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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.”1

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.”2 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.”3

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.”4

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.”5

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.”6

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.

Cats, by John A. Rush

Cats: Keepers of the Spirit World, by John A. Rush
Destiny Books, 1644117460, 208 pages, October 2023

Cats are polarizing creatures. People tend to either love them or hate them, and while many cultures, most notably the ancient Egyptians, revered cats, their Christian associations with witchcraft and the Devil made them the target of persecution in medieval Europe. In the thirteenth century, Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241) even issued a papal bull condemning cats as agents of Satan.1 Superstitions about cats, especially black ones, being unlucky or demonic, persist to this day, and humans who spend too much time around felines are often ridiculed for being crazy cat people.

In Cats: Keepers of the Spirit World, author John A. Rush, Ph.D., N.D., explores humanity’s complex relationship with cats as both pets and spirit animals, which goes back in time over thirty million years.

“This book is about origins, human and cat, for it is by looking at our ancient past that we can identify our deep connection to cats and our eventual attachment of spiritual characteristics to them,” Rush says.2

Rush is a retired anthropology professor and naturopathic doctor with an impressive oeuvre of published works on a variety of topics, from Witchcraft and Sorcery: An Anthropological Perspective of the Occult (1974) to Biological Anthropology: A New Synthesis (2023). He and his wife manage a colony of about fifteen or more feral cats, and over the past thirty-five years he has gained deeper insights into feline behavior through observation. 

“Cats are apex predators and our ancient ancestors, emerging in the Oligocene (thirty-four to twenty-three million years ago) and Miocene (twenty-three to six million years ago), were prey animals for millions of years,” Rush says.3

The anxiety and fear cats produced in our primitive ancestors influenced human evolution by altering our genetic coding. The rise of bipedalism in the late Miocene may have evolved as a response to these predators, so hominids could appear larger and avoid predation.

Over time, the relationship between cats and hominids became more symbiotic. Following the example of feline predators, our ancestors learned to supplement their diet of nuts and berries by scavenging the carcasses left behind by cats, using stone tools like teeth and claws to rend flesh from bone. “Not only are the cats eating our ancestors,” Rush says, “but they are also leaving us food in our time of need.” [19] He suggests that this gruesome exchange may be the origin of the concept of human and animal sacrifice. As the saying goes, you are what you eat, and some prehistoric cave paintings depicted humans with animal traits in order to create a spiritual link between hunter and hunted through sympathetic magic. 

The development of weapons and other primitive technology by Neanderthals and early modern humans flipped the script, and our ancestors became apex predators. A simple stick may have been the weapon of choice for millions of years, and Rush notes that his own cats are wary when they see him wielding a broom or a rake, which cannot be a learned behavior, since he doesn’t “whack” his cats.4 He sees their wariness as evidence that they have an instinctive aversion to sticks preserved in their genes.

Even though we are now at the top of the food chain, the primal fear of cats is still hardwired into our genetic coding. Rush proposes that humanity’s atavistic fear of being devoured by wild cats has been preserved in the myths of cannibalistic monsters like the baby-killing demoness Lilith, who could shapeshift into a cat, which brings to mind the myth of cats sucking the breath out of sleeping infants, a superstition that persists today.

Cats still see us as a form of food, and they certainly have a way of bewitching us into caring for them. With the rise of agriculture, domestication of cats may have occurred because cats were drawn to the rodents raiding our grain stores and humans valued their companionship and talent for pest control.

Rush dispels the popular belief that cats were worshiped in ancient Egypt, and emphasizes that their otherworldly characteristics were associated with gods, while the cats themselves were not deified. From Rush’s anthropological perspective, worship entails demeaning subservience to a deity.

“In my opinion, there is nothing divine or spiritual in worshipping a god to whom you are enslaved (Yahweh, God the Father, or Allah),” he writes. “Identification with various animals is what brings out our spiritual nature.”5

The concept of animal worship was used by cultures that claimed to be more civilized in an attempt to denigrate the Egyptians as foolish and primitive. Rush emphasizes that Egyptian deities depicted with cat heads, such as Bast and Sekhmet, were not deified cats, but goddesses with feline characteristics.

Rush devotes most of this book to providing a wide survey of cat folklore and mythology throughout the world. In “Issues of Cat Identity and Behavior in Spirituality” which is the longest and most captivating chapter, he demonstrates that the cat is, cross-culturally, a potent dualistic symbol, imbued with great power, for good or ill.

The physical power of cats was both admired and feared by our ancestors. The muscular legs of domestic cats and leopards enable them to climb trees and leap from branches, and Rush says that South African leopards “could snatch one of our Australopithecine cousins and drag him or her up a tree.”6 Trees often grew out of cave openings, and the chewed up bones of our bipedal ancestors have been discovered in the ancient lairs of leopards.   

Cats, as symbols of prowess and power, are often the guardians of thresholds:

“Along with the ability to see in the dark and their acute hearing, the cat’s tendency to seek out secluded, dark, protected places to hide and sleep connects the cat to role of guardian of the Underworld,” Rush says.7

He shares a cute anecdote about his own cats guarding the entrance to his bathroom “like the Sphinx on the Giza Plateau,”8 and any cat person can certainly relate, since most cats like to follow their owners to the bathroom. Almost every time I leave mine, all three of my cats are waiting for me outside the door. I have a long-haired black cat who was a stray I adopted four years ago, as well as two orange tabbies I adopted a little over a year ago from my next door neighbor, who oversees a cat colony. As a fellow cat lover, I was touched by the heart-warming personal anecdotes Rush shares about his own cats to elucidate his points about cat behavior, which he presents with the emotional detachment of scientific observation.

The sections of this book that interested me the most explored shamanistic beliefs involving humans shapeshifting into cats and the transmigration of souls:

“From Burma and other areas of Southeast Asia we hear that cats are keepers of souls,” Rush says. “In Laos, for example, souls are souls and they can migrate, and it doesn’t make any difference what animal they go into—they become part of that animal’s life force. I call this soul-shifting, somewhat like organ transplants.”9

Since souls can shift shape, a shaman can replace the soul of a sick body part with that of an animal. “Let’s say the soul of your legs leaves you, and you have trouble walking,” Rush says. “In Laos, the Hmong shaman can replace it with that of a cow or even a chicken.”10 Coming back to cats, Rush then shares a soul-shifting story he heard about a Hmong tribesman who died and his soul entered the pet leopard cat of the shaman who was trying to heal him. The shaman later left Laos and brought the cat with him to the United States in 1975, where it continues to haunt the streets to this day, exacting vengeance on anyone who harms Hmong people.

