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Tag Archives: fairy tale

The Night House, by Danielle Dulsky

The Night House: Folklore, Fairy Tales, Rites, and Magick for the Wise and Wild, by Danielle Dulsky
New World Library, 1608689794, 232 pages, March 2025

The Night House by Danielle Dulsky is a captivating blend of ritual and storytelling, taking readers on a journey into the realms of mystery and magic of fairy tales. This book is not only filled with tales of intrigue many might remember from childhood, but also a profound exploration of the human psyche and the shadows that dwell within us all. Each page ripe with enchantment of literary magic, readers are offered the chance to craft rituals with these tales and explore the potent archetypal energy that lives within them.

“Worse, we were told the fairy tale was a prison, built to keep our world small and women caged in the archetypal boxes of princess, fragile mother, and fearsome sorcerer; yet, in those long-stretching midnight rituals of unexpected communion with the wild unseen, with a hidden intelligence that exists both beyond us and within us, we have a full-spirited understanding of a key truth the old fairy tellers knew well: Every fairy tale holds a piece of the old magick.”1

Divided into three parts, Dulsky leads readers through the “rooms” of the Night House, with tales to provoke, awaken, fortify, and soothe the reader’s psyche. “Part I: Hidden Rooms and Wild Skins” reconnects readers with their instinct wild side, the untamed parts often hidden for the sake of fitting in, but requiring liberation to breathe once again; “Part II: The Bone Cellar” reminds readers of their unbreakable spirit, the essentials that infuse them with power when otherwise striped bare; and “Part III: The Spirit Tower” connects readers with the transcendent nature of life—fate, dreams, and the wild imaginings that create new futures.

While ushering readers into less traveled territory of the psyche, Dulsky provides all the tools needed to enter these realms, explore them thoroughly and integrate their message, and then move onto our next story when ready. For each tale, she provides an introduction that primes the reader for the story by letting them know what they’re delving into, an invitation to the story the highlights the main theme, ideas of what to put on a story altar, and three rituals that can be performed after reading the tale. The structure provided really makes tapping into the unpredictable archetypal energy a bit more contained, a skillset that reflects Dulsky’s level of witchcraft mastery and dedication to readers having all the magical tools they need to perform this inner work.

As for the stories themselves, Dulsky’s retelling is both lyrical and evocative, drawing readers into the atmospheric world created with her words. The prose is rich with imagery, and readers will truly feel immersed within the tale. As mentioned, readers will be familiar with some fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella, but others are certain to be novel. Much like Grimm’s tales, Dulsky doesn’t shield away from the realistic brutality of humanity, grounding the stories in the relatable human experience. Her ability to balance the ethereal with the eerie, the authentic and the fantastical, adds depth to the narrative, making The Night House a truly unique reading experience.

Back in December, I purchased a 13-moon prophecy reading from Dulsky, which included a divination about the overarching story resonant for me this year. In my reading, she explained my tale for the year was Tatterhood, a tale popular in Norway and Iceland about twin sisters, one of whom is beautiful and the other is ugly. While I’ve read multiple versions of the fairy tale, which is absolutely awesome in that “hideous” Tatterhood is badass and rides a goat and waves her wooden spoon around to fight off banshees, hags, or trolls, depending on the telling, I was struggling to connect with the meaning of the story with elements in my life.

You can only imagine how thrilled I was to discover that this tale is one of the stories Dulsky covers in The Night House in the chapter “The Shadow Twin”! I had such a great time crafting a story altar based on Dulsky’s suggestion, which was the first thing that made me feel more connected to the tale. Then after a few readings of it, I started on the first rite. So far, I’ve only gone that far because I’m intentionally taking a week or so in between to integrate the tale before moving forward, but I can affirm the process Dulsky offers for weaving these tales into our own psyche is well-worth the time and energy of exploration.

I can definitely affirm that this magic-weaving methodology brings the reader much deeper into the fairy tale than simply trying to read it on their own and discern meaning. Dulsky has taken a lot of the “grunt work” out of finding meaning in these tales and working with them psychically to integrate their energy. For those who have never worked with story before within the context of a magical practice, this book is the perfect introduction to the art of storytelling.

Another chapter I had fun exploring was “The Red Hood”, which is the first story in the book. I especially enjoyed the rites for this chapter, which involved searching for mythic signals in my life, reflecting on how I am mending my ancestral lineage and moving towards a new chapter of life, and creating my own “wearable symbol”2 of “unique ancestral medicine”3.

While I have been moving chronologically, and to be honest, I’ve yet to really go in-depth in Part II and Part III beyond a quick read to get a feel for the book overall, I definitely feel readers could easily move to the story that pulls them without concern for the linear progression. While Dulsky does bridge one story to the next, each story stands alone and can be explored when it feels right.

Overall, The Night House by Danielle Dulsky is a mesmerizing book that will appeal to those who enjoy discovering new narratives, exploring their inner worlds through storytelling, or are feeling called to explore themes within fairy tales and folklore. Dulsky’s approach is perfectly suited to initiate readers into these realms often overlooked or neglected due to the loss of storytelling in Western culture, reclaiming the potency and magic of these timeless tales. Her ability to blend the mystical with the personal makes this book a compelling read. For those who dare to enter the Night House, the rewards are manifold.

