This is another site that showed up in my logs, so what better excuse to review it?

At first glance, I’m not terribly impressed. Mostly because I don’t like the green color that’s being used under the text, but, then again, I’m really not a fan of most light greens. But, on the plus side (getting over my color bias), the site is easy to navigate, and it’s heavy content. Content is far more important to me than liking the color any day (as long as it doesn’t hurt my eyes, anyway, which this site most certainly does not.)

As for the “What is Wicca” article, I hate it. The writing is good, but Keitha says, “Many practitioners choose beliefs on the basis of what ‘feels right’, and you will find those who practice a mix of Celtic, Greek, Native, Sumerian, Hindu, Buddhist, and other beliefs. Wiccans have a high regard for the beliefs and practices of others, and for the individuals right to find their own path. As such, almost any combination of beliefs and practices is possible.” I use one of the more conservative definitions of what constitutes Wicca (initiatory, mystery-based, oathbound priesthood), so, to me, this is pure rot. If this were explained as “eclectic Wicca”, then I would find it less objectionable. Keep in mind, though, that it’s not the ideas itself that I don’t agree with, just the terminology. Well, except for the idea that the Rede is the law. That is an idea that I do disagree with. Violently. (more…)

At first glance, I wasn’t sure what I thought about this site. Needless to say, I formed a pretty firm opinion as I surfed through it.

Okay, it looks different, in terms of the fact that it’s not another ooky-spooky black pagan site on a free server. However, it’s one of those stupid “clickto” urls, which I hate. That’s the URL that sits in the address bar the whole time, and that can make it a bitch to send pages back over an instant message program to a buddy. (Hey, it’s a common way for me to surf, so that peeves me.)

The FAQ’s are the same old, same old. Very fluffy answers, and some are outright crap, IMO. (I have a problem with the “witches don’t worship Satan” party line, because there are some witches that do. ) The “Pagan Traditions” section is garbage. It is plagiarized (with credit, but I guarantee you, without permission) from Silver RavenWolf’s To Ride a Silver Broomstick. I thought that section was garbage in the book, and I don’t think it’s any better on someone else’s web page. For one thing, British Traditional Witchcraft is not “a mix of Celtic and Gardnerian beliefs”. It also includes that garbage about how there’s no such thing as Satanic witches (which I find funny, since Anton LaVey wrote a whole book about them).

The deities section is more stuff lifted wholesale from SRW. So is the glossary… and the… Aw, nevermind. There’s absolutely nothing original on this site. It all came from someone else’s book (mainly Cunningham and RavenWolf) or someone else’s web site.

Maybe Llewellyn needs to be contacted about this. After all, it can’t be helping the publishing company’s revenue. And I’m sure it’s not helping the authors get their royalties, either.

Shame on the owner of this site.

Link: Bewitched Cafe
Score: 1/10
Reviewed by Enyo Perseus

Behold, Lavendarwater’s web site.

There are a lot of things to say about this site, some good, some not so good. I hate how it loads in Firefox. It’s jumpy. I couldn’t look at the page until it was finished loading, lest it make me ill. (And believe me, you don’t want me to review your site if it’s made me ill.)

But I do like the index page color scheme. Sure, it’s a black background, but the greenery going on is rather pretty, and provides a nice contrast to the black. Mind you, with a name like “Lavenderwater”, I would expect to see some, well, lavender in the color scheme, but that’s just me.

I hate how the different areas of the site all have different themes and appearances. There’s no unity to the site that way.

One article that got my attention in particular is “Witchcraft vs. Wicca”. Sure, she gets brownie points for saying that they are, in fact, different, but some things I just don’t agree with. For one thing, Egypt isn’t European, let alone Eastern European. The Persians I would call “Indo European”. Major snaps for pointing out that Wicca originated in the 20th century, though I believe her dates are off. Boos and hisses for some of the things that she lists as being different types of Wicca.