This urban legend demonstrates how, in modern times, mythological cats have persisted in the field of cryptozoology, and sightings of strange cat monsters still occur today. One of the weirdest examples Rush shares comes from the Pueblo and Navajo Indians of the southwestern United States, who claim that cacti-shaped cats with knives for paws get drunk off of cactus juice and cause trouble.11

Cats: Keepers of the Spirit World is a compelling exploration of the biological and spiritual evolution of humanity’s relationship with cats. Rush eloquently demonstrates how the mutual struggle to survive shaped the evolution of both of our species in profound ways, and even though we know very little about our primitive ancestors, his academic background as an anthropology professor lends an air of authority to this work. Cat lovers and armchair anthropologists alike will enjoy journeying with Rush into the mists of prehistory, and will no doubt learn something new from his comprehensive survey of cross-cultural cat folklore.

The Magic of the Orphic Hymns, by Tamra Lucid and Ronnie Pontiac

The Magic of the Orphic Hymns: A New Translation for the Modern Mystic, by Tamra Lucid and Ronnie Pontiac
Inner Traditions, 1644117207, 288 pages, August 2023

The mythical musician Orpheus charmed fish, sirens, and weary heroes with his songs while sailing with Jason and the Argonauts in pursuit of the Golden Fleece, but he is best known for his doomed love affair with Eurydice, who died after she was bitten by a snake while fleeing a rapist on their wedding day. Orpheus was so distraught that he descended into the Underworld and convinced Persephone, the Queen of the Dead, to resurrect his wife, on the condition that he not look back while leading her out of Hades.

However, in his eagerness to reunite with her, he couldn’t resist the urge to turn around, and she slipped away from him once again. Upon returning to the surface without his beloved wife, he founded the mystery religion that bears his name and the maenads tore him apart, mirroring the dismemberment of Dionysus by the Titans. A collection of 87 religious poems, known as the Orphic Hymns, were attributed to this cult hero, though the true origin and authorship of them is shrouded in mystery. 

In The Magic of the Orphic Hymns: A New Translation for the Modern Mystic, co-authors Tamra Lucid and Ronnie Pontiac revitalize the traditional hymns with fresh new poetic renderings in contemporary English. Like Orpheus, the husband and wife duo are mystical musicians themselves, who founded the experimental rock band Lucid Nation. Both were initiated into the underground music and occult scene of Los Angeles, and Pontiac apprenticed under the metaphysical scholar Manly Palmer Hall. Lucid wrote about their experiences in Making the Ordinary Extraordinary: My Seven Years in Occult Los Angeles with Manly Palmer Hall (2021).

The authors first began working with the hymns in the 1980s, when Pontiac assisted members of Hall’s Philosophical Research Society with a republication of Thomas Taylor’s eighteenth-century translation titled The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus. Pontiac, who was studying ancient Greek in college at the time, was inspired to write his own translation, and Lucid researched the ritual correspondences. Together, they produced the poetic renditions of the traditional hymns contained within this book. 

My go-to translation for the past decade has been The Orphic Hymns by Apostolos N. Athanassakis (2013), which is an excellent scholarly resource with extensive footnotes. I was drawn to Lucid and Pontiac’s more flexible poetic interpretations because I’m always looking for beautiful prayers to incorporate into my personal rituals and I thought this book might move me to craft my own hymns as well. However, The Magic of the Orphic Hymns is more than just a divinely inspired poetry collection, and I was impressed by the comprehensive historical background information the authors provide. 

In the first half of the book, Lucid and Pontiac explore the origins of Orphism from a well-researched, scholarly perspective, and the influence of Orpheus, “the first rock star,”1 on great minds throughout history. Through their engaging narrative voices, they have a knack for making what might otherwise be dry history entertaining, and this work is peppered with fascinating anecdotes about philosophers and Roman emperors. The far-reaching spiritual influence of Orphism interested me the most, and I was intrigued to learn that the early Christians saw Orpheus’s underworld journey to rescue his beloved wife as mirroring Christ’s harrowing of hell and the liberation of the virtuous souls trapped there.2 

Defining the religion of Orphism is tricky, and scholars have debated if it even existed at all.

“Orphic may have been a catch-all phrase in ancient Greece for anything neither Homeric nor Olympian,” writes Lucid and Pontiac. “The phrase could be a generic category for a cluster of related interests, like New Age in our own culture.”3

According to the Neoplatonist philosopher Olympiodorus, Orphics believed that human beings were created when Zeus struck the Titans by lightning after they cannibalized Dionysus. Humanity is therefore like an electrified Frankenstein monster composed of heavenly Dionysian spirit and corrupt Titanic flesh. Through the cycle of reincarnation, the Orphics supposedly taught that humans could purge themselves of their Titanic impurities over the course of multiple lifetimes and liberate their Dionysian divinity.

Followers of the Orphic mysteries led austere lives and restricted their diets by abstaining from meat and beans. However, authors Lucid and Pontiac state that Olympiodorus is the only source for the Titanic origin myth of humanity being Orphic and the Italian scholar Domenico Comparetti concluded that the Orphics believed in reincarnation based on his writings, so this is an educated guess supported by scant evidence. 4

Lucid and Pontiac’s exploration of Orpheus’s wife in a chapter titled, “The Evolution of Eurydice” was especially compelling to me. In the earliest sources, Eurydice is nameless, faceless, and voiceless. She is a shadow projection of Orpheus’s mourning and yearning to possess the woman who was stolen from him by death. She is an ancient victim of the male gaze, doomed to serve as muse for a famous musician while having no true identity of her own. 

Her elusive character acquired more substance in retellings. I was fascinated to learn that a name for Eurydice in some early versions of the myth was Agriope, which means “Wild-Eyed.”5 This caught my attention because Agriope is also an epithet for Hekate, the goddess of ghosts and witchcraft, in her capacity as leader of the restless dead. Under the name Agriope, Orpheus’s wife appears to be a hungry ghost sent by the Queen of the Underworld to haunt him. 

The authors suggest that Eurydice, whose name means “Wide Justice,”6 sounds more like an epithet for the goddess Persephone in her role as judge of souls than the name of a mortal wife. I’m inclined to agree, because I find the parallels between Persephone and Eurydice to be striking. Eurydice died of a snake bite after a shepherd or satyr attempted to rape her on the day of her wedding to Orpheus, and according to the Orphic Hymn to Persephone, Zeus raped Persephone in the form of a serpent. The fruit of that unspeakable union was Dionysus. Through her untimely death, Eurydice was, in a sense, abducted by Hades, and through Orpheus’s descent into the Underworld, he was reborn as a Dionysian mystic.

