Silver RavenWolf?

[emmfullness]

I'm sorry. I've heard a lot of bad comments about Silver RavenWolf's works. I'm new to Paganism and really haven't read a whole lot on it yet (only what I can get my hands on, which is highly limited due to my current circumstances), but I don't understand why her works are so bad or misleading. Can someone explain?  

[Triste-chan]

http://wicca.timerift.net/ravenwolf.html

That link explains a lot of it. Basically, she has no ethics, and her history sucks.  

[emmfullness]

eek I'm so happy you gave me this site!! OMG!! This discredits most everything I learned from reading just one of Silver RavenWolf's books. I'm happy I got this before I read any further. Otherwise, I'd be terribly confused and going down a really, really stupid path. I think I'll keep what notes I did take from her book (Teen Witch) since I mostly only copied down some correspondences and such. Though, I think I'll also clarify those elsewhere to be absolutely sure that I'm not screwing myself up.

heart heart Thank you so much!! heart heart  

[damasta15]

ya that site kills her  

[SoilWork]

That's a good link , I'm not big into wicca but I never did get why people hated her..for i've never read any of her stuff but I love the link , thanks.  

[MST3Kakalina]

come on, with a name like "Silver RavenWolf," is it that hard to figure out why people hate her?  

[damasta15]

MST3Kakalina

come on, with a name like "Silver RavenWolf," is it that hard to figure out why people hate her?

lol ur kinda right ahhaah xp  

[Starlock]

I strongly advise you actually read the book before making judgements. It is not that bad of a book... it is extremely easy to pull quotes out of context and read nasty things into them. Hell, you see it all the time on this website. When I read it, I honestly didn't have any problems with it save a few historical innacuracies. It was well written for its target audience and did what it intended to do. Not being part of its target audience, I found parts of it a bit simplistic and condescending, but that doesn't make it a bad book or the author some terrible demon. whee  

[emmfullness]

Starlock

I strongly advise you actually read the book before making judgements. It is not that bad of a book... it is extremely easy to pull quotes out of context and read nasty things into them. Hell, you see it all the time on this website. When I read it, I honestly didn't have any problems with it save a few historical innacuracies. It was well written for its target audience and did what it intended to do. Not being part of its target audience, I found parts of it a bit simplistic and condescending, but that doesn't make it a bad book or the author some terrible demon. whee

I've read Teen Witch already. I make the comments I did because I looked around the site a little more and found that many of the things she advocated kinda labeled a person as a "fluffy bunny." I agree she's not really a bad person. Maybe on a little superiority trip, but certainly not bad. I'm reading Denise Zimmerman's "Complete Idiots Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft" now and she was taught by Silver RavenWolf. Still, I think Zimmerman may actually be more accurate (at least, I'm picking more up off of her). Currently, the only problem I've had with the information offered by RavenWolf is that it was way too little. She didn't give a lot of the warnings that Zimmerman did and she didn't cover a whole lot of bases in the whole "if my mommy/daddy don't like it" issue, but that's a whole other question all together and more deserving of a new thread if anything. I get the idea of "if they don't like it, keep it out of their house." My problem is that, if I tell my mom, I will, with 100% certainty, be booted out of my house and disowned. sweatdrop I'll probably have to take that question to myself, though. I don't think any advice is going to really work for that. It's really more of a priority issue.... sad My family vs. my religion. That's a sucky choice.  

[emmfullness]

Oh, and you do have to give her credit for her "for further reading" pages. Honestly, I think she recommended a lot of the same books this guild does.  

[WebenBanu]

emmfullness

Currently, the only problem I've had with the information offered by RavenWolf is that it was way too little. She didn't give a lot of the warnings that Zimmerman did

That's my roommate's major complaint on this author. Silver tends to set up exercises without considering the ethics of them- like randomly throwing energy around in order to learn out to call it up, without paying any attention whatsoever to what the consequences of randomly throwing energy around might be.^_^' The stuff she covers is simplistic, yes, but she kind of encourages folks to treat it like a toy- and that's a really bad start. And so the roommate is really against newcomers using Silver's books for instruction.^_^

Personally, I bought several of her books when I was a Wiccan, and all bright-shiny-new at it; they'd looked like a good enough set of magical and/or religious instructions just from the pretty covers and spiffy titles. But I didn't get very far into Broomstick before I put them away in disgust, and I haven't really bothered to pull them off the shelf since then except during moves. The information was sloppy, and she seemed to lash out at everyone and everything.^_^' Now I'm no longer Wiccan, so it's likely that I never will- but from what I've heard, I think I made the right choice from what I did read.

I'd recommend instead reading Raven Grimassi's stuff. He's got a couple of good books out on Wiccan theology and Wiccan magic.  

[maenad nuri]

WebenBanu

I'd recommend instead reading Raven Grimassi's stuff. He's got a couple of good books out on Wiccan theology and Wiccan magic.

I've heard some really crappy things about him too...espcially anything to do with strega and history. But uh, I've not been able to finish his works, so I can't comment except that people have told me he's not that good.

Better than silver, but then my Waterhouse Wall Calendar is.  

[Starlock]

emmfullness

Oh, and you do have to give her credit for her "for further reading" pages. Honestly, I think she recommended a lot of the same books this guild does.

Huh. At the time I read "To Ride a Silver Broomstick" I didn't check out her recommended reading section. Back then I was reading everything (and still do to some extent) and not concerned with little things like that in the books.  

[MST3Kakalina]

Starlock

I strongly advise you actually read the book before making judgements. It is not that bad of a book... it is extremely easy to pull quotes out of context and read nasty things into them. Hell, you see it all the time on this website. When I read it, I honestly didn't have any problems with it save a few historical innacuracies. It was well written for its target audience and did what it intended to do. Not being part of its target audience, I found parts of it a bit simplistic and condescending, but that doesn't make it a bad book or the author some terrible demon. whee

see, here's the thing (and my weird perception of how the world works may have a lot to do with this.)

ravenwolf, as far as i can tell, does the majority of her work because wicca is trendy now. erego, she's exploiting beliefs that, while not necessarily her own, are certainly purporting to be someone else's, for money. big no-no, in my book.

sketchy history. again: no.

she also has a very angry, "oh noes persecution" 'tude. rolleyes to that.

she is also extremely intolerant whenever she mentions christianity. again. rolleyes.

so those are four big strikes against her in my book, especially the first two. now i believe in supporting people you like/appreciate by buying, or at least appeciating, their work. that's how i think it gains "power," so to speak. conversely , i believe that you SHOULDN'T support or even recommend someone who you believe is doing the WRONG thing. even if you borrow a SRW book from someone else, that's still reading it and that's giving her writing and ideas more power--think of it like a meme.

that is why i heartily recommend against her books. i don't want to contribute anymore to her influence.  

[Starlock]

Well, one thing to add in that I ended up cutting out of that initial post I made was to consider the pressures that were around at the time she published her FIRST book and the pressure the publisher is probably putting on her to continue writing similar material to keep their market share. In other words, I really think there's more going on here than just her personal dispositions and whatnot. There are definately sittuational pressures that are contributing to the publication and content of her books.

So is it really Silver that is pushing the Wicca trend or is it the publisher USING her towards those ends?