There’s a lot of basic beginner information, which, for the most part, is better put together than a lot of sites I’ve seen. I recommend that all newbies read it, but take it with a grain of salt, for no one site is perfectly perfect at this level.

Link: Walking the Witch’s Path
Score: 7/10
Reviewed by Enyo Perseus

Um, right. The first thing that I see on this page is “Anyone can visit and read this web site. ” Of course anyone can visit and read the site. It’s open to the public. You don’t have to pay to get in there. You don’t have to have a password. So, to say that anyone can visit seems a bit silly to me.

There’s a lot on this site. Unfortunately, most of it is on the first page. To me, this is a bad idea. The first page of your site should be like the cover of a book. Something nice to look at, something to give you a hint at what it’s all about. The first page of your site shouldn’t be the meat.

Unless, of course, you’re producing a one-page site.

Most of what’s on here is pretty good for the beginner. It’s a bit fluffy (but most truly beginner sites are), and it manages to be for teens without talking to them like they are stupid. The background is kind of icky, but I suspect that’s an attempt to make the pages load faster. The navigation is kind of a nightmare.

All in all, it’s a good site, just a pain to get around with shoddy navigation and a front page that never seems to end. If the navigation were better, it would have gotten a higher rating.

Link: Teen Witch
Score: 5/10
Reviewed by Enyo Perseus

Once again, I did my fun little trick of searching through the logs to see what had been searched for in the Reviews section and Enyo’s Thoughts. This time, I found a search for Witchcraft the Facts. So operating on my usual theory that if it’s been searched for, someone wants a review, I decided to review it.

I clicked the link Google gave me, and found myself at a “fact” page. So I tried just typing in the domain name, and I’m shipped straight off to a fact page. What happened to the index page? For the size of the pages on this site, it needs one. Not to mention the fact that I find starting out at a fact page to be rather disconcerting. I mean, where’s the intro? Where’s the bit telling me the purpose of this site? Where’s the info telling me that this guy is qualified to state things as fact? It doesn’t seem to exist, apparently.

Something that bugs me about this page is that the first thing that he says in his “facts” page is that this is his opinion and the “generally accepted” meaning. First of all, it it’s what he thinks it means, then why call it facts at all? It’s an opinion page. Calling it “facts” is misleading, especially to the beginner that just stumbles onto a web site looking for the holy grail of info on paganism.

There are areas of his so-called facts that are just plain crap. And it’s so busy saying “No! We aren’t like those ooky-wooky Satanists!” that it’s botching up on witchcraft (or, more specifically, traditional Wicca). At one point, he says, “In our opinion…” You know what? That sure as Hel isn’t my opinion. Yuck. I hate it when someone claims to speak for the majority.

On the cosmetic point, I like the background of the page. It’s easy to read against. I hate, however, that there is no margin set. For a higher resolution, there’s too much text on one line. And I *hate* that all the navigation is at the bottom of the page. (I know, I used to do that myself back in my beginning days of web sites. Not anymore. And now it bugs me.)

And after his “facts” (or someone poorly researched opinions. Whatever.) have been spouted, you have to scroll forever to get past a bunch of crap that should be on an index page. Or just somewhere else, anyway. Or maybe even not at all.

Then there’s the “getting started” page. Damn, the lack of margin annoys me. For the most part, that page is pretty okay, but he’s still pointing and screaming “We’re not like the great, dirty Satanists! Honest!” And he’s read too much Silver RavenWolf. He claims that witchcraft itself is a religion, while it’s not. He claims that there’s no such thing as a Satanist witch, and there are. The recommended reading list (which is okay; I’ve seen better elsewhere) is also on that page. It’s too long of a page. It should be elsewhere, on a page of its own.

Some of his FAQ sucks, as well. He insists that witchcraft is the Old Religion. Whatever. There are other things that suck, as well.