Persephone herself is a key figure in the myth for taking pity upon Orpheus and permitting Eurydice’s return to the land of the living, on the condition that he not look back, lest he lose her forever. Yet, despite this warning, he could not resist the urge to do so. In medieval times, Orpheus’s backward glance “was a symbol of human weakness, illustrating the way even the most dedicated among us, the holiest, cannot escape those moments of desire for material pleasures.”7

Carl Jung interpreted Orpheus’s “backward glance” as “a symbol of individuation and the achievement of autonomy.”8 Orpheus was fated to lose the love of his life so he would become the renowned mystic and musician he was destined to be. Sometimes the obligations of a relationship can limit one’s ability to pursue the soul’s true calling, and so Orpheus’s romantic hindrance was removed by the force of death, while simultaneously being used as a guiding light to propel him forward.

This poignant insight resonated deeply with me because I have observed in my own life that love lost or unrequited can be a powerful catalyst for personal growth and transformation. Limerence, or romantic obsession for someone unattainable, can serve a higher purpose when it is sublimated into artistic and spiritual pursuits. When I think back on it, it seems that heartbreak was the catalyst for every major breakthrough and turning point in my life, as if the Universe was redirecting me towards something greater, even though I felt devastated at the time. 

The second half of this book contains the “Orphic Charms and the Sacred Songs of Orpheus.” The authors have taken creative liberties with their loose translations of the Orphic Hymns, creating “a poetic work, not a scholarly translation.”9

The charms consist of the cryptic messages that were inscribed on the Orphic golden leaves, which were buried with the deceased as “passwords for the dead, messages to avert forgetfulness.”10 My favorite charm tells the departed initiate what words they must speak to the guardians of the lake of memory in order to drink from it:

“I am a child of earth/and of starry heaven,/but my race is of heaven./This you know./I am parched/and perishing./Give me cold water/from the lake of memory.”11

One of my favorite hymns is addressed to Hermes, who is cleverly described with homophones as the “lover of prophets/and profits”.12 I also adore the hymn to Persephone, in which she is honored as “the star/at the core of the apple.”13 The beautiful aquatic imagery of “The Nereids” reminds me of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Little Mermaid”: “Daughters of Nereus,/you live in the golden castle/at the bottom of the sea./Your steeds are Tritons,/the mermen with wings./You delight in the creatures/of the billowing brine.”14

The Magic of the Orphic Hymns is a poetic odyssey through the history and mystery of Orphism that makes the traditional hymns more accessible to contemporary mystics by rendering them in vivid modern English. Anyone who is curious about the Orphic tradition or interested in revitalizing the hymns in their personal practice will benefit from reading this book. These pages want to be perfumed in incense and awakened with whispered incantations.

The Cult of the Yew, by Janis Fry

The Cult of the Yew: Tree of Life, Mystery and Magic, by Janis Fry
Moon Books, 1803411538, 480 pages, April 2023

Artist and yew tree specialist Janis Fry was first initiated into the yew mysteries in the fall of 1974, when she stumbled upon the Aberglasney Yew tunnel while exploring the overgrown hedges surrounding an old dilapidated country house in West Wales. The bent boughs of the ancient yews had fused together, forming a magical cathedral-like archway that drew her into a lifelong spiritual quest for the secrets of the legendary Tree of Life. 

Fry is now one of the foremost authorities on yew trees and advocating for them has become her life’s work. Her native Great Britain has the largest treasury of ancient yew trees in the world. There are at least 174 ancient yews in the United Kingdom, and many of them are over 2,000 years old.1 Some of the UK’s most precious arboreal treasures are even estimated to be 5,000 years old, such as the Defynnog Yew in Wales and the Fortingall Yew in Scotland. Many of these ancient yews preside over churchyards, where they should be safe and well maintained.

However, Fry laments that there are no legal protections for these sacred trees and many suffer from neglect, becoming strangled with ivy and more vulnerable to breakage during storms, or having limbs amputated that should have been left alone to take root in the ground and regenerate.2 The hollows of some church yews are even used as storage sheds for groundskeeping supplies such as lawnmowers and oil tanks.3 Even if the clergy does take proper care of their sentinel yews, the trees are still in danger if the church closes down and developers purchase the land.

“Most people assume that ancient trees are protected,” Fry says, “but this is not the case unless someone has gone out of their way to have a Tree Protection Order placed on a particular tree and even if a tree has a TPO, the level of protection offered is not much of a deterrent to a developer who will often simply include the cost of the fine in the cost of the development.”4

A petition that Fry created on change.org to save Britain’s ancient yews has gained over 300,000 signatures so far. Her sense of urgency comes from the heartbreak of seeing so many of them become firewood. “Over 500 ancient Yew trees have been destroyed since the Second World War,”5 she says on her petition.

While Fry’s activism focuses on the physical preservation of yews, her artwork and books illuminate the otherworldly beauty of the yew and its spiritual significance as the Tree of Life. Fry feels she has a telepathic connection with yews, and they communicate with her visually, through imagery and symbolism, which she channels into her art. Many of her paintings are haunted by yews—the cover of The God Tree (2012) featured an acrylic painting of the selfsame title depicting red humanoid shapes emerging from the thick bark of a graveyard yew, their arms stretched skyward, rising like flames in the night. The blurred watercolor silhouette of a moonlit yew reflected in a rippling triangular pool, titled “Yew and Well,” graces the cover of her latest book, The Cult of the Yew: Tree of Life, Mystery, and Magic (2023).

“The phenomena known as ‘Yew’,” Fry says in the introduction, “is far more than a tree. It is a holder of wisdom, a keeper of knowledge and quite possibly a creator god and watcher of the human race. The Tree of Life, the Otherworldly tree, is a conscious entity, a tree that can bleed like a human, change sex and produce the enigma of the Golden Bough.”6

In The Cult of the Yew, Fry expands upon her previous research in The God Tree and aspires to track down a royal bloodline of sacred yew, called Taxus Sanctus, which descended from the original Tree of Life. She believes the offspring of this fabled tree were propagated by members of a yew cult who traveled long distances carrying cuttings, roots, and branches as staves or wands and planted them throughout Britain. Fry traces the original holy tree back 15,000 years, to the temple of the sun god Atum Ra in the ancient Egyptian city the Greeks called Heliopolis, and suggests that the ankh, the Egyptian symbol for eternal life, represents a branch taken from the Tree of Life. After a severe flood, she thinks an offshoot or cutting of the tree was rescued, taken to the Sumerian city of Eridu, and transplanted in the Garden of Eden.

Fry asks her readers to keep an open mind as she presents controversial theories that will be a stretch of the imagination for the more incredulous members of her audience. In the third chapter, titled “The Dragon Serpent Tree Gods,” she subscribes to the ancient astronaut fringe theory that human beings were a hybridization of primate and alien DNA created by reptilian extraterrestrials to be a slave race.

