The would-be reader of this book might have a better idea of what it's about if the subtitle read A Guidebook to the Study of Advanced Wicca. In essence, this is a study guide, not an actual instruction manual as most of the Wicca 101 books are.

Lipp's book is divided into three main sections: "The Evolution of Modern Witchcraft," "History of Western Occultism," and "Wiccan Practice." In each chapter, Lipp chooses a subject and talks about it briefly. She also discusses several books for each subject with the intent that the reader find these books to learn more about the topic. So instead of trying to cram an entire detailed course in advanced Wicca into a single volume, she gives the reader a good start in building an advanced Wicca library.

At the most basic level, I enjoyed getting a lot of reading suggestions that looked so interesting. And the further I got into Lipp's book, the more I appreciated her approach. While she doesn't hide where she stands on these issues, she encourages readers to think for themselves and draw their own conclusions. This is a quick read, and because I enjoy Lipp's writing, I was a bit disappointed that she kept her discussions so short, but that's about all the disappointment I had with this book. ( )