Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

[Yorin]

Re: Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

No offense taken. I think those Christians are dangerously and horribly misguided to the extreme. I don't disagree with you at all, frankly. However, in the same manner I can't condone someone who thinks casting a spell with a candle will prevent your sexual partner from getting pregnant or catching an STD... (source: THAT SITE)....!

Oh no-I totally don't blame you for that kind of thinking. Even being pagan-spells like that make me roll my eyes and wonder what the hell happened to the pagan community down the generations T-T

[Doc_Holliday]

Re: Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

That is the first time I have found that "Spells Of Magic" site. All I can say is, all the people who post and read and try the things on the site need a good solid punch in the nose.

I can't even fathom the screwed up twisted idea of paganism these people have. And it makes legitimate pagans like me and the people on this site get lumped in and stereotyped with them. And they are the reason legitimate pagan kids can't tell their family for the worry that their parents will think they're going to dry and become werewolves or do harry potter spells. So ridiculous, I need to find whatever web server that website is hosted on and burn it to the ground.

[Corvus]

Re: Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

Seems this thread degenerated into a spellsofmagic discussion. I went there when I first started to look into structured magic but haven't been back since because the majority of things was just ridiculous. I knew at 13 that most of it was bullshit. Granted there is *some* decent stuff there.. if you search very.. very very hard every so often you'll find a post by someone that actually sounds like they know what they're talking about. As I said though its very difficult and generally not worth the effort.

[callmeclemens]

Re: Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

About three years ago when I started moving my path in this direction I was hold up in my local library in a quiet corner reading, and hording everything they had on Paganism and Wicca, which wasn't very much. My opinion is if you're going for basic beginners stuff, my money would be on Scott Cunningham.

What Ravenwolf does in my opinion is that she focuses on some sort of Halloween -ish nostalgia filled craft that looks pretty but lacks substance.

[Louisvillian]

Re: Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

Mainly, who the heck are Silver Ravenwolf, DJ Conway and Edain McCoy, and why are they so despised?Who are they, and why to people groan when they are brought up? What do they teach? Are there stereotypes about their followers I should know about?

$RW is a hack writer who largely made it clear that she's in the business of selling Wicca to teenagers in a form that is more like an image than a religion. A form that's just edgy enough to make her customers feel "different" but still "safe" from an American cultural standpoint-- devoid of sex, death, genuine devotion, or effort.
But for all of her pressing of a "safe" and teenage-girl-oriented form of Wicca, she has a rather nasty streak of Christian-bashing, of encouraging her readers to lie and deceive, to control others, and to generally treat their religion, their loved ones, and their gods with little to no sense of respect.

DJ Conway? Never heard of 'em.

Edain McCoy? Not as bad as $RW. At least, in the sense of genuine feeling. You can tell that McCoy might actually believe some of the crap she puts out, and isn't necessarily in it just to sell books and rip people off. The problem comes in the fact that much of what she writes is just plain inaccurate. In one book, she claims that Wicca has origins in an "ancient" Irish potato-goddess cult; ignoring the fact that potatoes weren't introduced until the Renaissance and that Wicca didn't exist until the 1940s. In other books, like her one on fairy lore, she blends pop-cultural imagery with genuine folklore; in that particular example, she classifies fairies based on whether they're "winged" or not--again, ignorant of certain facts, like that of the wings being a much later (like, Victorian England later) addition to the imagery. The Celtic cultural "flavour" of her version of Wicca is mostly skin-deep, though she wrongly purports it to be the original version. The lack of proper research is really quite infuriating.

[Astrayus]

Re: Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

I remember being a teenager at Barnes and Noble and looking at Silver Ravenwolf's teen witchcraft kit. It was attractive to me at the time because I didn't have any way of buying anything at the time. Then I thumbed through one of her books and found a "Frost Giant" spell to curse someone by freezing their name in a cube of ice and similar spells that seemed a little off. However, my buddy Matt started out with one of her books and, while he did outgrow her, he always gave her some respect in starting him down his own path.

I had one book by Edain McCoy and I enjoyed it at the time even though I felt it was very strict and, upon reflection, inaccurate.

Nowadays, I take things from many different sources including things I've made up or that is made up by others. I like to embrace my made-up-ness, it's a really liberating feeling for me, not bound by seeking some elder way. Instead I'm taking what works for me, even if it's just minutes old. So, if I could get over the mental block that I have on Silver, I could probably utilize something she has written. But I wouldn't recommend her to learn Wicca or Witchcraft from.

[Heka]

Re: Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

Lol, ever heard of Everything Under the Moon? bahahaha

Sorry, Off Topic :P

[Yorin]

Re: Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

Lol, ever heard of Everything Under the Moon? bahahaha

Sorry, Off Topic :P

Wait, are you talking about a book or a store?

