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Book Review-The Wheel of the Year; Your Nurturing Guide to Discovering Nature’s Seasons and Cycles by Rebecca Beattie
Book Review The Wheel of the Year Your Nurturing Guide to Discovering Nature’s Seasons and Cycles by Rebecca Beattie Publisher: Elliott And Thompson Limited 224 Pages Published: October 27, 2022 Dr Rebecca Beatttie has drawn inspiration for her many years of teaching about the wheel from nature. She has captured her knowledge gained from those years here. Her writings make a great guidebook to assist one to live life in step with the seasons of nature. Throughout the book she makes reference to the oral traditions that were not formally recorded. Sometimes stories are forgotten or altered based on the storyteller’s interpretation. Rebecca makes references to these stories…
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Book Review – Pagan Family Prayers and Rituals by Ceisiwr Serith
Book Review Book of Pagan Family Prayers & Rituals by Ceisiwr Serith Publisher: Weiser Books 272 Pages Release Date: June 1, 2022 A book about Pagan prayers and rituals? Who knew! I wish I could have had this book when my children were little! This book is chock full of prayers for every occasion: Morning, Bedtime, Holidays like Samhain, Yule, Imbolc! It explains each of the four festivals, the solstices, and the equinoxes; it gives what decorations, foods (and recipes!), and drinks you should use, along with rituals, and blessings that should be used. Ceisiwr wrote this book obviously for families, but anyone can use this…
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Book Review – Learning to Love the Spaces in Between: Discover the Power of Liminal Spaces by Claire Gillman
Book Review Learning to Love the Spaces in Between: Discover the Power of Liminal Spaces by Claire Gillman Publisher: Welbeck Balance 200 Pages Release Date: January 3, 2023 From the publisher: The word liminal comes from the Latin word ‘limen’, meaning threshold. A liminal space is the ‘crossing over’ space, the time between ‘what was’ and the ‘what is to come’, and a place of transition and possibility. Each of us experiences liminality in our lives – learning how to navigate and embrace its power can enhance our wellbeing and our understanding of the world. Being in liminal space can be unnerving, yet it is often where insight,…
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Book Review – Pagan Portals: Harvest Home by Mélusine Draco
Book Review Pagan Portals: Harvest Home by Mélusine Draco Moon Books 96 Pages Publication date: August 25, 2022 This book, one of a series of Pagan Portal shorts, focuses on two of the three harvest festivals: Lammas/Lughnasadh and the Autumnal Equinox/Mabon. Mélusine Draco presents the history, customs, traditions, symbolism, and folklore associated with a variety of autumn festivals from “ye olden days,” when emphasis switches from the goddess to a “male domination of the seasonal rites.” Harvest celebrations occur over a number of weeks, as the crops are gathered, culminating with the cutting of the last sheaves of Lammas grain,…
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Book Review – The Medicine Wheel by Barry Goddard
Book Review The Medicine Wheel: Maps of Transformation, Wholeness, and Balance by Barry Goddard Publisher: Moon Books 320 Pages Publication date: October 1, 2022 Barry has done a great job of presenting the Medicine Wheel in a completely different fashion. As did many of us did during Covid lockdowns he had an opportunity to embrace a shift in his way of thinking. Although the inspiration for his book may have been born in 2006 when he began his shamanic and astrology blogs it was not until 2021 that he began assembling this longer piece of writing to share his learnings.…
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Book Review – Ossman & Steel’s Classic Household Guide to Appalachian Folk Healing by Jake Richards
Book Review Ossman & Steel’s Classic Household Guide to Appalachian Folk Healing: A Collection of Old-Time Remedies, Charms, and Spells By Jack Richards Foreword by Silver Ravenwolf Publisher: Weiser Books 122 pages Publication: August 1, 2022 From the publisher: “A long-treasured but forgotten classic of folk healing, with an introduction and commentary by the author of Backwoods Witchcraft and Doctoring the Devil. Ossman & Steel’s Guide to Health or Household Instructor (its original title) is a collection of spells, remedies, and charms. The book draws from the old Pennsylvania Dutch and German powwow healing practices that in turn helped shape…
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Book Review – Ancient Fayerie: Stories of the Celtic Sidhe and How to Connect to the Otherworldly Realms by Melanie Godfrey
Book Review Ancient Fayerie Stories of the Celtic Sidhe and How to Connect to the Otherworldly Realms by Melanie Godfrey Publisher: Moon Books 136 Pages Publication Date: September 1, 2022 The author takes you on a journey into the heart of the Celtic fayerie worlds… where trolls roam through sylvan glades… where dragons dwell amid mountain ranges… where at night, through sapphire skies, moonbeams descend on faeries, dancing. Ancient Fayerie reveals ways by which you can unite with these mystical worlds as you reconnect with nature and realise that you are not separate from Mother Earth. “Faerie contains many things besides elves and fays, and besides dwarfs, witches,…
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Book Review – Pagan Portals: Demeter by Robin Corak
Book Review Pagan Portals: Demeter by Robin Corak Published by Moon Books 128 pages Publication date: October 1, 2022 Pagan Portals: Demeter by Robin Corak is a short, well-researched book offering a modern, magical, and psychological approach to working with the ancient goddess. Corak begins with Demeter’s story as it is relayed in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, along with a few mythological tidbits from other ancient sources to give different perspectives of the goddess. The book moves on to discuss the rites specific to the historic worship of Demeter, to provide a basis for the personal work to follow.…
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Book Review – The Little Book of Tibetan Rites and Rituals by Judy Tsuei
Book Review The Little Book of Tibetan Rites and Rituals by Judy Tsuei Publisher: Ulysses Press Publication Date: March 22, 2022 144 pages Tibetan Buddhism is a centuries old religion that many are running to find books, websites, videos, and anything else they can to learn how to incorporate into their daily lives. “The goal of the Five Tibetan Rights, – and generally all Tibetan philosophy – is to live in a state of relaxation, a natural state in full presence of our potential.” This book is perfect for anyone. There is a brief history on Tibetan Buddhism and the rites at the beginning which is nice as…
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Book Review – Traditional Brazilian Black Magic by Diego de Oxossi
Book Review Traditional Brazilian Black Magic: The Secrets of the Kimbanda Magicians by Diego de Oxóssi Destiny Books 128 Pages Publication date: August 31, 2021 Diego de Oxossi, a Chief of Kimbanda and an Orishas Priest, details the tradition of Afro-Brazilian black magic. Although it’s been demonized, Kimbanda is a spiritual practice embracing both the light and dark aspects of life through worshiping the entities Eshu and Pombajira. The book is written in a scholarly fashion, with references, documentation, and examples. Before the introduction are three pages about African and Portuguese vocabulary used in the book. While I find foreign…
