Books

Enhance the dynamic quality of your readings with a better understanding of tarot reversals
 
Much has been written on interpreting the meanings of tarot cards, but according to Joan Bunning, there is one particular type of meaning that should get more attention—those of tarot reversals. When turned upside down, tarot cards can have an entirely different meaning from their upright interpretations. Tarot reversals are often misunderstood. Oftentimes, a reversed tarot card is misinterpreted as bad news. Readers may think the reversed meaning must be the polar opposite of the upright meaning. And some people ignore them completely, just flipping upright any card that has shown up reversed in a spread.
 
Upside Down Tarot is a handy desktop reference for those who are already familiar with tarot basics but who want to expand their practice by incorporating reversed cards as well. Joan Bunning’s approach to reversed cards is based on an appreciation of energies and their cycles. In our world, change is the one constant—a tarot reading shows us forces that are not fixed but fluid and dynamic. To truly reflect reality, a reading must capture life’s movement and change. In this book, Bunning describes how understanding tarot reversals can enhance the dynamic quality of your readings. You’ll discover how to translate a stationary set of images into a moving picture of time’s flow.
 
In addition to discussing the energy cycles of reversed cards and how to work with them, Upside Down Tarot provides interpretation suggestions for all seventy-eight cards when reversed.

Secrets of Greek Mysticism is the first spiritual book about the Greek gods and goddesses written by a native, practicing priest of Hellenic Polytheism. It goes beyond the simplistic and archetypical representation of the Greek pantheon and reintroduces the gods and goddesses from a theological perspective. Rather than presenting the gods and goddesses as symbolic, lifeless figures one can use to embellish spiritual practice, Secrets of Greek Mysticism teaches listeners how to find each god or goddess within them. This is achieved through grounded insights on the gods' virtues as they relate to modern life, explaining the deeper spiritual meaning of popular myths, practicing guided meditations, activating the gods' energies with mantras and hymns, and performing rituals.

Secrets of Greek Mysticism makes the claim that for the Divine Feminine to rise, the Divine Masculine needs to rise, too. Rather than solely focusing on female goddesses, it brings together the male and female deities of the Greek pantheon to help listeners experience divine union. Secrets of Greek Mysticism covers: the twelve gods' birth stories, essence, and virtues; how to live and work with the gods; setting up altars; the foundation of ancient Greek spirituality, cosmology, and theology; and symbols, hymns, and meditations to guide listeners' practice of connecting with the gods.

Ancient magical practices to integrate into everyday life.

Drawing on her Italian strega (witch) heritage, Rose Inserra's guide to the folk magic of this ancient culture is a treasure trove of Italian folklore, customs, magic and healing practices that will simplify your life and declutter your mind and heart. These practices fulfill the most basic needs of life: warmth, nourishment and connection to the magical and the spiritual.

Discover unique Italian witchcraft such as spells, charms and curse removal and learn how to make divination tools, protective amulets and invocations. You'll also find kitchen and herbal witchery with natural remedies to create, spells for love and potions, and recipes for food, wine and even beauty. Delve into Italian spiritual practices and learn about dreams, divination and working with your ancestors, saints and angels, deities, fairies and nature spirits.

Brimming with history, culture, remedies, folklore, recipes and – most of all – magic, this book is for anyone fascinated by ancient magical practices with deep connections to nature and the environment – or who wants to discover their Italian heritage.

Add a little magic to every element of your life—from food to beauty to healthcare.

Respectful of natural elements and cycles, the modern witch (men included) makes every effort to find the benefits in each ingredient he or she uses. In this magical recipe book, you can find natural recipes for delicious foods, tonics, masks, and ointments. These recipes are not only fantastic and fun to eat and use, but also boost immunity, longevity, energy, and even fertility. Each ingredient is used to its full potential to help you achieve optimal health, prevent pains, fight blue days, boost energy, purify the body, cleanse skin, and more! Included are recipes such as:

• Mushroom Quiche for Immunity
• Comfort Chicken with Sweet Potato Mash
• Scallops for Fertility
• Mini Parmentiers for Vitality
• Moon Macarons for Dreaming
• Anti-Inflammatory Golden Milk
• Antioxidant Mask for Eternal Youth
• And chapters devoted to healing potions, sweet spells, natural beauty products, culinary secrets and so much more!

