THE SPIRAL DANCE: THOUGHTS

Starhawk offers some excellent insight into the theory and practice of Witchcraft in this book. A lot of it (maybe over half) was actually ritual outlines, correspondences, and exercises, which wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but very useful nonetheless. I enjoyed getting perspective from a follower of the Feri Tradition.

One thing that I found particularly interesting was her differentiation between Abrahamic religions and Eastern traditions versus Witchcraft and Goddess traditions in the sense that Judo-Christian and Eastern religions often emphasize overcoming basic humanness, for example sexuality, while Goddess traditions encourage the celebration of these natural things that are a part of being human. She also points out that Witchcraft and Goddess traditions do not have a "wise person", there is no grand witch to reveal the truth to others like in many religions. I like how much she emphasizes self-reliance when it comes to spirituality.

"It is important, however, to separate the concept of polarity from our culturally conditioned images of male and female. The Male and Female forces represent difference, yet they are not different, in essence: They are the same force flowing in opposite, but not opposed, directions. The Chinese concept of Yin and Yang is somewhat similar, but in Witchcraft the description of the forces is very different. Neither is “active” or “passive,” dark or light, dry or moist—instead, each partakes of all those qualities. The Female is seen as the life-giving force, the power of manifestation, of energy flowing into the world to become form. The Male is seen as the death force, in a positive, not a negative sense: the force of limitation that is the necessary balance to unbridled creation, the force of dissolution, of return to formlessness. Each principle contains the other: Life breeds death, feeds on death; death sustains life, makes possible evolution and new creation. They are part of a cycle, each dependent on the other."

I really identify with her view on the polarity of the divine here. I don't have much to say about this as, coincidentally, it's nearly identical to my views.

One of the only issues I had with this book is that she presents a history of Goddess worship, but she uses her imagination to "reconstruct" this history while presenting it as fact. I have no problem with her writing her interpretation of the past, but she should have explicitly stated that it is only an interpretation.

Overall though, this book was very well written, poetic, and insightful. I've used a few of her exercises that she's included and I find them helpful. I look forward to trying more of them. I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who hasn't read it.