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Book Review – The Path of Elemental Witchcraft: A Word Woman’s Book of Shadows by Salicrow
Book Review The Path of Elemental Witchcraft A Word Woman’s Book of Shadows by Salicrow Publisher: Destiny Books 576 Pages Published: May 31, 2022 Salicrow shares her personal experiences in “The Path of Elemental Witchcraft: A Word Woman’s Book of Shadows” as a way of teaching readers how to engage with earth, air, fire and water. For each element she offers a variety of techniques, spells, and rituals for communication, divination, and healing. Other workings include enchantment, protection, geomancy, and transformation – all with five or more lessons to help develop skills that form sacred, personal relationships with the natural world. This guide reads like the author’s own…
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Book Review – A Beginner’s Guide to Ogham Divination by Ceri Norman
Book Review A Beginner’s Guide to Ogham Divination by Ceri Norman Publisher: Moon Books 240 Pages Release Date: December 1, 2022 From the publisher: Discover the magic, mythology and meaning of the 25 trees of the Celtic Ogham, once the alphabet of the ancient Celts and now a system of divination that is perfect for tree lovers everywhere. This book invites and guides you to forge a meaningful and deep connection with the trees by listening to and learning from them. Each of the trees acts as a wise and insightful guide. By tuning into the energies, magic and personality of each of the trees, we can come…
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Book Review – Pure Magic by Judika Illes
Book Review Pure Magic by Judika Illes Publisher: Weiser Books 320 Pages Release Date: April 1, 2022 Originally published as Earth Mother Magic in 2001, and later as Pure Magic in 2007 and The Big Book of Practical Spells in 2016, the newly updated Weiser Classics edition of Judika Illes’ first book Pure Magic boasts a new foreword by Mat Auryn and a new preface by Judika Illes. My own first experience of Illes’ work was when I acquired The Element Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells: The Ultimate Reference Book for the Magical Arts a few years after it came out. That monumental volume has been with me…
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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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Exclusive Interview with author Ron George
Interview with Ron George, Author of Elizabeth Franklin: A Witch’s Tale Pagan Pages: What got you started as a writer? Ron George: I was really into poetry and classical literature when I was in high school. Shakespeare’s Macbeth really inspired me to start writing. But looking back I would say the movie Mean Girls. Fanfics were really big back then so I joined one of the online groups and developed a fairly decent following with my stories. At the time I don’t think Tina Fey knew that Mean Girls, almost overnight, developed a cult following. Well, the original version was actually written by Rosalind Wiseman. Anyway, for whatever reason…
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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…