She quotes proponents of the theory such as Zechariah Sitchin (Earth Chronicles, 2004), who posited that the Annunaki gods of the Sumerians came from a hypothetical planet called Nibiru and created humans to mine gold for them in South Africa. According to one Babylonian myth, before the creation of humans, the Annunaki had enslaved a race of younger gods called the Igigi. One of these beings, Kingsu, led a rebellion and was ritually sacrificed by the god Marduk, who then created humanity from clay mixed with Kingsu’s spilled blood. We therefore inherited our rebellious nature from the Igigi gods.

From this perspective, the Biblical serpent represents our reptilian blood and the tree our earthly roots. Norse mythology even identifies the first human beings as trees, and Fry considers the possibility that the yew and the serpent are one. As a tree god, the serpentine yew thus symbolizes the hybridization of celestial blood and primate clay used to create humanity. 

The duality of the yew makes it a prime candidate for the tree of knowledge. “We must not forget that like the viper or serpent, the tree carries deadly poison which can and does kill and has no antidotes,” Fry says. “On the other hand, it also provides Taxol that heals cancer. This is a tree of opposites, of contradictions, a tree of good and evil.”7 She also says that the yew “was described in ancient times as ‘the snake that swallowed itself, referring to the yew’s habit of putting down an aerial root inside the old tree to make a new tree inside it.” 8

In summer heat, the yew sweats toxic vapors that can induce a shamanistic trance state. This alkaloid poison is called taxine, and inhaling the vapors can stimulate visions and facilitate communication with the dead. Fry says of the yew that “One of its functions is to act as a portal in time and space and another is to enable some to cross kingdoms, other realms and dimensions that run parallel to our own.”9

Fry attests to the supernatural power of yews to distort time and transport one to other realms. “On a personal level,” she says, “I have experienced a kind of rapid downloading of information and visions of things from times past at ancient yew sites.”10 She suggests that one might be able to step inside the hollow of a yew and time travel through dreams and visions.

Another theory Fry presents is that the ancient Egyptians brought the sacred yew to Britain. As evidence of Egyptian migration to Ireland and Scotland, Fry references a 13th or 14th century Middle-Irish manuscript titled The Settling of the Manor of Tara, which relates how Diarmait, the High King of Ireland, held a great weeklong feast in Tara every three years, and was considering reallocating the Manor of Tara for cultivation in order to cover the expenses.

Before making a decision, he summoned the wisest men in the land to advise him, who in turn referred him to an even older and wiser man, named Fintan son of Bóchra, who had been alive for 5,500 years and traced his ancestry back to Noah. The king asked Fintan if he had any historical information that would help him settle the Manor of Tara. Fintan then told him the story of how a heroic giant named Trefuilngid Tre-eochair came to Ireland from the west at sunset on the day of Christ’s crucifixion, carrying a golden branch of Lebanon wood. The giant attended an assembly of the people of Ireland and their king, Conaing Bec-eclach, in which the king related the history of his people.

King Conaing told the giant that after “the confusion of tongues”11 his people were invited into Egypt by the Pharaoh, but left when the Israelites escaped, because they feared being enslaved in their place, and migrated to Ireland. Trefuilngid Tre-eochair remained in Ireland for forty days and nights, advising the people on how the land should be apportioned. Before leaving, he gifted Fintan son of Bóchra some berries from the branch he carried so they could be planted throughout Ireland. Fintan said that Trefuilngid “was an angel of God, or he was God Himself.”12

Fry interprets this manuscript as proof of Egyptian migration and claims that the branch of Lebanon wood is in fact yew instead of cedar, which is what scholars have previously assumed Lebanon wood to be. Fry suggests that Fintan himself was a yew tree, since one can live for over 5,000 years and could have survived the Great Flood. While this document is fascinating, I suspect that a medieval manuscript alone is not viable evidence because it only proves that the writer was captivated by the magical allure of Egypt and felt inspired to trace a mythical vein of Irish ancestry back to the Nile.   

Fry also posits that the Ankerwycke yew beside the Nile-like River Thames may be one of the trees brought to Britain from Egypt, and that the name Ankerwycke may be derived from the Egyptian Ankh, which she believes to represent a “sacred branch from the Tree of Life.”13 Fry mentions that there is evidence of an Egyptian burial in Tara, Ireland, and advises the reader to refer back to her former book The God Tree for details on this topic and others she explores in greater depth, but unfortunately it is out of print, and may not be easy for the earnest reader to acquire.

In Nevern, Wales, there is an avenue of rare bleeding yews, which shed a substance that resembles congealing human blood. Why they bleed is a mystery, and Fry offers a spiritual explanation by connecting them to Christ, whose blood, she asserts, is the blood of the sacred yew, and is an elixir of immortality.

Fry claims that Jesus was not crucified, but hung on a living tree that was planted on Adam’s grave at Golgotha as atonement for Cain’s murder of Abel. She says that “the sacred Tree of Life, the one Jesus hung on, was no doubt a bleeding monoecious yew”14 (monoecious trees are hermaphroditic, having both male and female reproductive organs), and it was Constantine who changed the living tree to a post of dead wood.

“The truth,” she says, “is that Jesus was hung on the Tree of Life, despite the later myth-making which turned Jesus’ death into a crucifixion with the Romans in charge rather than the Jews, whose tradition it was and who planned it all. The events leading up to Jesus’ death led to a ritualistic death for which he would have been prepared all his life and which would have been managed by Nicodemus and Arimathea.”15 Fry believes that Joseph of Arimathea, who was Jesus’ uncle according to Talmud, brought a branch from the Tree of Life, upon which Jesus hung, in the form of a staff to Britain.

A source Fry cites for the true cross being a tree is The Epistle of Barnabas16, an apocryphal gospel written in Greek between 70-132 CE that was named after the reputed author Barnabas, a companion of the apostle Paul. The Epistle was included in the fourth-century Codex Sinaiticus, or Sinai Bible, but was later removed from the canon. “It was Barnabas who wrote about Jesus being hung from a tree and not crucified,” Fry writes before quoting Barnabas 8: “‘the reign of Jesus is on the tree’.”17

Fry’s case for Christ being a bleeding yew god is compelling and holds mythopoeic appeal. It reminds me of the early eighth century Anglo-Saxon poem The Dream of the Rood, a medieval dream vision honoring the sacrifice of the living tree that became Christ’s cross (rood is an archaic word for the cross upon which he was crucified). The rood and Christ suffer as one, as both are pierced by nails, tortured, and ridiculed. I can’t help but wonder if this poem betrays a residual belief in the true cross being a living tree, and I’m surprised Fry didn’t mention it in this book. 

