Witching Year

Diana Helmuth is thirty-three and distrusts organized religion, but she is just as wary of the loose, improvised kind. What bothers her most is that God feels absent from her life, and she has had enough of that. To change it, she turns to Witchcraft, which she describes as the fastest growing self-directed faith in America. Her year brings observation, trial, error, plenty of wit, and a few back spasms.

Modern witches often seem self-assured, accomplished, and strong, and Diana wants that same confidence. She plans to follow every rule, memorize every incantation, and study every liturgy. The obstacle is that practitioners disagree about what those rules, liturgies, and incantations should be. Over 366 days, she has to work out for herself what the craft means, separating the trendy from the genuine.

Her search takes her to Salem and Edinburgh, two well-known centers of the craft, and to a week-long Witch camp in Northern California where nudity is optional. At home she attempts a full moon ritual on a cardboard box and tries to summon an ancient demon with scotch tape and a kitchen trivet. She also hopes simply to become a calmer, happier person. Throughout, one question stays with her: will any of this actually work?

The book follows memoirs by journalists such as A.J. Jacobs, Mary Roach, and Caitlin Doughty, which combine humor and reporting in the pursuit of something worth believing.