why is silver ravenwolf considered so bad?

Question

iv never read any of her books personally but no one normally has any thing good to say about her..why is that?

Answer 1

She is seriously cheesy.

She has no real interest in history and she dumbs down (sugar coats) spiritual work. Spiritual development is in most cases simple but it is seldom easy.

Answer 2

I've never met Silver so I can't speak about Silver as good or bad.

However, the books Silver puts out about paganism and wicca tend to be written as if they're specifically targetted at the rebellious teen demographic. They cover a lot of the ritual, they provide a great deal of Simon-Says, but don't really get past the surface of the philosophy or the religious teachings. In short, Silver aims more towards the ritual crowd, not the religion crowd.

Answer 3

For me, the problem is that her books are more fluff than substance. She also has little new to offer, and much of what is in her books has already been stated elsewhere and much better.

I don't see her so much as bad, but rather somewhat pointless. Reading one of her books doesn't offer a real foundation in Wicca. Perhaps she might offer a start, for someone young, but there are much better authors out there.

Anyway, I do own "To Ride a Silver Broomstick", and I read it, just to see what it was like. It just seemed rather simplistic, and had a sort of "anything goes" attitude. That's what my major issues are with her.

--Dee

Answer 4

I personally do not like her works for several reasons.

Her target audience happens to be those who are young and/or inexperienced, so she can pretty much say whatever she wants and they'll buy into it. I've had to counsel so many teens who've followed something she put out in a book and the consequences were not at all what she predicted or what they expected.
To say the least, she doesn't give factual information a lot of the time.

Her intention seems to be to sell books rather than to actually educate, and that bothers me. Do I mind if she makes a mint? nope, but at least give valuable information in the process.

This is just my personal opinion.

Answer 5

A lot of the information she gives in her books has been debunked for years. She is what I (and others) call a Fluffy. In my lowly opinion, she only writes these books to make money and to stir up strife with other Religions... mostly Christianity... and on false pretenses. (If you're going to pick something like that apart, do it honestly.) She has proven she does no study into the ancient cultures she writes about and mixes things to the point that you're not even sure where she got it from.

Answer 6

I have read some of her books and they do include some degree of inaccurate infromation as the nature and identities of varous deiteis. Also, he approach is somewhat less pragmatic than is prudent. I have always taken issue with just how realistic the warm, fuzzy, fluffy bunny apporach to paganism really is, but she goes just a bit to far for even most that DO adhere to that fluffy bunny pagan viewpoint. As far am I am oncerned she has done more harm than good by using that approach and does not properly prepare her readers for the kinds of troubles they are apt to face from those that are not pagans and that do not want to understand. Of Course that is just on mans opinion, but after 33 years of involvement I would hope I have discovered enough to have some validity in my views.

Answer 7

Because:

--Her knowledge of history is very bad. No real witches were executed during the so-called "Burning Times", there was never a universal matriarchal Goddess cult, and other misconceptions she presents in her books have been disproved by historians and archaeologists.

--Her books are full of blatant religious bigotry. She takes every opportunity in all her books to slam Christianity.

--Her serious lack of ethics, like how she encourages her teen readers to lie to their parents

--Her emphasis on magic over spirituality

--Her complete nose turning at the importance of sexuality to Wicca.

And it just goes on.

I recommend reading this essay:

http://wicca.timerift.net/ravenwolf.shtml

Answer 8

I think it is because she tends to write for a younger female audience. I don't have anything against her and have only read one of her books. For me personally as a 54 year old man, she writes like a children's author. Nothing wrong with that, I just felt like I was reading a kid's book. I did learn some things and did get the information i wanted, but again as a 54 year old man he style is just not for me. I do reccomend her to younger people though.

Answer 9

Because she plays fast and loose with some facts, in some cases outright advocates lying to others, and overall you have to weed through a lot of crap to find the good stuff in her books.

However, because her books are targeted at the "newbie teen", paired with the flashy cover art and slick marketing, she is often the first author that people looking into Wicca find, and they take her words as gospel.

Some additional articles:

http://www.ecauldron.com/opedtarnishedsilver.php
http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/vanthal/608/id57.htm
http://wicca.timerift.net/ravenwolf.shtml

Answer 10

I would not recommend Silver to any true seeker. The woman writes Pop Wicca, Wicca for the wannabes. And can I say that she seems to slant her books toward the young and the easily impressionable? yep, I guess I can.

Answer 11

I've never heard anything overly bad about her, except that some people think her books are terribly cheesy (sort of like the McDonald's version of occultism). Maybe the Christian religious right wouldn't like her because she's writing about a different belief system, and openly pitching a lot of it to a teenage audience. Aside from that, I'm not sure. Her books sell like hotcakes.