Goth Magick: An Enchanted Grimoire
This book is advertised as a definitive guide to Goth Magick, its mythology, history and resources. According to the publisher, Goth Magick is the “modern art of dark magic deeply rooted in past traditions.”
Firstly, let me say, I am not now Goth, nor have I ever been interested in following a Goth lifestyle. I am also somewhat older than what I perceive to be the target readership of this book of 20 something females. Since I have little or no intimate knowledge with Goth secrets, I will base this review on what I do know of Wiccan Magick.
I found much of the contents of the book to be listings of various kinds from gemstones to astrology. All of the information is basic and can be found in many other books, even online if you do some serious googling. The list entries were given a Gothic twist to fit them to the theme of the book, but beyond that there wasn’t really much new to the various descriptions.
There are an assortment of various spells and rituals. Again, they are given a Goth flavoring, but to my eyes, there wasn’t much difference from many other Wicca 101 books already available.
Ms. Knight quotes the famous last eight words from the Wiccan Rede near the start of the book. She even goes on to caution her readers to not hamper others’ free wills with their spell work. Unfortunately, she fails to follow through on this when the reader arrives at her rather steamy chapter on Supernatural Sex. In the numerous spells in this chapter, there are many that are cast on a specific person to do the spell caster’s bidding.
One thing I found to be somewhat insulting to me, not being Goth, was the author’s continued repetition that Goth witches are much more sensitive and romantic in nature than the rest of us. I suppose a young Goth with feelings of teenage angst or of being misunderstood by everyone would find this soothing. In fact one might even find such claims to be validation of their dark lifestyle choices.
For much of the book I was reminded of the style of writing employed in such mundane magazines as Cosmopolitan and Glamour. Given this sensuous focus, and the rather limited new information here, I’d say this book will appeal to older teens and young 20 something women who are already Goth and just recently became interested in Wicca. The book was enjoyable to read and well written. This book is definitely Goth Wicca 101 with not much else, however.
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