Get Hedge Witch: A Guide To Solitary Witchcraft By Rae Beth Contained In Copy

aside, can I just talk about about this book physically It has the absolute perfect size, and somehow it's really light, lighter than you'd expect, the spine flops the pages open beautifully there's no effort involved at all, and the pages themselves are a beautiful cream colour and ever so slightly textured.
I don't know if it is just the comparison to the LOTR book I was reading at the same time which is very big, with quite white pages, which are for the most part also nicely textured, but the pages with the illustrations and they are lovely illustrations are glossy and plasticy and make my skin crawl.

The illustrations add a very nice touch though technically not necessary, and a surprising amount of atmosphere, The cover is quite fetching too I like the simplicity, the muted white, the style of "Hedgewitch", It is very appealing.
Was expected there to be answering letters, rather than the one sided conversation it was, but no matter, it is simply more of an informative nonfiction book than one that tells a narrative.
It was almost more amusing this way using the very, very few hints and trying to puzzle out a relationship between Rae, Glyn and Tessa, It's old and so out of date it's irrelevant at this point, and it's less than interesting, It's not even "Hedge Witch" anything, to be honest, . . It's just your typicalth century NeoWiccan nonsense complete with your fairly typical Silver Ravenwolfesque rhetoric of the era, and only a thin veneer of Hedgecraft even then, that veneer is so thin it might as well not exist.


Save your money, Loved this book the first time, Lost it. And bought it again to re read when I get the chance Interesting and thoughtful read, but one that is specific to Wiccan practices rather than general hedgewitchery, I prefer a more practical, less spiritual approach to hedgewitchery, but I did find this informative about other traditions, I wanted to like this more, but it was hard to follow, I saw that it was in letter style when I picked it up, which I was cool with, But it really wasn't letter style,

It only had the letters from the author, not the letters TO her, So you never really got an idea for the interest of the other party, making the book seem more like a collection of community college lectures on a subject, That was not what I was looking for, I wanted a conversation about the path, not a onesided lecture,

Also, the path taken by the author is very far from my interest, However I learned that by reading the book, so that was beneficial, Informative but Disorganized

The book was a copy of a series of letters to a new witch, It begins with explanations of the Goddess and God, then the sabbats, Then a self initiation. The second half of the book is all about trance work, Was an interesting read, but the trance work information got a little long winded, This is a fascinating book written in a chatty informal style as letters to two friends who are interested in witchcraft, It is illustrated with line drawings, If you think witchcraft is all about going around dressed in rags, carrying a broomstick, wearing and pointy hat and followed by a black cat then you will need to rethink your ideas after reading this book.


Witchcraft can be followed as an individual or as part of a coven, or with a partner but this book is chiefly for the solitary practitioner, It explains about rituals and stresses that you can use your own words though the book suggests words which can be used, What came over to me most strongly from this book is that anyone considering the practice of witchcraft needs to understand themselves and their own motivations,

Think wisewoman and natural healer rather than spells and incantations and you will be close to the content of this book, If you want to know more about witchcraft as a general reader or you want to become involved as a practicing witch then you are likely to find this book of interest to you.

Forcents, and considering my disdain for the presentation of the material Rae Beth provides instruction for two prospective Wiccans in the guise of letters, The Wiccan Path contains a surprising amount of information about Wicca, nature religions, and trancework.
I integrated some of her recommended visualization exercises into my inchoate meditation routines, and to beneficial results i, e. , I learned a thing or two about myself and had a bit of a spiritual/creative outpouring, In addition, I learned a good deal about modern Wiccan practices and the symbology of the seasons, which I must admit is more fascinating than I had thought,

