I have found previous books by Mankey which I have read very interesting. While I continue to swim against the Wiccan-tide in my personal practice (which is still very fledgling), I continuously find useful elements in his work which help broaden my understanding. 'Transformative Witchcraft' is aided by its subtitle, 'The Greater Mysteries', because I love mysteries. A big part of uncovering these mysteries also seems to require taking apart or investigating other religions and beliefs. While this was interest, I felt it was important to perhaps highlight the fact that wicca and witchcraft are not interchangeable. Wicca in and of itself is a religion, a form of belief which employs witchcraft, in the same way I would not consider myself Wicca but am intrigued by magic.
I found some of Mankey's earlier books more useful, as they provided, in my opinion, more direct tips and skills rather than longer sections of information. I had hoped to get a better insight into how his practices and these great mysteries had transformed his life or his ideas, but this didn't entirely happen for me.

Mankey takes the traditional view of witchcraft and turns it into someone new. The history of practices and practitioners is great reading without being overly academic and dry. By introducing the history before the "practical" part, Mankey shows how The Craft has transformed over time, so the title isn't simply about how to transform the self through magic but rather shows how The Craft is a living, breathing, dynamic practice that has and will continue to grow and transform as our collective awareness grows. As for the "practical" aspect of the book, Mankey offers a fresh take on old rituals such as The Great Rite and offers a glimpse into what the future may hold for The Craft. Overall, Transformative Witchcraft is a great addition to a beautiful religion/spiritual path and has earned a place on my bookshelf.

I always love a book that helps me learn more about my craft and perfect my practices. This book was no exception, definitely one to buy and have on my shelf for reference in the future.

Very informative book. Full of a lot of useful information. This book will also be very useful for future reference

Very rushed and the writing style was not my thing. I'm sure there are people out there who would enjoy!

I am new to this subject, just finding my way around it, and though I enjoyed this book, I plan to re-read it when I know a bit more, as I think I will get more out of it then. Very interesting nevertheless.

Jason Mankey continues to share solid teaching in his books. Great attention to detail. All teachers and students would benefit by referring to his titles.

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. This was broken up into five parts and it goes through some of the basics of magick and witchcraft. There were a few things from in here that I had not read in other books on witchcraft. Maybe I just like the way it was explained and how it was laid out before. I have read a few hundred books on the subject over the last couple of decades. This is one of the better ones.

This book is packed with so many facts, footnotes, and history which makes it a bit dense to read, but a worthy collection on the history and transformations witchcraft and related ideas have gone through over the years. This book feels more like a collection of history and stories related to important figures in the history of Witchcraft and other versions of The Craft. The author has direct experience in what he is writing about and is obviously interested in the topic. This would be a great book to read if you are more interested in the history and even gossip-related aspects of The Craft, as well as the long list of main players, rituals, initiations, and general history related.

This was not a terrible book, but it was also not unlike pretty much every other book on witchcraft that has come out in the last few years. The history was interesting but also very jammed up and rushed.

I am sure I must have crossed paths with Jason and his companion somewhere along the line, be it circling in ceremony or Pantheon. This book is a palatable combination of recent history of some prominent group line founders like Gardner with a bit about Leland, personal stories & circle spells as well as needed basics. It's a book I can see owning for reference as well as recommend for the Craft. Personally, as we all have our ideas, I do think Gardner hooked up with a group who had put together past bits off knowledge along with what they had created. He came at a time after heavy fascination of Occultism during the Victorian age and Gardnerian as well as Alexandrian have done a lot to cement western European witchcraft into what it is today with a good solid structure. Leland at a time before that period was a card. He put together a classic Italian witchcraft book called Aradia from his interactions with some Italian witches that in part I think pulled him a bit but the basis is pure and has been added on to by others that is also solid in it's purist form. My biggest issue with some of the things he put forward was a bizarre Latin form of demands [that when I read again remembered and choked again] and that is a spell where people are suppose to think of devouring the body/soul of the Deity [DIANA!]. I feel the concept was kind of twisted from original intent and meaning as any Deity visitation or encounter I sure wouldn't be demanding anything from them but humbly begging if they saw fit [Jason sees this the same as me] and certainly wouldn't be thinking cannibalism of them. I feel this comes from the same premise that I have seen in Latin witchcraft including Christianity of devouring body/blood as demanding x instead of will be done stuff. There are always grains to loaves of truth in any situation like what he encountered in Italy and feel the ladies gave him far more valuable information along with the fluff than he paid for. The same with the Rom[Gypsies] that he ran after from Roma clan and kumpania [camp] to kumpania. He actually had balls of platinum or else British arrogance that took him where most would be afraid to tread. I am grateful that he did as he preserved a form of history of the ties and peoples in doing so as well as put forth a solid line of practice of Stregheria [Italian witchcraft] for the public. Anyway, on to Jasons book: some great solid starters and more in depth setting up circles, Sambatts and spells and a bit about his experiences. He is easy and enjoyable to read and understand which I think is invaluable to people on a path. I enjoyed this take immensely as well as another book I had been reading at the same time based on the Reclaiming line.

