Personal Do Not Read Witchy Author List
There will be a google doc with updates as I find more authors to avoid. These are all my own personal opinion and I do take the author's actions into account when judging their ability to write legitimate information.
TW: Slavery, serial killers, racism, TERFs, creeps, neonazis, asylums, and a slew of other super unsavory things. I tried to make this list as PG as possible while highlighting the issues with these individual people.Â
   He's a literal piece of garbage. Misogynistic, thief of a toooon of closed practices, has entire cults still dedicated to him, called himself a voice of God (both Abrahamic and apparently like 5 Egyptian deities??? I mean excuse me sir how about no??)
He also declared himself âaboveâ Gods back in 1922 calling himself Ipssissimus. I hate Crowley so much I have literally stuck a picture of him to a dartboard before. He can suck an egg in the afterlife. He also put his own wife in an asylum for 'alcoholismâ because she wanted a divorce.
The only thing he ever did right was get kicked down a flight of stairs at a temple once by a poet.
   Appropriates at least Jewish practices if not every Indigenous practice there is. Wholeheartedly encourages people to use magic instead of going to a doctor for things like oh I dunno EPILEPSY And claims she has spells for like Marvel-level super powers which uh no Ana. You don't. Lots of Christianity for a supposedly FULL pagan and wiccan author. Her spells are all controlled like...so wrong. So, so wrong. Don't ask please. I can't begin to describe it. Advocates for smudging and uses phrases like "Cherokee Rituals", and the Romani G-slur.Â
   Made his own branch of wicca, the first technically, and his own coven had to make rules just so he wouldn't spill everything to any reporter that asked. Used Crowley as a main resource.
   Claims to do Hoodoo. A horrible formatter, and generally super dismissive of being a rootworker and other potentially closed practices, has not been initiated. Has claimed that anyone can petition/pray to Papa Legba without initiation because "Vodou is a congregational religion/practice". From the Vodou and Haitian Vodou practitioners I have talked to that is VERY incorrect, it may be congregational but you still have to be involved in the community to be trusted with those practices because so much of it has been bastardized for media and racism purposes. He is also a student of Catherine Yronwode, who is another SUPER problematic figure in the Hoodoo/Rootwork community.
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 A link of his own words on culture appropriation which includes mild inaccuracy towards Indiginous Peoples and that they donât âownâ certain practices when itâs very clear the wording of those practices DOES in fact come from those peoples. Heâs fine with people being Yogis, or Shamans, or calling satchel spells mojo bags, and other such phrases and wonât correct people if they use such words out of context because âlanguage changesâ. Also says if someone within a practice says itâs closed to go to ANOTHER AND ANOTHER until you find someone willing to teach you??? Thatâs not how it works sir.
Source: https://www.strategicsorcery.net/on-cultural-misappropriation/
   Not an actual person. This is a ghost writer name for a bunch of garbage literally copy and pasted from wikipedia into books. I wish I was kidding.Â
*Lisa Leister/Lester/whatever other spelling she's used.*
   Such a major TERF. Like JK Rowling level TERF. Claims magic comes from a womb so anybody that doesn't have one isn't a real witch. Like WTF lady.
  Where to start...uses the G-slur often. (His grandfather was romani so it blurs the line of blood quantum.) Very sexist and obsessed with the idea of a woman getting uh...undressed for rituals while men stay dressed and more things I cannot say ina PG space??? As magic?? VERY anti-minor and LGBTQA+. Toxic, just plain toxic. Can't do it. I have read his Blue Book and it's the least problematic thing he wrote. I'm alright with it.
*Silver Ravenwolf*
 WhOOO boy. So super anti-christian, which is fine and dandy...if you didn't claim to be in a lineage of braucherei/hexerei. Wiccan, like the type of wiccan that says no other witchcraft exists and yet has written folk magic books??? She really needs to make up her mind. Claims Satanists don't actually exist. Claims most Jewish powers worshiped "the Goddess" (whoever that is)??? Very cult-like language about "not telling friends and family about your new life/reality/experience/whatever". Also SO MUCH APPROPRIATION. SO SO MUCH. She also gets her history wrong, on a lot of basic information that most non-witches know about like say the Salem Witch Trials.
*Catherine Yronwode*
Ooh man. So Catherine Yronwodeâs career started as a comic book artist. Sheâs worked on such things like the Elvira comic, DNAgents, and a gaggle of super controversial trading cards which included the Kennedy Assasination, a serial killer collection, and the AIDS epidemic.
Of which she was sued for using one half of the Hillside Stranglers duo in said killer trading cards without his permission, the judge sadly threw the case out because and this is a quote, â If Bianchi had been using his face as a trademark when he was killing women, he would not have tried to hide it from the police.â
There were two more from her comic days, but those arenât super relevant besides the one that pushed the envelope of what sort of trading cards should be sold to children.