Another intriguing insight Fry shares is that Jesus was depicted with a wand in early Christian art. The image of Jesus evolved from a clean-shaven young man with short hair wielding a wand to a bearded and long-haired man crowned with a halo. Over time, the halo gradually replaced the wand, which disappeared altogether by the end of the 5th century. Fry, of course, suggests that Christ’s wand was made of a yew branch taken from the Tree of Life, which she says the early Christians believed was the Egyptian ankh. Or perhaps, if there was no physical wand, that he himself was the embodiment of the eternal life it represented, since the Gnostics called Christ the Tree of Life.

In modern times, the mythical Golden Bough, or Golden Fleece, has miraculously emerged on evergreen yews in clusters of gilded needles that resemble sheep’s wool. Ever since the first one sprouted on the Defynnog Yew in 2002, others have manifested on at least twenty British yews, and Fry is hopeful that they herald a new Golden Age for humanity reconciling with nature.

I was astounded to learn that the Golden Bough of Greco-Roman mythology may have been inspired by the appearance of golden boughs on yews in ancient times. In the sixth book of Virgil’s Aeneid, the Trojan hero Aeneas obtains the Golden Bough as a gift for Proserpina, the Queen of the Underworld, in order to gain clearance into her realm and speak with the shade of Anchises, his dead father.

In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece was the fabled golden wool of the winged ram of Poseidon that rescued the Boeotian prince Phrixus from his wicked stepmother, who plotted to kill him, and carried him to Colchis, where he was received by King Aeëtes, son of the sun god Helios. In gratitude to Poseidon, Phrixus sacrificed the ram, which was immortalized as the constellation Aries. Phrixus then gifted the Golden Fleece to the king, who hung it on a tree in the sacred grove of the god Ares in his realm, guarded by a vigilant dragon. Later Jason and the Argonauts stole the fleece with the assistance of the witch Medea, the king’s daughter.

“The ancient kingdom of Colchis where the Golden Fleece is found is one of the most important areas of ancient yew forests in the world,”18 says Fry. These myths reveal that the Golden Bough is a symbol of divine kingship, spiritual authority, and a golden ticket that grants safe passage to the Underworld and back, which leads Fry to suspect that the Golden Bough is a magic wand.19 

In her reverence for the Tree of Life, Fry is like a druidess, initiating readers into her yew-centric worldview with artwork and writing that captures the hallucinogenic quality of her god tree. Her wild theories enliven the imagination and compel critical readers to do their own research. Fry hopes this work will inspire her audience to seek out the Golden Bough and restore humanity’s sacred bond with the immortal yew. The poignant message of The Cult of the Yew is that the eternal Tree of Life is a living, breathing, sentient being whose underground current of salvific wisdom will open our eyes to greater truths when all of nature once again becomes our Eden. 

Deep, Dark & Dangerous, by Stacey Demarco

Deep, Dark & Dangerous: The Oracle of the Beautiful Darkness, by Stacey Demarco and illustrated by Kinga Britschgi
Rockpool Publishing, 1922579076, 128 pages, 44 cards, October 2022

Where do you turn to when you want illumination on the darkness present in your life? Oracle cards are my go-to for all sorts of questions, but often for the deeper questions, the “love and light” aspects of many decks feels incomplete, leaving me longing for something more. Deep, Dark & Dangerous: The Oracle of the Beautiful Darkness by Stacey Demarco has become the missing link in my oracle readings, providing meaningful insights from the archetypal energies that lurk in our shadows and depths.

There’s a real potency to this deck. For the first time in a while, I took Demarco’s suggestion of a dedication ritual in the guide book and performed it before getting started. Admittedly, this is something I rarely do with oracle cards, but this deck inspired a certain reverence that made it feel necessary to brace myself and prepare properly. Just like how I dip my toes into a deep pool to test the warmth before diving in, I have been called to move more slowly with this deck as I do my readings – not wanting to pull too many cards at once and be overwhelmed by what energy is coming through the deck.

Luckily, Demarco is someone I trust to guide readers to meeting these mysterious energies with care. She has created dozens of oracle decks and books, including The Enchanted Moon, Plants of Power, Moon Magick, and The Halloween Oracle. For over 25 years she has shared her gifts as a pagan practitioner and modern witch, teaching how spirituality can be used to solve modern day problems. In the guidebook, she writes:

Confession: I’ve even carefully put the small strip of paper holding the new cards together back on after each reading. This might be my subconscious way of trying to “tame” these forces, which is no easy feat, as many spiritual practitioners know.

“If we decide to seek or even engage with these unconscious aspects of ourselves, these darker shadows, these ill-formed, half-created, seemingly ugly monsters of our unconscious, perhaps we can refine them, perhaps even reshape them into something exquisitely useful and beautiful.”1

The cards are divided into three types: dark, deep, and dangerous. The dark cards are filled with entities that reside in the darker places (Kali, Persephone, Anubis, Charon) while the deep cards are entities that reside deep within our psyche, the ocean, or other environments (Hydra, Selkie, Mermaid). My favorite ones are the dangerous cards that feature predatory entities that are often out to harm us, unless we attune our senses to the dangers at hand and heed their warning (Werewolf, Vampire, Medusa, Erinyes).

The guidebook provides a few ideas for spreads to use for the card, such as the Dark Moon Three-Card Draw and The Four Element Spread, along with guidance on how to tune in and pick the cards. Then for each card Demarco shares a paragraph-long oracle message, the dualistic qualities the card represents (ex. clarity/opaqueness or discipline/chaos), the mythos or story of the entity on the card, and finally, the plant and crystal companion. The oracle message might seem a little short, but I have found them so far to be very on-point for the questions I’ve asked. And I especially enjoy reading the background stories about all the dark, deep, and dangerous entities and the way Demarco relates them to modern life.

The cards are all numbered at the top and also state whether they fall into the deep, dark, or dangerous category. And on the card, there is a keyword provided at the bottom. Right below the keyword is the name of the entity featured on the card. The guidebook has all the cards listed numerically, which makes it quite easy to look up the oracle message.

As for the imagery on the cards, the illustrations by Kinga Britschgi perfectly capture the essence of each entity. Britschgi has a knack for detail that really brings each entity to life. The interplay of colors and shading make for eye-catching imagery. Some cards provoke a bit of fear, while others invoke a sense of wonder and awe, such as Kraken, featured to the right. 

I enjoy how the visuals sometimes give me a little shiver and remind me of the power in connecting with these unconscious forces. I am reminded of the thrill of taking a walk on the wild side. Britschgi’s images invoke the heightened sense of arousal that comes from letting the imagination linger in the darkness and depths, bringing to life what we might find in the shadows.

The card I pulled for today was Selkie. It is a depth card and the keyword is freedom. The duality is containment/freedom and pretense/authenticity. The oracle message encourages me to seek out my inner truth and embrace my authenticity, as that is ultimately the route to freedom.