If you're curious about separating actual

witchcraft from apocrypha, and considering you can look past the somewhat cheesy presentation, this is actually an informative book, Wicca is all about creating an "inner space" and strengthening the practitioner's connection with the earth and Ether, I'm not pursuing Wicca myself, but Rae Beth's approach to "hedge witchcraft" is in line with mysticism, and I found that my own ideas were influenced to a great degree by this strange little book.
Best Goodwill Bookstore purchase I've made yet! Although Gopi Krishna's The Evolutionary Energy in Man, purchased on the same day, is shaping up to be an edifying read as well! We'll see if it takes the proverbial cake.
Beautifully written, but with some very dated ideas about sex and gender, and some very bad history, Along with Marion Green's "A Witch Alone" this is one of the best resources for those on a solitary path, Excellent for us Hedge Witches! One of the first books on witchcraft I've ever read, Useful information but lacking in the ability to navigate to specific info, The Hedge Witch's structure of letters between correspondences makes it hard to know where information is among the extraneous sentiments, Additionally, the letters are addressed to those who are beginners, so the lessons taught here may not be more than the basics, Those who already know the basics might get bored, Still if you can highlight this book and tab it up, it will work for those who want 'a year in the life' of a hedge witch, Most people seemed to have hated the letter format, It took some getting used to but by the end it didn't bother me, While reading I marked passages dealing with the Sabbat rituals and trance work so I could easily find these later to reference,

However this book is about Wicca, not headgecraft, Hedgecraft is not a solitary Wiccan and Wiccan are not the only witches as Rae Beth seems to believe, Futhermore, hedgewitches are not overly formal and do not create and execute formal rituals like the ones found in this book, Rituals, if performed, are simple and simply honor the earth, dieties, and nature, One thing she does get right about hedgecraft and hedgewitches is that the tradition is based on the old wise woman or man who lived on the edge of town, by the hedge rows.
They were healers and earth lovers who worked magic out of their home and gardens,

If you are looking for an intermediate guide to Wicca and some lovely Sabbat rituals this is the book for you, The trance work or meditations are lovely too and will help you hone your visualization skills, this is a great WICCA book, not a witch craft book as the cover might suggest,if you follow wicca this would be a great book, This book has no ref to hetcate,persphone, poppets etc witch you might get in a proper witcraft book, Another note wicca circles are made to stop outside influences but in witchcraft the circle is used for this and for containment, In a series of letters, author Rae Beth shares her knowledge and practice of witchcraft with two apprentices, Gives an introduction to solitary witchcraft and an overview of the deities, the sabbats and esbats, and rituals,

The letters and writing were charming but I was disappointed with the content, I assumed that this would focus on a more earthcentered approach to witchcraft, but it seemed like wicca for a solitary practitioner, If it has one star I liked it a lot
If it has two I liked it a lot and would recommend it
If it has three I really really liked it a lot
If it has four I insist you read it
If it has five it was life changing Overall a great read.
There are some outdated and even problematic aspects, but the underlying teachings and techniques for ritual and trancework are very insightful,

Very important note: this is not a book about Hedge witchcraft, This is about Wicca a religion which incorporates witchcraft, I believe this has been clarified in later editions but needs to be kept in mind when reading this particular edition,

I would recommend this to anyone starting out on their journey with Wicca, Please do keep a critical mindset when reading this, It might even be ideal to read up a bit more about Wicca before getting into this one as some information is inaccurate, Despite this, I believe this book teaches some valuable lessons and should absolutely be on the bookshelf of any Wiccan, A super cute epistolary style book about starting out as a solitary hedge witch, I found it to be a little too Wiccanheavy for my taste but there's lots of good information in here about how to celebrate sabbats as a solitary witch, There were many things that I thought this book did well, But it really hasnt aged too well, I didnt like how the book regularly implies that to be a spiritual person, and ultimately a witch one must embrace sexuality and sex, As an asexual, I do not agree with this, Also there are several sweeping statements such as Like all men and Like all young people that I feel stereotype people based on gender, age and sexuality, In the way that there are too many men speaking on behalf of women, Rae Beth does not get to speak on behalf of all men,

