Buckland’s Book of Saxon Witchcraft by Raymond Buckland: Weiser Books. 2005.

Originally published in 1974 as The Tree: The Complete Book of Saxon Witchcraft.
In the introduction of this book, Buckland admits he created the Saxon Witchcraft he writes of in this book and, “...was not trying to reconstruct the ancient religion of the Saxons, nor the magic that they employed.”
He goes on to say, “What I set out to do was create a modern form of Wicca...and to make something with which I, personally, would feel comfortable.”
Hasn’t anyone ever told him Wicca is modern?
He later also contradicts himself when he says:
In virtually all other traditions a coven cannot just be started
from scratch – in other words a group of people cannot
suddenly decide that they are going to witches and form a
coven.

Why on earth can’t they? Buckland left the Gardnerian tradition to start his own. Gerald Gardner started his own, so how can Buckland say others can’t?
He complains several times about power hungry, controlling coven leaders, but then he himself dictates how a coven can or can not be started. I find this hypocritical.
Hipocrasy is also seen when Buckland describes how to use a poppet in a love spell. Buckland says the poppet should be made to look like the person the spell is intended to be worked on and named with that person’s name. This is definetly an interference with free will that could be quite detrimental to the person in question. Yet Buckland says magick should never be used to harm anyone. I agree with this, but I also believe the use of a poppet to symbolize a certain person, especially without their consent, can be extremely harmful.
Finally, one of the lines in the dedication ritual provided is rather alarming. The line:
As this wine drains from the Horn, so may the blood drain
from your body should ever you do aught to harm the Gods,
or those in kinship with their love.

So may the blood drain from your body??? This sounds incredibly threatening and dangerous.
Although this book does give all the needed information for someone to start down the Saxon path (again, created by Buckland himself), complete with rituals for both solitaires and covens, I can not in good faith, recommend it to easily impressionable beginners without knowing they have been warned.

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Created Dec 27, 2009 at 10:40am • Submit your own review...