Book Reviews:  Cat Magic

Whitley Strieber
Tom Doherty Associates (TOR Books), Paperback July 1987

Review by Robin Culain, .K.A.M., Copyright 1986, 1987

For years I've waited for a Wiccan work of major literary talent;
something that really touches the spirit, that says something
important about who we are and presents some of the unique
insights Wicca has for the world. A book that presents Craft
without coating it in sugar or gore, without confusing it with
cousin religions, without including Secrets of the Art to boost
circulation.

Cat Magic had some promise in that respect. Whitley Strieber has
a number of reasonably creative and competent mainstream novels
to his credit. The prolog to the paperback edition is a pleasant
"standard" piece on the realities of Wicca as a serious religion.
There is even a referral for potential seekers, although the
source Strieber cites, and presumably used for research, bears
the same relation to Traditional Wicca that Jerry Falwell does to
Anglican Christianity. Unfortunately the source appears to have
influenced the tone of the work all too well. As I read I found
myself excited, then annoyed, and ultimately angry and disgusted
with the near-miss quality of the work. So close, and so far.

In a nutshell, the book tells the story of a transfer of Coven
leadership in a small rural town in New Jersey. Many of us know
how such occasions can become pregnant with drama, tension and
excitement. A group of particularly virulent Fundies provide the
negative tension, trying to undo the Witches long-standing
relationship of tolerance with the townies.

I guess the writers didn't think ordinary Craft life is
interesting enough for the marketplace. The Witches are something
out of an Ecotopian fantasy; kind and loving, with names like
Grape and Feather. The High Priestess has to die and come back
for the Initiation to be valid. Now, my Tradition is as tough as
any, and my teacher's teachers are so mean they don't even have
names, but this is a little much. Not only does it encourage the
lunatic fringe, it insults the reality of the Third Degree by
implying that nothing short of literal death and return creates
the kind of contacts we expect of High Priestesses.

In the course of events the HPS condones particularly nasty
vivisection, meddles shamelessly with her Coveners' autonomy and
- to the writers credit - comports herself as a crusty old Crone
in the Grand Gardnerian style. The description of the community
is full of new-age hype; all the crops are ten feet tall and the
relations between the Coveners have that gloss of unreality that
comes from not having lived or closely observed real Coven life
or communal living. More than a picture of what Witches are, it
is a sort of cartoon of what the writer would like us to be.
Depending on your own vision, you'll like it or not.

Another serious problem lies in the writer's pornographic
imagination. The sex is all rather pleasant, but the scenes of
violence and other-worldly horror are done up with such ghastly
relish that by the end of the book I found myself suspecting
something unhealthy. Granted, an effect of extreme ugliness or
terror is far easier to achieve than an effect of genuine beauty
or inspiration. Nonetheless, I feel worked over by the nasty
descriptions that go on page after page without a break. Stephen
King, who is no mean hand at horrible imagery, always seems to
connect what's going on to something real and important in the
human spirit. Unfortunately for us, he's not Wiccan and writes
from an almost-Christian point of view. Strieber tries for a
Pagan outlook, but his terror is gratuitous, overdone and
ultimately sadistic.

The sadism turns to masochism when matters turn to the fate of
the Earth in general and Witches in particular. The authors seem
convinced that the world is coming to an end, and that we Wiccans
will probably go first. Their evidence isn't too good - the
anti-Wiccan tax bill that they have passing in the Senate got
laughed out of Congress in 1986 and the Fundie Senator who
proposed it was elected Windbag of the Year by his peers the
following Autumn. Worst of all, I get the feeling that Strieber
likes the idea of burning times to come, as if it makes Witches
somehow more valid and important. Embracing suffering is a part
of the other religion, not this one.

There are a lot of thrills in the book, especially of the heart-
stopper variety, and some small moments of genuine beauty in the
Rituals. The past ten years it's been common to publish parts of
Books of Shadows on one flimsy pretext or another; this writer
does what any competent Witch should do ... he invents rituals of
real beauty and power for the tale that could, and perhaps should
be repeated. The author has a genuine love and concern for the
Craft that excuses a great deal in the way of excess in other
areas. A second work might be far better; particularly if it
happened on Earth, which is quite exciting enough in Her own
right without the embellishments of fevered imaginations. There
is a lot of literary talent here, despite the liberal use of
shock tactics. And the cats are, well, magical.