There are books you didn't know you needed until you read them. Books that take you back in time to remind you who you are, were, where you come from, so you can stay loyal to yourself. Books that feel like a conversation with a good friend that doesn't hold back when honest. Books like The Witching Year: A Memoir of Earnest Fumbling Through Modern Witchcraft, by Diana Helmuth. Thanks to the publisher for the review copy!
- Print Length: 352 pages.
- Publisher: S&S/Simon Element (October 3, 2023).
- Expected Publication Date: October 3, 2023.
- Topics: Religion, Mental Health, Witchcraft.
- Rating: 4 / 5 stars.
A skeptic’s year-long quest to find spiritual fulfillment through modern Witchcraft, perfect for fans of A.J. Jacobs and Mary Roach.Diana Helmuth, thirty-three, is skeptical of organized religion. She is also skeptical of disorganized religion. But, more than anything, she is tired of God being dead. So, she decides to try on the fastest growing, self-directed faith in Witchcraft.The result is 366 days of observation, trial, error, wit, and back spasms. Witches today are often presented as confident and finished, proud and powerful. Diana is eager to join them. She wants to follow all the rules, memorize all the incantations, and read all the liturgy. But there’s one glaring problem: no Witch can agree on what the right rules, liturgy, and incantations are.As with life, Diana will have to define the craft for herself, looking past the fashionable and figuring out how to define the real. Along the way, she travels to Salem and Edinburgh (two very Crafty hubs) and attends a week-long (clothing optional) Witch camp in Northern California. Whether she’s trying to perform a full moon ritual on a cardboard box, summon an ancient demon with scotch tape and a kitchen trivet, or just trying to become a calmer, happier person, her biggest question Will any of this really work?The Witching Year follows in the footsteps of celebrated memoirs by journalists like A.J. Jacobs, Mary Roach, and Caitlin Doughty, who knit humor and reportage together in search of something worth believing.
I had to give this book a try as soon as I read the synopsis. There was something natural, human, so genuine about it that it captivated me. I was hooked from page one. I knew it would become addictive, obsessive, although not unhealthy. It was a book that intoxicated me in a way I cannot explain. Diana has a simple, yet elegant, yet casual way with words that charms you like the best of spells.
The more I read, the more I remembered my early days as a Witch when I started practicing during my adolescence. It's a valuable journal that shows the reality of what learning witchcraft on your own is like, what it feels like, and how complicated things can be. As a practicing Witch for some time, it was a reading that humbled me, reminding me of my origins.
It did bother me that there are some big time gaps instead of a day by day recount, however. There were spaces that could be even 5 days or more, and I can only wonder what happened during them. I know this might be because there wasn't any worth telling, but the mystery was a double-edged sword I'm not entirely sure worked for me.
All in all, it's a book that shows how diverse, heterogenous, contradictory, complicated, yet fulfilling Witchcraft can be. I wouldn't classify this book as queer, but more as a showcase of diversity in different ways: genders, races, identities, backgrounds, sexualities, and so on. It's a honest recount of what starting this path is like for most of us, yet gives many teachings that many would benefit from.
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