Review: Year of the Witch: Connecting with Nature’s Seasons through Intuitive Magick | Temperance Alden

This review is spoiler free.

“The year of the witch is the year of you.”

Published: 2020, by Weiser Books.
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Genre: Witchcraft, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Religion, Occult
Contains: Blood/Gore

‘Year of the Witch’ helps readers create their own intuitive practices with harmony with the climate, culture, and local spirits where they live. It’s of interest to witches coming off the Wiccan path and looking for a more personal approach to celebrating the rhythms of nature.

This book has been in my currently reading for a very long time, dipping in and out of it whenever possible to explore the concept of the Wheel of the Year at my own pace. However, by the time I’d finished this book, I couldn’t help but feel unfulfilled.

There were numerous issues I had with this book, but I want to discuss the pluses before delving into a negative rabbit-hole. The concept of creating your own Wheel of the Year was fascinating, and I enjoyed reading a little about the histories of the sabbats and what potentials lie there when celebrating. However, that was all, and that section was in the final ten pages of the entire book. I couldn’t help but feel as if this book was slightly false advertising, as the rest of the book explored things off topic and at time, unhelpful.

One of the main issues I had with this book was the overload of Alden’s opinions and very little fact to back up the argument. Although, all references were in the back of the book, Alden doesn’t cite her sources throughout, exploring her own opinion and not backing it up in any way. Her opinions were some I didn’t necessarily agree with, and that’s perfectly okay. However, denying climate change and believing the birth control hinders a witches natural magic, I couldn’t help but firmly disagree with. This did impact my enjoyment of the book, considering I feel as if Alden’s narrative voice was strong, meaning I felt helpless in disagreeing with her.

The writing itself is sloppy at times, delving into topics that have no interest or meaning to the narrative flow of the novel, meaning Alden’s opinions were very unnecessary on which element is the most important or blood magic rituals were ignored. Personally, I don’t need that kind of information, so it was skimmed over before desperately trying to find information that was of use to me.

Overall, I personally didn’t enjoy this book, being unaware of Alden’s influencer status, but I’m sure this will be a brilliant read for fans. Personally, the amount of misinformation was worrying, and at times, inappropriate.

2/5