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Summary
Summary
"Witches are gathering."
When most people hear the word "witches," they think of horror films and Halloween, but to the nearly one million Americans who practice Paganism today, witchcraft is a nature-worshipping, polytheistic, and very real religion. So Alex Mar discovers when she sets out to film a documentary and finds herself drawn deep into the world of present-day magic.
Witches of America follows Mar on her immersive five-year trip into the occult, charting modern Paganism from its roots in 1950s England to its current American mecca in the San Francisco Bay Area; from a gathering of more than a thousand witches in the Illinois woods to the New Orleans branch of one of the world's most influential magical societies. Along the way she takes part in dozens of rituals and becomes involved with a wild array of characters: a government employee who founds a California priesthood dedicated to a Celtic goddess of war; American disciples of Aleister Crowley, whose elaborate ceremonies turn the Catholic mass on its head; second-wave feminist Wiccans who practice a radical separatist witchcraft; a growing "mystery cult" whose initiates trace their rites back to a blind shaman in rural Oregon. This sprawling magical community compels Mar to confront what she believes is possible-or hopes might be.
With keen intelligence and wit, Mar illuminates the world of witchcraft while grappling in fresh and unexpected ways with the question underlying every faith: Why do we choose to believe in anything at all? Whether evangelical Christian, Pagan priestess, or atheist, each of us craves a system of meaning to give structure to our lives. Sometimes we just find it in unexpected places.
Author Notes
Alex Mar lives in New York City, her hometown. She has contributed to The Believer , the Oxford American , Elle , The New York Times Book Review , Slate , New York magazine, and other publications. Mar is also the director of the documentary feature film American Mystic . Witches of America is her first book.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Mar takes a look at the modern witchcraft movement by digging into the history of the witchcraft and exploring places where magic is practiced and the people who practice it. Rather than reaching back centuries, though, she looks mainly at the 20th century and how it has shaped the many varieties of witchcraft practiced across the world today. Dolan maintains a warm and welcoming voice, guiding the reader through Mar's prose and the worlds that she introduces to the readers. She captures the changing tone of the book, as Mar shifts from skepticism to intrigue and from bemused to amused. She provides strong voices for the people Mar interviews and avoids using clichéd voice tricks. She, like Mar, treats the exploration respectfully and thereby keeps listeners' attention throughout the production. An FSG/Crichton hardcover. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A self-avowed skeptic investigates the shadowy world of modern witchcraft. In this literary companion to the 2010 documentary American Mystic, which she directed, former Rolling Stone editor Mar dynamically illustrates her adventures journeying across America in search of witches, mystics, and polytheistic pagans. A cynical native New Yorker drawn to fringe communities "whose esoteric beliefs cut them off from the mainstream but also bond them closer together," the author first traveled to Northern California's Santa Clara County, where a "Feri priestess" named Morpheus has constructed the Stone City, a sanctuary for congregating covens to perform ritualistic ceremonies. While Mar outlines witchcraft's history as a movement through the celebrated work of Englishman Gerald Gardner, the "godfather of Wicca," the core of her book comprises profiles of the many witches she encountered. None of them are as fascinating as Morpheus, whom the author befriended deeply and honestly and who becomes an increasingly formidable influence. Though frequently overwhelmed, Mar's fascination with the occult suffuses the narrative via in-depth explorations of intensive Feri witch rituals, a weeklong Spirit Gathering in a forest clearing in rural Illinois, participation in the annual pagan PantheaCon conventions, trial-and-error Feri training, and witchcraft circles hosted in a New England castle. The author initially approached craft rituals involving "circling, trancing, banishing personal demons, and bumping up against the dead" with dubiety and great hesitancy, yet once familiarized with her surroundings, she was enveloped in the wonder and the enlightenment each group imparted. A wide-eyed observer governed by an unshakable curiosity, Mar's immersion in the multifaceted world of witchcraft (including a particularly chilling encounter with a necromancer) collectively broadened and enhanced her perspective about the craft itselfand will surely do the same for her readership. An enchanting and addictive report shedding much-needed light on a spiritualistic community obfuscated by historical misinterpretation and pop-culture derision. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