I don’t have speakers on this computer. They are currently packed up in a box and awaiting my move. There is, however, a streaming music section available that might be worth going to if you can hear it.

The bottom line? This site does what other sites have already done, but nowhere near as well. I woudn’t bother. Not until Norm gets over his hate-on for Satanists and his need to spread misinformation, anyway.

Link: Witchcraft: The Facts
Score: 3/10
Reviewed by Enyo Perseus

Wow. This is a pretty big site. Asiya has clearly put a lot of work into it.

As for the look and feel of the site, most of it goes pretty well together. Even the frame doesn’t offend me for the most part, and I hate frames. In the high resolution that I surf in, it doesn’t take up too much screen real estate. I think it does take up a bit too much in the 800*600 resolution, though.

Her section on the elements is great; it’s highly informative. She could improve the navigation a bit by having the subsections for the elements listed on the elemental index. It would more than likely cut down on her bandwidth usage and be a lot kinder to her viewers who are still stuck on dial-up. I’m also not sure if she has permission to use those tarot card images that she uses. Still, the effect is very nice.

I like the layout of the quarter calls and the sabbats sections. It’s really easy to get around, and the majority of the quarter calls are original.

Her recommended books are great; I even agree with most of them. Her sites have some fantastic ones, and some others that I think are a waste of bandwidth. But opinions are like… well, you know. Everyone has one.

There’s only one grumble I have about the Thelema section. While it’s user friendly and a good starting point, I don’t like the color of the section paired with the color of the frame. And after some of the sites that I’ve seen on the net, that’s really not a big grumble, but more of a minor aesthetic preference.

By and large, this is a great site. There’s not too much for me to pick at (which is rare, since I can pick at pretty much anything). So, if you’re just starting out or know anyone who is just beginning, send ‘em over to Asiya. She can help sort them out.

Link: Asiya’s Shadows
Score: 9/10
Reviewed by Enyo Perseus

My first impression of this site? Eh. It really didn’t impress me. I felt that the background was too pale or the title graphic was too bold, but either way, they didn’t go together. If you click on the site menu to get around, rather that bothering with the drop down menus (who needs a drop down menu about oneself, anyway?), your selection will open up in a new window. I didn’t like that.

It was, however, rather interesting that each successive selection will open within that same new window.

In “The High School Pagan Student Handbook” (which I’m pretty sure I’ve seen elsewhere), there’s some good information for students. There are, however, many points of the FAQ that I vehemently disagree with. Wicca and Witchcraft are used interchangably.

In other sections, there are some items that I have copyright concerns over, as a mailing list is credited for the information, rather than the individual who wrote it. The Wiccan Rede is listed as 8 words, and it’s incorrect. Then there’s the “Long Rede” after it. The Threefold Law is described in a way that implies that *all* Pagans/Witches/Wiccans (since it’s all the same thing, according to this site) believe in it.

There are far too many issues with this page for me to consider it a terribly valuable resource.

On the plus side, however, it is easy to get around, and she does have some original poetry on there. In short, it’s another beginner site that does the same thing that hundreds of others do, but not quite as well.

Link: The Firegrove
Score: 4/10
Reviewed by Enyo Perseus

Be warned: if you don’t have quick time and you don’t want it, you will probably get annoyed, since it asks you if you want it on every page.

However, once you get past that, the text that’s there is pretty easy to read, even if the background *is* exceptionally busy. Negative points for stating that all witches follow the Rede, though, because we don’t. (Not *all* witches, I mean.) I wish that they would have made it clear that this was in reference to their tradition, rather than something that is true for all witches everywhere.

They do have a ton of chants (some credited, some not) as well as a basic list of herbs. Overall, it’s not a bad site for your basic beginner, although there are some books on their books list that I have and consider only good enough to balance a table. So, like anything else, read it carefully and separate the wheat from the chaff.

Link: Another Circle
Score: 7/10
Originally posted by Enyo Perseus at Paganetwork