This feels resonant with me, as I just made my first social media post in a while that detailed my inner journey of personal and emotional growth. It was scary to put myself out there instead of hiding behind the filters and hashtags, but sharing my feelings did indeed feel liberating. I take heart in Demarco’s message of how the selkie can find their way back home after being lost in a realm not of their own. She writes:

“Eventually, the selkie finds her skin and is reunited with her authentic form. Without a backward glance, she steps into it, and allows herself to be enveloped by her true shape once again and re-enters the aquatic world.”2

I just love how the mythos of the selkie is drawn upon to find meaning in my present circumstance. The entities in this deck really make one reflect on their own circumstance, delving into the parts of ourselves we keep tucked away, both consciously and unconsciously. Taking the time to go deep, embrace the darkness, and acknowledge the danger puts us in the position to discover new aspects of ourselves while also embracing shifts happening that are meant to steer us clear of potential downfalls.

All in all, Deep, Dark & Dangerous Oracle has quickly become one of my favorite decks. The card and messages ask you to be bold in acknowledging these entities. A whole world of exploration is opened if you have the courage to go beyond the realm of comfort. Facing what scares us the most is a great way to empower ourselves and discover just what we’re capable of, and this deck is the perfect way to gently ease your way into the unknown. I highly encourage those seeking to add a bit of mystery and intensity to their readings to see what dark and dangerous things might be hiding in their depths. I bet you’ll be surprised just how cathartic, transformative, and filled with beauty it can be to find out!

The Holy Wild Grimoire, by Danielle Dulsky

The Holy Wild Grimoire: A Heathen Handbook of Magick, Spells, and Verses, by Danielle Dulsky
New World Library, 1608688003, 208 pages, September 2022

Earthy, primal, rich, and real – this is how I feel sinking into The Holy Wild Grimoire: A Heathen Handbook of Magic, Spells, and Verses by Danielle Dulsky. In this book, Dulsky has uprooted the underpinnings of harmful ideologies, created through our stories and myths we unconsciously live by according to society’s urging, to bring forth prompts and rituals that invite readers to move through a portal of death and rebirth to fully embrace their own sovereign sorcery within through magical word-craft and reconnect with the Holy Wild. For those ready to lurk in the deeper realm of mystery, potency, and power that come through embodying and rewriting the mythic aspect of the world we live within in order to expand their practice of the craft, this is the book for you!

Hopefully that didn’t all sound too intimidating! All of Dulsky’s brilliant methodology for engaging the reader’s psyche through storytelling, journal prompts, and spellwork to create their own personal grimoire are actually very clearly laid out, making this book accessible to everyone. But be forewarned there’s something about Dulsky’s writing that inspires me to play with words and discover new voices within that have yet to be explored.

The book does read at times like a long-lost ancient tale, where the dialect is just a bit different than you’re used to, as words become poetry vivid with imagery and perfectly strung together to invoke meaningful feeling. This definitely isn’t a straight-forward “how-to” manual for those seeking insight on witchcraft; hardwork and dedication is required to truly reap the rewards of the material presented, leaving room for your own creativity to emerge and guide the way.

“The time to radically revision our place in the world is now. This is the moment in the human tale when hope meets sorrow, when innocences meets wisdom, a climactic union of polarities that is birthing – and will continue to birth – a new, more heathen reality.”1

Moving through medicine the elements of earth, water, air, fire, and ether, The Holy Wild Grimoire guides readers in creating their own book of magic. Dulsky writes, “In the context of this handbook, a grimoire reflects the magick locked in our language, the spells that live and breathe in our words and symbols.”2 Moving through each element, the reader begins to craft the most personal journal of their thoughts, feelings, visions, and intuitions, reshaping their reality, reclaiming pieces of their soul that have been lost, and gaining the courage to shed habits, patterns, and modes of being – skins – that no longer fit who the reader is growing into.

These might seem like lofty goals or mere promises, but I can assure you that by moving through The Holy Wild Grimoire with an open-mind and heartfelt intention, you will notice shifts in how you relate to your own narrative and how your narrative merges with the on-going story of the world, inviting synchronicities, realizations, and connections that previously you may have not had the discerning energetic eye to notice and in the process creating new potential realities.

Each element contains an introduction to its energy medicine, a word-spell, an artful invocation, a story lantern, follow-up questions to the story lantern for reflection, an opening spell and element spells, multiple reflection questions about your experience with the element, writing prompts to attune you to the element’s presence in your life, and prompts to assist you with visioning through the energy of the element. All together this creates twelve journal entries. Then at the end of the chapter is a testament to the element, where the reader (or more like writer once you get going with this book!) goes back through their reflections, presences, and visions for the element to create the thirteenth entry, which become the verses for that element. It really is a beautiful, culminating process once you get to the verses, especially because so much has been put into the prompts to lead you to that point.

After reading this book, and making my way through the grimoire creation over the course of two months, I have a bit of advice. First, though anyone can jump right in, for the best results I highly recommend familiarizing yourself with Dulsky’s other publications, most especially The Holy Wild, which lays out more of a foundation for creating one’s Holy Wild grimoire. The Holy Wild has quite a bit of spellwork in it that some readers might find more practical and grounding. The Holy Wild Grimoire is definitely suited for those who enjoy reading and writing, and if you are someone who doesn’t readily embrace the written word or symbolic imagery, you might feel more comfortable exploring The Holy Wild first to ground this book a bit.

Second, prior to reading this book, I’d also suggest brushing up on your knowledge of archetypes, depth psychology, and the power of myths to fully embrace the content of this book. You may want to familiarize yourself with the work of Carl Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz, and Clarissa Pinkola Estés, author of Women Who Run with the Wolves, another great book for exploring oneself through stories and myth.

Finally, my third recommendation is to move slowly! There is so much packed in each element that it can feel overwhelming at times. Remember that there is no rush; you are not being timed. This process of communion with the Holy Wild will happen in natural timing that is aligned and right for you. You can skip around to different sections, work through an element for months, and only need to do the prompts that call to you. As odd as it sounds, sometimes I’d have to remind myself this isn’t a magical homework assignment, I’m not working towards an “A”, and that it’s intended to be fluid and connected rather than prescriptive and forced.

Sometimes, as I worked through a particularly dense emotion, memory, or experience, I’d put the book down for weeks at a time, not ready to move forward to the next exercise and needing room to breathe and reorient first, allowing what was unfolding to happen on its own without further conscious prompting or trying to rush forward without allowing the proper time needed to acknowledge what was going on and creating space for transformation.

