But i can see it being pretty important for anyone who's just starting to look into magical spirituality, & those who may call themselves a "baby witch". I've seen so many post on an Amino saying, "Where should I start?" to the point that it seems like it's every other post. It is specifically just about magic, as Saussy sees it, not within the restraints or constructs of any religion. There's no Wicca or any Paganism here. The author only ever really refers to spiritual beings, including any deities, in the chapter on "holy helpers". She takes magic out of any religious context (except when citing a few examples in certain religious traditions), & she maintains throughout the book that magic is a "wild" creature. This doesn't feel all that revelatory to me, hence my "eh, it's okay" review, but i feel like this viewpoint could be very important & helpful for the "baby witches" out there. The book doesn't hold your hand, but still gives some guidelines, so it's a nice middle road.
The language felt weird to me at times. This is a personal preference, though, so i feel like it almost doesn't count. But when you use the phrase "show up" over & over again, even three sentences in a row, i'm getting irritated & starting to feel like the editor should've done something there. I'm no writer, but even i know there's other ways to say that. I literally starting inserting different words while reading any time "show up" was used, because it was that overused.
Of course, i did read this right after finishing Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, which could also explain why my reaction was more "eh" than "yeah!" But i also do feel like this is a beginner kind of book, albeit a new kind. It's not the "Teen Witch" of yore (that even i flipped through, & was willing to buy Silver Ravenwolf's "history" of Wicca). It doesn't pigeonhole magic, or the reader, into any one spiritual tradition, & it's much more open. Saussy encourages the reader to find their "own magic" & meanings to things, to the point where it felt too much to me. Even timekeeping, which felt confusing, pointless, & backwards to me.
It got to a point where it felt like any traditional anything meant nothing, as the author kept telling the reader to find their own correspondences for things. Which is great, & is something past books on magic haven't done, but again, it felt like it was taken to a point where any traditions may as well be thrown out the window. This is probably more personal preference, but especially since i'd just read Braiding Sweetgrass, it felt like a kind of hubris, as if saying, "You should look to what you think! It doesn't matter what or who came before." It felt uneven & unbalanced; for me, i didn't feel a middle road between traditions & one's own intuitions. That's really the thing that would hold me back from recommending this book to anyone just starting to look into magic, & i don't even follow any traditions or belong to any religion. I don't even do rituals, & what little i actually do is pretty much my own thing, based on my own intuition & thoughts & the like.
Overall, it's an okay book. It wasn't anything new to me, & it felt kind of unbalanced. I would maybe suggest it to "baby witches" & anyone else wanting to look into magic as part of a spiritual path, but not on its own: definitely in conjunction with other resources, be they books or websites or whatever. ...more
I struggled to get through this book. It's not a large one, but it took me over two months to get through it. I don't even know if i can articulate whI struggled to get through this book. It's not a large one, but it took me over two months to get through it. I don't even know if i can articulate why it was so difficult, other than i guess i just didn't connect with it & what it was saying.
I picked it up because all the blurbs on the cover said "this book will change your life, you will not be the same after reading it." At first i had put it back down, but then it felt like i was rejecting a challenge, so i bought it. Thankfully, since it was a book sale at the library (though not an ex-library book), it wasn't expensive.
The book itself, as an object, is welcoming & aesthetically pleasing. Many of the pages have "ripped"/deckled (ish) edges, & the cover is soft to the touch. The design is clean & minimal, but not in a way that feels sparse.
But the book itself... I couldn't get into it. It's not a difficult read, per se, but the words made very little sense to me. Like, i still don't know what Heuertz means by the "True Self". I don't understand why he refers to prayer "postures", when the "postures" aren't physical. Maybe there was a lot of the whole "Finding words for this is difficult", but it made for a confusing read that didn't ever fully engage me. My mind constantly wandered when i tried to read this, & as time went on, i kept wishing i was finished with it. It's kind of a downer when you're glad to finally finish a book because that means you don't have to read it anymore.
And while it's maybe a good thing that Heuertz essentially forces one to read everything about all the types-- maybe as a way to try & prevent navel-gazing, i don't know-- it doesn't help the readability. I have no clue what my supposed Enneagram type is, & the suggestion that it's "the description that hurts the most" doesn't actually help me. And it's not because i can't look at my dark side, or the the hurtful things i can do & say, it's because i can read the negatives of most of these types & basically go, "Same." So even though the author claims he wants to "get past" the Ego or whatever (which seems a common fixation in most spiritually-inclined works & honestly bugs the shit out of me), it means that you go through the book kind of unmoored. You have no real way to even try to root yourself in the concepts, because unless you already know your type, you're just reading everything to read it. And i took online tests/quizzes, trying to determine mine, & surprise, surprise, every one gave me a different answer.
So the terminology, even with definitions, didn't make sense, & i felt no real connection or relation to the book, partially because i didn't know where i potentially fit. I made an educated guess, based off of what i read & those online quizzes, but the book still didn't engage me. And let's really be real, people are going to want to know about themselves first & foremost, before anyone else. But that is usually an entry point. Once you have that, & even just start to understand yourself, you can then branch out to understanding others. Wanting to know about you isn't immediately narcissistic, & isn't immediately negative.
This kind of goes hand in hand with my annoyance about how this & other books tend to talk about/treat the Ego, as if our Ego is All Wrong, & our Sole Purpose is to Destroy/Kill Our Ego. Heuertz brings this confusing concept of one's "True Self" into this, as well, claiming that identifying ourselves through our personality is our "False Self" that blocks us from spiritual growth, connection with Spirit (he uses God, of course), & finding our path "home" to ourselves. Maybe this would have more impact if i understood what he means by "True Self". But regardless, i get annoyed at this whole "true/false" dichotomy that exists in so much "spiritual" media. Polarization is simplistic at best, & dangerous at worst. If nothing else, if i understood Heuertz's terminology, i would be able to argue my point better, but since i have no clue what he means, i can't.
I knew going in that the framework was Christian. People may need a heads up regarding that. The author doesn't necessarily hit you over the head with it, but he does refer to God, & applies each of Jesus's temptations to the Enneagram types. He also frames everything as not just "coming home" to our "True Selves", but explicitly to God, as well. He talks about God's love & things of that nature, which, if you aren't expecting it, might distance you from the material, as well. I personally found that the Christianity angle wasn't too overpowering, & that if someone of a different spiritual/religious path was interested in the book, they could have a good chance at reading it without feeling that it was "Christians only". Your mileage, of course, may vary.
This was one of those books i wanted to like. I knew nothing about the Enneagram going in, so i was looking to learn, &.... i still know nothing about the Enneagram. I don't know how the book could be bettered, because i don't feel i really know what it was trying to say in the first place. Obviously, for some people, it's an important book that means something to them, & i'm not invalidating that at all. But for me, it made no sense, & i didn't retain anything from it. I'm not interested in the Enneagram all that much anyway, & that hasn't changed after reading this. I'm honestly just glad to have finally finished it, & to not have to read it again....more
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