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Book Review — The Divine Nature of Plants: A Medical Intuitive’s Guide to Plant Spirit Medicine by Laura Aversano
Publisher: Destiny Books, a division of Inner Traditions 288 Pages Release Date: July 8, 2025 Content warning: This book contains extensive writing about mediumship, aka, speaking to the dead, including deceased children. If you’re a regular Pagan Pages reader, you know I love plants. I write the column Notes from the Apothecary and love to explore the ways we use plants as medicine, food, and magical companions for all sorts of everyday aspects of life. That respect for plant medicine comes from a scientific viewpoint, for example, looking at the folklore medicine of plants or what Mrs Grieve wrote in her Modern Herbal, and seeing how modern research now backs…
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Book Review-Seasons of the Witch: Yule Journal by Lorianna Anderson, Illustrated by Giada Rose
Book Review Seasons of the Witch: Yule Journal By Lorianne Anderson, Illustrated by Giada Rose Publisher: Rockpool Publishing 208 Page Full-Color, Illustrated Paperback Release Date: October 7th, 2025 Seasons of the Witch: Yule Journal is a great exercise in witchy mindfulness-especially for those like myself who aren’t big fans of Winter and Yule/Christmas. This journal has an appeal to it, partially because of the artwork, which is beautiful, but also because it contains the greatest wisdom of all within it: yours. Whether animal medicines, such as Bear, Cardinal and Deer, are prompts to look within during the dark months, or encouraging things like decorating to be witchy rituals, this journal is…
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Book Review-Earth Magic: A Grimoire of Nature Spells by Cheralyn Darcey
Book Review Earth Magic: A Grimoire of Nature Spells By Cheralyn Darcey Publisher: Rockpool Publishing 327 page, illustrated Hardcover Release Date: September 16th, 2025 Earth Magic: A Grimoire of Nature Spells is a beautifully illustrated, designed, and practical book of spells involving nature. Be it trees, flowers or herbs, this grimoire really does contain just about every (non-toxic) plant that would be common for witchcraft practitioners. The spells themselves are original to the author, with this book being a compilation of three of her previous spellbooks. I received my copy of this book a couple months ago and worked with it in the time leading up to this review. The spells…
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Book Review-The Green Witch Illustrated: An Enchanting Immersion Into the Magic of Natural Witchcraft by Arin Murphy-Hiscock, Illustrated by Sara Richard
Book Review The Green Witch Illustrated: An Enchanting Immersion Into the Magic of Natural Witchcraft By Arin Murphy-Hiscock, Illustrated by Sara Richard Publisher: Adams Media 256 Page Full-Color, Fully Illustrated Hardcover Release Date: November 26th, 2024 The Green Witch Illustrated has been a companion over this past Summer for me, guiding me to natural magicks to be in touch with the Earth around me during the blooming season. To say that this book influenced a lot of my summer magicks is an understatement. Not only does it avoid so many common trappings specific to traditions (such as Wicca, traditional craft, etc)., making it accessible and usable to any kind of witch.…
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Book Review — The Tarot Spreads Yearbook
Book Review — The Tarot Spreads Yearbook Publisher: David & Charles 144 Pages Release Date: 11th April 2023 This beautifully presented book is billed as “52 Tarot Spreads for Getting to Know Yourself.” In our modern, fast-paced life, isn’t that something we’re all trying to do a little more? It’s so easy to get bogged down in our routines, work, and trying to make ends meet that we can lose sight of our inner selves and what nourishes us. With that in mind, I opened this book with an optimistic frame of mind. At first glance, it’s clear that, like the year, this book is split into four seasons: Growth,…
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Book Review-This is Chaos: Embracing the Future of Chaos Magic: 13 Essays on Chaos MAgic for Modern Practitioners compiled and edited by Peter J. Carroll
Book Review This is Chaos: Embracing the Future of Chaos Magic: 13 Essays on Chaos Magic for Modern Practitioners Compiled and Edited by Peter J. Carroll Publisher: Weiser Books 274 Page Paperback Release Date: June 2nd, 2025 This is Chaos is a must-have for the modern Magus or Wizard, Occultist or Witch, Sorcerer and Warlock, or whatever you want to identify as. It presents not only Chaos Magick at its’ roots, and even provides a brief history given directly from one of its most influential figures himself-Peter J. Carroll, but also goes into the current of Chaos Magic-both past, and present, and even has ideas for where the current of chaos…
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Book Review-The Call of the Old Gods: My Occult Journey on the Pagan Path by Christopher McIntosh
Book Review The Call of the Old Gods: My Occult Journey on the Pagan Path By Christopher McIntosh Publisher: Inner Traditions 264 Page E-Book Release Date: May 6th, 2025 The Call of the Old Gods is a well-written memoir from one of my favorite Pagan and Occult authors, Christopher McIntosh. Instead of telling you what to do, he relays the experience to you, as well as the academic background, to inspire the reader to form their own practices, etc. This book, instead of his usual, scholarly approach, focuses on a well-storied life full of trials, lessons and friendships. McIntosh has lived a long life and has had the opportunity to encounter…
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Book Review-Odin: An Illustrated Guide to the Allfather by L. Dean Lee, Illustrated by The Saxon Storyteller
Book Review Odin: An Illustrated Guide to the AllFather By L. Dean Lee, Illustrated by The Saxon Storyteller Publisher: Red Wheel 128 Page Full-Color, Fully-Illustrated Hardcover Release Date: April 7th, 2025 Odin: An Illustrated Guide to the AllFather is the perfect primer for those looking to learn more about the One-Eyed God; not only is it a mindful guide to learning more about Odin in myth, legend and even modern iterations, but it also gracefully handles the problematic past that American Heathenry and Norse Paganism in America have. The discernment present in so many contemporary Norse Pagan books is a sign of positive change, and that there’s a genuine movement…
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Book Review-Loki: An Illustrated Guide to the Trickster God by L. Dean Lee, Illustrated by The Saxon Storyteller
Book Review Loki: An Illustrated Guide to the Trickster God By L. Dean Lee, Illustrated by The Saxon Storyteller Publisher: Red Wheel 128 Page Full-Color, Fully Illustrated Hardcover Release Date: April 7th, 2025 Loki: An Illustrated Guide to the Trickster God is the one introductory book to Loki I wish I’d had when I embarked on my journey to know the (in)famous trickster deity. I myself am a Lokean, having devoted my more adventurous, mischievous habits and tendencies (I can be a real screwball, I won’t lie about it) to him, finding peace in the clown, that jester, part of myself. Loki is more than just chaos; sure, he can…
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Book Review-Tarot:Timeless Secrets of the Ancient Mirror by Natalie Labriola
Book Review Tarot: Timeless Secrets of the Ancient Mirror By Natalie Labriola Publisher: Wooden Books, LLC 58 Page Paperback Release Date: March 15th, 2025 Don’t let the small size of Tarot: Timeless Secrets of the Ancient Mirror deceive you; this 58 page book is jam-packed with everything you need to know about the Tarot at-a-glance. It’s aesthetically pleasing in terms of design, and has sections discussing the methodology the author uses to approach tarot (which is perhaps most common-a Jung psych-spiritual based interpretation). There’s also a short primer on the history of the Tarot and how it evolved from a playing card game, to a parlor trick, to real divination. Then, you’re…
