Witches of America

If you're interested in Paganism and modern day witchcraft, this text serves as an okay introduction, but there are more informative texts to spend your time on. What I hoped the book would be: Philosophy of witchcraft and an explanation of the different groups practicing in America today and how they differ from one another. What the book actually is: The author is using these groups to explore her own identity and is seeking some kind of ineffable fulfilment of self by participating in their rites of passage. Unfortunately, she does this with kind of a predatory/exploitative mindset--it's all about what she can get out of the experience, with a healthy side of her casting judgment on the practices she witnesses from a position of skepticism. Personally, I wanted the movement explained to me by someone who practices and believes in it, not from an outsider looking in and making educated guesses. In short, it's not totally uninformative, but I needed to purchase subsequent books to feel like I understood the topic.