It features a range of poems that span from the most delightfully subtle to the most powerfully sexual and various shades in between. The poems herein hail from various cultures and time-periods: from the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome, ancient Egypt, China, India, Japan, Africa, Native America, and the Middle East through contemporary American and European poetry. Many of the poets you will likely recognize. There are selections from Sappho, Shakespeare, Blake, Yeats, Whitman, Rumi, and Neruda.

I have always respected and loved Wicca's perspective on the erotic and the sensual as sacred and potentially intensely spiritual aspects of life. This view is embodied in one of Wicca's most important rituals and forms of worship: The Great Rite. Although the editor was not specifically concerned with a Wiccan or Pagan audience, this book offers so much to the Pagan reader in that it celebrates the liminal in the erotic. Hamill himself writes "[i]n the love of the dark lord Krishna for the milkmaid Radha or of the ecstatic Miribai for Krishna, in the love of Zen master Ikkyu for his Lady Mori or the poems of Robert Herrick, we find again and again the expression of love in which any distinction between the religious or spiritual and the carnal are utterly obliterated" (xxii). This volume gives Pagans the opportunity to explore this thought more fully through many other traditions.

We are not two [in this case, matter and spirit]
yet you look for me outside;
when you find me within yourself,
your own naked mind,
that Single Awareness
will fill all worlds.

For me, these verses harken back to our certain lines in our own "Charge of the Goddess" (the particular lines I am referring to are quoted in my essay Perceptions of God within Chrisitianity and Wicca), and I now wonder if the original author of the Charge had access to this poem. It has been said that Wicca is a religion of poetry rather than theology, and if this volume is any indication, then poetry is indeed a wonderful medium to express experience with God and mythic metaphor. In addition to poetry related to ancient Paganisms, there are also works associated with more mystic traditions of Islam, Judaism, and Chrisitianity which illustrate the true beauty of those paths as well as of our own. It really does not matter if you are male of female since these selections have something to offer everyone.

Oliver listens to the song of her own environment and seeks encounters with the creatures within it. Reading her poetry is almost a shamanic experience in itself. Through her work we shift into animal forms, delve deep into the earth, soar in forest canopy, and seek out spirits of the land. It is at once concerned with the tangible and the spiritual. I am finding it difficult to describe her work without waxing poetic myself!

Although this Pulitzer Prize-winning volume could be a quick read, I recommend that you progress through it slowly enough to really savor the poems. I find myself re-reading it often, and I still enjoy it as much as when I first read it. Highly recommended!!

I was delighted to discover is that each of the poems is reproduced from Valiente's own type-written originals, complete with typos and her personal hand-written corrections. In addition, each page includes imagery of Doreen's own collection of magical artifacts, all of which are described in notation located at the end of the book. "The Witches' Ballad" which appeared in her book Witchcraft for Tomorrow, "The Witches' Rune," and of course "The Charge of the Goddess" (the prose rather than the verse version) are included along with other poems that delve into Wiccan spirituality. Many of them speak of the forest and the creatures that reside there: satyrs, fauns, dryads, faeries, etc., and many of them qualify as invocations suitable for ritual use. There are also poems which are definately intended to be light-hearted and humorous, "The Ballad of Sir Roughcrops," "An Unsolved Problem of Psychic Research," and "Ye Olde Maye Game" among them. Virtually every poem includes some sort of commentary on the facing page, but there are also comments relating to Doreen's life and work from such individuals as Marian Green, Janet Farrar, and Patricia Crowther (another of Gerald's High Priestesses), as well as others.

Although I did not think all of the poems included represented her best work (I think that equaling the beauty of "The Charge of the Goddess" would be especially difficult indeed), the only real concerns I had reading this book involved the commentary. The first poem directly cites the Wiccan Rede: "Save those the Wiccan Rede fulfil:/ 'AN IT HARM NONE, DO WHAT YE WILL'"(10). However, the commentary on the opposing page states that the Wiccan Rede is "Do What Ye Wilt But Harm Ye None." Although these two statements are superficially similar in construction, they mean very different things. "As long as it harms none, you can do what you will" is different than "Do what you will but harm none." The first statement does not prescribe what an individual should do if an action causes harm, the second makes it so that you can only act under the condition that no harm is caused. The true Wiccan Rede, which Valiente cites in her work, cannot be accurately abbreviated to the command "harm none," while the misquoted version the commentary espouses can.

I was also really perplexed by the commentary on the poem "An Unsolved Problem of Psychic Research." While the rhyme, meter, and content of the poem easily identify it as a sarcastic limerick, in this case relating to certain accounts of mortal women having sex with demons obtained during the witch trials, the commentary disscusses Wiccan practices such as the Fivefold Kiss in a very serious manner. I really don't understand the association between the two, unless the commentary is supposed to imply that the Fivefold Kiss is perverse or something. Obviously Doreen had a great sense of humor, but apparently the commentator does not (although the images of Doreen's wands, carved at the tip to resemble a phallis, are somewhat appropriate to the content of the poem).

The commentary on page 79 mentions Doreen's successful search for evidence of the existence of "Old Dorothy" Clutterbuck who supposedly initiated Gerald Gardner into a Wiccan coven: "By carrying out this valuable research, Doreen salvaged the credibility of Gardner and consequently the Craft." While Valiente definitely did prove that a woman by the name of Dorothy Clutterbuck did exist and, in fact, lived in Gardner's area, she did not find evidence to suggest that she really was what Gardner claimed her to be, a Witch. Research clearly tends to show that Dorothy was a pious, church-going, Christian woman (see Hutton's The Triumph of the Moon). Unfortunately, in this case, Doreen really did not salvage Gardner's credibility.

In addition, Doreen wrote a poem that relates to ancient Egypt,"Lament for the Land of Khem." Although the commentary is partly correct in stating that Egypt was once known as the "Land of Khem" (Khem being the ancient Egyptian word for "black," and the Egyptians did refer to their country as the "Black Land," referencing the dark silt that was deposited along the Nile), I have yet to find a Deity named Khem that the commentator describes as "the Egyptian God of Reproduction, Fertility, Harvest, Agriculture and Regeneration" (41). I will have to do more research to determine if there was, in fact, an Egyptian God named Khem, but I do not know of any offhand (although there are alternate spellings of the God Khnum's name).

This book would definately be of interest to anyone who wants to explore Wiccan religious poetry. It would also serve as great inspiration for anyone seeking to write their own invocations.