This might not make sense prior to reading The Holy Wild Grimoire, but I have no doubts that if you delve into the work, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. There’s enough content in this book to last the reader years in regard to inner exploration, and the stories and prompts are something one can return to time and time again for one’s responses will surely always be changing. The potency of this book comes through what you’re willing to put in to looking within and exploring the uncharted depths of the Holy Wild.

Even if this seems a bit intimidating, there’s ways to start slowly, such as reading the hand-crafted stories, called story lanterns, Dulsky has written for each element, which are intended to open a new lens for the reader to access answers within through the imagination. I’ve found that a fun way to connect with the stories is to have someone else read them to you, so you can receptively receive their messages, though active reading too has its own merit. Once again, there’s a multitude of ways to play with this book, just like all mythological stories, and limitless wisdom that can be gained through experimentation.

All in all, The Holy Wild Grimoire is an all-in-one creative writing journey for readers to make their own grimoire, filled with personal revelations, visions, reflections, and mythology that is theirs alone. Doing the journal prompts is a deeply fulfilling and insightful process, akin to magical therapy, as the reader delves into the hidden parts of their psyche to discover a hidden richness: their own wild unknown. By connecting to these parts of oneself through the elemental energy, a whole new realm of possibilities emerges, cracking open from within the reader’s spirit to begin composting what’s no longer needed and feel comfortable sitting in the void before shapeshifting into the next vision.

The Tree Horoscope, by Daniela Christine Huber

The Tree Horoscope: Discover Your Birth-Tree and Personality Destiny, by Daniela Christine Huber
Earthdancer, 9781644113226, 144 pages, October 2021

Did you know that everyone has a birth-tree based on the day they were born?  In The Tree Horoscope: Discover Your Birth-Tree and Personality Destiny, Daniela Christine Huber describes the 22 different archetypal trees that shape your personality and lifestyle. As someone who absolutely loves nature, especially trees, it has been a pleasure getting to know more about my signature tree horoscope. The best part is how Huber makes it easy to jump right in and get started!

The book starts out with an introduction to Celtic tree mythology and Daniela’s experience of working with these energies. Previously, I had learned the Celtic tree-months while reading A Spell in the Forest by Roselle Angwin, which covered the Ogham calendar and the 13-month wheel of the year in which tree-months were connected to lunar cycles. Huber has created horoscope profiles based on the archetypal Celtic tree energies. She reminds us that “Following the path of this connection with Nature with our hearts will lead us to the Source, the roots within us.”1

In Huber’s system, each Celtic tree appears twice in the cycle of the year, with the expectation of Oak, Birch, Olive, and Beech that have just one day assigned to them. Every birth-tree also is assigned an earth element (earth, water, fire, air, ether) and Huber offers a short description of the energy of each. She also discusses how connecting with the element of our birth-tree can help restore balance and fulfill emotional and psychological needs. She describes how “Our birth-tree is the guardian of our individual potential; it will always remind us of that fact and help us to become aware of our gifts and talents.”2

There’s an easy to follow chart in the front of the book that makes it easy to find one’s birth date and look up their birth-tree. Mine is Cedar of Lebanon, so I went right to that page first. Immediately I was struck by the beauty of the photograph featured. I think the pictures in this book are one of it’s best attributes. It’s one thing to read about the different trees, but to see photographs of them really helps with identification. I like having a visual when connecting with the energy of my birth-tree.

For every tree, there is information about the elemental family, gifts and talents of those with the tree energy, the tree’s mantra (called “Carpe arborem” by Huber), the tree’s symbolism, and the path of life for people born with this birth-tree. The path of life is the longest section of each horoscope. Then there is a general overview of the personality of people with the birth-tree, healing powers of the tree, birth-tree power, and inspiration for someone with the tree’s personality. It’s quite a bit of information packed into just a few pages!

I really resonated with my tree horoscope. It highlighted my personality pretty well. I especially liked learning more about the healing powers of my birth-tree, and I loved my carpe arborem:

“I am freedom of choice, the core from which the creative powers in my life can take effect. I free myself from the limitations of my understanding with humility and reinvent myself over and over again.”3

This was very affirming for me because I feel like I am constantly reinventing myself as I continue to learn and grow. Creativity is a big part of my life, and I felt the connection with the Cedar of Lebanon tree in this regard. To deepen this solidarity with my birth-tree, I decided to order Cedar incense that I can burn to remind myself of the special powers associated with this birth-tree: courage and self-confidence.

I have shared the tree horoscopes in this book with some friends and family. They too have all been delighted with the insight it’s given them. Another neat feature of the book is the birthday calendar in the back, where you can keep track of everyone’s birthday . It lists their birth-trees, as well as famous people also born with that particular birth-tree. I really like how easy it is to keep track of birthdays, while also learning more about the birth-trees and reflecting on how they reflect the energies of people in my life.

Earth energies, such as flower essences and herbal remedies have always been an important part of life. For years, I’ve focused on bridging heaven and earth by teaching how our energy is always reflected in both the natural world and celestial bodies. The Tree Horoscope does a beautiful job of demonstrating this idea by giving readers insight into who they are based on their corresponding birth tree. I absolutely love how the book fosters an ecocentric view of human’s relationship with trees, acknowledging how they influence our development.

All in all, this is a wonderful book for those hoping to learn more about their personality and discover how it is shaped by their birth-tree. I think The Tree Horoscope would make a great birthday gift, though it’s also useful to store birth dates of loved ones to make sure you never miss their special day. The beautiful photographs are a wonderful way to practice tree identification. While this is only a small snippet of the mythology of Celtic trees, the book is a good starting point for those who want to learn more about the different symbolisms and energies of these mighty connectors of heaven and earth. I’ve really loved reading this book and will definitely be referring back to it as the days of the year go by to see which tree energy is present.

The Witch’s Heart, by Genevieve Gornichec

The Witch’s Heart, by Genevieve Gornichec
Ace, 978-0593099940, 368 pages, February 2021

Browsing the library the other day, my husband handed me The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec. Always up for a book about witches, I immediately dove in. In just under a day, I finished this book, not being able to stop once I started reading. I’m so thoroughly impressed by Gornichec’s writing and the fact that this is her first debut novel!

The Witch’s Heart is the tale of Angrboda, a powerful witch in Norse mythology, who despite being burned three times by the gods of Asgard, continued to live on. When trickster god Loki returns her heart, which had been brutally ripped from her during the last time she was thrown in the flames, a relationship develops.

And let me tell you, the banter of Loki and Angrboda never got old. I had quite a good time envisioning Loki as Gornichec portrays him. It is a beautiful love story that develops between them, filled with romance amid Loki’s many antics and common disappearances to his other life in Asgard.

Overtime, Angrboda and Loki have three children together: Hel, Fenrir, and Jörmungand. Their family life is quite unique, with Angrboda being a powerful witch, Loki always up to some playful mischief, Fenrir being a wolf and Jörmungand being a snake. Hel is a rather serious child, though she dotes on her father.

