Ameth: The Life & Times of Doreen Valiente

Very disappointed. Ameth contains no new information, and it seems like an outsider merely looked Doreen up on Google, and then summarized the old info into a little "booklet" (not even a real book). Some obvious errors make it hard to trust any of the facts. Readers: Save your money...I love the books which Doreen wrote, so I will be eager to read her real bio one day, but this isn't it.

This is a well reaserched book. When I received it I was a bit worried that it may be a rehash of what was already written in "A Rebirth of Witchcraft" . It is not! Of course you will read of some of those stories and event because they were a part of Doreen's life . in Ameth you get more. This is a lovingly written book by an author who really took time to tell the story of a radical and wise witch and without her contributions modern witchcraft would not be as fun and cool and would not have as many beautiful poetry for us to use in circle. I say Well done!

Not worth anything no real research done, The information is not true in many parts of this book.

such an interesting book, a bit expensive for the few pages of it but it was worth it

AmethMost of the Pagan world knows her as Doreen Valiente. Mother of Modern Paganism and Midwife to modern Wicca.  Born in the south English town of Surrey to Edward Dominy, a civil engineer , her birth name was Doreen Dominy. Raised in a strict catholic background Doreen began having magical experiences as young as 12 or thirteen. One of her first spells involved protecting her mother from a co worker ago was constantly harassing her. The black crow would follow the employee around until she finally quit her job. Doreen would also ride around the street on a broomstick and have mystical experiences while staring at the moon. This disturbed her parents to no end so they enrolled her in a catholic school. Doreen left as soon as she could.While in her young adulthood Doreen was constantly interested in the occult and studied heavily the Golden Dawn. So Inteense was her interest that she was able to get her hands on rare Golden Dawn books and pamphlets that only initiates had access to. She was known to haunt used bookstores to hunt down rare tomes.The second worl war changed life for Europeans in general. It was during the second world war that she met and lost her first husband. His body was never found. It was also the world war that the witches were called upon to perform magic to stop Hitler's aggression . Also involved was Gerald Gardrner and Cecil Williamson.After the world war Doreen would eventually become involved with Gerald Gardner and become initiated in his coven. She would later part ways with him over his excessive publicity stunts and reckless behavior. While Gerald's book of shadows had lots of Crowley material and other borrowings. Doreen would totally rewrite it.After parting ways with Gardner she would work with Robert Cochrane for a bit. Yet his talk about a nightbof long knives against Gardner and use of psychadelic, Doreen would part wYs with him also. She then joined the coven of atho but then soon moved on.After 1964 when her second husband died is when she really came into her own and began publishing her books. She was also known as the witch queen. It was during this time that she wished to push Wicca forward . She was against the degree system, felt a witch did not need to be initiated as the power came from within. She also advocated gay rights and felt gays could be strong ptactiiners of magic. She passd away in 1997 of diabetes and pancreatic cancer

very easy read. a Good place to start on the life of Doreen Valiente.

I learned a great deal from my reading of Ameth. Doreen's quest for truth, both public and private has, and will continue to serve as an example of how humility, kindness, and gentleness are the true paths of power.

Too much second hand informations, no more than one can find on the web... also too many wrong interpretations about the Gardnerian Tradition from one that clearly does not know enough about it...

The book was OK. There is so much information out there on Doreen Valiente that a lot of it seemed re-hashed. Not a lot of it was new, and a lot of it seemed to be based around Gerald Gardner more than Doreen, I know that this is important to who Doreen became in Wicca but this is a book about her, not him.Equally, it's a nice read, the same facts are repeated at times which gets a bit old but for someone looking for beginner information on Doreen Valiente and some of the important figures in the beginning of Wicca I would recommend it.

I learnt very little that I hadn't already learnt about Doreen Valiente from other sources and this book felt rushed in that some of the paragraphs read like like research notes and didn't fit in with the narrative comfortably.

great

Very good book enjoyed it

Interesting bio, but better Heselton recent bio, more accurate