Promotional summary

When high-powered Manhattan lawyer Phyllis Curott

Phyllis Curott

Phyllis Curott is a Wiccan priestess, attorney, and author .- Early life :Her parents were agnostic-atheist, socially liberal intellectuals who encouraged her to make her own decisions regarding theology but taught her to adhere to the Golden Rule...

 began exploring witchcraft

Witchcraft

Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...

 in a women's group in the 1970s, she discovered a spiritual movement that defied all stereotypes. Encountering neither Satan

Satan

Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...

ic rites nor eccentric spinsters, she came to know a clandestine religion of the Goddess

Goddess

A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....

 that had been forced into hiding over the course of history.

The Book of Shadows chronicles Curott's remarkable initiation into Wicca

Wicca

Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...

, her ascent to the position of Wiccan high priestess, and her efforts to reconcile her newfound spirituality with her struggles as a woman rising through the ranks of the corporate world. Along the way, she relates the history of witchcraft. She also shares many traditional Wiccan practices - such as casting a circle, drawing down the Goddess, and casting spells for health, prosperity, and love. She explains all this from a feminist point of view.

The title The Book of Shadows refers to the name used for a book that contains magical and religious texts in the religion of Wicca.