Troubling Angrboda from the time of her first pregnancy with Hel, however, is the visions of the future she’s seen in her state of seid, in which she can leave her body to travel astrally and see the future. Odin, king of the Norse gods, is after what only she can see, for the others who have been taught seid do not have as strong an ability as she does.

The flashes Angrboda has seen in visions and dreams have shown a bleak future, in which her family is torn apart and destruction completely envelops the Nine Worlds. Odin however wants more information and ruthlessly pursues his aim of knowing.

Ultimately, Angrboda must find the power within herself, with the help of friends, such as devoted friend Skadi to do her best to save her family. I won’t give much more away, but it’s a beautiful story of motherhood, love, and kinship that ties together so perfectly in the end.

To be honest, I hardly knew anything about Norse mythology when I started The Witch’s Heart. Throughout reading, I was Googling the different gods and goddesses mentioned: Tyr, Freya, Thor (okay, I knew that one!), Frey, and Njörd to name a few. Plus, I also really had no clue about Ragnarok, other than that it was part of a Marvel movie.

Gornichec did a great job of bringing the entire Norse pantheon to life in a way that made it easy to see the relationship of the different characters. She wove mythological tales into the plot, blending together her well-defined characters and the many stories of their personhood that have lived on through song, poetry, and storytelling.

Her portrayal of Angrboda especially really stunned me. Capturing the ups and downs of her life as a witch, mother, and wife, made her immensely relatable to all women. You couldn’t help but root for her, after all that she’s withstood in her life. I mean, screw the gods and goddesses, this witch is the real kick ass hero, and I’m glad that Gornichec chose to focus on her story.

This book is the perfect blend of myth, fiction, and inspiration. I’m simply in awe of the story Gornichec has crafted, and I truly consider this book a masterpiece. I feel so connected to the main characters such as Loki, Hel, Skadi, and Angrboda, and I’m glad this story presented them in a way that aids me in knowing them beyond what I may have researched about them.

That is the beauty of fiction — the ability to bring characters to life in a meaningful way that transforms the life of readers. Their stories, the choices they made, and the love they shared was compelling, captivating, and completely opened my heart.

I highly recommend The Witch’s Heart for those interested in an engaging tale filled with love, magic, and Norse mythology. This book reminds me of Circe, where the story is told from the witch’s point of view rather than the traditional mythological perspective of the men in the story. Angrboda is a heroine in her own right, and her story definitely is one worth reading.

Mythology for a Magical Life, by Ember Grant

Mythology for a Magical Life: Stories, Rituals & Reflections to Inspire Your Craft, by Ember Grant
Llewellyn Publications, 0738763101, 240 pages, February 2021

If you enjoy magic spells, rituals, poetry, and good storytelling, have I got the book for you! From its gorgeous cover art to its lovely conclusion, Ember Grant’s Mythology for a Magical Life: Stories, Rituals & Reflections to Inspire Your Craft will leave you enchanted, challenged, inspired, soothed, and satisfied.

Grant has written several previous books on magical spells, including Magical Candle Crafting: Create Your Own Candles for Spells & Rituals and The Book of Crystal Spells: Magical Uses for Stones, Crystals, Minerals.. and Even Sand. She has also been a contributor to Llewellyn’s annuals series since 2003.

Perhaps knowing that Grant has been a longtime contributor to books with an annual format, I should not have been surprised by the third sentence of the introduction where Grant invites the reader to a year-long journey, but I did not recall seeing any mention of the book containing a “year-long” program of any sort while reading cover blurbs or promotional material for the book.

This was a bit unsettling at first. As a reviewer I had planned on reading the book in a week’s time and not spreading the material out over a calendar year. Happily, once I began diving in, I realized that the book is structured in a very open and inviting way. Yes, there are twelve chapters, but the author even suggests that they need not follow one right after the other and she encourages the reader that “it’s okay to jump around.”1

Also, as a fan of year-long programs and plans, I agree that this book would make an amazing year-long study, but the material it contains can also be taken in much smaller bites. 

The introduction gives us the author’s clear definitions for certain important terms used in the book, clarifying such things as myth, magic, meditation, visualization, affirmation, ritual, and spells. It concludes with several paragraphs titled “How to Use This Book.” 

Each of the twelve chapters follows a convenient format: first the telling of the specific myth (or occasionally myths) followed by an explanation of the story’s themes and their importance. Next, the chapters are divided into well-defined segments explaining magical skills, rituals, affirmations, actions, visualizations, and reflections in the form of journaling prompts.

The labeling of these sections is useful, especially if some ways of doing magic are not your cup of tea. The segments create an easy way to find the perfect activities for your own personal style and needs.

I found the myths and stories to be a brilliant mix of familiar favorites, such as the Descent of Inanna, the stories of Cupid and Psyche, and Eros and Venus, contrasted with delightful and interesting stories that were new to me, including Inari the Fox God and Sedna the Mistress of the Underworld.

If you are a fan of rhyming incantations like I am, this book overflows with beautiful little poetic spells for a myriad of concerns and magical workings. One of my favorites was called Spell for Magical Ink that includes a chant for charging the ink whether it be in a bottle or an ink cartridge for your computer printer (a wonderful way to make some modern magic!):

“This ink is reserved for magic intent, 
for no other purpose let it be spent. 
With each word I create, each form that I shape, 
let my goal be fulfilled 
as this ink is spilled.”2

Many of the activities in the book require nothing more than energy, intention, and breath (such as affirmations, breathwork, and visualizations), while others ask for a variety of ingredients and supplies such as crystals, candles, herbs, eggs, ink, a journal, and even white wine. There is a section on Storm Magic in which stormy weather is utilized as a vehicle for release. This was inspiring to me as someone who lives in a part of the country well acquainted with hurricanes!

I so appreciated one of the metaphors that Grant used in her Ritual for Rededication, which she begins by explaining:

“When the computer is locked up, you turn it off and back on again – you reboot. When your magical practice is similarly frozen or slow, it’s time to refresh it. One way to do this is by rededicating or reinitiating yourself to your path.”3

I think this simple and powerful analogy could pertain to the book as a whole, as the author mentions that the book came about because of her own personal quest to rekindle her own magic.

Even though my own magical practice is not in a time of waning, this book inspired me and gave me a multitude of ideas for adding beauty and power to my everyday magic, as well as encouraging me that the next time I am feeling a need for inspiration it can easily be found in these pages. 

I recommend Mythology for a Magical Life to anyone who loves stories, poetry, and magic. Whether you are just beginning (or even just considering) a magical practice or are a seasoned magic-maker, there is something beautiful here for every level of practice.