The Witch's Path: Advancing Your Craft at Every Level

I really enjoyed Thorn Mooney’s first book Traditional Wicca, but I absolutely love The Witch’s Path. Mooney has such a friendly, approachable, relatable, and charming writing style, which I greatly admire. While seekers and beginners can enjoy this book and get a lot out of it, I feel it’s ideally more suitable for someone already on the path of witchcraft that has found themselves in a rut or overwhelmed with difficulties within the witchcraft and pagan community. Anyone who has been practicing witchcraft for years with seriousness is bound to find themselves feeling uninspired, burned out, and unconnected from their Craft at some point on the path. With complete transparency, Mooney shares her struggles with this and, more importantly, provides insight into how she overcame it in hopes that you can too, when you are up against these roadblocks.Regardless of whether you view your Craft as spirituality or religion, The Witch’s Path shows that there is indeed depth to the Craft. To discover these answers, Mooney shows that this depth and “advanced” witchcraft is there if we are earnestly looking for it. She encourages us to approach this path with reverence regardless of if we relate to it as a religion or spirituality, not treat it as something to dabble in with the sole intent of self-service or as an aesthetic to serve our egos while also suggesting we keep it in balance with not overextending ourselves to others to our own detriment. This book is inspiring, honest, and level-headed while remaining supportive, understanding, and urging the reader to discover their own answers without ever being condescending.The Witch’s Path isn’t a book of just spells and rituals. This is a book about reigniting the spark, passion, enthusiasm, connection, and awe of a witch’s Craft - which is much more crucial if we are going to have our magick and spellcasting be effective and treat this as our spiritual life path. You aren’t necessarily getting training on “how to be a witch” or “how to cast spells.” What you are getting is something much more valuable, the wisdom of years of experience of a sincere practitioner within the Craft regarding some of the most difficult challenges the witch is bound to confront, which is rarely if ever discussed in other books. I don’t see eye to eye with every witchcraft book, though I can appreciate and find stuff that I can resonate with inside almost all of them. That being said, I’m amazed by how similar Mooney’s perspectives on most topics within the book are to my own, which I feel can often be rare for me. This book is definitely a great addition to my library, and I’m sure it’s one I will come back to re-read periodically.

There are already several reviews covering the content of this book, so I'm going to focus on the specifics that I found helpful:1. Personal anecdotes that look a lot like my own life, and how those became stepping stones to something else instead of insurmountable obstacles. I have absolutely pulled the "from now on I'm getting up early every day and I'm going to have a productive and spiritually fulfilling morning!" move, despite being one of those people who sleeps through every alarm. I haven't learned... I do this semi-annually, and it's nice to see the way someone else with the same bizarre drive to suddenly become a morning person has handled it.2. Learning opportunities that get specific. Sure, learning about where you live is a good place to get interested in a new approach. Thorn makes this less intimidating by providing a list of questions to answer as prompts. Sweet baby jesus, do I ever live for a good writing prompt.3. Exercises that are approachable and 4 fit options for wherever you are in your practice. These are all doable. Some seem simple, but they still effect change. I noticed the only poor reviews didn't address the exercises. It looks like they were read but not attempted. The change happens in the practice, not the reading, and I suspect they would have had different results had they chosen an exercise from each chapter to try. It's disappointing to see a book of action items being reviewed by readers who expect to accomplish a major breakthrough without actually following a single recommendation from the book. Why buy it at all?I hope this is helpful to anyone on the fence. I don't think this will overhaul anyone's entire life... but that's not the point. It's just another step on the journey, and Thorn Mooney did a great job putting up signposts.

Where other authors use how "magical" they are to be an authority, Mooney uses their empathy.Sometimes you are in a setting with a bunch of pagans, and you feel inadequate as someone's talking about all these magical experiences they have all the time, BUT THEN Thorn drops this BANGER of a book that feels like someone taking you to the side to say: "Hey, I've been there. When you are ready for advice or next steps, I got your back".Both the reaching out to tell you you aren't alone, AND actions you can do to move forward ARE IN THIS BOOK!After the first read-through, I honestly went out to buy 4 notebooks because the exercises are so amazing I want to do them all. I see this book being something that I will go back to often over time.I hope it becomes a known resource for anyone in a rut or having issues "Doing the Work" (Mooney also does a good job at identifying what the fork people mean when they say that).The Witch's Path gives me hope that more realistic guides to magic and living in the modern world are on the horizon; because if I see one more person recommend Ray Buckland's "Big Blue Book" which includes an exercise to FORGE YOUR OWN ATHAME, I will eat my broom!TLDR: This book is amazing. There is nothing like it's practicality and ability to get you inspired to do some magic and come into your power- that's all you want from a witchy book. I hope you give it the time and place on your shelf it deserves- and a revisit when you need someone to say "I know where you are, and I am happy to help"Blessed Be friends and Praise Satan!

So eager to read this that I had to purchase the Kindle version before it was released in my country. Like Mooney's previous title, it has a wealth of information that could span numerous books, all in one. With many books on the market that lack those next steps after introductory titles, this equips you with those next level steps for advancing your craft just as the title says. It’s very relatable to both Wiccan, and non-Wiccan Witches, and complete with well-thought-out and creatives exercises that push you passed those uncomfortable areas where growth happens.I was curious as to how Thorn would attack the issues of stagnation, and burn out, and just happened to be sitting on my sofa wanting to procrastinate attending a passion of mine that has started to feel more like a chore when I decided to delve into this book, and the very opening chapter convinced me otherwise. Not only is this the perfect book for advancing your craft, but I found that it went above and beyond that, as it can easily translate to overcoming other facets of mundane life. Very motivating!

Very well written, lots of material in here for those who have been on a Wiccan path for some time. Presented clearly and concisely, with personal anecdotes that really allow you to connect with this work and this author - you will see yourself in some of the stories, I'm sure, I know I did :) Looking forward to more work by this author!

thorn is one of my favourite authors, and I really love everything she’s done with the witch’s path. as I read I can see why practitioners who have been at this much longer than me say for example 10 or more years, may not find this book helpful. however, I feel some people are misunderstanding the point of the book. this is not a how to guide, it’s like sitting down with a friend for advice. thorn’s book is talking about stagnation and ways to start or revive a practice, and I feel a lot of people are reading this book without having hit a genuine rut, and are expecting something else from it. I look forward to reading more of thorn’s work in the future!

Beginner book of great items that I like