Well written and detailed explanations.

I'm glad I bought this book. Will read again for sure!

A weird book to listen to instead of read. I would definitely need a print copy in order to put any of this into practice, but it was good for getting a broad overview/introduction. Hearing how to pronounce all the words was helpful.

I didn't feel particularly drawn to his overall practice, but not put off by it either. Some of the ideas (and recipes, etc.) sounded interesting enough to incorporate and I might go back and revisit it.

One problem I had was though he sometimes emphasized that everyone's practice is unique, at other times he made generalized statements that made it seem like "all wiccans believe ____". Some of his ideas seemed out of date or not in line with witches I know or whose blogs I follow, etc.

Overall, it seems like a decent place to start, without too much detail to overwhelm a beginner.

Very informative, good ideas, and a simple overview of some of the most important topics i wanted to know more about. Albeit, some of the suggested practices were a little unrealistic for me, but i still appreciate the included Book of Shadows

Funnily enough Cunningham's works are associated with Wicca and even titled as being so, however when one reads his works it becomes clear that Scott was much more Shamanic and into folk craft than Wicca. However his books are a great introduction for someone wanting to wrap their head around he concepts of nature "religions".

Very informative, accessible to beginners, easy to read. Flowed very well and made me want to learn more.

Very thorough & thoughtful.

I read this book for historical purposes. I wanted to know what so many people refer to and why this book is so often recommended. I wanted to try to understand the huge influence Scott Cunningham has had on so many.

Scott’s strength come out when he writes about his personal believes and practices he has ample personal experience with: his own invocations and rituals and his personal believes (the only time I felt any passion in his writing was when he describes why, in his opinion, calling on one’s ancestors is contrarian to Wiccan believe in rebirth).

For a person, who in general seems so thoughtful and reflective, I was however surprised at the many inaccuracies in this book. These can be found predominantly in the first third of the book (for example the claims about ‘historic shamanism’) and in the latter bit (eg. the runes which seem to be largely made up and do not correlate to any historic rune system). It is a personal bugbear of mine when authors make claim to historic fact and don’t bother giving sources to verify these facts. If Scott had done so, he would have found out where he was simply wrong and could have corrected his errors. Even in 1988 most of these points should have been easily verifiable.

I like to think that if he had lived longer – and after plenty of other people have brought up his factual errors – he would have taken the opportunity to correct those parts of his book.

However, despite these shortcomings, and due to the strength of his description of his spiritual practices, I understand why many traditional Wiccan covens still have this book on their recommended reading lists.

This was the perfect beginners guide to Wicca! I was recommended this book by a friend who stated that it’s a staple within the Wicca community, and I definitely see why. It provided all the info I needed to feel confident in getting involved. I really appreciated that the author focused on the abstract-ness of it all and that practicing Wicca looks different for everyone. This “religion” is so wonderful for so many reasons but one of my favorite reasons is that there is no one right way to practice, leaving the door open to whoever’s hearts guide then to it. Pick this up if you’re interested in learning more about Wiccan culture!