Outpost, The
Date’s taken all those textbook tropes from the genre and injected a fresh transfusion of blood into its mutated heart. The end result is a novel bursting at the seams with pulse-racing action and end-of-the-world corruption. To achieve this, Date brings to the table a varied cast of characters, each playing out their respective roles within the post-apocalyptic piece, with purpose and zero unnecessary padding. ~ DLS Reviews, FULL REVIEW - https://www.dlsreviews.com/the-outpost.php
May's Moon: Fortis Mission
S.Y. Palmer
May’s Moon: Fortis Mission blasts the reader into a universe of possibilities. Author S. Y. Palmer’s vivid descriptions allow readers a glimpse inside the International Space Station. ~ grammy2023 - LitPick Reviewer
Against the Vortex
This short book provokes us to ask: Should our species seek to transcend itself? Is mortality a disease or a gift?
Galluzzo sees Zardoz as a great contemporary myth: a crystallization of the wisdom of the Aquarian 1970s, which warns against the clinical separation of life and death, of the body from being, and of man from history. We ignore it at our own peril. ~ Matthew Gasda, Compact Magazine
Hiding in Plain Sight
Hiding in Plain Sight is like any of my favourite books: full of mystery and provocation and, of course, words — the true stuff we and books are made of — of which most of us are almost always completely unaware. Even when we notice words, we notice only the most superficial things about them, like their spelling and meaning and arrangement. What we tend not to notice is how we are shaped, live, and die by them in myriad ways; they are perhaps our oldest, most potent and most vital technologies.
Serghei Sadohin has written a book that, if not on the surface is for most of us, should be for more of us. Following the roots and flowers of words and language throughout the centuries, it may unexpectedly inform and delight; it may provoke thought, wonder, and discussion.
~ Andrew McLuhan, Director of The McLuhan Institute
Narrow Window, The
Gary D. Wilson
This is a story that digs in early and won't let up - Gary Wilson creates characters who are formed by history and circumstance - his generous empathy combines with a sharp and critical insight to make you care deeply at the same time as you're turning the pages to make one discovery after another. From the very first paragraph to the very last, this is a book that will stay with you for a long time. ~ Amazon Reader, Amazon
Narrow Window, The
Gary D. Wilson
Set in apartheid-era Swaziland, a land-locked enclave within the 'Republic' of South Africa, this is ostensibly a crime-and-punishment story that in reality serves as background to a stationary 'travelog' back and forth within a narrow confine of breathtakingly beautiful natural beauty and across the grossly unequal social strata of post-colonial Africa. The stationary 'travelers' here are three American expats, a young couple and a middle-aged man, all well-educated though of limited means, whose social stature relative to their African counterparts rests chiefly upon their skin-color and nationality. It is through their eyes that we observe both landscape and events, even though there are also a number of African expats, fleeing oppression from the harsh colonialism that encircles their Swazi haven. As the story unfolds, we get to see the ruminations of the Americans in the forward plane but only to guess at those of the Africans in the background. The similarities and contrasts in all these inner turmoils invite as much contemplation after finishing the book as does the gripping attraction while reading it. ~ Amazon Reader, Amazon
Narrow Window, The
Gary D. Wilson
Gary Wilson's latest novel is set in late 1960s in newly-independent Swaziland where a Peace Corps volunteer couple seeks emotional and physical distance from the unrest and tumult taking place back home. Their hopes are dashed by an episode of shocking intimate violence and their subsequent exposure to a newly established legal system that is subject to ulterior motives and corruption at high levels of government. That their experience is mitigated by the people closest to them (and an adopted kitten) reminds us of the healing effects of relationships, as important today as it was back then. ~ Amazon Reader, Amazon
Narrow Window, The
Gary D. Wilson
Gary Wilson's latest novel is set in late 1960s in newly-independent Swaziland where a Peace Corps volunteer couple seeks emotional and physical distance from the unrest and tumult taking place back home. Their hopes are dashed by an episode of shocking intimate violence and their subsequent exposure to a newly established legal system that is subject to ulterior motives and corruption at high levels of government. That their experience is mitigated by the people closest to them (and an adopted kitten) reminds us of the healing effects of relationships, as important today as it was back then. ~ Amazon Reader, Amazon
Narrow Window, The
Gary D. Wilson
The Narrow Window is fundamentally a love story between two Peace Corps Volunteers invited to teach high school science and English in Eswatini (nee Swaziland), a small splendid gem of a country in southern Africa. Shortly after their arrival, the young wife and husband are subjected to a harrowing experience that would test the courage and determination of anyone, let alone a couple 9,000 miles from home, living among a people navigating the complex path between their traditional culture and western influences. The love story is compelling. The invitation into a place you have likely never been is flat-out enchanting. You’ll be glad for having made the trip. ~ Amazon Reader, Amazon
Pagan Portals - Spellcraft and Spellwork
Five star review from YouTube creator Beverley Butterfly on GoodReads:
"I was gifted a copy of this book to review but these thoughts are my own. This book is small but it packs a punch, it's full of incredible information and spells how to craft a spell and how to dispose of a spell afterwards! I highly recommend this book and I have a longer video review which will be on my YouTube channel @beverleybutterfly go and pre-order this book you won't be disappointed"
Full video review on her YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF6nzJTrDJQ
~ Beverley Butterfly, GoodReads and YouTube
Earth Spirit - Gaia
Book Review By Katrina Rasbold
Working as I do for Green Egg Magazine, founded by the King of Gaia theology, Oberon Zell, the subject of earth consciousness and stewardship understandably becomes an important focus. Irisanya Moon encapsulates this mindset perfectly in this beautiful homage to Mother Earth. As she puts it (paraphrased), Earth is our home, where our birth, life, and death all are contained.