This fantastical collection combines a respect for nature with indulgent (and healing) pleasures. With generous recipes, healing potion-drinks, natural skin and other beauty cares, you can learn how to imbue every day, and recipe, with magic in The Natural Witch's Cookbook.!

• Celebrating the sabbats of the wheel of the year
• Honoring the phases of the moon
• Aligning with your astrological sign
• Using crystals and sigils as part of your tea magick
• Working with everyday problems and personal aspirations

Flower essences are infusions, or decoctions, made from the flowering parts of plants that uniquely address emotional and mental aspects of wellness. The first 38 flower remedies were formulated by British physician Dr. Edward Bach in the 1930s, but new remedies from other plant species are always being formulated. This book provides a helpful introduction to flower essences, ―what they are and how to use them.

Topics covered include how to choose essences, how to make a bottle of essence, essences and their stories, case studies on the stories of how essences helped someone, and a glossary of more than 100 essences and their uses. This is the essential introductory guide for anyone interested in alternative health and the safe, gentle vibrational healing of flower essences.

Purpose, healing, and creative insights through dream interpretation

Modern Dreamwork is a hands-on guide to interpreting your dreams so you can work through difficult issues with the wisest parts of your soul. The Integrated Embodied Approach incorporates physical sensations, images, associations, and emotions for rich, holistic interpretations. The PARDES Method focuses on multiple layers of meaning so you can untangle complex or confusing dreams. The Guided Active Imagination Approach works with Jungian psychology, creating safety and support for working with frightening dreams and nightmares.

The methods and techniques in this book can be used by anyone, regardless of spiritual background. Whether you're facing a difficult life choice, working through emotionally challenging experiences, or are just plain curious about what your dreams are trying to tell you, Modern Dreamwork will help you understand the deep wisdom of your subconscious mind.

An Invaluable Resource for Connecting to Your Ancestors

Presenting historical and cultural examples of ancestral veneration from around the world, Ben Stimpson shows you how to build a strong, healthy relationship with your ancestors. He teaches the concepts and considerations of this important practice, walks you through the ins and outs of ritual, and shares profound insight on building community.

Ancestral Whispers provides exercises and journal prompts specially designed to help you develop an authentic, living practice. Stimpson reveals the various types of ancestors and discusses the physical elements of practice, including sacred space, objects of power, and offerings. He also encourages you to explore the elements of pilgrimage and reflect deeply on your own beliefs. With this book, you can create a legacy for current and future generations.

“Every word of Blackthorn’s Botanical Wellness is carefully thought out and deeply impactful, as Blackthorn offers in-depth information about all of the ways plants and other allies can help us care for ourselves, especially if we are among the traumatized and cast aside. There’s no spiritual bypassing here—just an ever-sweet and profoundly informative book that will throw a considerable, necessary punch into your wellness routine.” —Cassandra Snow, author of Lessons from the Empress: A Tarot Workbook for Self-Care and Creative Growth
 
“The best life starts within, looking outward,” writes Amy Blackthorn in this simultaneously practical and personal guide to wellness and healing. Blackthorn, a master herbalist, aromatherapist, and prolific author, explores methods of wellness management using both mystical and mundane tools and techniques.
 
Amy’s book features essential oils, plants, meditation, tarot, astrology, and personal sigils tailored to your own specific needs and circumstances. She also describes her own journey to well-being and shares the lessons she’s learned, including how to develop healthy mind-body habits and to stop relying on fear and shame-based rituals for self-care that ultimately produce results that are the very opposite of what is desired. Instead, Blackthorn’s Botanical Wellness supplies holistic solutions that enable you to lead your best life.

According to Blackthorn, self-care isn’t “me, first”; it’s “me, too.” In clear, accessible, friendly language, Blackthorn’s Botanical Wellness teaches the skills to put these important lessons into practice.

• Find tools for managing health, chronic illness, and self-care
• Create a lunar self-care calendar
• Embrace the emotional well-being of aromatherapy
• Work with plant spirit allies
• Empower yourself with spells and rituals

Discover ancient and modern Slavic magical practices through stories told by the legendary Baba Yaga herself. Learn about the magic of the sun, moon, and stars, as well as the magic of weather, animals, seasons, stones, food, beeswax, and more. Each chapter includes a piece of the fairy tale of Vasylyna, comments from Baba Yaga, and hands-on tips and techniques from author Madame Pamita.

