American Folk Magick: Charms, Spells & Herbals Author: Silver
Ravenwolf Trade Paperback, 320 pages Publisher: Llewellyn
Publication date: December 1998 ISBN: 156718720X More
Information: http://www.ecauldron.com/cncbook.php?asin=156718720X
American Folk Magick is Llewellyn's new title for what used to
be known as Hexcraft: Dutch Country Magick. While I've never
seen this book under the original title, I suspect that not much
beyond the cover and title pages have changed as the left page
headers still say "HexCraft."
I like this book. Silver Ravenwolf has written a fairly
straightforward beginner's book on the art of Pow-Wow. Pow-Wow
is a magickal system brought to America by settlers from the
Rhineland area of what is now Germany to Pennsylvania. I've
always thought Ravenwolf was in her element when she talks about
magick. This book proves my point. Her explanations are clear,
and for the most part seem to be complete. I believe her style
of mixing anecdotes with instruction works far better with
magick than it does with religion.
As Pow-Wow is primarily a healing system, several chapters of
American Folk Magick are devoted to Pow-Wow methods of healing.
Other chapters cover tools, warding magick, divination, cursing
and banishing, hex symbols, and even the "dark" side of Pow-Wow
(which seems to be its generally misused ceremonial magick
connection).
While I consider this one of Ravenwolf's best books, I do have
two real problems with it. First, the author intermixes her
theory that Pow-Wow is actually a version of the Old Religion
disguised by a Christian overlay in with material on the history
of Pow-Wow. While the author's speculation in this area is
interesting, I believe it should have been kept a bit more
separate from the history. Second, instead of providing
instructions on one of the more well-known and interesting parts
of Pow-Wow, the "hex symbols," Ravenwolf simply refers the
reader to another Llewellyn book for this information. One more
minor problem is that while she sometimes provides both
Christian and Pagan versions of chants and spells, she often
only provides Pagan versions. This is true even when it seems
obvious that she converted a Christian version into a Pagan
version. This makes the book somewhat less useful than it could
be to a Christian wishing to learn the system.
I find Pow-Wow a fascinating magickal system. If you are
interested in it, Ravenwolf's American Folk Magick is one of the
few books in print devoted to the subject. It's probably the
only one readily available.
This review is one of hundreds of reviews of Pagan, Wiccan,
occult, and metaphysical books in The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's
Books and Reviews section at
http://www.ecauldron.com/bookstore.php.
About the author:
Randall Sapphire is the founder and co-host of The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum
( http://www.ecauldron.com/ ), a popular Pagan Interfaith web
site and message board. He is also an editor at The Cheap Web
Hosting Report ( http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/ ) and
webmaster for a number of other sites.
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