I don’t normally write bad reviews for books, however, as I received a copy of the re-publication of Raven Grimassi’s Wiccan Mysteries from Crossed Crow books with the promise to write about it, I feel obligated to uphold my promise.

I cannot endorse this book to anyone. I just simply cannot. This book was written in the late 90’s, and quite frankly, it should have stayed there. It should not have been reprinted, in my opinion, because of the gross historical, scientific and theological inaccuracies that run through every single chapter. I’m a fan of late 80’s and 90’s Wicca books, that’s what I grew up on. (I also read pretty much everything new that comes out too.) These older books hold a special place in my heart, and many of them still contain a lot of good stuff that is relevant to today’s forms of Witchcraft. If you’ve read my previous blog post, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

But not this book.

It begins by taking the roots of Wicca back to Neolithic times, with a whopping dose of conjecture about the Neolithic person’s mindset, their customs and rituals, all presented as fact. We just don’t know what our Neolithic ancestors believed, and some of the stuff that Grimassi comes up with in this book is way, waaaay out there. Weird ideas about the development of sexual taboos to make men go out and hunt are just the beginning. This is before he later dives into orgone energy in following chapters, with the pseudoscience of Odic Force. Totally woo-woo.

His insistence that Wicca is derived from a pre-Christian fertility cult runs through this whole work. He acknowledges briefly Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente, but states emphatically that this is an old religion, not a new or reconstructed path. There is also a great deal of time spent on the split between “Elder Wiccans” and “Neo Wiccans” with a lot of shaming of the latter because they dare to think for themselves and aren’t inclined to follow dogma. Yes, those are his words. Those youngsters, they just don’t understand The Mysteries!

In fact, the only thing that I could agree on with the author was the insistence on studying the natural world to uncover The Mysteries. This was a very short couple of paragraphs.

Don’t even get me started on his historical facts about the Druids. Just. Don’t.

Or the theology of the Druids presented in this text. There is no Dianus.

In the Sacred Texts chapter, he doesn’t credit the authors of the works in each study of the texts, which is annoying. As well, Doreen Valiente’s “Witch’s Creed” seems to have been doctored at the end, with the last couplet of “The Wiccan Rede” thrown into it for some bizarre reason.

We also have the problem of Grimassi’s cultural appropriation of Strega, and his re-writing a new version of it being referenced throughout the text.

Don’t even bother with the Women’s Mysteries section. Or the Men’s. I just. Can’t. Even. Or the sexual rites. Please don’t use the priestess’ body as an altar. It’s bad for her back.

All in all, this book should never have been reprinted, in my opinion. Its only use would be as a demonstration to those new to the Craft of what not to read, and how inaccurate some of these works can be. Re-releasing this material only adds to the pool of strange facts and made-up histories that are still circulating within the pagan sphere.

Like I said, I’m a huge fan of 90’s Wicca books. But I am so, SO glad that I never came across this one all those years ago.