• Reviews

    Book Review – 10-Minute Moon Rituals: Easy Tips for Working with Each Astrological Sign to Develop Your True, Lunar Nature by Simone Butler

    Book Review 10-Minute Moon Rituals Easy Tips for Working with Each Astrological Sign to Develop Your True, Lunar Nature by Simone Butler 208 Pages     “10-Minute Moon Rituals” has two parts. The first is an introduction to the eight monthly phases of the moon and the characteristics of each. This link to author Simone Butler’s site http://astroalchemy.com/your-moon-power/ will determine your moon sign at birth so you can read up on your emotional nature, needs, wisdom from previous lives, and what can trip you up. Other sites, including this one, https://www.astrocal.co.uk/find-out-your-moon-phase/ will give you the phase of the moon. I was born under a waning gibbous moon. According to Simone,…

  • Reviews

    Video Book Review – Travels to the Otherworld and other Fantastic Realms: Medieval Journeys into the Beyond edited by Claude and Corine Lecouteux

    Video Book Review Travels to the Otherworld and other Fantastic Realms Medieval Journeys into the Beyond edited by Claude and Corine Lecouteux 240 Pages     Bright Blessings, it’s Saoirse! I was thrilled to review Travels to the Otherworld and other Fantastic Realms: Medieval Journeys into the Beyond, which was introduced and edited by Claude and Corine Lecouteux. Both authors reside in Paris and have taught at The Sorbonne. This is a great book into the mind of the Medieval people of Europe, and a great read for Pagans, as it explores magic, as well as religion. Highly recommended book! Listen on to my video for more! Blessed Be!  …

  • Reviews

    Book Review – Demons and Spirits of the Land: Ancestral Lore and Practices by Claude Lecouteux, Translated by Jon E. Graham

    Book Review Demons and Spirits of the Land Ancestral Lore and Practices by Claude Lecouteux Translated by Jon E. Graham 212 Pages     In Demons and Spirits of the Land: Ancestral Lore and Practices, Claude Lecouteux has written a fascinating and well-resourced exploration of pre-Christian Europe’s relationship with the spirits of the land. The writing is academic in nature, with many quotations from and cites to original sources deftly weaving centuries of cross-cultural traditions from Northern and Western European. Lecouteux describes the practices by which humans first respected the spirits of natural places, then colonized and “civilized” those places, changing their relationship with the local beings. With numerous references…

  • Monthly Columns

    Notes from the Apothecary

    Notes from the Apothecary: Willow   Willows are a type of tree in the family Salicaceae. They’re deciduous, meaning they lose their leaves towards winter, and they love both moisture and sunlight. Striking weeping willows are often seen trailing their leaves across the surface of streams, while fluffy goat willow or pussy willow brightens up the spring with its soft catkins. While only the largest of gardens will enjoy a willow tree of their own, many people will have a green area or park they can visit to find one of the many species of willow which grow all across the northern hemisphere. Find your own favourite willow creek or…

  • Reviews

    Sober Pagan Reviews – The 12-Step Buddhist: Enhance Recovery from Any Addiction: Updated & Expanded 10th Anniversary Edition by Darren Littlejohn

    Book Review The 12-Step Buddhist Enhance Recovery from Any Addiction Updated & Expanded 10th Anniversary Edition by Darren Littlejohn 400 Pages     I was so happy to receive this book. I was well acquainted with the original edition, as my son’s father, a long-time Buddhist practitioner in the Tibetan tradition and AA guru had it on his shelf the last time I visited him in Florida, and I remember reading parts of it and being overall impressed with Darren Littlejohn’s synthesis of 12-Step dogma and Buddhist philosophy. This edition has much more information than the original edition – I have to say that it’s a tad dense – but…

  • Reviews

    Irish Pagan School – In Review

      During lockdown I had that urge, as many do, to take the opportunity to better myself. One of the things I felt I had fallen behind with is my studies of Irish paganism, which is important to me because of the deities I work with plus my own (fairly recent) ancestry. I came across the Irish Pagan School quite by accident, really, after seeing the school mentioned by a friend on Facebook. The first course that drew me in was a free course on the Mórrígan, which was only available in May. Now, I’ve done a few free online courses, and I was totally expecting the standard survey-style questions…

  • Monthly Columns

    Gael Song

    A Druid’s Garden, Edible Forestry, Year Two A year ago, I wrote an article on putting in an edible forest garden when I was so excited to finally have enough outdoor space to plant one after waiting lots of years for it. And someone requested a follow-up on that first article, so here it is. Just to recap the basics: an edible forest garden is made up of three layers, trees, shrubs, and ground covers, all perennial and all edible in some way. Most of the examples of EFGs I’ve seen look a lot like a jungle, masses of plants scrambling all over each other. But I’m a druid and…

  • Reviews

    Book Review – Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers (Revised and Expanded Edition) by Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann, & Christian Rätsch

    Book Review Plants of the Gods Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers (Revised and Expanded Edition) by Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann, & Christian Rätsch 208 Pages     “Plants of the Gods” is a beautiful, extensive book that takes a look at the pharmacological wonders of the plant and fungus kingdoms, and their sacred and religious use by indigenous peoples throughout the world. To students of psychedelic pharmacology, each of these three authors is considered a luminary in his own right; in “Plants of the Gods,” Schultes, Hofmann, and Rätsch combine their knowledge into a pharmacopoeia that weaves together magical, medicinal, and ritual uses of well-known entheogenic plants with…

  • Monthly Columns

    The Lunar Horse and Spell for Beauty & Physical Attraction Excerpt from the Book ‘Horse Magick’ by Lawren Leo

      The Lunar Horse Beware reader! Not all religious tales are pleasant, and sometimes the path to esoteric enlightenment is sullied with offal. The choice is yours; turn back now or just step around anything you may find offensive until the path is once again clear. Is this not, after all, the case in life itself? It is certainly the case in the ancient Japanese myth of the sun goddess, Amaterasu, which is drawn from the sacred text of the Shinto religion, The Kojiki (An Account of Ancient Matters). This myth has repulsive elements, but ultimately it edifies. Amaterasu and Susanowo The tale starts with the first parent, Izanagi, giving…

  • Reviews

    Couple Begins a Wiccan Tradition, a Church and Projects to Preserve Both An Interview with Lisa Stewart, author of ‘Simply Wicca: A Beginner’s Guide to the Craft of the Wise’

    An Interview with Lisa Stewart, author of ‘Simply Wicca: A Beginner’s Guide to the Craft of the Wise’     As young as four, Lisa Stewart began having paranormal experiences. “I set them aside while going through school because I didn’t want to be so different,” she said in a phone interview. In 1989 she came to The Craft of the Wise and began identifying as a witch. Nine years later, she met her husband online. He was living in England. “The first thing I asked him for was his birth information so I could run a natal chart. We had sixty-four compatibilities, so I thought, ‘I think I like…