bookshelves

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ + ★

Audience: Anyone interested in the science and/or spirituality of nature. Also everyone. I think everyone should read this book

This book is incredible. It literally changed my life. Robin Wall Kimmerer is an ethnobotanist and a member of the Potawatomi Nation, and she uses both ways of knowing to talk about nature and humanity's place in it. As an animist myself it really spoke to me very deeply, and as someone living on the traditional indigenous land of the Anishnawbe people I feel that it is important to listen to and respect indigenous ways of knowing. Robin is a fantastic writer with some incredible insight and I have loved all of her books that I have read.

This may not be a book about witchcraft in the traditional sense, but the information from this book is such a fantastic insight to nature-based spirituality and animist beliefs. It has been such an influence on my beliefs and practices, and is in general just a beautiful book that I recomend for anyone who is interested in this topic. I can not reccomend it enough.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Audience: Those new to the craft, especially those in the broom closet

This book is beautiful, fully illustrated with very pretty infographics. That's the best part of the book to my estimation, which doesn't bode well for the quality of the content. It's not too bad, honestly, and would probably be very useful to a young practicioner who is new to the craft, despite the authors insistance that there are elements within that could be used by intermediate practicioners. It is a high-level overview of various aspects of the craft, such as spellwork, divination, the wheel of the year, and other basics. It is a launching off point for further research, but not an indepth look at anything.

There are some points that I apreciated more than others. I did like that there was information about cultural apropriation and closed practices, which is rarer than it should be in witchcraft books. The chapter on the wheel of the year, however, was I think one of the weakest. The insistance on an ancient and historical basis for the celebration of sabats is, frankly, silly. The way the wheel of the year is celebrated today was invented in the 20th century by neopagans cobbling together other practices. That's not to say that some of the practices today don't take some inspiration from anicent practices, but the myth that there is an unbroken chain of pagan practices going back hundreds of years is simply not true. While I'm sure this book could be a good early introduction to the craft for someone, it feels like the same quality of information I got back on Witchblr when I was getting started, and I got that for free.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Audience: Nature focused witches who are starting to get into runes

The reason I bought this book is a story of serendipity. I went into the local metaphysical store for something else, and when I visited the bookshelves I pulled it out and looked at it because I had been interested in starting to work with runes for a while. I put it back and continued shopping. Later I was looking at the runestones, and someone who worked there started talking with me about how I had been feeling an interest for a few months. She said she had a reccomendation for a book about runes, and pulled out this book. It was one of those moments where I had to listen to my intuition, and I'm glad I did.

This book is useful both as a primer on Norse runes and as an herbal. After each rune there is a list of herbs that are associated with the same things the rune is associated with. It was very helpful for me, who knows more about herbs than runes, to help make those connections. I imagine if you know more about runes than herbs it could work the other way as well. I thought this book was clear and gave a good general overview of these runes. I know theres more information out there about runes, but it was the right ammount of informaiton for me. If you're also interested in a runes primer and have a nature/plant based practice I would suggest this book. If you're looking to really dig into norse runes this book is maybe too simplistic for that.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Audience: Intermediate/confident beginer witches

I've read a few of Arin Murphy-Hiscock's books now, and I've largely liked all of them. This book, however, is my favourite of the ones I've read. I think that creating spells, instead of copying them from other sources, necessarily makes them more powerful, and I like that this book gives a good framework for building a witch's tools for making their own magic. I think that the range of information given is really useful, and there are a few exercises that are also good to use. It's nice to have a book that goes a level above the witchcraft 101 book.

I do have a couple issues with this book, and they're the same as with Murphy-Hiscock's other books. She talks about smudging, which is a closed indigenous practice and anyway not what she's talking about anyway. She's talking about smoke cleansing. She promotes the use of white sage, which is endangered and an important herb for indigenous spirituality and shouldn't be used unless it's been grown sustainably. She also uses outdated terms like black magic instead of baneful magic. These types of issues are incredibly common in witchcraft books though, and reading any book on witchcraft relies on the readers ability to take what resonates and leave the rest. Still, in my opinion no book that falls into these traps can be a 5 star resource.

I have used the information in this book to help craft spells, and I will again. I think anyone lookng to take their spellcrafting abilities above the beginner level would be well served by this book, as long as they are able to read critically. It's definitley a good resource to have.