There’s a witch book now for every reason and season. Three authors with upcoming titles talk about power, popularity, and pride.
Pam Grossman Rides the Wave
Since Grossman, a pagan witch and author, launched The WitchWave Podcast in 2017 she has interviewed scores of witches and pagans on their spiritual passions and practices. Her celebration of the visual arts in witch culture, Witchcraft, co-edited with Jessica Hundley, will be published in the Taschen Library of Esoterica this fall. Witchcraft, she says, is “anything against the patriarchy. It’s an embrace of nature and intuition. The witch is a figure who teaches us to honor the divinity that is in all beings and who also reminds us that we have power inside ourselves that we can use to transform the world for the better.”
Judika Illes and ‘Respectability'
Illes, author of nine witchcraft books including Daily Magic: Spells and Rituals for Making the Whole Year Magical (HarperOne, Aug.), and editor for many more, tells PW, “I remember in the 1970s, being the lonely little witch in town. Until recently, witchcraft was perceived as lowbrow, like grandma in the old country lighting candles. The respectability has skyrocketed in my lifetime. Now, we’re braver than ever in expressing our interests. You can be a witch proudly, it’s a positive thing.”
Cait Johnson, Self-proclaimed Crone
Johnson, 69, and the author of six witch titles including the still-popular Witch in the Kitchen, for Inner Traditions, takes on aging in her upcoming title for them: Witch Wisdom for Magical Aging: Finding Your Power Through the Changing Seasons (summer 2022), She writes: “Imagine an entire generation of women sailing on magical brooms into our elder years with open curiosity and verve, celebrating our magic, our wisdom, and our connection to All That Is, embracing our queenly croning selves, and enjoying the hell out of the ride.”