Sleep & Sorcery, by Laurel Hostak-Jones

Sleep & Sorcery: Enchanting Bedtime Stories, Rituals, and Spells, by Laurel Hostak-Jones
Crossed Crow Books, 195988333X, 220 pages, August 2024

How often do you scroll social media on your phone or watch television before falling asleep? I would bet there’s a good chance that’s the default habit of many—and what does it do for your sleep? Restlessness, fitful wakes ups, dreams influenced by the content we’re consuming. But what if there was a better way to drift off to sleep? Dreaming of enchanting encounters with dragons, goddesses, and other magical beings, just like when we were young. For those looking for a new nighttime routine, Sleep & Sorcery: Enchanting Bedtime Stories, Rituals, and Spells by Laurel Hostak-Jones is the perfect bedside companion.

Hostak-Jones is the creator of the Sleep & Sorcery podcast and YouTube channel where she tells original bedtime stories blending fantasy, mythology, and folklore. This book is a compilation of her most popular stories for readers to enjoy in book form, along with additional rituals and spells you can do to bolster your sleep sorcery. Drawing up her background in theater, interest in high and late medieval texts (think Arthurian Legend), and bath as a Druid and nature lover, there’s so much magical inspiration within these stories.

“I strove to create welcoming, safe worlds inspired by the stories and themes I love most—folklore, fantasy, mythology, Witchcraft, and Druidry. Realms woven together through poetry and voice that could become cozy dreamscapes.”3

All the stories are written in second-person voice (the “you” voice for those unsure about the term). Hostak-Jones describes how she does this so “listeners can, in a sense, choose their own adventure, infusing the world with their own identities and histories.”4 For some, this style might be better suited to have read to them, either by someone at home with them, recording their voice, or in the form of Jone’s podcast. But for the readers, who prefer to world-build on their own without external audio stimulus, this book does a wonderful job immersing you fully in the story and setting.

And what absolutely incredible stories!!!! The places Hostak-Jones takes us ranges from the Dream Weaver’s Palace to the Midnight Carnival. We get to discover selkie secrets, the ruins of Atlantis, and fairies in the forest. There’s tales of being blessed by a unicorn and riding dragons. You can also deepen your connection to The Holly King, Oak King, Green Knight, Persephone, and Cerridwen.

What I thoroughly enjoyed is how Hostak-Jones has loosely correlated the stories with the Wheel of the Year. She notes, “While you may read or perform the exercises in this book at any time they call to you, you might find increased connection or potency by seeking correspondences with the rhythms of nature.”5

Ostara is just a few days away, so this weekend I plan on adding the story “Magic in the Moon Garden: Ostara Seed Ritual” into my nighttime routine and also doing the ritual before I go to sleep. Here’s a snippet of this story to provide a sample of Jone’s creative and engaging writing style:

“Tonight is the night, says a whispering voice, an incantation on the breeze. Tonight is the night for flowers, tonight is the night for frolicking, tonight is the night to work in the light of the moon… The trouble that you’ve grown used to winter, accustomed to the snug safety of the home like rabbits snug in their warrens, hidden away from the wilds. To welcome spring again is to step beyond the threshold, to open your heart on certain more to the wildness of the earth, and to shed layers that have become a second skin.”6

This is exactly how I have been feeling; I’m feeling the blooming within and yearn to play outside, but it’s taken a bit of effort to overcome my wintery inward solitude. I find it really potent to work with these sleep stories, as they seem to activate my subconscious mind, right on the precipice of sleep. Whether I’m activating a sense of subliminal acknowledgement of the change or seasons, or opening portals into new worlds where I can do magical things, these stories prime my mind before bed and activate the dreamscape and imagination.

The exercise for this story, Ostara Seed Ritual, involves choosing seeds  and planting them along with a piece of paper with my intention for the season under the moonlight on the vernal equinox. Hostak-Jones provides a list of suggested materials and step-by-step instructions, which makes it easy to follow along and complete all the steps. For this one, she writes:

“Let your hands get a little dirty. Feel the earth, thank it for its blessings, and let this seed, this intention, be an offering to the alchemy of spring.”7

How amazing! Now, obviously, I’ve skimmed quite a few of the other stories. And I can confidently say that you don’t need to follow the Wheel of the Year and can simply read the stories you feel called. Being a devotee of the Unicorn, that was the first story I chose to work with, while my husband’s preference was to ride a dragon. After I work with the Ostara stories for a while, before it gets close to Beltane, I plan to add The Song of Persephone to my bedtime routine, which is paired with the Maiden, Mother, Crone Meditation as its exercise.

I also really like the range of exercises and how they’re nicely customized for each bedtime story. There’s a ritual walk for the summer solstice,  journaling and automatic writing practices, ritual baths, meditations, building a fairy garden, and creating dream tinctures, sleep sachets, healing salves—just to name some of them! Since these exercises would most likely be done when more awake, I hope, the combination of the exercise and story work together to align the conscious and unconscious mind in true alchemy.

