How can you tell if a "magic" book is full of it? I'm sure with experience you can, but what about beginners?
Reading these books needs a good âbullshit detectorâ. There are a few telling signs:
1) Look at the bookâs bibliography. A bibliography can give you, if itâs a good one, the primary sources an author used, and can give you an idea of other books to read. A bad bibliography can save you time - if a book hasnât got one, or itâs a very short one, or it references only other neo-pagan texts, itâs not going to be long on facts and you might be better off reading something else.
2) Magic and witchcraft arenât inherently religious. If the book implies or states that a neo-pagan religion is necessary in order to practice witchcraft, itâs probably not worth the read.
3) If the book says itâs about a neo-pagan religion of some kind, but talks endlessly of spells instead, itâs probably a waste of your time if youâre looking for the religious practice first. Some neo-pagan faiths will involve practicing magic, but others donât.
4) Neo-pagan books that talk about ancient matriarchal religions spanning Europe, a âGreat Goddessâ and all that jazz, are based in the historical theories of Margaret Murray. They were all fairly thoroughly debunked, but it still lingers in neo-pagan circles.
5) Know that things like the âTriple Goddessâ and the Wheel of the Year are modern inventions - they arenât ancient, and forcing ancient deities or practices into those concepts will not always work or be appropriate.
6) If the deities youâre reading about are described as being very different from their historical selves, itâs probably a good sign that author hasnât done their home work very well.Â
7) âThe Burning Timesâ did happen - but it was not a systematic genocide of a pagan religion or practitioners of magic. What you had was a mass hysteria created by the church, and taken advantage of by greedy people. They had no qualms in killing unloved neighbours or relatives for their property, with witchcraft as a scapegoat. Maybe a few witches died - but so did thousands of Christians who were unfortunate enough to be disliked, or without family, or to be a better farmer or gardener. âNine Millionâ is certainly hyperbole, and is not factually accurate.
8) Be aware of things that donât fit: for example, we have whatâs called the âpotato testâ. Potatoes are not native to Europe and were not discovered until explorers began invading South America. So an author that talks about an ancient Irish potato deity, for example, is absolutely full of it.
9) Authors who are patronizing and talk down to their readers, no matter the subject, should be tossed on their ears. Youâre a beginner, perhaps, but youâre not stupid and youâre not a child. You donât need the author to coddle you or âsimplifyâ the information - their assumption that you do is just rude. If you wouldnât let someone talk to you like that in real life, why would you read a book that does the same thing?
10) Whenever you can, space your neo-pagan or magical reading out with primary sources and proper non-fiction history and anthropology texts. A primary source is going to give you the closest thing to being there, at whatever time and place youâre looking at. Academic texts can be a chore to get through, but theyâre going to give you the grounding you need to have a detector of your own.
Read what you can get your hands on. At first, like you said, itâs hard to tell the gold from the dross, but youâll get the hang of it. A couple of really awful books will give you a guideline, and youâll find authors you can trust vs. authors you canât.
Read critically. Donât be afraid to be a skeptic. Similar doesnât equal same - cultures have similar concepts but it doesnât make their gods or their practices the same thing with different names. If you think something sounds like horseshit or too good to be true, it probably is.
Good luck, and happy hunting. :>
areudirty
titsay
yousharknotpass
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