-
Book Review – The Green Witch’s Guide to Magical Plants & Flowers by Chris Young and Susan Ottaviano
Book Review The Green Witch’s Guide to Magical Plants & Flowers by Chris Young and Susan Ottaviano Publisher: Skyhorse 280 Pages Publication date: June 6, 2023 Plants are my bag, so any book aimed at “Green Witches” is going to be hitting my shelves, sooner or later. The subtitle for this one is, “26 love spells from apples to zinnias,” which startled me a little, as the main title seems to indicate it’s a general guide, rather than a book specifically on love spells. Oh well—as with all things, I approached it with an open mind! First impressions, this book is gorgeous. The artwork from the cover design…
-
Witch & Popcorn
My Name is Mo’Nique Bright Blessings, film and tv watchers! I am reviewing something that had me in tears in ways I never expected. I have not been a fan of this individual simply because I watched this individual raise holy hell about things regularly, and I considered them to be a bucket of rage and a bitter individual who quite frankly seemed like a negative individual who I just would not want to be in the room with. And that was my opinion of Mo’Nique and I was wrong. However, I’m not stupid. I have watched her as a fashion icon, and am aware that the older she…
-
Book Review – African American Magick: A Modern Grimoire for the Natural Home by Stephanie Rose Bird
Book Review African American Magick: A Modern Grimoire for the Natural Home by Stephanie Rose Bird Publisher: Weiser Books 237 Pages Release Date: June 5, 2023 This book is dedicated to a group of people in the Northern Territory an the outstation of Maparu in Australia and thanking them for six thousand years of ancient ways. The book has been organized with the first few chapters acknowledging the magic and mystery of all the seasons. Then several chapters have been dedicated to each season – highlighting how and what to harvest to honour that season. The information contained within the book was originally published in 2006.…
-
Interview: How Happiness and Foraging Intertwine for “The Wildwood Way” Author Cliff Seruntine
“I wanted to inspire people to re-conceptualize happiness,” Cliff Seruntine said about writing The Wildwood Way: Spiritual Growth in the Heart of Nature. First published in 2015, the book was re-released last year. “I’m a psychotherapist by profession, and I’ve a lot of education in psychology. I’ve been enamored with the concept of happiness ever since my earliest undergraduate days,” he said in a telephone interview in late March as snow fell on his homestead in the wilds of Nova Scotia. “There is a fairly esoteric field called happiness science. It is a well-established branch of science. Very few people know it exists or how serious it is, but every…
-
Good God!
Meet: Prometheus Prometheus is the Greek god of fire, intellect, and champion of mankind. He and Epimetheus, brothers and both Titans, were tasked with creating man. “Prometheus shaped man out of mud, and Athena breathed life into his clay figure,” according to greekmythology.com. The Olympians banished most of Prometheus’ family to Tartarus, leading Prometheus to love man more than the twelve Olympians – so much so that he tricked Zeus who had demanded man sacrifice a portion of all foods to the gods. The story is told that Prometheus wrapped bones in fat, and hid the best meats inside a hide. By choosing the bones, Zeus had to…
-
Book Review – Church of Birds: An Eco-History of Myth and Religion by Ben Gagnon
Book Review Church of Birds: An Eco-History of Myth and Religion by Ben Gagnon Publisher: Moon Books 248 Pages Publication Date: April 1, 2023 Church of Birds is a compendium of myths, artifacts, and observations of birds throughout the history of humankind and their role in helping our ancient ancestors survive, thrive, and strive to be more connected to the gods and the natural world. Chapter 1: The Language of Birdsong discusses the similarities between the songs birds sing and the evolution of human speech. The author mentions myths from civilizations around the world that have humans descendant from birds at the time of creation. It has myths…
-
Book Review – A Walk Through the Forest of Souls; a Tarot Journey to Spiritual Awakening by Rachel Pollack
Book Review A Walk Through the Forest of Souls; A Tarot Journey to Spiritual Awakening Written by Rachel Pollack Publisher: Weiser Books 288 Pages Release Date: May 1, 2023 Oftentimes Tarot books are written to give detailed instruction, formal information, and point us readers towards a final destination of comprehension. Rachel Pollack’s book, A Walk through the Forest of Souls exploded those concrete rules and dogmatic disciplines into a multifaceted, multidisciplinary journey of incomprehensible mythological, spiritual, historical, and religious complexities, back into the profound mystery. She guides us through paradoxes and contradictions, dismantling as well as respectfully illuminating all that has been said about the origins and…
-
Book Review – Fortunate: Tarot Poetry by Kim Rashidi
Book Review Fortunate: Tarot Poetry by Kim Rashidi Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing 168 Pages Release Date: May 3, 2022 Fortunate: Tarot Poetry is a sweet book containing 78 short poems inspired by the 78 cards of the Tarot. The poems are presented in a randomized order in the book, and it is suggested in the short introduction that the reader may wish to use the book as a form of Tarot-inspired bibliomancy. Each poem also comes with a few blank pages, so that the book can be used as a Tarot journal, or as a place where someone may collect notes and reflections on the poems…
-
Book Review – Moon Phases by Cecilia Lattari
Book Review The Green Witch’s Guide to Magical Plants & Flowers by Chris Young and Susan Ottaviano Publisher: Skyhorse 160 Pages Publication date: April 26, 2022 The tagline for this book is “Use the lunar cycle to connect with nature and focus your intentions,” which straight away seems right up my street. I love moon magic, and indeed the science and astronomy surrounding the moon itself. I also focus on keeping my spiritual and magical path as connected to the seasons and nature as possible, so was keen to get a look at this book. There are thirteen chapters for the thirteen moons of the year, many of…
-
Book Review – The Cult of the Yew by Janis Fry
Book Review The Cult of the Yew: Tree of Life, Mystery, and Magic Written by Janis Fry Publisher: Moon Books 480 Pages Release Date: April 1, 2023 It is not often a book summons you from the Forest of your Soul and takes you on a journey through time and out of time back into a richer, freer, and more integrated Forest of your Eternal Soul. Janis Fry’s The Cult of the Yew was that catalyst for me. The Yew trees first started whirling in my awareness after a random conversation in the Forest one day with a neighboring woman I met on the trail. She shared…