It takes a self-proclaimed skeptic like journalist and documentary filmmaker Mar to delve deeply into present-day witchcraft. The latter word is actually a misnomer since Mar explores not the stereotypes of horror films and Halloween costumes but, rather, the one million Americans who practice paganism, or Wicca, a polytheistic, nature-loving religion with roots in 1950s England before crossing the Atlantic to become part of the larger counterculture movement. From the start, Mar admits that she has always been attracted to the fringe and that despite her natural leeriness, she is a seeker at heart, searching . . . for proof of something larger, whatever its name. She examines the background of Gerald Gardner, considered the godfather of Wicca, and investigates spiritualism, the Theosophical Society, and the Golden Dawn (the Irish poet William Butler Yeats and the notorious mystic Aleister Crowley were members of the latter). Mar discusses satanic cults and black magic, attends pagan conferences such as the annual PantheaCon, participates in a Gnostic mass in New Orleans, and spends Samhain (the Celtic New Year) with a coven in a nouveau riche faux castle in the New Hampshire woods. In all, an open-minded, fascinating journey into the world of modern American paganism.--Sawyers, June Copyright 2015 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
KILLING A KING: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel, by Dan Ephron. (Norton, $16.95.) The 1995 murder of Rabin, the Israeli prime minister, also dealt a fatal blow to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process with which he was identified. Ephron, a former Jerusalem bureau chief for Newsweek, details the violent episode and its lasting influence on the moribund prospects for peace today. THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING: A Novella and Three Stories, by Colum McCann. (Random House, $16.) The stories in this collection often unfold in agonizing scenarios, with glimmers of empathy throughout. The title novella centers on an elderly New York judge before he is fatally assaulted; the police investigation of his death raises questions about the limits of surveillance and perspective in unearthing the truth. THE GAY REVOLUTION: The Story of the Struggle, by Lillian Faderman. (Simon & Schuster, $20.) The author, a noted scholar of lesbian history, offers a balanced biography of the gay rights movement from the 1950s through the present day: protests in the 1960s; the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness; the AIDS epidemic; and the push for marriage equality. THE DUST THAT FALLS FROM DREAMS, by Louis de Bernières. (Vintage, $16.95.) This novel follows a wealthy English family, the McCoshes, and their neighbors starting in the early 20 th century. As their lives are upended by World War I, the story explores "timeless conflicts of love and loyalty, conflicts that can be rendered even more consequential when they intersect with large-scale political and historical events," as our reviewer, Randy Boyagoda, wrote. AMERICA'S BANK: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve, by Roger Lowenstein. (Penguin, $18.) The United States had no effective central banking system until the Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913. Lowenstein tells the story of the politicians and public figures who secured the bill's passage through compromise and brilliant politicking, and of the disputes and crises endangering it. INFINITE HOME, by Kathleen Alcott. (Riverhead, $16.) The misfit tenants including an agoraphobe and an embittered comedian - of a deteriorating Brooklyn brownstone come together after their home is imperiled by their aging landlady's son. The threat leads this makeshift family across the country, from a California commune to middle-American motel rooms to a natural wonder in the Smoky Mountains, as they offer one another love and support. WITCHES OF AMERICA, by Alex Mar. (Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $16.) Pairing a journalistic inquiry with a personal spiritual quest, the author reports on the country's various occult societies. As our reviewer, Merritt Tierce, put it: "If anything connects the various communities and traditions Mar writes about, it's this primacy of the individual soul and choice, which is, of course, the holy fabric of Americanness."
Library Journal Review
In her first book, documentarian Mar delves into American witchcraft and those who have chosen the lifestyles associated with it. What began as immersive research into extreme spiritual beliefs became a personal search for truth, meaning, and belief. Sometimes humorous, sometimes thrilling, and always intriguing, this account explores philosophies and practices linked to witchcraft as practiced in, for example, ancient times, 1950s England, and present-day San Francisco, New Orleans, and the Midwest. With insight, sincerity, and honesty, Mar shares her journey for understanding. Reader Amanda Dolan is a delight for the ears. Voicing just the right amount of laughter, surprise, dynamic changes, and pertinent pauses, Dolan guides listeners through the author's exhilarating odyssey. Patrons will be drawn in by this riveting performance. VERDICT This title is essential for larger collections and libraries whose patrons relish works about witchcraft, spiritualism, and excursions into the unknown and the misunderstood. ["A top-notch read for pagans and open-minded seekers curious about the fascinating beginnings of American witchcraft and some of the various directions its form is taking": LJ 9/15/15 starred review of the Sarah Crichton: Farrar hc.]-Lisa -Youngblood, Harker Heights P.L., TX © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| 1 Stone City | p. 3 |
| 2 Little Witch | p. 16 |
| 3 Naked in the New Forest | p. 23 |
| 4 Keep Your Weapons Peace-Bonded! | p. 38 |
| 5 The Feri Current | p. 56 |
| 6 Diana of the Prairies | p. 66 |
| 7 The Mass | p. 79 |
| 8 The Vetting Process | p. 98 |
| 9 Cycle One | p. 112 |
| 10 Morpheus and the Morrigan | p. 130 |
| 11 Making Priests | p. 144 |
| 12 The Binding | p. 161 |
| 13 Proof; or, the Creeping of Your Skin | p. 169 |
| 14 Coru Cathubodua | p. 179 |
| 15 Three Nights at the Castle | p. 185 |
| 16 The Small Question of Satan | p. 202 |
| 17 Sympathy for the Necromancer | p. 219 |
| 18 And the Crows Will Eat My Eyes | p. 235 |
| 19 Enter the Swamp | p. 252 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 275 |