Crafting Wiccan Traditions: Creating a Foundation for Your Spiritual Beliefs & Practices [Paperback]

Crafting Wicca Traditions is written in a positive and self-empowering manner. The author lends his decades of experience by way of suggestions and guidelines for the reader interested in creating his or her own personal approach to Wicca. Grimassi also points out areas of caution drawn from his own experiences, which are offered as wise safeguards.

One of the strongpoints of this book is its suggestions for organizing ideas and applying beliefs. On page 20 the author recommends thinking about our personal views regarding deity and how we want to apply this to our own system. Grimassi also suggests that we apply our own ethics, and our appreciation of the sacredness of life, to the formation of a personal practice of Wicca. This is helpful in mapping out our theology and the ethics that conform to the spiritual foundation of our practices.

On page 21, Grimassi advocates researching the tenets and philosophies of the ancient culture associated with the region we want to root our tradition to; in other words, is the tradition Celtic, Germanic, Greco-Roman, etc. If so, Grimassi suggests being well read and well informed while creating your system's foundation, beliefs, and practices. One point that is carried throughout the book is to evaluate what you want to incorporate into your system and what you don't want to include. As Grimassi points out, there is as much ancient folly as there is ancient wisdom.

One of the things I enjoyed in this book is the author's way of helping think things through. Each chapter provides the opportunity to examine our beliefs and to modify them with new information and insight. Unlike most books on Wicca, this one strikes a balance between dogma & doctrine and the airy-fairy notion that anything and everything can be mixed into the cauldron. Careful introspection, sound reasoning, and clear thinking is what the author of this book promotes in Crafting Wiccan Traditions.

I found this book to be very helpful in organizing and clarifying my thinking about my spiritual practice in two ways. First, Grimassi emphasizes the advantages of following a tradition with his concept of the Momentum of the Past. That is, over the centuries the beliefs and practices of past generations have created an "eitheric pathway" (my term) that eases access to, and enhances the spiritual power of those that follow it. A scientific equivalent to this concept is that of morphogenic fields, from the biologist, Rupert Sheldrake, in his book "The Presence of the Past". Grimassi delineates the essential points of the tradition using his tradition as an example. It takes some effort and thought to connect a personal eclectic practice to his tradition, but then, I consider that the fun part. Secondly, Grimassi's delineation of the essential points of a tradition is very clear and well laid out. A personal practice can easily be compared to his to see any differences. For following a tradition makes it easier to see where my practice may be unbalanced or where I have blind spots. Over centuries a tradition builds a wisdom that is impossible to put into words. Also a tradition includes parts of the human psyche that I would much rather not look at in myself. That is why so much of the New Age is shallow and ephemeral. People take a little of this because a friend said it is so spiritual, and a little of that because it's "cute". And soon you have a lot of nothing, a hodgepodge of odds and ends, a vanilla pudding of empty spiritual calories. Now if you think tradition is irrelevant and oppressive, then I would not buy this book. But if you are willing to look deeper at what the past has to say, then I would highly recommend it. Yes, it duplicates a lot of material from his earlier books, but the emphasis is different. It stands alone on its own merit.

Finally! A book with answers not just "do this & do that"! I love the way he explains the different traditions and lets you decide whats right for you! Hey ~ he even warns you ~ you may not agree with what he has to says. I have always believed that if you agree with everything someone else says, you don't or can't think for yourself.
I can't thank you enough for writing this book and sharing your knowledge. Sure some of it may be considered basic at times, so basic no one else I have read has taken the time to explain! I'm not a puppet, and I can think for myself and that is what this book is all about. I have learned more from this book than a bookcase full of books. I was unable to go all out and DO something because no one bothered to explain to me why we have four quarters and who they represent and who they can be in certain traditions. This is a must have book!
I am so excited because I finally feel like I am learning something! I feel like I graduated from the basic wiccan 101!
THANK YOU!