I was asked by Boudica for her TWPT & Zodica Bistro sites to review this book. Typically I don't enjoy reviewing Wicca books & in particular Llewellyn Wicca books because there is so much redundancy in them. However with just under a nine dollar price tag, I couldn't object. After all even if I didn't like the articles, the book is still primarily an almanac with useful Moon phase data and calendars.

Well first off it appears that most of the contributors used their real names in lieu of the the fluffy bunny names. I mean come on, "Flame Ravenhawk" is so cliche. And outside of Boudica herself, the only other contributor I had ever heard of was Elizabeth Barrette and that only because of her work with PanGaia magazine. The rest of that authors all sport seemingly impressive backgrounds.

The choice of submissions must surely be difficult for the editor of such a book. Some of the articles such as "Teaching Wicca to Kids" & "Finding A Good Herbalist" really give you some food for thought as well as some things to take with you. If you bought the book for nothing more than these two essays, you couldn't go wrong. There is a lot of useful information in each that I think the average metaphysical teacher or practitioner seems to ignore.

For those of us who have children, trying to introduce them into our belief systems is always a challenge what with the continual local governments sticking their noses into our lives. Then you take the herbal article and read it and it's "HELLO! WAKE UP CALL!" because the prescription of herbs and remedies is highly illegal unless you're a qualified physician!

Some of the other articles such as the "Pagan Erotica" I found just plain silly. I'm sorry but I don't need to see a half naked fairy on the page baring her breasts acting demure. Oy vay! Talk about cliche! The article itself barely held my attention & I expected better out of the likes of Ms. Barrette. Ruby Lavendar's essay on Pagan horror fiction was quite interesting to me what with my literary interests in the horror and sci-fi/fantasy genres. Ruby's reading suggestions prompted me to pick up one of Mercedes Lackey's Diana Tregarde mysteries from a local garage sale. Thus far I've found that story quite entertaining.

I found Flame Ravenhawk's essay on Yoga and Wicca was fairly good in so far as I practice a morning short form of Yoga as outlined by Rodney Yi. One of the other essays I truly enjoyed was Liz Barrette's article on Handicapped Pagans. Finally! Someone in the neo-Pagan community taking the views of handicapped individuals to heart. Particularly how she discusses some of the handicapped Gods and how we can embrace their myths.

Overall I found the book's essays to be fun to read and as I said aside from a few of them being boring to me or disinteresting, the book is well worth the effort to procure for your own. The noveau patch-work style of pictures and art was too dijointing for my individual tastes but if you're a fan of that style, then you'll like the accompanying pictures. I rate this four out of five stars for completeness of information (the almanac) and thought provoking essays.

Don't buy this 2005 Wicca Almanac, I can not believe this people still in the Wicca Market..