One of my pitfalls as a baby pagan was buying Wicca 101 books…many many Wicca 101 books. The first one I ever bought was Scott Cunningham’s Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner. I still reference this book quite a bit even though I do not consider myself a Wiccan. Another book I picked up? Silver Ravenwolf’s To Ride A Silver Broomstick. About 20 pages in I threw it out, a lot of it to me (and years later when I got more proficient on the internet I realized I was not alone in thinking this) seemed to take the whole “Us vs Them” attitude I completely abhor. Needless to say though I kept buying books and books and books and books. I would beeline for the metaphysical section in the hopes of finding THE ONE. You know, the book that will completely and utterly show you want to do, how to do it and how to succeed at doing it.
Baby pagans in the world let me spare you a closet full of books and an empty wallet: THE ONE BOOK DOES NOT EXIST.
At some point I woke up and realized every book told me the same thing. I knew what the 4 quarters were, I knew what the words desoil & widdershins meant, I knew everyone’s different definitions of Magic (k? ijk?) yada yada yada. I still didn’t feel like I KNEW anything though. So I stopped reading them. I put down the 101 (and a couple of 102 books I bought), I lit a candle (attempted to do a formal circle casting, it was marginally successful, I think I just can’t do the solemn reverence thing well I was cracking up) and I listened. I spoke from the heart and I listened with my heart and BOOM! I GOT IT. Now am I the world’s most knowledable pagan? Of course not, I’m still learning. I’m still muttling through taking the academic out of my practice and you know, actually doing it. This is key, at some point one must start doing it. Me being the overthinker I am was scared (am still scared) of this. But it must be done, one can only learn from books for so long. Hence, the 101 trap.
Slowly I am climbing out of it. I do get the twitch every now and then to run & grab a book to see if I’m doing it right but I’m learning to trust myself and my Gods. This is a good thing.
