\nby Moss Matthey
\nPublished by Llewellyn \u2013 September 2024
\n240 pages
\nTrade paperback<\/a>: $18.99, Kindle<\/a>: $14.49<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
A regular theme on this blog is escaping abusive and controlling religions<\/a>. It\u2019s not just something I\u2019m interested in \u2013 it\u2019s one of the most important accomplishments of my life. When you\u2019re told from birth that the fate of your eternal soul depends on believing certain things \u2013 and then on acting in a certain way to prove to everyone you really do believe them \u2013 it\u2019s hard to just walk away. It\u2019s necessary, but it\u2019s very, very hard.<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t have done it alone.<\/p>\n Many of my helpers were authors. First, there were the science writers who explained the evidence for evolution and for the age of the Earth. If the fundamentalists were wrong about how to read Genesis, what else were they wrong about? Plenty, as it turns out. There were the historians, whose work on the origins and development of Christianity showed me that what I had been taught was hardly orthodox and definitely not \u201capostolic.\u201d<\/p>\n Joseph Campbell was hugely important to me. I discovered The Power of Myth<\/em> a few weeks after my Pagan epiphany<\/a>, and while I have since come to understand that Campbell\u2019s humanistic universalizing is an unhelpful oversimplification<\/a>, his concept of God as a force presented a stark contrast to the jealous and vengeful God of Christian fundamentalism.<\/p>\n My earliest Pagan teachers were all authors: Laurie Cabot, Scott Cunningham, Philip Carr-Gomm, and Ronald Hutton were the most influential on my journey out of fundamentalism and into the Pagan polytheism I practice and love. The most meaningful comments I get on my own books<\/a> are when someone tells me how they helped them start or continue the process of recovery from toxic religion.<\/p>\n And that brings us to the latest in this line of authors who are helping people escape and recover.<\/p>\n Moss Matthey<\/a> grew up in the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses. Moss calls them a cult, and while that\u2019s a loaded word that\u2019s often used by Christians to mean \u201cany religion that\u2019s not sufficiently like mine\u201d they certainly match the common definition: insular and controlling. They\u2019re among the most anti-LGBTQ denominations in Christianity \u2013 Moss is gay, and started realizing that about the time he hit puberty.<\/p>\n An Apostate\u2019s Guide to Witchcraft<\/em> is not an autobiography, although there are plenty of personal stories in it. Rather, it\u2019s a condensation of what Moss learned on his journey out of the fear and shame of the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses and into the freedom and joy of Witchcraft.<\/p>\n And that makes it relevant to anyone who\u2019s trying to get away from childhood indoctrination and find the magic in life.<\/p>\n Want to start an argument? Publish a definition of Witchcraft. Doesn\u2019t matter how you define it, someone will come along and say \u201cI\u2019m a Witch and I don\u2019t believe\/think\/do this, so you\u2019re wrong.\u201d I do my best to stay out of those arguments. While I have a definition of Witchcraft<\/a>, if someone who doesn\u2019t meet that definition finds meaning and power in the title, that\u2019s a good thing. Moss states the absolute truth when he says \u201cthere are many conflicting ideas about what it means to be a Witch in the modern world, even among Witches themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Moss begins by rebutting some of the common charges against Witchcraft (including the charge that it\u2019s \u201cjust fantasy\u201d), and then describes four \u201ccommon threads\u201d running through most modern Witchcraft traditions and practitioners: spirituality, community, empowerment, and connection.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t exactly a definition, but it is a useful description of Witchcraft as it\u2019s actually practiced today. And that makes it a good place to start the book.<\/p>\n His definition of magic is similarly broad: \u201ccausing change by spiritual means.\u201d This isn\u2019t a Magic 101 book, but it does have enough introductory material that someone who\u2019s unfamiliar with modern magic and Witchcraft will understand what he\u2019s talking about \u2013 and what he isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n I really liked the section \u201cCult Experiences through a Magical Lens.