[Heka]

Re: Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

A forum

/10char

[MaskedOne]

Re: Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

My issue with McCoy can be summed up in the words

Ancient Irish Potato Ritual

Ravenwolf has her own failings but I haven't looked at her stuff recently and Conway I don't know much about.

[Maria de Luna]

Re: Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

DJ Conway? Never heard of 'em.

Edain McCoy? Not as bad as $RW. At least, in the sense of genuine feeling. You can tell that McCoy might actually believe some of the crap she puts out, and isn't necessarily in it just to sell books and rip people off. The problem comes in the fact that much of what she writes is just plain inaccurate. In one book, she claims that Wicca has origins in an "ancient" Irish potato-goddess cult; ignoring the fact that potatoes weren't introduced until the Renaissance and that Wicca didn't exist until the 1940s. In other books, like her one on fairy lore, she blends pop-cultural imagery with genuine folklore; in that particular example, she classifies fairies based on whether they're "winged" or not--again, ignorant of certain facts, like that of the wings being a much later (like, Victorian England later) addition to the imagery. The Celtic cultural "flavour" of her version of Wicca is mostly skin-deep, though she wrongly purports it to be the original version. The lack of proper research is really quite infuriating.

Edain McCoy, I have never heard of, and i would describe Conaway the way you described McCoy, almost to the T... She really could just do some more research, nothing is too hard to find anymore, and sources are not too hard to come by. Its just the picked and pitted version of anything remotely Irish Celtic and making it a homogenized Wicca-flavored (not even wicca, mind you) sundae, bugs me.

[MoonRaven]

Re: Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

Ancient Irish Potato Ritual

Seriously? O.o ROFL

As for Silver my main issue with her is her tendency, particularly in her early books, to bash Christians. But if anyone is stupid enough to take what she, or anyone else for that matter, says as gosple, they're just asking to be laughed at. Rule number 1 as a pagan, and in anything else in life, never, ever think anything you read, see, hear, no matter how reliable the source is otherwise, is true unless corroborated be several independent sources.
And I actually like Silver's book Solitary Witch. It's a mammoth work on 600 pages that deals with a lot of the tough stuff that most other sources neatly avoids such as depression and otehr mental health problems, suicide, pagans as soldiers amongts the more common subjects such as spellcasting (no become a werewolf, vampire, whatever, or perfect healing spells there), rituals etc. Even though I don't agree with her on all subjects I admire her courage in daring to deal with them at all. So far I haven't come across a pagan book that dares to do that.
(P.S. If anyone knows of one, or several, that does I'd love to hear about them.)

[WinterTraditions]

Re: Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

Seriously? O.o ROFL

As for Silver my main issue with her is her tendency, particularly in her early books, to bash Christians. But if anyone is stupid enough to take what she, or anyone else for that matter, says as gosple, they're just asking to be laughed at. Rule number 1 as a pagan, and in anything else in life, never, ever think anything you read, see, hear, no matter how reliable the source is otherwise, is true unless corroborated be several independent sources.
And I actually like Silver's book Solitary Witch. It's a mammoth work on 600 pages that deals with a lot of the tough stuff that most other sources neatly avoids such as depression and otehr mental health problems, suicide, pagans as soldiers amongts the more common subjects such as spellcasting (no become a werewolf, vampire, whatever, or perfect healing spells there), rituals etc. Even though I don't agree with her on all subjects I admire her courage in daring to deal with them at all. So far I haven't come across a pagan book that dares to do that.
(P.S. If anyone knows of one, or several, that does I'd love to hear about them.)

Solitary Witch was the only book of Silver's I kept. Personally, I think it is her best work. There are still a few iffy things, but it's an improvement.

[Kahlenda]

Re: Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

hmmmm, well reading through the thread and the spellsofmagic site there are two id like to expand upon. (im gunna jump on the fluffy band wagon ) the time travel spell, i have one a little like this, only its more of a medative vision, you dont specify a time and you cant choose when you get, but i get impressions (sorta lika half realised ghosts) on the edge of your mind of old energies that have soaked into the surroundings, its quite an interesting one to do.

and the ice cube thing, ill agree its abit hoaky and would take alot more than just that but i think that as a way of focusing the energies that myt work, say maybe if you were trying to hex someone into a constant feeling of cold, the act of freezing their name into ice, could be a good bit of energy working.

(and off the bandwagon) that werewolf spell though, please please can we slap these people.

[Chessa]

Re: Tell me about Silver Ravenwolf?

I think if you sort through the spells of magic stuff, you might find something useful. When I was younger, I used one of theirs and it worked. I also have thumbed through a Ravenwolf book, and it seems that if you use common sense, it is a decent starting point for those who are completely new to Wicca but are dedicated enough to cross-check with other sources. (My friend uses SR books, and she's anything but fluffy)