Book Review of Roadmap by Moonlight: A Guide to Wicca for Life by Deborah Lipp
Rebecca HaynesRecently I was contacted by a representative from Crossed Crow Books who asked if I would like to write an honest review of an upcoming book by Wiccan author Deborah Lipp titled
"Roadmap by Moonlight: A Guide to Wicca for Life"
Being that this is the space I like to play in, I was more than happy to oblige and I was sent a copy of the manuscript to read and review. So without further ado, here is my honest opinion of the new Deborah Lipp book- "Roadmap by Moonlight" (to be released in March 2026). Please note, I was not paid to review this book, but I was sent it free of charge. This being said, I will provide an honest opinion of the book, the good, the bad and the ugly- if it exists :)
Who is Deborah Lipp?
Before we get started, you may or may not be familiar with Deborah Lipp.
Most book reviews will begin with a little bit about the author, however I personally believe that the person most suited to describing who they are and what they believe in is the individual themself. For this reason I have provided a link to Deborah's About Me page so you can learn all about her in her own words. You can find out all about Deborah here.
Roadmap by Moonlight- an honest review
Roadmap by Moonlight is unapologetically an introductory Wiccan text. Firstly can I say that any book that specifies that it has been written by human minds and not AI is a win in my opinion. Not that I am opposed to businesses or people using AI, it’s just that the amount of mindless AI dribble put out as original information at moment is actually becoming a bit unbearable. For an individual that likes to dabble in art, all you have to do is look to Pinterest (which has been for a while the only social media that I personally post on) to see that nearly everything is becoming flat and artificial. A platform that used to provide interesting pictures to gain inspiration from, has become generic copycat dribble, and I must say it makes me sad!
In Roadmap by Moonlight, Deborah Lipp, an initiate in the Gardnerian tradition, the Minoan Sisterhood and founding officer of the ADF (which she describes as a Druid organisation- not the Australian Defence Force for the Aussies reading this blog) extends herself as a guide to walk the reader through the steps of becoming Wiccan. Whether you are a curious seeker of a different path to the one you are on, or someone already on the wiccan path, this book promises to extend your knowledge so that Wicca, a pagan tradition viewed by some as light on material, can become a lifelong journey to spiritual fulfilment. But does she manage this?
I need to preface this blog post by saying that whilst I am indeed a Curiosity seeker (hence the website name), I do not identify as Wiccan. I am a solo individual on a spiritual path. If anything, I am more of a Green Witch than a Wiccan, so I cannot completely vouch for the accuracy of the information in the book from the experience of a lifelong practitioner such as Deborah. I can say however that Deborah gives a very in depth description of Wicca and its history, affirming what I have also read in other texts, that it is not an ancient religion (you will occasionally come across people claiming that they are 5th generation wiccans- and considering that the term was coined by Gerald Gardner in 1954, I highly doubt that they are speaking accurately- seriously their ancestors must have had kids really young!).
One thing that really stood out to me about this book is its inclusive nature. Many Wiccan books are very heteronormative in nature- they view male and female as the two energies, leaving no room for any other forms of relationships. This book is exceptionally inclusive and seeks to explain the roles of energy not only in terms of gender, but in terms of energy (and being that it was written by a self-described queer woman who also wrote the book Bending the Binary: Polarity Magic in a Non-Binary World, it is not surprising that it is more modern and inclusive).
One criticism I have, not just with this book, but many, is the statements made as fact that do not pertain to other countries or cultures. For example, when speaking on plant properties, Deborah states that “cilantro and coriander are the same plant- cilantro is the leaf and coriander is the seed.” This is not the case in Australia. Both the leaf and seed are called coriander- one is just coriander leaf and the other is coriander seed. Whilst these are slight criticisms, many of the books that are written, are available globally, but are really written for a local audience. This also goes for what Deborah says regarding Sage and its overharvesting. I must say that as an Australian, I am not the best person to speak on the topic, however stating that people should not buy sage bundles at all due to overharvesting, is incorrect if they are grown and harvested in places like Australia specifically for this purpose. I have added these as slight criticisms with the knowledge that information is always context specific, and unfortunately if Deborah were to put every caveat into this book, 400 pages would quickly become 5000 (which is what I think this blog post will eventually be 😊).