\u201d Here Moss reinterprets religious experiences he had as a Jehovah\u2019s Witness through the worldview of Witchcraft. I\u2019ve found this to be incredibly helpful in my own journey. The experiences we have are always real \u2013 they don\u2019t suddenly become unreal because we change religions. But how we understand those experiences must change to match our new foundational assumptions about the world and the way it works.<\/p>\n I love this story:<\/p>\n Perhaps the most magical thing I notice looking back were the nudges I kept getting to leave the cult\u2026 It wasn\u2019t just my German upbringing either. As a child, my family moved to Wales, and I went to a Welsh language school and was raised in the culture. I was the product of two magical worlds, all the while trapped in a cult. But the magic would not leave me lost forever.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is similar to my own experience of finding the divine in Nature while I was still locked in fundamentalism. I couldn\u2019t understand that then \u2013 I just knew I felt protected and at home in the woods. Now I understand that there was something \u2013 someone \u2013 calling to me. I just had work to do before I could hear that call.<\/p>\n As important as leaving an abusive religious environment is, just getting away is only the first step. So while the first part of the book is about building yourself up to leave, the middle of the book is a guide to building a solid practice in Witchcraft. It shows how to fill the void created when you left something harmful with something positive and helpful.<\/p>\n While Christianity is in an overall decline, the contemporary West remains culturally Christian. You will find elements of Christian myth and practice in even the most non-theistic spaces. Fortunately, Witchcraft also has a culture, both ancient and modern. We need not leave holes where the religion we left can seep back in.<\/p>\n The growth of Witchcraft since the 1990s has largely been in solitary practitioners. Still, there is power in community \u2013 and online community is also community.<\/p>\n Gods, ancestors, the spirits of the land and the spirits of places, the Fair Folk \u2013 all of these are persons with whom we can form and maintain respectful, reciprocal relationships.<\/p>\n Nature is not \u201cfallen\u201d \u2013 Nature is good and we are a part of Nature.<\/p>\n This is the core of a healthy, robust, Pagan, Witchcraft practice.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve never used \u201capostate\u201d or \u201capostacy\u201d to describe my Paganism. I didn\u2019t leave Christianity so much as I embraced Paganism. But for Moss, claiming the title of \u201capostate\u201d has great meaning and power.<\/p>\n In his own words:<\/p>\n To the wider world, an apostate is simply someone who has renounced their faith\u2026 However, the cult had other ideas. To them, an apostate was the ultimate traitor, a deranged and dangerous individual\u2026 To achieve this level of sin you had to do the unthinkable \u2013 speak out against the organization. It is a word to demean and discredit whistleblowers, to attack them and avoid taking any kind of responsibility.<\/p>\n One reason this book exists is because I am so dangerous millions of people are forbidden from speaking to me. Merely reading this book could cause them to be kicked out of the faith and shunned.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In any religious, spiritual, or magical transformation, there is power in crossing a line. For Moss, the very title of this book is a magical act.<\/p>\n An Apostate\u2019s Guide to Witchcraft<\/em> is intended first for those who are trying to leave an abusive and controlling religious environment. It will also be helpful for those who have managed to escape such an environment but have yet to find something good to replace the bad they left behind. Moss left the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, but it\u2019s equally relevant for those who\u2019ve been abused and oppressed by Protestant fundamentalists; ultraconservative Catholics, Mormons<\/a>, Jews, and Muslims; and extreme forms of atheism.<\/p>\n But also, it will be very helpful to those who feel a call to Witchcraft and\/or Paganism, but who are reluctant to explore it due to the fear of cultural prejudice in any form.<\/p>\n Moss asked me to write an endorsement blurb for this book \u2013 I was honored to do so. Here\u2019s what I said:<\/p>\nMoss Matthey \u2013 survivor and author<\/h2>\n
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2024\/09\/Apostates-Guide-to-Witchcraft-03b-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nA broad and inclusive Witchcraft<\/h2>\n
The call of the land, the call of magic<\/h2>\n
Culture, Community, Spirits, and Nature<\/h2>\n
Claiming apostacy<\/h2>\n
Who should read this book?<\/h2>\n