Hello! Would you happen to have a list of authors to avoid? :)

thepaganstudygrouppage:

Here’s the thing I want everyone to keep in mind for authors to avoid: we’re almost never telling you to completely ignore the works. Even some of the worst authors have some useful information in their books. So when I say you should avoid these authors, what I really mean is, you should avoid these authors until you have a solid-enough grasp of witchcraft that you’re able to pick out problematic behavior for yourself.

A lot of new witches pick these problematic books up and because they’re not really familiar with what’s wrong and what isn’t, they tend to absorb the problematic behavior like a sponge. I don’t fault them for this, but it can be very hard to base your craft around misinformation, only to find out later that it’s wrong and have to rework your whole practice and unlearn a lot of toxic stuff the authors promote.

That being said, I would absolutely 100% avoid these authors if you’re relatively new to witchcraft:

• Silver Ravenwolf
• Raymond Buckland
• Ann Moura
• Roc Marten
• Kate West
• Seth Cardorra*
• Amber K
• Christopher Penczak
• Jason Miller
• Sarah Lyddon Morrison
• Edain McCoy

The reason these authors should be avoided by new witches is because they present a lot of horribly toxic and problematic ideas. Most of these authors perpetuate anything from racism, sexism, ableism, body shaming, cultural appropriation, classism, victim blaming, cissexism,  to false comparison of wicca=witchcraft, to not giving proper warnings on harmful substances, the list goes on and on. Once you’ve got your foot in the door you’re welcome to read through these and gather whatever useful information you can find, but if you’re just starting out these authors will only mess you up.

I have a book reviewing blog where I’m currently reviewing Christopher Penczak’s Inner Temple of Witchcraft if anyone is confused as to why he made this list (I’ll probably do Jason Miller next),  and consecsuallyreading has reviews for a lot of the other authors on this list.

*This author is an utter piece of shit and should not be supported in any way. If you absolutely must read his books try to find a free PDF file and keep in mind he’s a little shit.

~Wanderings