Book Review: An Apostate’s Guide to Witchcraft: Finding Freedom Through Magic
I am very excited to share a review of Moss Matthey’s first book! I’d hoped to have this out sooner, but a few things both personal and otherwise prevented me from finishing this review sooner.
This book is a brilliantly written exploration of personal liberation through witchcraft. Moss is vulnerable in a way not many folks are, and his experience of leaving a Christian cult and reconciling his identities as a queer man and a witch are seamlessly woven through his exploration of witchcraft. Much of what he shares about his approach to spirituality and the craft is rooted in his relationship to the Welsh countryside. While some folks (looking at you, my fellow Americans) may be hesitant to pick up a book rooted in a geography “across the pond”, I personally found it fascinating to see the ways our practices share many things in common , and the parts that were different prompted me to critically reflect on why - and lead to some very surprising answers that may end up shifting my own relationship to the land.
While I did not have the same upbringing as Moss, his journey deeply resonated with me. I was raised Roman Catholic and was an altar server in the Church. In elementary school I thought I wanted to be a priest. Even after we moved to a more rural area and began attending a more conservative church, my personal relationship to my faith was important to me. I struggled when I began to realize I was gay, and Moss’ sharing of his own personal ways of navigating his own personal coming out, fear of punishment both divine and mundane, and fear of isolation were something I could connect with.
This is what I mean when I say he is vulnerable in a way I don’t often see. His willingness to share this part of his history, something many try to keep as distant as possible, I think makes this book so accessible and grounding to the queer community.
But what about the magic?!
Given my own practice is heavily rooted in queer-affirming spirituality and our Queer Ancestors it should come as no surprise that my favorite chapter in this book was “The Queerness of Witchcraft.” This chapter does a great job of diving into what we mean by words such as “queer” and “witch”, and how the two overlap in terms of liminality and marginalization. Speaking of liminality, this chapter also tackles the often binary approach of male/female energies by putting forth an alternative, the forces of inspiration and creation, and provides a very practical exercise to explore this approach. Moss also takes time in this chapter to explore something many folks tend to shy away from in more mainstream publications about queerness and queer power: sex.
There are many great exercises presented in this book, ranging from “Creating a Protection Spell Jar” to “Channeling the Narrative Spirit.” My favorite, however, is the exercise on “Experiencing Liminality.” In my own work teaching around hedge spaces and hedge magic I find folks can more easily conceptualize the idea of liminality than experience or embody it. The exercise Moss provides is an easy yet powerful way to get out of your head and into your body, and to begin to feel what it’s like to experience liminality. It is a simple exercise, but one that can help hone a witch’s intuition for application in so many other contexts.
An Apostate’s Guide to Witchcraft: Finding Freedom Through Magic is out now through Llewellyn Press. You can purchase a copy here. (Please note, this is my affiliate link to Bookshop.org so I do make a small commission.)