On the magical side of things, I will be blunt here: As one of the âbig badsâ of the Rootwork/Folk/Hoodoo community? I really REALLY dislike her. She has made numerous false claims about New Orleans/Haitian Vodou and that itâs only a very recent practice, non-religious, and slaves never used it because it didnât exist yet??? History books and entire generations will disagree. An example would be this link of an open letter to her written by a New Orleans Voodoo practitioner and someone she wrote a whole article about: https://conjureart.blogspot.com/2013/10/open-letter-to-cat-yronwode-and-lucky.html
She owns a few different websites namely https://www.luckymojo.com/, has written numerous Hoodoo based books, and actively has accused numerous people who have asked her for sources and or disagreed with her of plagiarism and has slung more mud that you can shake a stick at.Â
She also praises a book on Marie Laveau and yet discredits herself by calling New Orleans Voodoo a new religion/neopractice??? Sheâs just confusing as all heck to me.
*Christian Day*
 This guyâs just a creep. One stuck in the early 2000s mall goth phase even though heâs over 50. He also appropriates Hoodoo and owns two Hoodoo shops as well as multiple other witch shops in Salem and recently New Orleans on the French Quarter (Which is pure tourist fodder and not a reflection of true New Orleans Voodoo/Vodun/Rootwork). He has also harassed ex-employees so badly itâs landed him in court. His book The Witchâs Book of the Dead also reads very much like a list of accomplishments rather than anything useful. All about his television spots and experiences doing that. (Did I mention he was in an episode of Ghost Adventures? Yes, that one with Zac Bagans??? And it did not make us witches look too great, honestly speaking.)
Sources for Harassment Claims: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/salem-witch-gets-protective-order-against-warlock/
https://www.wcvb.com/article/warlock-christian-day-ordered-to-stay-away-from-salem-witch/8228072
*Yvonne and Gavin Frost*
 I dunno how else to say this, I really donât. These two? Pedophiles. Multiple writings of theirs included not-safe-for-work-or-children rituals that must include minors. Avoid. AVOID AVOID. AVOID ANYONE WHO USES THEM AS A RESOURCE! This should NOT be okay in any circle. They are VERY used within the Wicca religion so please be careful!!
*Orion Foxwood*
Some of his information is very sound! I canât fault him there. He does have a tendency to blend different traditions without actively TELLING you heâs blending them though. Heâs and this is a direct quote,
âHe is a witch and Elder in Romano Celtic-Traditional Craft, High Priest in Alexandrian Wicca and teacher of the Faery Seership tradition. He is also the founding Elder of Foxwood Temple and a primary founder of the Alliance of the Old Religion, a national network of covens in his line that have united to preserve the ways of his Elders. He was the co-director of Moonridge, a center for metaphysical, Craft and Faery studies in Marylandâ
Thatâs an awful lot of traditions to juggle and not only write on but actively teach. He also performs conjure, which in of itself might not be an issue but Conjure usually blends into Hoodoo really quickly if one isnât careful! A lot of the traditions he talks about from his family sound quite familiar, heâs clearly from Appalachia but his books on the subject blend in his other practices instead of keeping them separate.Â
*Starr Casas*
 Sheâs in the same category as Orion, only she doesnât necessarily give her credentials to be teaching Hoodoo, and even wrote a whole book filled with Hoodoo love spells. She also co-owns a French Quarter Conjure Shop, which if you ask any practitioners from New Orleans...is catered to pure tourists and not a true example of the crafts from the area.Â
*Shawn Engel*
 Iâm gonna be blunt here. More appropriation of the Jewish practices, Hoodoo, and other information that is just plain UPG without saying itâs UPG and encourages throwing hexes at political party members solo. I read The Power of Hex and had to put it down numerous times just to gather myself and not throw it away, I donât know if it was tone or sheer level of appropriation...likely both.
*Kate Freuler*
 Of Blood and Bones is chock full of Hoodoo, full stop. Only acknowledges that something comes from Hoodoo once and also gets basic mythology information on the Deities she mentions wrong in some cases. Also a lot of the book seems to be UPG because the bibliography is super small for a 300 page book.
*Dorothy Morrison*
 I picked up Utterly Wicked once. A very odd book full of Hoodoo and Vodun spellwork and misinformation, the author is also Garderian Wiccan so even the writing of a book full of hexes is slightly...concerning compared to the Wiccan traditions and redes. Odd is the best I have to describe how I personally feel. I will say this again: Voodoo Dolls are not used to cause pain, stop bastardizing that single aspect of the practice. Thank you.
