Books

The Poison Path Herbal is our November book club pick! You can find more details about the book club here, or sign up to join us here. 

Part grimoire and part herbal formulary, this guide to the Poison Path of occult herbalism shares history, lore, and information regarding the use of poisonous, consciousness-altering, and magical plants. Author Coby Michael explains how, despite their poisonous nature, baneful herbs can become powerful plant allies, offering potent medicine, magical wisdom, and access to the spirit realm.

Detailing the spiritual, alchemical, astrological, and symbolic associations of each plant, the author explores their magical uses in spells and rituals. He focuses primarily on the nightshade family, or Solanaceae, such as mandrake, henbane, and thorn apple, but also explores plants from other families such as wolfsbane, hemlock, and hellebore. He also examines plants in the witch’s pharmacopoeia that are safer to work with and just as chemically active, such as wormwood, mugwort, and yarrow.

The author shares rituals suited to the individual nature and powers of each plant and explains how to attract and work with plant spirit familiars. He offers plant alchemy methods for crafting spagyric tinctures and magical techniques to facilitate working with these plants as allies and teachers. He shares magical recipes featuring the plants, including a modern witches’ flying ointment. He also explores safely cultivating baneful herbs in a poison garden.

“The book helps you meet loss on its own terms, not as a problem to be solved but as a sign of deep love.”—Megan Devine, author of It's OK That You're Not OK

All of us experience loss. Some of us have lost a spouse, a child, a parent, a beloved pet, a dear friend, or a neighbor. In the pandemic, we have lost hundreds of thousands of lives in the US and around the world. Many of us have lost our livelihoods. All of us have lost our familiar routines and textures of work, family, and community. And the losses are not over.
Opening to Grief is a companion to this tender time. With the demeanor and tone of a loving friend, the authors offer an invitation to grieve fully, to turn toward your emotions and experiences however they arise, and to follow your own path toward healing. The book explores the deep truth that grief and love are richly intertwined. Because we love, we grieve. And when we fully feel our sorrow, we open to loving ourselves and other beings more deeply.

Join the authors for a book reading/signing in Portland on 10/27 and an amazing Tarot for Ancestor Work workshop (both in person + over zoom 10/25)!

In Secrets of Romani Fortune-Telling, Paulina Stevens and Jezmina Von Thiele share the knowledge and personal experiences of being raised to be fortune-tellers. They share divination methods, tools, and techniques that have been created, adapted, or popularized by the Roma, including card reading, palmistry, dream divination, and tea-leaf and coffee reading. They share exercises to strengthen your intuition and discover your natural gifts, and explain how divination helps with shadow work, blockages, and self-awareness.
 
“Readers will gain a solid grounding in Romani divination practices and Romani spirituality. While much of our culture remains closed to outsiders, Jezmina and Paulina continue their mission of building bridges between the Romani and other cultures and helping others appreciate our beautiful, diverse traditions. Laćhi buti, phenja! (Good work, sisters!)”
—Caren Gussoff Sumption, author of So Quick Bright Things Come to Confusion and Three Songs for Roxy
 
Fortune-telling is both a job and a spiritual practice. The authors, cohosts of the Romanistan podcast, introduce the history of the Romani people and their infamous relationship to fortune-telling. Secrets of Romani Fortune-Telling features additional resources, enabling readers to further explore Romani culture and spiritual practices.

• compact box
• 78 full-color cards
• 128-page illustrated guidebook that includes card meanings, card spreads, tarot basics, & more

An in-depth spiritual journey through the truths and traumas of one’s past to a rebirth and renewal of personal wholeness.

To the ancients, the goddess Hekate symbolized the inner journey back to the soul.

Incorporating her personal experiences with those of her students, Cyndi Brannen weaves a supporting circle around the reader as they start their path towards soulful living, culminating in rebirth.

Blending symbolism, transcendent experiences, dreams, and natural magic with sound psychological theories and practices, Entering Hekate’s Cave guides the reader safely through the journey back to the soul.

Learn the secrets of The Witch of the Forest in this stunning follow-up to Natural Magick, and channel the elemental forces which are all around you to master the practice of earth magick.
 
Earth magick is all about understanding the elements which govern the world around us, connecting with the Earth and using its powers to thrive. From using the four elements – fire, air, water and earth – in spells, to learning about the powers of crystals and mastering the art of divination, this book will teach you everything you know about this ancient form of magick.

Discover how to use simple witchcraft to boost your wellbeing, keep yourself grounded in the 21st century, and connect to your own natural ‘seasons’ in your life as well as in your craft.

Perfect for budding beginners new to the spellbinding world of witchcraft, learn about:

• Casting a circle and ritual basics,
• Crystals and their magickal properties and uses, 
• Divination techniques such as using runes and divination dice,
• Connecting with the energies of the four seasons, the four elements, and harnessing their power, 
• Connecting to your own natural ‘seasons’ in your life through your craft, 
• Reconnecting with your craft after a break, 
• Caring for your magickal energy if you're an empath, or are feeling drained, 
• Embracing your darker energies, and using shadow work for personal growth and transformation, 
• Wellbeing techniques for witches to help you manage your energy

... and more!

