Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #521249 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From the Author
An Alternative View
I was greatly honored in 1998 to have the Wiccan Mysteries receive two awards from the Coalition of Visionary Retailers at the New Age Convention in Denver. Here the book received "Best Spirituality Book" and "Book of the Year".

My purpose in writing the Wiccan Mysteries was to present various aspects of ancient pre-Christian religion that also appear in modern Wiccan beliefs and practices. The book also traces various common elements of the ancient mystery religions of Egypt, Greece and Rome, and their influence throughout Europe.

It is my personal belief that the ancient Mystery Cults of Old Europe influenced pre-Christian religion throughout continental Europe and much of the British Isles. Wicca, whether one considers it ancient or entirely modern, houses the essential elements of the ancient Mystery Tradition itself.

Historical examples of such Mystery Traditions include the cult of Dionysos in ancient Greece, the rites of Eleusis centered around Demeter and Persephone, the cult of Mithras and many others. The Mystery Tradition itself focuses largely on spiritual transformation and employs metaphorical relationships between the human experience and planting, harvesting, and the brewing of grain.

In the Wiccan Mysteries book, I have drawn largely upon the works of Joseph Campbell, Carlo Ginzburg, and Marija Gimbutas for the modern interpretation of mythology, paganism, and human spirituality. As a balance the book also draws upon the writings of ancient historians such as Hesiod, Homer, Diodorus, Polybius, Strabo and others. Added to this is my own experience as a practitioner of the Old Religion for over 25 years.

Unfortunately some reviewers have elected to focus on my book as a presentation of questionable history. In doing so they have missed what is most important in the work itself: the Wiccan Mysteries is a work focusing on the spirituality of modern Wicca, as well as an overview of its beliefs and practices.

Wiccan Mysteries also contains separate chapters on Women's Mysteries and Men's Mysteries from ancient to modern times. Essentially the Wiccan Mysteries is a book about ancient wisdom and how modern Wicca employs it as a viable and vital tool for personal spiritual evolution in modern times.

Customer Reviews

Great work on spiritual legacy of Wicca
This is a book on the history and spiritual legacy of ancient pre-Christian religions and their impact on the evolution towards modern Wicca. It is written from the perspective of a long practicing Witch and artfully presents a fascinating micro-history. Modern scholars draw their conclusions concerning Witchcraft largely from material contained in trial transcripts and from writings by various monks and other Church agents who wrote about demonology and satanic worship. The problem with this "official" history of Witchcraft is that few if any people convicted of Witchcraft were actually witches. Therefore the information extracted from them cannot realistically be viewed as representative of the beliefs and practices of Witchcraft. And yet, this information is what scholars use to "prove" the non-existence of Witchcraft as having any credible relationship to the ways of modern Wicca.

As a contrast to the Judaic-Christian history of Witchcraft, Grimassi offers the views of those who actually practice the religion of Witchcraft. As Grimassi points out in the introduction he is an initiate of several Witchcraft traditions, and therefore draws from the common elements contained within all of them to reconstruct the tenets of the ancient Mystery Traditions that influenced the evolution of Witchcraft.

But the focus of this book is not on history, it's on the spiritual and religious beliefs in modern Wicca and the ancient concepts that contributed to them. A few reviewers here have expressed serious questions about many of Grimassi's historical references while at the same time complaining that Grimassi offers no historical support at all. This seems to reflect some personal agenda on their part rather than an authentic criticism of this author's work.

If you're genuinely interested in the magick, religion, and spirituality of modern Wiccans and Witches, then buy this book.

A badly researched retelling of long-debunked pseudohistory
The Pagan community is hungry for sound and genuine historical scholarship, but this just isn't it.

Grimassi makes the claims that have been floating around the Pagan community for years, and none of them are documented. The historical works that show up on the extensive bibliography are mostly tertiary sources -- the sort of things readily accessible in public libraries to any high school student writing a term paper -- or sources mired in deep academic controversy.

Most of the "history" in this book is the Sacred History of Wicca -- the myth of ancient origins, long-hidden traditions, and Inquisitorial persecution. The problem is that it's not true.

There are a few good sources on the history of Pagan religion (Ronald Hutton's _Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles_ is a good book.

But this book simply rehashes stories that have no evidence behind them. That may be acceptable for theology, but history is a matter of facts, not faith.

Buy this book!!!
Buy this book, read it, and have a highlighter ready!! This is an excellent text, and it really helped me to understand the Mysteries.....Grimassi knows what he is talking about. Get this book!!