Explore magical activities alongside authentic folktales about the birth of the sun and the land of the blessed ones. Step-by-step instructions show you how to stitch Ukrainian folk embroidery motifs into protective charms, weave wreaths from herbs, make enchanted poppets, and work with the spirits of the forest, the hearth, and the sauna. With a bounty of tips and information, this book teaches you to embrace the beauty of these traditional practices and reclaim your personal magic.

Fun, practical, and easy-to-follow suggestions for bringing the wisdom of the hedgewitch into your home—includes dozens of recipes, rituals, spells, and correspondences that all follow the seasons of the year.

“The hedgewitch was the ‘true’ witch, in my opinion. It’s about time we had a good book focused on that wise one.”--Raymond Buckland, author of Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft
Once upon a time the witch held a place of esteem in the village; her knowledge of local plants and wayside herbs were used to heal; her wisdom and empathy made her the village matchmaker and marriage counselor; and her ability to commune with nature and animals gave her a place of revelry and wisdom. She was the Hedgewitch.
Aimed at the busy witch, who is both breadmaker and breadwinner, this book revives the spirit of the Hedgewitch and teaches you how to make every day one full of wisdom, healing, and magic. For the practicing or would-be witch whose life is more jeans, chaos, and the never-ending question of what's for dinner than it is black robes, cauldrons, and incantations, Mandy Mitchell has a recipe for you!

"I want to demonstrate how daily chores can become magical rituals with the potential to enrich and transform your life--everything from the way we form relationships with our families and friends to cooking, cleaning, and healing." --from the introduction

Journey through the wheel of the year with one eye on the kettle and the other on the magical!

Who understands what you *really* need better than you? Well, the stars. With their help, you can become your glowiest self, inside and out. Astrology SOS is the ultimate guide to surviving the elements: from navigating the Planetary Retrogrades to harnessing the power of the Summer Solstice, to every day uncertainties in work, love and the day-to-day, this book gives you the tools you need to better understand what is going on with the planets at any given moment, so that you can work your way through life's challenges with fewer headaches. It covers:

• Saturn Return
• Planetary Retrogrades
• Pluto in Transit
• Eclipses
• Equinoxes and Solstices
• Moon Transits
• Day-To-Day Survival

Featuring self-care rituals and hacks, helpful tools, prompts and practices to help you work through various challenges, Astrology SOS will empower you with the knowledge you need as you move across the astrological terrain of life. Welcome to the upgrade you never knew you needed!

An inviting and informative guide to sex for seniors, with a clear message that "as far as sex in the senior years goes . . . the best is yet to come" (Dr. Dean Edell)

Joan Price is talking out loud about a subject that is often ignored or ridiculed in our society: later-life sexuality.

In Naked at Our Age, she offers a candid, straight-talking exploration of senior sexuality -- the challenges, the disappointments, and the surprises, as well as the delights of love and passion. She shares the stories of women and men -- coupled and single, straight and gay -- demonstrating how their sex lives and relationships have changed with age, and how their sex lives influence their lives and self-esteem. Along the way, she offers wise advice from sex therapists, health professionals, counselors, sex educators, and other knowledgeable experts, helping seniors to embrace intimacy in all its forms
Entertaining and indispensable, Naked at Our Age is a complete guide to enjoying senior sex, love, passion, and couplehood.

A guide to reading Tarot as a spark for community engagement and social change

“A beacon of insight and action.” ―Nyasha Williams, author of Black Tarot and I Affirm Me

The cards in the Tarot deck offer seventy-eight invitations for change, not only in our inner life, but beyond. Lane Smith invites us to read each card with an eye toward the collective―how we can contribute to liberation in the world.

Smith shares, “Behind every story about Tarot―and about the world―are power relationships which are often invisible.” 78 Acts of Liberation examines the structure, history, and components of Tarot through the lens of power, helping us better understand power dynamics in our life and in society.

