Avalon ... northern Sapphic isle of Goddess women

Natural Born Shamans

Ξ September 15th, 2016 | → Comments Off on Natural Born Shamans | ∇ Spirituality, Women's Writing |

Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life by Imelda Almquist

As a school teacher myself, I was delighted to see the beautiful organization of this book for lesson planning the teaching of shamanism. This book is ideal for the home schooler, and possibly for use in a progressive school that wasn’t solely focused on test scores. I could see using this book for teaching shamanic practices to adults as well, especially developmentally disabled adults.

What an amazing journey for a parent to take their child on. Imagine how much they would learn about each other at a soul level. Then imagine how vital that would be to strengthening their relationship.

Natural Born Shamans is a life lesson in embracing spiritual reasoning for some of life’s challenges and lessons. It is a book that focuses on the journey of the soul from pre-birth through death. The idea being that we should embrace the spiritual needs of the soul for the its greatest advancement.

The only place I thought the author should have done more was with the Rite of Passage #9 Marriage Ceremony because I don’t think a generic pagan ceremony does justice for the shamanic soul. Many pagan handfasting ceremonies are constructed around made-up rites or rituals having little or no historic value for basis. But, this was the only missed opportunity in this wonderful book.

I would highly recommend Natural Born Shamans to anyone with children! It’s beautiful laid out and easy to follow. Lessons are simple and to the point.

The Secret People: Parish-pump Witchcraft, Wise-women and Cunning Ways

Ξ September 12th, 2016 | → Comments Off on The Secret People: Parish-pump Witchcraft, Wise-women and Cunning Ways | ∇ Spirituality |

The Secret People by Melusine Draco is a quaint and wonderful read. The book is an easy to read resource for folklore, herbalism and some intertwined Christianity overlapping into pagan heritage.

The book is very seasonally oriented which is what most readers in this niche are looking for.

The Secret People: Parish-pump Witchcraft, Wise-women and Cunning Ways is the full title, and I really enjoyed learning about the rural folk-customs of the Parish-pump people. Although as the author points out at the end, it’s doubtful these people would have referred to themselves as witches. It’s a wonderful example of how the older pagan customs became blended into Christianity.

I couldn’t agree more with the author when she tells us, “Much of what passes as Craft today has its roots in ritual magic rather than traditional rural witchcraft.” I think many of us chafe against the ritualistic nature of some flavors of the Craft. So, personally I resonated with this pagan, people of the land, form of the Craft and will bring many aspects of her teachings into my own spiritual practices.

As a Master Herbalist myself, I am recommending this book for its excellent presentation of herbal knowledge, herbal folklore and Earth-based spirituality because at the end of the day we are all The Secret People.