rituals for each of the sabbats.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great book
Review: In my opinion this book is great for beginners. This book was the first one I bought about 5 years ago, and I feel it has everything a beginner should know packed into one place. I love the tables in the book which I refer to over and over again. I love all her books. If you are a beginner in the craft this book is one for you.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Eh
Review: It;s alright but ot really worth buying at full price, buy it used. The information presented is alright at best but the author really dosent touch on all the subjects proclaimed in the title, One the cover part of the subtitle reads Fairy Lore, theres hardly any of this present. If you are seeking an excelent book on the green craft then I reccomend HEALING WISE BY SUSUN WEED

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: good
Review: This is a good book for beginners who are interested in natural magic, green witchcraft. The book does read fairly basic and most of the information was already known to me. For those just starting out, it's a good starter book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Intro for Those Interested in This Path
Review: This is one of the few books on the craft that I actually read all the way through. I was always interested in the natural, herbal side of witchcraft and this book provided me with a lot of great, readable (honestly, some of these type of books can really make your head spin) information at an affordable price. My only riff...where is the fairy lore like it says in the title? There was only a tiny bit of info on fairy lore, definitely not enough to earn a spot in the title. But still, if you have an interested in nature and magick, this is for you. Thanks for readin!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Hmm, what to say?
Review: Well, I bought all the four books that go with the Green Tradition, they are: Green Witchcraft, Green Witchcraft II, Green Witchcraft III, and Green Magic. I'll have to say that I was kind of dissapointed in this book. It wasn't only Witchcraft, it had Wiccan things thrown in, but since I'm Wiccan, it wasn't a too much of a problem. She has some good memories of her childhood, and her magickal experiences. There is also lots of her bias views thrown in, and I agree with some of them. The "rules" that her mother thought her are very ethical, and they make sense.

To be honest, I didn't read the part where she gives rituals for the Sabbats, and the Esbats. They, in my mind, created the word "boring," plus, the bold lettering didn't help either. Also, the title includes "Fairy Lore," well, from what I've seen, there are bearly two pages on faeries and their lore.

So, to conclude my little review, I think that you can do without this book, but the other three seem good, I especially like Green Witchcraft III: The Manual. Green Witchcraft II seemed promising since I've chosen to work with Hecate (Hekate), but all it has are some meditations and divination, which I don't have time for right now. Green Magic is a very good book in my opinion, because it deals with energy manupulation.

While in this book she seemed to be doing something with Ceremonial Magick, in the other three, it seems like she's left that practice to focus more on the "Green" Craft. Thats all for my review of this book!

-Ater

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Do you like history teachers?
Review: You can definitely tell Ann Moura is a history teacher. Not because of how well written her section on the History of Green Witchcraft is...but because of how dry, boring and agonizing this book can get.

I liked the book, don't get me wrong, but it seemed to drag in a lot of places due to her style of writing. Think Silver Ravenwolf--now think of the polar opposite of Silver Ravenwolf. A lot of the same info, just presented in a different way--a nice change of pace. I didn't like Ann Moura's rituals. I write all of my own, but read others to see what other people do and how they work. Ann's rituals seemed to be very wordy and dry, but at least they are detailed so that the reader knows exactly what is going on.

A great reference for herbal uses, various forms of divination, and the history of religion. It was nice to see she included rituals for Wiccanings, Hand-fastings and Funerals for the ordained ministers out there looking for a different perspective and some ideas.

If you happen to like books that are easy to read and flow nicely, you may want to hold off on this one and grab a few Scott Cunningham titles. If looking for a good reference book or can sit through a little dryness--go for it.


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