In recent years, as Wicca has become more mainstream, much of it has be sanitized and 'Prada-ized'.

Being a witch used to mean being in touch with nature and working with the natural energies all round us. Now sadly, for many, it has become an endless parade of over-priced new age trinkets, fashionable yet witchy clothing and Harry Potter cross-over merchandise. These days, it is hard to know where the wild woman of the woods ends and the Soccer mom begins.

As more and more corporations realize there is money in magic, it is getting harder for the average new comer to the craft to even afford to study it.

Ryan James hopes to recitfy that with his book 'The Nature of Nature - A Practical Guide to being a Witch'. In this short volume James lays out some of the basics of earth-based religion, with no price tag (beyond the book itself) attached.

The work is a little too basic in places - it is more of a pre-study study guide if you will. There is little in here about actually being a witch, apart from the odd correspondence here and there. Mostly the book addresses some basic principles such as auras, meditation, karma etc.

Since the book is fairly fluff-free however, there is a pretty good signal-to-noise ratio, so despite the small size the information contained within is both useful and plentiful.

Read the book, practice the techniques for a couple of weeks and then go find something more comprehensive like Bucky's Big Blue Book or a Witches Bible and take it from there...