The Dabbler's Guide to Witchcraft

I absolutely enjoyed this one. It was refreshing, reads like a conversation and the author's voice really shines through(if you've heard his podcast, it reads like Fire Lyte talks!).

I really appreciated the different take on how a witchcraft book should be. It encourages you to find out more rather than take something as it is, and the spells included are highly customizable.

Definitely recommend for any practitioner!

TLDR: Overall I think you would have to be at the very beginning of your spiritual seeking to get much from this book; any other strong held beliefs (religious or scientific) will probably win out in your rational mind over what the author presents.

I picked up this book as someone who wasn't likely to get into witchcraft but was more interested in learning about people who practice it. That being said, I consider myself open to adding new elements to my own religious path, especially elements of nature worship, herbalism, etc. I enjoyed the witty style of the book for a while, and I think the author sounds like he has a very solid analytical head on his shoulders, but the immense number of parenthetical asides made me weary after a while and I ended up returning it to the library unfinished.

I'm not sure how to comment on the content; I think for my interests, a book focusing more on history would have been more informative. I think if you come into it as a true seeker of some new spirituality, it would encourage you, especially if you feel like a spiritual person but roll your eyes at some popular ideas of witchcraft. That being said, I generally felt like the author hedged himself out of every strong argument that witchcraft is worth practicing over some other, more traditional religion, or over doing nothing or practicing mindfulness. On one hand, I suppose that really is all there is to religion - we each pick the deity or energy we want to trust and go from there, and he's offering a different path. On the other, the arguments to take that path read as extremely milquetoast to me.