Goth Magick: An Enchanted Grimoire [Paperback]

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.

Author of Ordinary Girl - A Magical Child, An and Aidan's First Full Moon Circle

First off, I have to say I enjoy Brenda Knight's work. I think her Witch Bree books are beautiful. I also like the book she wrote on women poets of the Beat Generation, something that I feel makes her stand out as a witch with more to say than the average writer.

But, I am not a fan of this book. Much like Konstantinos' books, this is basically a Wicca book with dark elements added. Which is fine, but I don't think beginners should read this. I feel they should read books like Power of the Witch, The Witches' Bible Compleat, work by Crowley which would be both Victorian and dark and anything by Stephen Flowers. A goth minded person could easily read some basic Wicca books which cover all aspects of the faith and then, add their own spin to it. The whole idea of Goth Magick being its own thing goes a bit against the idea of balance in the craft. I am in a coven and been in the goth scene for several years, being a bit of an Old School Goth myself and I feel that beginners could get led astray by books like this.

I had some problems with the book too, like trying to find your "magickal goth name". I hope this is a bit of Voltaire (the musician not the philosopher) humor coming out there. It reminds me of something Anton LaVey said in the Satanic Witch, that a woman named Diane can have as much dark power as a girl named Stormcloud Nightshade. And she'd probably be taken more seriously too. That is the problem with goth magick and dark paganism in general...using those terms. Yes, you have to use them to get people to your books and groups. But, I also, due to my age, feel silly having anything with the term "goth" on my bookshelf, especially one on magick. Goth is such a conformist thing now...I am sure Hot Topic could sell this book next to their HIM CDs and they would sell like mad.

Another problem was oddities like the use of the Northern Sun Goddess Sunna. There is instruction for a morning invoking of her...which to me, knowing what I know of goth culture, is the last thing a pale, night loving goth would do. I have to add that Knight's choices of gods is more vast than other similar books, but still, I am not sure how much experience she has in the scene...if she is looking from the outside in, her work could be clouded. It seems that Konstantinos did this sooner and a bit better, but still not that great.

I think if you are advanced in Wicca, you could get something out of this, like something new to add to tired rituals, but if you are a beginner, there are better books to start with that will give you a better view of this religion. And it is a religion, that a lifestyle, not something pretty to put on and off like a corset. Wicca is a commitment. So it is best to read everything you can on the subject and not limit yourself to one branch of it, though I can hardly call Goth Magick a branch like Asatru or Strega.

Ok...I read this book again months later and I don't like it anymore than the first time I read it. I was really giving it the benefit of the doubt. I had recently acquired a copy of Goth Craft and re-read this one and there were more things that bugged me in it:

1) The Goth that existed in Roman times have nothing to do with the Goth of the postpunk music scene. The term was coined by Andi Sex Gang and it was Visigoth, almost a degrading term like punk. It wasn't a romantic term. The author tried to put the Asatru gods into the mix and thought I understand were she tried to make a Barbaric to modern goth connection, it's really lost on me. Plus, like before, she didn't even mention the Moon God Mani, which I would think would be a major point if she wanted to push the "goth" angle. In addition to this, the author says the term Goth came from this romantic Barbaric vision of the past. Yet Goths killed a lot of people and this means even children. She doesn't mention this, yet mentions how bad the Inquisition was. It sounds contradictory, like what's romantic to goths is ok, but violence that upsets them or pagans is wrong. Personally, most of the goths I've met most likely couldn't even tell me when or where the historical goths existed in history. And to say, this magick was around during the time of the Goths...well, I feel like the author is trying to put out there that the original Goths practiced elemental magick. Mmm, they didn't.
2) Even though the author states this book is gothic and advanced, it really lists the same old Wiccan stuff with a little dark thrown in. Like there are standard Wiccan colors, then the dark ones (red, black and silver) thrown in. Like Nocturnal Magick before it, I guess the only colors deemed gothic are black, red and silver. Where's purple? Anyway, when the author explains the tools, it is just like normal Wicca. To me, you could read any book on Wicca and add your own personality to it. I mean hippie people into Wicca don't came up with a religion called Hippie Wicca? Nor is there a Goth Christianity. I just don't see why books like this are on the market except to make money or for goths who can't afford more than one book on their spooky spiderwebbed shelf...and make sure that book is red, silver or black, BTW.
3) The WInter Soul is an interesting chapter, I could almost bump the book up a star for this, but at the same time, it is hard for me to imagine people in hot climates making a winter altar. I personally like Autumn more, but there is no Autumn Soul chapter. I believe goths would like both, especially since Halloween is in October. I am a bit confused when she brings up the "lady of summer" in a winter ritual. I am also confused about the section on crosses, since when I used to wear rosaries as a goth, it was more a sign of masochism than spiritual, like martyrdom. I feel Gothic Wiccans wouldn't wear them since they are a sign of oppression of the Catholic church, but maybe I am wrong.
4) The calendar is a bit weird because it seems Nordic heavy at first then goes into the traditional Sabbats, which weren't followed by the Norse in that way. I don't see anything gothic in this section, just an explanation of holidays. I mean, Z Budapest doesn't a vampiric ritual make, just because she's Eastern European doesn't mean she has any connection to the new gothic subculture.
5) There seems to be large chapter on sex, about 40 pages in 230 page book, but none of those spells and potions seem very goth to me. I guess if you have the moxie to call a book Goth Magick, I aspect some goth magick.
6) Does Nicholas Cage really follow Crowley? I don't even think that is true.
7) The end of chapter nine, I am confused how vampires and Asatrus are related, but I will stop there. I feel the end of this chapter is a bit irresponsible.
8) The horror-scope section is just regular stuff with the word Goth here and there. It basically has all the same stuff about being a Leo, Aries, etc, except it says gothic writer instead of just writer, if you get me.
9) I didn't get the gothic crafts section either, the idea of taking wine bottles and painting them black and putting stickers on them sounds like a kindergarten art project. At the end of the book, I am still wondering what is so gothic about Goth Wicca? I am an old school goth, I want to know!

So, in short or long, as it might be, I read it a second time, hoping to give this a better rating and I just can't,. Sorry.

I see a lot of people who love this book. Ok, good for you.

I've been a practicing Pagan for about 15 years. I follow a nocturnal path. For me, I feel that this book was a complete waste of my money. All it does is rehash what has already been done, and done better, by other authors. I don't want to slam Brenda Knight, I do love her other works, but here, she missed the mark. It seemed like an attempt to capitalize on the works of Konstantinos, Raven Digitalis, and the Goth crowd.

What did it for me was the section on animal sacrifice. Great, feed into the stereotypes others already have regarding the Goth crowd. Sacrificing animals is NOT part of most pagan practices nowadays, as most follow the Wiccan Rede. Given, you will find it in Voodoo, and other Afro-Carribean religions, but not so much in Wicca/Paganism.

When it comes down to it, I feel this book does more harm than good. I would NOT reccomend this to anyone as a "Wicca 101", I'd be more likely to reccomend anything by Silver Ravenwolf, The Green Witcraft series by Ann Moura, Or The Nocturnal Witcraft series by Konstantinos. I'd be afraid of the 15 year olds getting ahold of this and going down the wrong path, and keep in mind, this is comming from another Pagan.