When I first started reading Modern Wicca, I was expecting more of a history of Wicca; I didn’t realize that it was mainly focused on Gerald Gardner. It is definitely a comprehensive account of Mr. Gardner. It had a good perspective of other things that happened around him and the time periods where he lived. The author takes the history of Wicca and steered it away from Gardner after the period of his death.
The chapters were broken down into different periods. But when reading, the author followed thoughts and events, which means that the time frames bounced around within the chapters quite a bit. ntil I got the flow of the book, it was really hard to follow.
Much of the book read as a gossip column, showing lies, exaggerations, attitudes and hardships. It did grab the attention and showed some of the flaws that most of us have. It definitely did not put Gerald Gardner on a pedestal; in fact it brought him down and made him human. It was nice to see the other side of a person who has been glorified in many different paths. It was amazing to me that he touched and influenced so many things in his lifetime. Many of these stories were stories that I hadn’t heard. Some of them actually got me to laugh out loud.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book; it gave me a different perspective on many areas. I thought this was fairly well done with how much information is actually out there. You can tell the author did a lot of foot work and included a bibliography and a resources/contacts portion which is very much appreciated.
~review by Leon
Author: Michael Howard
Llewellyn Worldwide, 2010
338 pages, $19.95
