An Apostate's Guide to Witchcraft

I read this for a book club, and enjoyed it so much. It's part-memoir, part-guide, relating to finding your freedom of expression and love for yourself through magick. More than that, the author himself had to escape a cult to do so. His perspective is truly escaping something and finding freedom in magick. Within the book, Matthey speaks directly to the reader as though they, too, have recently escaped, or are thinking of escaping. I can see how this is a very personal book for Matthey. In a way, he's speaking to the people he had to leave behind. Many of them no longer speak to him because the cult shuns any who leave, calling them "apostates."

I gained a lot of knowledge, ideas, and inspiration from this book. As a Pagan and a witch, I felt close to Matthey's viewpoint on several topics and ended up highlighting passages on nearly every page. He touches upon almost every aspect of magick and practice, from trusting your doubt to spending time with nature to the magick of prayer and magick in the Bible to community to sex magick and more. Yes, there's a lot here, so he doesn't go very deep into any of it. But if you think of it as an introductory guide, I find this to be an excellent book.

Throughout the book are a few magickal practices. I think someone who is honestly a beginner witch and reading this as one of their first books may try these, but mostly I found them unnecessary. He talks in detail about his personal coven, which is fine, but details his Welsh practice and within these practices suggests the reader start their own "Llyfr Cyfrin." I believe he says you should try other traditions and do not have to follow his way as it's just a beginner practice, but I found the specificity of it too rigid for a beginner guide.

I would reread this and recommend it.