After a brief history that highlights often-ignored aspects of Tarot’s past, Smith guides us through each card with reflections about clarifying our values and putting them into action. The cards are organized numerologically so that each number corresponds to a type of action, from Ones as Acts of Initiation to Tens as Acts of Generation. Every individual card offers questions for personal reflection and social consideration. Each Major Arcana card is illustrated with an example from a social movement―from the Indigenous Water Protectors to #MeToo―that illuminates how we can put the power of these timeless archetypes into action today. Every Minor Arcana card is linked to a practical and actionable term to know or skill to practice. 78 Acts of Liberation helps us explore:

• What our core values are, and how we can put them into action
• How we can be socially engaged, whatever our life circumstance―whether it’s through what we teach our children or through collective action and protest
• How to sustain ourselves over time and through challenge

As Smith explains, “Truth alone will not set us free. We have to act on it.” This guide offers inspiration for action―action that can feel joyful, hopeful, freeing, and empowering.

Delve into the world of witchcraft, communicate with your ancestors, and perform spiritual cleansings while celebrating culture and tradition. This is not your abuela’s brujería. This modern take on traditional witchcraft will introduce newcomers to the unique and vibrant traditions of magical practice. Drawing inspiration from Latin American and Afro-Caribbean regions, The Modern Art of Brujería takes readers on a journey through spirituality. Touching on historical colonial impact, this book offers new approaches to practicing traditional magic that support and uplift cultures that were once oppressed for their beliefs.

Inside you’ll find: Tips for ancestral communication Instruction for limpias or spiritual cleansings Different types of candle magic And much more! Let The Modern Art of Brujería be your guidebook as you delve into the complex world of witchcraft.

Featuring voices from the contemporary witchcraft community, A Confluence of Witches is an invitation to explore the authentic intersections of magic, spirituality, personal development, and social justice.

A Confluence of Witches aims to highlight how witchcraft has always been a diverse, constantly evolving, culturally specific practice with many lineages and rich traditions. It features essays, spells, and reflections from witches, traditional healers, herbalists, and artists on themes of magical activism, animism, and merging ancient practices with modern technologies, among other mystical subjects. The diverse representation of contributors will honor and celebrate the multicultural and multivalent ways that the witch operates within our society.
 
With an increased interest in and practice of witchcraft comes a greater need for authentic sources of wisdom that are culturally relevant and sensitive to the many lineages and traditions of witchcraft, healing work, and magic. A Confluence of Witches provides insights and perspectives from a diverse range of people who in one form or another identify as a “witch.” The anthology’s contributors are diverse, representing the African diaspora, Indigenous, Latine, and Romani traditions, as well as voices from the LGBTQ witch community—each with their own sacred blend of spirituality to share. These voices come together to illuminate the multitude of ways one can practice.
 
Contributors to this anthology include: adrienne maree brown, Aja Daashuur, Alejandra Luisa León, Amanda Yates Garcia, Angela Mary Magick, Ariella Daly, Aurora Luna (aka)Baby Reckless, Damiana Calvario, Dori Midnight, Edgar Fabián Frías, Eliza Swann, Jessie Susannah Karnatz, Jezmina Von Thiele, Kiki Robinson, Kimberly Rodriguez, Liz Migliorelli, Madre Jaguar, Maria Minnis, Olivia Ephraim Pepper, Rachel Howe, Sanyu Estelle, Star Feliz

Learn a straightforward method for using astrological terms to interpret the correspondences of the planets, zodiac signs, cardinal axes, houses, and aspects.

Astrology is the language of the cosmos. For anyone interested in “reading”—that is, interpreting—a birth chart, understanding the language is key. As in any language, there are rules and patterns to follow.
 
Authors Hajo Banzhaf and Anna Haebler take the mystery and confusion out of astrological interpretation. The authors begin with a concise breakdown of the horoscope, presenting the reader with a solid but easy-to-grasp foundation on what reading a chart entails. They cleverly compare the horoscope to a play with the planets as actors, the signs as their roles, the houses as stages of life, and the aspects as how the players interact with one another.
 
Keywords for Astrology is more than just a simple reference list of astrological terms. It explains all the essential configurations in a horoscope, offering a remarkably straightforward method for using keywords to interpret the correspondences of the planets, zodiac signs, cardinal axes, houses, and aspects. It weaves together the relationships between each of these elements and then expands on them by highlighting harmonious and discordant qualities. The interpretations readily apply to natal placement as well as transiting influence. This approach allows new perspectives and insights to emerge in your interpretations.
 
Banzhaf and Haebler combine their vast knowledge with humor and compassion, making this book a pleasure to read, and a must-have reference for your astrological library.
 
First published by Weiser Books in 1996, this new edition includes a foreword by Theresa Reed, author of Astrology for Real Life: A Workbook for Beginners.