Deborah’s explanation of the Wiccan Practices are easy to understand and thorough, giving specific instructions which a lot of books leave out. I also really appreciate that when speaking about the Wiccan year, she has included the dates for the Southern hemisphere, as being in Australia it can sometimes confuse people when a book describes Yule as being the Winter Solstice in December, which is our Summer. It’s these small details that make a book easy to relate to. Also her practical approach to when and how to celebrate the sabbats and esbats is quite refreshing. In general, the book seems very well researched and grounded in modern life, it is not trying to tie into a perceived ancient lineage or history that does not exist.
In her writing about the wheel of the year and the celebrations, I do really appreciate how in depth, but concise her explanations are, and also how she ties the celebrations together so that they are not seen as completely different events, but part of the broader cycle (which may be an obvious thing, but a lot of the books I have seen tend to treat them as separate events.)
One thing I will say about this book is that it is not a light read just for the fun of it. By this I mean no disrespect to Deborah, and with it’s name, I would assume that this was not her intention. The Roadmap to Wicca is more of an instructional book, but written in a conversational manner. It contains a lot of repetition especially in the rituals, so if this is not your interest (or you are suffering from the YouTube shorts 10 second attention span like I am) you might want to skip past these pages and save yourself quite a few pages of reading. Definitely, however, return to the pages when you are ready to perform your rituals as they are very thorough (just not the most entertaining reading).
What I do appreciate about this book is the explanation of terms that are used in the spiritual community in general. For example, if you have ever read a book that speaks about grounding and energy work like you are just supposed to know what the hell they are talking about, this book is for you. Even if you think you know what they are referring to, you might still gain something from reading this book. Chapter 9 ‘Deepening the practice’ explains some of the topics commonly referred to in wicca and witchcraft (and any energy healing modalities). It provides exercises on basic principles such as grounding, energy work, visualisation etc to help you understand and deepen your connection with these practices.
I also appreciate the honesty with which this book has been written. So many books and podcasts these days make out as though they have done it all, seen it all, and consequently know it all. I appreciate in the section regarding the ancestor altar how Deborah honestly states that it is not something she does, rather it is something that she could add into her practice. It is sometimes hard to be in a space where you feel as though you should know everything and you think that other people are much more knowledgeable than you, and to subsequently not bullshit about what you do and do not do. You only have to look at some of the videos on social media with all of the rituals, altars, and entire rooms dedicated to the individuals craft to wonder if these people do anything else in their lives. Honestly though, each to their own. I am not saying that dedicating yourself solely to one cause is bad, it is just that as I, myself, have matured in age, I have realised that I did not always have the time, or energy, to dedicate myself to what I thought I should be doing. I sometimes liken it to “The wheel of life” card from the tarot. Sometimes life is easy, you have plenty of energy and things are going well, and sometimes the proverbial sh*t hits the fan and you are lucky if you brush your hair in the morning. One of the lessons that Deborah teaches in this book is that whilst you may find yourself adding or removing things from your practice, you can always find the path again (the Moonlit path I believe :) ), and I think this is the same with most things in life, and it is a truly comforting realisation.
Overall, my personal opinion is that this book definitely does seem to be a solid roadmap to learning the fundamentals of Wicca and whether you are looking to practice the rituals within a group that you have started, or by yourself, this book would be a great place to start. It has been well researched and written in a conversational manner that is easy to digest for a short attention spanned person like myself (and trust me when I say that if I can get through a book with over 400 pages, it has to be at least somewhat interesting- I was not joking about the short attention span:) )
If you do take a chance on this book, please let us know what your thoughts are below. Have you read any of Deborah's other books? Let us know in the comment section below.
You can find Deborah's books that we currently sell here
You can access her website and check out the books that she has written here.