Book Review: Wicca For Beginners

So I am thinking I am going to write reviews for books I snag from the library, and possibly buy later. (Buy if I actually like it.)

So in the small town that I live in, the library is small, and has a small selection of everything. Except for Janet Evanovich novels... they have them ALL. Which is great because I could get like 6 Stephanie Plum novels every week until I finished the series at 18.... What? It's an addiction. (Yes I know 19 is out now. I just don't have the funds to get it right now and I haven't trolled the library to find it either...)

Anyway, last year I was in the non-fiction area of the library looking for ghost story books because the hubbs just loves those books and I stumble across Wicca For Beginners. I thought what the hey, might as well grab it and read it. I was introduced to Wicca in my youth and I enjoyed the concepts, the philosophies, and the fact that there was no central church saying what you can and can't do and if you don't follow you are going to hell or whatever bad place bad little witches go. The downside is that there is no accountability for me because I don't have anyone into it where I live, and if there is I have no idea how to talk to them. I want a coven, and a teacher, and someone to talk to about this stuff. I want reassurances that I am not going to screw it up and end up cursing my own ass if I say something the wrong way. Not that I would mess with curses or anything. Anyway back on topic, so I snag the book and take it home. We were living with my dad at the time who is a conservative Christian in his head, and I didn't think he would appreciate the book so I read it when he was at work or asleep and quickly hid it when he came home from work. Which is exactly what happened when I was a teenager. I am a grown married woman, with two children and I am hiding my secret book from my dad just like when I was a teenager. If there is no irony in that, then I have no idea what irony is.

I read the book in two days, and kept revisiting it over the two weeks I had it. It is very good for beginners, and gives an amazing intro on the subject. It gives a basic run down of rituals, the sabats, esbats, and a rundown on the theologies. It encourages you to keep going with learning the craft, and even gives recommendations on where to go from there. Overall it is fabulous for beginners and I found it easy to read and it has easy to follow directions. I also love how the author doesn't talk down to the readers, and keeps it real. She encourages people to go out and get more books on it, and to keep moving forward with it, if that is what they want.

So I recommend this book for people who are just beginning and want an introduction to Wicca, and it's many facets.

Intro

So this first post I am going to put up here is going to be a quick intro to me, and to what I hope to accomplish (if anything) with this blog.

Here I am, quirky, slightly sarcastic and entirely full of shit. My name is Nichol, and yes it is a different spelling, which some people have a hard time remembering. Like my high school English teacher. I love her to death, and she was one of the biggest influences in my life, but that woman could never remember the spelling of my first name. Especially since I had her for all 4 years of various English/Creative writing classes. I have been into Wicca and Paganism since I was a teen, and just recently as in last year, I started to try to practice it. I say try only because I suck at follow through on things, and planning ahead is really not my strong point. I am a fly by the seat of my broom kind of person. See what I did there? Yeah I used a pagan reference. That totally gives me pagan points. My life is fueled by peanut butter sandwiches, cartoon movies, and a mainline of some sort of caffeine into my system. My two wonderfully awesome, yet psychosis inducing children are the reason why I can make peanut butter sandwiches blindfolded, and recite nearly all cartoon movies by heart. My oldest, 5, has Autism, it is high functioning, and it's not a crutch for him, and no I don't hate it. It makes him unique in that fabulous one of a kind way. My youngest, 3, is as strange as they come. The other day he told me he was a Vampirate, which is so utterly fantastic and hilarious, there is no way he can't be mine. My husband and main squeeze, some how puts up with my random outbursts of weirdness, and loves me despite it. He takes me with a grain of salt, and two xanexs. Actually that last part isn't really that true, it's only one xanex and a large jack n coke. Okay fine, he doesn't take xanex and he rarely ever drinks and if he does, it's just a beer.

Onto what I hope to accomplish with this blog... I am not sure I hope to accomplish anything except put out my brand of humor and throw a random pagan twist onto things. I don't really take a lot of shit the wrong way, and I am sarcastic to a fault. I really enjoy tongue in cheek humor, and pretending to take things the wrong way just to make a fuss for no other reason than the entertainment value, and to see people's reactions. Some people are just too serious. Seriously.

In closing, I am witty, hilarious, and awesome. Even if it is in my own mind. So if you feel up for it, join me in my struggles to find the humor, and throwing a pagan twist on just about everything. <3