-
Book Review – Pagan Portals: Breath of Spring: How to Survive (and Enjoy) the Spring Festival by Melusine Draco
Book Review Pagan Portals: Breath of Spring: How to Survive (and Enjoy) the Spring Festival by Melusine Draco Publisher: Moon Books 96 Pages Release Date: February 1, 2023 Breath of Spring: How to Survive (and Enjoy) the Spring Festival is another lovely offering from Moon Books’ Pagan Portals series, this time exploring the various festivals of spring as they developed in Western cultures. In the first chapter, author Melusine Draco explores the origins of Candlemas and the related Pagan festival of Imbolc, from possible Greek origins (the return of Persephone) through the Christian era in Britain. This chapter explores some of the historical traditions surrounding the…
-
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,…
-
Book Review – The Witch’s Book of Simples: The Simple Arte of Domestic Folk Medicine by Mélusine Draco
Book Review The Witch’s Book of Simples: The Simple Arte of Domestic Folk Medicine by Mélusine Draco Publisher: Moon Books 208 Pages Publication Date: April 1, 2022 Witches have been using medicinal plants for cures of common ailments as part of their Craft for centuries. The most elementary cure is a simple – an infusion, poultice, or compress derived from a single herb. Nothing fancy, just effective: chamomile tea for sleep, elder flowers for coughs, peppermint for nausea – quick household remedies not intended as long-term treatments. Perhaps because they are so basic, they are often overlooked. Mélusine Draco wrote “The Witch’s Book of Simples: The Simple Arte…
-
Book Review – Pagan Portals: Seeking the Primal Goddess-The Magic and Mystery of the Hearth Fire by Mélusine Draco
Book Review Pagan Portals Seeking the Primal Goddess The Magic and Mystery of the Hearth Fire by Mélusine Draco 96 Pages The opportunity to review this book peaked my curiosity due to my recently growing interest in studying ancient goddess cultures within European traditions from historical, anthropological, and archaeological lenses. Draco’s book is an interesting blend of locating the goddess across history as well as in modern pagan practices. I especially enjoyed the sections on the hearth fire’s connection with the goddess and–in my interpretation of this section–an undercurrent of feminism that has endured through the ages. The images that sprung to my mind of women tending sacred…