 I dunno how else to say this either, her philosophy and occult knowledge, called Theosophy is a portion of what inspired Hitler. Pure unadulterated racism veiled in a âAtlantian Race Theoryâ. Horrible stuff, read for a class project once and felt disgusting.
*Christopher Penczak*Whoo boy. On the surface he seems alright, one of the first âmaleâ witches I had ever heard of except for Scott Cunningham. But the more you dig into his work the more inaccuracies and Christian bashing you see. For example: Christianty was the first patriarchal society. Uhm...I believe youâre kinda forgetting the men who ran Rome and Greece there sir.
He also fully proposes the âburning timesâ were like a âwitch holocaustâ. NO! NO IT WAS NOT. You canât compare the hundreds of years and MAYBE a thousand-ish people dying to the millions that died in the short timespan the Holocaust was a thing. Fuck Christopher for that comparison and also for claiming it was a âburning timeâ to begin with. (History says that most were hung...or tortured. Burning is a very small number of that list in general.Â
He makes a lot of sweeping statements and sees witchcraft as a religion and NOT a practice. He whitewashes, fully harps on the Wicca = witchcraft = religion thing and THEN hones in on the difference between âwhite and blackâ magic and how cursing is evil and yet highlights certain practices that actively practice...cursing...as they have for generations??? He (atleast) doesnât demonize Satanism but does still backhand the idea anyway, that they CANâT be witches because witches only âhealâ.
Cultural appropriation and fetishization of âNativeâ practices while calling them primitive all in the same breath, I just canât with this guy. I really canât.Â
Owns a tea brand called âBlackthorn Hoodoo Blendsâ she is white. When questioned by BIPOC individuals she complains and blocks them instead of explaining why she chose the name Hoodoo for just teas. TEA. She is also the author of Blackthornâs Botanical Magic, Sacred Smoke (A book on smudging yikes on trikes), and Blackthornâs Protection Magic.Â
Proof of blocking: https://thisblackwitch.com/2016/04/01/blackthorn-teas-whose-culture-is-it-anyways/
Is more commonly known as Styxhexenhammer666 on youtube and other social media sites. Has written a pile and I mean a PILE of occult based books including ones on Hermetic magic, ritualistic magic, demons, solomon, folk plants and healing, Kabbalah, and many MANY more.Â
He makes no claim to being Jewish, and given his political wishy washiness, and multitude of controversies which includes claiming the Holocaust wasnât âthat many deadâ, Charles Manson deserved release because he was âextremely innocent and didnât kill anyoneâ, and fairly recently also wrote and published a book on Critical Race Theory and why itâs âgarbageâ. I canât support him no matter how accurate some of his information may be (if any at all).Â
*Temperance Alden*
This really pains me to say, Temperance in her Wheel of the Year book made a claim that birth control âstunted her magical abilitiesâ because it affected her hormonesâŚin OTHER words unless you are a perfectly hormone producing WOMAN you donât have great magical power.
AVOID. AVOID. AVOID. That is a slippery slope to claiming medication will harm you, not to mention how TERF-y it is AND completely disregards that magic is for wellâŚeveryone. Such a stupid gatekeep-y concept.Â
Advocates for using âspirit animalsâ regardless of Indigenous beliefs and concerns. Is also a known ally with the Piety Posse, a neo-nazi group of pagans who claim the term polytheist can only apply to them and if you arenât a Hellenistic paganâŚyou arenât pagan at all. They also advocate for animal sacrifices, blood tests to prove purity, and other horrible HORRIBLE stuff.Â
*Sannion/H. Jeremiah Lewis*
Obvious Neo-nazi, keeps images of swastikas on his personal blog, and not the ones that the nazis stole from, the nazi one. And super SUPER transphobic.
Major persecution complex, spends half his twitter complaining about how monotheists are destroyingâŚI dunnoâŚeverything? Also defends Krasskova quite heavily. Antisemetic as well.
Hellenic pagans watch out. Defends the AFA. A ringleader of the Piety Posse. Thereâs a lot more horrific stuff about her and I wonât go into extreme details. But TW: Romanticizes SA with deities, human sacrifice, animal sacrifice. Compares debating to the holocaust, lots of victim blaming, gatekeeping, and screams folkish.Â
Racist. Hard stop. Also appropriates chakras. Has a weird belief that food controls skin color and that Africa will never be a good country because itâs the solar plexus of the universeâŚor something like that. I got 20 pages into the book and literally couldnât go any farther. Did I mention this book was supposedly on dragons???
*Judika Iiles*
So much appropriation, advocates for making altars and working with closed deities. Lots of incorrect information including dangerous spellwork like obsession spells. And one in particular that has roots in a racist stereotypes. Avoid please!Â
