Ellen Evert Hopman

Being a Pagan (previously published as People of the Earth) consists of a collection of interviews conducted in 1993 and 1994 with then-prominent members of the pagan community. The interviews focus not so much on personal spiritual practices but more on beliefs and the work of the individuals with various pagan groups and organizations. The section of interviewees is not very diverse - although there is a good mix of men and women (and some queer pagans), most of them practice some flavor of Wicca or another tradition that closely resembles it. And almost everyone is white.

I would not recommend this book as an introduction to paganism and witchcraft today. Both paganism and society as a whole have changed a lot since 1994! There's a lot of focus on issues that aren't so pressing now - for example, AIDS, the Vietnam War, and hippies get mentioned a lot. I also think it likely that a number of the groups mentioned are no longer active (for example, the Henge of Keltria was dissolved in 2017). I think this book mainly has value today as a historical document - if you are interested in the development of paganism (mainly Wicca) in North America in the 1970s to early 1990s. I doubt that it would have much relevance to most modern pagans practicing today.… (altro)

I was very interested to read this book as I like to learn about different beliefs. There are so many negative stereotypes about Paganism, Witches, and other nature related beliefs out there.
The book started off very well with detailing the rich history which I found fascinating. Unfortunately, I found the collection of interviews a bit hard to get into and I kept losing interest. I think I would have not lost interest had the history been interspaced with the interviews. The book is definitely worth reading especially if you want to know more about Paganism, Witchcraft, Witches, and Druids. I may have had trouble with how the book was arranged but I am only one person. Others might be just fine with the format of the book. The book is well written and it is obvious the author did a lot of reseach preparing for writing this book.… (altro)

I received this on NetGalley in exchange for my review. This book is basically a collection of interviews that were conducted via email exchange. The author asked mostly the same questions to all respondents, so there is a lot of redundancy. The first part of the book contains some brief synopses of accused witches in early New England followed by interviews with their modern day descendants. The second part contains interviews with modern day witches. Unfortunately, there is no analysis of any kind, just a copy of what the author collected via the email interviews.
… (altro)