“For those of us who practice magic, rest and sleep can become as integral a part of our craft as anything we do in our waking lives.”8

All in all, Sleep & Sorcery is a wonderful way to make your bedtime routine a little more magical. In just the past week, I’ve noticed that my sleep has been more restful, despite still waking up numerous times with my toddler, who seems to be experiencing night terrors. While this on-going situation has the potential to make me dread nighttime, Jone’s brilliant stories have helped immensely as I prepare for bed; there’s something for me to look forward to as I shift from day-mode into night-mode. We never know what we might encounter during the night, but when we open the doors to otherworldly discovery, we remember the imaginative, healing, and restorative nature of sleep. I highly recommend this for all magical practitioners looking to add a bit of sorcery to their sleep routines.

A Spindle Splintered, by Alix E. Harrow

A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables #0), by Alix E. Harrow
Tordotcom, 1250765358, 128 pages, October 2021

I was so enthralled with The Once and Future Witches by Alix. E Harrow that I decided to read her most recent book, A Spindle Spintered (Fractured Fables #0), over the weekend. Talk about a fairy tale for modern young women! Harrow has a knack for capturing the heart in her tales of romance, magic, and self-discovery.

Zinnia Gray expects to die shortly after her 21st birthday. She suffered the ill effect of lax corporate environmental regulations, which caused a group of children in her town to have incurable health issues. No one has made it past 21. Nevertheless, Zinnia lives by her “Dead Girl Rules”, one of which is to move fast, and pursues a study in folklore. Sleeping Beauty was alway her favorite fairy tale, ever since seeing a photograph of her emerging wide-eyed and alive after death-life trance. Despite her resignation to the reality of her situation, a part of Zinnia hoped to change her story and emerge from the curse of her illness.

On the night of Zinnia’s 21st birthday, her best friend, Charm, throws a surprise Sleeping Beauty party for her – spindle included! As per the traditional fairy tale, Charm encourages Zinnia to prick her finger just like Sleeping Beauty. What happens next is most unexpected!

Zinnia hops dimensions and is transported INTO the bedroom of Sleeping Beauty, called Primrose in this tale. Primrose has yet to prick her finger, as her father has burnt all the spindles, but the tug to fulfill the curse is still strong. Primrose is utterly miserable. From the curse that puppeteers her when she sleeps, beckoning her to succumb to a century of sleep and a life in the palace that narrows her options to marriage to a less than superb knight, there seems to be no escape. Zinnia’s unexpected arrival turns out to be her moment to help Primrose change her story – and that is just what they do!

I won’t go further than this, but the book is AMAZING. Zinnia has a really down-to-earth attitude that still seeks to believe in magic. And the portrayal of Primrose and her world was like reading a real fairy tale. Together, Zinnia and Primrose realize they are living out the same story, but they also have the power to change the narrative. I really liked this concept because I have studied the power of archetypes within the psyche, and I’ve learned the power of identifying the mythological/fairy tale story one is living out. For real change to occur, both individually and on a societal level, requires a change of narrative, and this is exactly what Harrow has given readers.

For instance, Charm is very into women and Zinnia is super open about her own sexual preferences, at one point saying she’s ¾ straight, but acknowledging there’s a piece of her that also finds women attractive. I enjoyed how the characters weren’t type-cast and it embraced the whole spectrum of personality. There’s a lot of blending, rather than fixed edges. From Charm and Zinnia’s friendship, colored with mutual attraction, to the ability for characters to merge with others living out their narrative and work together to change it.

And that’s what is cool about the tale: the bonds of women. While the typical “hero’s journey” is often an individual pursuit, this book portrays fairy tales as a teamwork effort. I think it’s more in-line with a feminine way of being; opening up, trusting, finding allies, and choosing to stick together until everyone is out of harm’s way. There’s an element of choosing to help another over helping oneself, but not in a self-sacrificing way. It is in the spirit of cooperation and seeing that one person as an individual can make a huge difference for someone else, and in doing so, overcomes their own obstacles.

A Splintered Spindle invites us to reconsider what a hero looks like and reimagine the fairy tale so that it’s not only a prince that saves us at the end. True love’s kiss, well that one is kept for the story, but in the spirit of female friendship. And ultimately, sure it’s a happy ending, but also a very heartwarming, honest ending. And I think those are the best kind in real life  because they are not fake. Sure, we can’t outrun reality, but we can always believe in the magic within ourselves.

I sincerely hope that Harrow keeps on writing these revised feminist stories of fairy tales, magic, and witchcraft. This one was short and sweet; I read it for only about 2 hours. I highly recommend it to women of all ages, but particularly young women, because I think it provides a new narrative to live out. For those of us who still hold dear to our fairy tale dreams, this book will be perfectly satisfying too. It’s a wonderful mixture of reality and magic, hope and despair, and the choices we make to forgo saving ourselves to help a friend.