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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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Video Book Review – Doctoring the Devil: Notebooks of an Appalachian Conjure Man by Jake Richards
Video Book Reviewed Doctoring the Devil Notebooks of an Appalachian Conjure Man by Jake Richards Publisher: Weiser Books 288 Pages Publication Date: 4/01/2021 Bright Blessings, The Appalachian Mountains stretch from Canada, through New York, and into the South, clear down to the Cumberland region and cover over 200,000 square miles. This includes 420 counties in 13 different States and are home to more than 25 million people. It’s where tons of European settlers from mostly Germany, Scotland, Ireland, and parts of Eastern Europe set down roots to call home when they immigrated to The Americas. Many Indigenous Native Americans, and people of African descent made the Appalachias home as…
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Book Review – Backwoods Witchcraft: Conjure & Folk Magic from Appalachia by Jake Richards
Book ReviewBackwoods WitchcraftConjure & Folk Magic from Appalachiaby Jake Richards 211 Pages ”It’s just what the old folks did,” author Jake Richards wrote in his book, “Backwoods Witchcraft: Conjure & Folk Magic from Appalachia.” He explains, “The old-timers have always been superstitious when it comes to ghosts, lightening, death, witches, and curses. Basically, everything that could threaten their livelihood. … These remedies and charms are tradition, and you aren’t supposed to question them. No one does.” Richards grew up in the valleys below Buffalo and Roan Mountain in East Tennessee. His family was mostly farmers in Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina – some going back three hundred years. Most…
