Stones in the Glade is by new author Kelley Towne and I have mixed feelings about it.
Overall, this is a good introduction to modern witchcraft. The (later) sections on psychic abilities, divination, herbalism, working with familiars, lucid dreaming, and general spellcraft are basically a useful overview for a newcomer. However, I don’t think readers will know how to *do* any of these things; they will have to look elsewhere for instruction. Her chapter "The Old Ones and Other Spirits" was well done, especially since she makes a point of telling the newcomer that working with the fae is a matter of creating and maintaining boundaries. An interesting aspect is that Towne celebrates only four Sabbats (as opposed to the much more typical eight): Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lammas.
Where I run into trouble is that Stones in the Glade is supposed to be about Traditional Witchcraft, which I had always understood to be of two "flavors". In the first, it is rooted within specific cultural practices such as Seidr, Hoodoo, and Brujera which involve the use of rituals, energy work, folk magic, divination, and close contact with spirits. (Note that the people practicing these traditions may not call themselves witches and I respect their self identification.) The other flavor is a path influenced by
early modern witchcraft and personal gnosis, steeped in symbolism and imagery from folklore. For me, it seems disingenuous to never mention 1734, Robert Cochrane, Anderson's Feri, or the Clan of Tubal Cain when describing Traditional Witchcraft.
Instead, Towne's version of Traditional Witchcraft seems to be a personal reconstruction of historical practices, something very different from Wicca (yay) and ignoring it's roots within Western Mystery Tradition's central practices, such as a God and Goddess, the four classical elements, and general ideas about worship, workings, and tools. If anything Towne's version has a strong Italian flavor, a la Leland's Aradia. (Not that she talks about Aradia, but her family of origin is Italian Catholic and I recognize a certain perspective.)
Towne is at her best when reminding the reader that witchcraft is a practice, one tied to Nature and tells us to get the heck outside and stop collecting learning and start DOING it.
If the reader is looking for a new book on Traditional Witchcraft, I don't think this is it. If, however, they are looking for another perspective on witchcraft to add to a larger pool of knowledge, then Stones in the Glade is just fine.
~review by Lisa McSherry
Author: Kelley Towne
Crossed Crow Books, 2024
pp. 200, $22.95