Suitable for every type of witch and witchling – including those practicing in the broom closet – this book also includes a runes board on the back of the jacket that you can remove to help answer all your questions.

The Earth is bursting with magickal energies and lessons to be learnt, and connecting with these can help your relationship with yourself, the people around you, and the natural world, blossom. Discover how to use witchcraft to connect more deeply with yourself, and and learn from the Earth how to bloom and thrive at your own pace!

The Witch of the Forest’s Guide to… series are a collection of guides to different areas of witchcraft, focusing on the relationship between magic, the natural world and the self. Each book discusses completely different elements of the natural world, and Earth Magick is full of techniques not mentioned in Natural Magick.

Find Your Artistic Voice helps artists and creatives identify and nurture their own visual identity.

This one-of-a-kind book helps artists navigate the influence of creators they admire, while simultaneously appreciating the value of their personal journey.
• Features down-to-earth and encouraging advice from Congdon herself
• Filled with interviews with established artists, illustrators, and creatives
• Answers the question "how do I develop a unique artistic style?"

An artist's voice is their calling card—it's what makes each of their works vital and particular, but developing such singular artistry requires effort and persistence.Find Your Artistic Voice offers everyday strategies, inspirational anecdotes, and practical advice to push through fear and insecurity in your artistic practice.

• Makes a perfect gift for aspiring artists and creatives, serious hobbyists, art students, makers, teachers, budding creative professionals, and fans of Lisa Congdon
• A self-help creativity book for those looking for artistic guidance
• Great for those who enjoyed reading The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and Art/Work: Everything You Need to Know (and Do) As You Pursue Your Art Career by Heather Darcy Bhandari and Jonathan Melber

An inspiring exploration of the goddesses of the West African spiritual traditions and their role in shaping Yoruba (Ifa), Santeria, Haitian Vodoun, and New Orleans Voodoo.

Throughout Africa and beyond in the diaspora caused by the slave trade, the divine feminine was revered in the forms of goddesses like the ancient Nana Buluku, water spirits like Yemaya, Oshun, and Mami Wata, and the warrior Oya. The power of these goddesses and spirit beings has taken root in the West. New Orleans, for example, is the home of Marie Laveau, who used her magical powers to become the “Voodoo Queen” of New Orleans.

Orishas, Goddesses, and Voodoo Queens shows you how to celebrate and cultivate the traits of these goddesses, drawing upon their strengths to empower your own life. In addition to offering a guided tour of the key goddesses of the African religious traditions, the book offers magical spells, rituals, potions, astrological correspondences, sacred offerings, and much more to help guide you on your own transformational journey.

Manage your moods and change negatives into positives with this ritual-based guide to essential oils, meditations, mantras, crystal healing, and more.
 
How are you feeling? The Mood Book wants to know! Organized into easy-to-follow sections based on your frame of mind, it contains powerful self-care treatments for elevating your spirits. Inside, you’ll uncover suggestions for anxiety-relieving baths, essential oils, and crystals; guided meditations to find your Zen; physical exercises to boost your confidence; aromatherapy to enhance romance, and flowers for healing. Sequenced around five different moods, this delightfully illustrated book also includes quizzes and advice on optimizing your life and environment.

LETTING YOUR SHADOW IN a mindfulness deck for exploring big emotions

PEOPLE I'VE LOVED X Diving Deep Coaching, a collaboration with Susanne L'Heureux of Diving Deep Coaching on a deck designed to support you in feeling more authentic and whole. Letting the shadow in is about listening.

Instead of trying to overcome the parts of ourselves we deem unlovable, we welcome them so that we can transform.

Letting Your Shadow In contains 18 shadow prompts, 18 mindfulness exercises, 9 insights, and 9 affirmations to help you explore your own shadow and begin to see how it influences your life and relationships.

A trusted grief expert shares this compassionate guide on how to manage grief after the loss of a loved one and helps lead you to a point of “understanding eternal love for another” (Elaine Welteroth, New York Times best-selling author).

In Grief Is Love, author Marisa Renee Lee reveals that healing does not mean moving on after losing a loved one—healing means learning to acknowledge and create space for your grief. It is about learning to love the one you lost with the same depth, passion, joy, and commitment you did when they were alive, perhaps even more. She guides you through the pain of grief—whether you’ve lost the person recently or long ago—and shows you what it looks like to honor your loss on your unique terms, and debunks the idea of a grief stages or timelines. Grief Is Love is about making space for the transformation that a significant loss requires.

In beautiful, compassionate prose, Lee elegantly offers wisdom about what it means to authentically and defiantly claim space for grief’s complicated feelings and emotions. And Lee is no stranger to grief herself, she shares her journey after losing her mother, a pregnancy, and, most recently, a cousin to the COVID-19 pandemic. These losses transformed her life and led her to question what grief really is and what healing actually looks like. In this book, she also explores the unique impact of grief on Black people and reveals the key factors that proper healing requires: permission, care, feeling, grace, and more.

The transformation we each undergo after loss is the indelible imprint of the people we love on our lives, which is the true definition of legacy. At its core, Grief Is Love explores what comes after death and shows us that if we are able to own and honor what we’ve lost, we can experience a beautiful and joyful life in the midst of grief.