I’ve always been interested in Witchcraft. I like the spiritual aspects, which appeals much more than organised religion, and the connection it has with nature. This book appealed to me because it gave me the opportunity to find out more about a subject I don’t know that much about and perhaps see if it’s something I would like to take further.
Written by an experienced witch, there was plenty in this book to help me understand just what might be involved and how to take my interest beyond reading books. If I’m honest, however, it was probably a little too advanced for me. Because I’ve already done some reading and attended some events, I was familiar with much of what was being said. I’m just not familiar enough to know how to take this new knowledge and put it into practice.
To be fair, I was told as much in the introduction. As I’d requested a copy of the book to review, though, I felt I needed to read on. What I got was a detailed look at some of the history of witchcraft, how covens work, and the rituals they perform. It was fascinating, especially with the real-life accounts woven into the text (which might otherwise have been a bit dry) and for people who were further along their journey, it would probably have been really useful.
Instead, I ended up feeling somewhat overwhelmed. This doesn’t mean this wasn’t a good book. It was. It was everything it promised on the tin – informative and insightful. It just wasn’t for me because it’s also a ‘how to’ guide and I’m nowhere near that point yet.

Witchcraft is meant to be transforming. It's more than doing rituals, spells and watching the moon, although that is important. Many people jump in, looking for abracadabra and every wish is granted. There's work and learning and teaching involved. This book contains some of the more complicated rites. These things can be life changing. In many cases, witches never know about things such as raising power, initiations, the cone of power and the Great Rite. This book answers questions and has personal stories that have been shared. Witchcraft is full of fascinating facts and mysteries, some just waiting to be opened. A great book for everyone's bookshelf to be read and re-read. I received this book from Net Galley and Llewellyn Publishing for a honest review. I voluntarily read this book.

I tried reading this book and could not get into the writing subject and the subject matter. I will be passing on this book.

I enjoyed this book but it wasn't exactly groundbreaking? I'm glad I read it, though. It's perhaps because I'm used to my ways in the craft that I wasn'treally wanting to go into this, seemed more Wicca-based

Having read hundreds of books about witchcraft in the last 25 years, I was hoping for something a little more transformative from a book by this name. It's a solid primer, offering a lot of history, discussion of tools, and beautiful rituals related to common mystical experiences (i.e., Drawing Down the Moon, the Great Rite).

Overall, though, this book fell flat for me. The heavy emphasis on history and ritual over the daily lived experience of the path felt very disengaged to me. I have no doubt the author is deeply connected with the experiences he describes, but it doesn't come across very well in the writing.

Overall, it's a solid introduction to these rites for the beginner or intermediate witch, but it offers little to extend that into lived experience.

Though this book appeared to have a lot of great information, I kept glazing over. The voice just didn't keep me engaged. I'm sure others have found it more appealing.

Through Netgalley I acquired this book on witchcraft in exchange for my honest review. I am not a witch or wiccan myself. However, I am interested in parts of paganism, despite me being quite the atheist. Since childhood, witchcraft has always had a fascination for me, so I was curious to learn more, when this book Transformative Witchcraft: The Greater Mysteries by Jason Mankey fell into my digital lap.

This book mostly goes into group (or just two person) ritual. What exactly do witches mean with a cone of power? How do they create one? How do certain kinds of rituals look like? the book includes a lot of inspiration for ritual-designing, since there are many rituals completely written out from beginning (the casting of the circle) to the end (the re-opening of the circle). It goes deep into the why and how of certain things, and it gave me a insight in a world I didn’t know much about.

What I really appreciated was the conversational tone (there are personal remarks all over the place) and the continuing confirmation that all rituals and roles within them, can be done by all genders. Wicca can be amazingly stereotypical and essentialist about gender, so this was nice and refreshing. Being non-binary myself, I felt seen.

What I did find hard, which has to do with my scientific and atheist outlook on life, is that the author really, actually seems to believe in all he writes. Energy is a physical thing. The god and goddess are actually real. This is something I prefer to see metaphorically, if I engage in more pagan pursuits. I do believe his experiences and those of many others are real and genuine; except I think the cause of those experience are explained by how our brains are marvellous and amazing in letting us feel things that seem too wondrous to come from within ourselves. But, each to their own. As long as people don’t cause harm to themselves or others, I see no problems here.

I am very new to witchcraft and always looking for more books; this one was a great help! Lots of great info, not the same repetitive stuff either!

<i>I received this book for free from NetGalley and Llewellyn in exchange for my honest review.</i>

Here we go.

My biggest issue with this book? The author seems to think that all witches are Wiccans and that witchcraft demands a belief in the Lord and the Lady. That, my friends, is not the case. <b>Wiccan and witch are not interchangeable</b> and <b>witchcraft is not a religion</b>.

The book had a lot of anti-Christian remarks, some openly so, some thinly veiled. It was off-putting, as I'd love to see us pagans move past that already. I can see how this book would definitely offend people who are Christian witches.

The heteronormativity bugged me, too. Now, Mankey occasionally remembers that heteronormativity is no longer cool and mentions it, but he still manages to go on heteronormative spiels or rants about things. Cisnormativity was never even mentioned, at least I can't remember it being mentioned. The High Priest's counterpart is the High Priestess and they have a phallus and a womb, respectively, <i>we get that you'd like to think that</i>.

And, as a sex-critical person with asexual friends, the chapter about the Great Rite rubbed me the wrong way. Not all witches are sex-positive, not all witches are into sex. I was glad to see Mankey mention consent culture, though, because it is often overlooked.

After reading the book I feel like I've learned nothing. The title, even, was misleading. This book didn't mention anything ~transformative~, not in Mankey's life, not in mine.

But there had to be some good parts, because I gave two stars and not just one, right?

The book had some interesting parts. That's it. The Masonic stuff was interesting.