Customer Reviews:
 Useful concept, but limited. January 3, 2006
Catsnstuff (New Zealand)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this item as a reference to be used in writing my MA thesis. Although it was frequently useful for terms such as "athame" as a glossary with more academic "clout" than those in the back of popular books on paganism, I found myself glad of my own background in Witchcraft as something to check the definitions against. I can't speak regarding terms specific to other forms of paganism such as Asatru, but I found the definitions concerning Witchcraft to be limited and often biased towards traditional Wicca and systems that emulate it. In many cases the interpretations of words provided in popular books on Witchcraft, such as Cunningham's Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner differed from those in this book, and this was never mentioned or addressed. This is a significant omission, as many many people who consider themselves as pracitioners of Witchcraft or "Wicca", and other Pagans, gain their understanding and use of these terms from popular books and the common understandings that have been influenced by these.
Examples of this bias towards Wicca include "first/second/third degree", "casting a circle", "invocation" and so on. "First Degree" is introduced as "The first of three levels of initiation in Wicca...", despite the many other pagan traditions that hold degree systems. With "invocation", Pearson gives a definition of and description of "drawing down the moon" similar to what may be found in descriptions of Wicca (eg A Witches' Bible by the Farrars) where an invoker kneels before a priest/ess and "uses the words of invocation" to bring Deity into the empty vessel that is the priest/ess. However, the term is used in a much broader sense within popular Witchcraft, and may refer to a myraid of techniques used to align oneself with a deity (where one may not necessarily have another person ready to help), or even simply to the calling of energies into a magical circle. If this book were sold as "A popular dictionary of Wicca", then it would have been acceptable to leave it as this. As a popular dictionary of Paganism, the existence of other interpretations should have been acknowledged, or at the very least this specific description presented as a method of invocation and not simply as "what invocation is".
I would therefore not recommend this book to anyone who is not already familiar with Paganism, and would certainly suggest that the inquirer look to other sources as well as this book, whether they are defining terms for academic writing or simply wanting to reach a personal understanding. Because of its limited nature, I certainly do not believe this book is worth the hardcover price!
Because of Pearson's academic background, I had also hoped for more disucssion of contested terms, such as "Wicca" - who uses this to refer only to traditional Wicca, where the use of it to describe general Witchcraft stems from, etc. This degree of discussion was not found in this book, although to be fair no claim was made that it would, and it is not found in general dictionaries either. I write this to prevent others from making this mistake, and not to point out a flaw in the book.
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