The title and synopsis implies that this is a nonfiction book about witchcraft, Although it does cover some areas of witchcraft, it is primarily focussed on Wicca, Wicca / witchcraft. But, this book does do a great job of covering the basics of Wiccan beliefs and practices and if thats what you are looking for, this could be a good place to start.
A lot of the beliefs in this do not line up with my own personal experiences with the gods, and unfortunately, it wasnt for me,

Anyway, Im off to make string poppets, Until next time, Peace and Love! This gets a,if I could give it, which is less than I was expecting before I started, but more than I thought once I was a little in, The first half is literally just solitary Wicca, It's SO heavily Wiccan, that it's quite jarring when she suggests she isn't, because that's the "new" version of Gardner's socalled "Ancient Religion", The absolute 'historical' nonsense gets a bit of a pass, because I don't feel she's being intentionally misleading in the days before the internet or was much harder to factcheck anything that wasn't mainstream, so I'm assuming the information was in good faith, she'd just been mislead like so many others.


The second half of the book was slightly redeeming, discussing trance work albeit from a heavily Wiccan angle, There was some interesting information, and much more original than the first half, plus justified the title somewhat, There have definitely been titles published in theyrs since this that would be more valuable on that topic, but it was interesting for the time capsule it provides, I finally got the chance to read this book, I bought it used, As a person who doesn't know any fellow witches to share her views with, I thought this would be a book to read,

The book consists of letters, written by Rae Beth to two people who are interested in witchcraft in the's, She teaches them little by little, step by step and answers their questions and tailors spells and steps to take for them,

I found this book very useful, and I learned more about the practical ways I can practice my religion on my own, Going into trance, spells and ideas for what to do during the festivals,

I recommend this to anyone interested in witchcraft, especially solitary ones! This book was a phenomenal introduction into the world of being a Hedge Witch, My copy is covered in highlighter, It teaches you about the pegan holidays, their purpose, their origin, and ideas on how to celebrate them, This will be my witch bible for the rest of my life, As a 'green witch' or pagan, hedge witchcraft is very closely connected to my own path and a friend picked me this as a present during a trip to Camden.
I found it an interesting read, and though Beth is toted as one of the best references in this field of paganism, I found this book lacking in some areas.

It was written in the form of letters, advising two newcomers to the craft on ritual and practice, but unfortunately, as the author was not privy to all the readers beliefs obv.
it was somewhat vague in areas, However a good read for some ritual tips, though I'd recommend one of Beth's other fine works ahead of this,stars. I got this book a good few years ago and I loved it, It is in the form of dated letters from The teacher Rae Beth to her students and I like to go to the pages around the sabbats to get an idea of that particular sabbats meaning and theme.
I read Rae's other books but this remains my favourite, Hedge Witch was the first book I read relating to the subject matter, in fact the first book I read that related specifically to witchcraft that captured my imagination, spurred my creativity and set off a spark of inspiration for me.
It is also a book I find myself returning too when I find I am feeling a little flat and uninspired, Why is this I wonder Personally, I find Rae Beth's writing quite accessible and also inspiring, Hedge Witch is no exception, The book potray's key festivals in the pagan and witch calender and the celebrations, rituals and spells that a solitary witch may wish to follow throughout the year, Rae Beth also manages to explain the key gods and goddess and how they fit into the spirituality of a Hedge Witch in a way that does not preach nor expects one to follow, merely to understand.


The book is presented in a series of letters sent to two apprentices who wish to follow the path and are seeking guidance and advice, As the book says "Her lyrical letters, accompanied by delicate penandink sketches, bring the reader towards a deeper understanding of the solitary witch's lifestyle and beliefs",

I have often found myself looking at the book again, usually at key times of the year, The letters are dated and speak of what festival, celebration and cycle is upon us at that time, I often find reading the letters around that time of year has helped to inspire me, encourage creativity and encourage me to standstill for a brief moment, take a deep breath and look around at what is happening within and without.