On one hand, the author puts forth an educated and academic exploration of the history and practice of Gaia worship, but she will then turn on a dime and provide exercises, mythologies, and prose that are a delight for more experiential and creative readers. This provides a delicious balance of left-brained, right-brained stimulation that leaves the reader feeling fulfilled on all levels.
In addition to a balanced exploration of the modern expressions of Gaia worship, the author also discusses practical considerations for living in a modern society that is, at best, collectively dismissive of such ideas and at worst, outwardly and overtly hostile to them.
This is a quick read and will take up very little of your time to deliver a markedly disproportionately huge and impacting message about the condition of the relationship between human beings and Gaia. Just reading the ending prayer is worth far more than the price of admission.
Gaia: Saving Her, Saving Ourselves is available from Moon Books at https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/
Categories: Book Reviews, Ecospiritualism, Pagan Authors, Paganism ~ Katrina Rasbold, https://greeneggmagazine.com/2023/12/02/gaia-moon/
Earth Spirit - Gaia
Review: Staff of Laurel, Staff of Ash / Gaia
Geplaatst op 30 april, 2024 door Medeia
Staff of Laurel, Staff of Ash – Sacred Landscapes in Ancient Nature Myth
Dianna Rhyan
Moon Books, 2023. 178 p. ISBN 978-1-80341-196-5 (paperback, £13.99 / $17.95); ISBN 978-1-80341-197-2 (e-book, £6.99 / $8.99)
Gaia – Saving Her, Saving Ourselves
Irisanya Moon
Earth Spirit series, Moon Books, 2023. 96 p. ISBN 978-1-80341-108-8 (paperback, £9.99 / $12.95); ISBN 978-1-80341-109-5 (e-book, £4.99 / $6.99)
“Can myth stop someone from felling ancient oaks?” This is the question Dianna Rhyan asks in the first pages of Staff of Laurel, Staff of Ash. Wandering through nature, she lets her imagination roam through a world of Greek and Near-Eastern mythologies, reflecting on mankind’s relationship to nature.
In a poetic, evocative style she tells of trees, rivers, mountains, goddesses and heroes of tragedy that were destroyed, forgotten, silenced, or suffered a katastrophē (“steep and sudden downfall”). It is a lamentation for a lost world, where everything in nature was ensouled. At the same time, the reader is reminded that Persephone will always come back from the realm of the dead: that what seems lost forever may yet come back one day. But before that happens, there must be grief and anger at where centuries of devastation and deforestation have led us.
Dianna Rhyan discerns two currents in the relation of humans to nature: one symbolised by the ‘staff of laurel’: the blossoming branch of Apollo’s tree the Muses gave to the poet Hesiod, to bring tales of the gods to mankind; the other by the lifeless ‘staff of ash’: the death-bringing spear of Homeric warriors who strove for undying fame.
This dichotomy may be portrayed a bit too sharply at times, as a good-versus-evil dualism, but it does have its use. It points out that to view nature solely as a repository of resources to be dominated and exploited, is ultimately destructive. It emphasises that a different approach is not only imaginable but may be essential to our survival.
In Gaia – Saving Her, Saving Ourselves, Irisanya Moon also calls on myth to think about necessary changes in mankind’s relation to nature. She focuses on Gaia, who is both the goddess of myths and this Earth and its ecosystem, humans included: “We are Gaia and Gaia is us”.
The myth of Persephone is referred to in this book as well, but this author highlights the role of Gaia, who brought forth the splendid narcissus that the maiden goddess desired to pick. When the girl reached for it, the earth opened, and Hades came out and seized her. All of this was according to the will of Zeus. Irisanya Moon writes that wise Gaia must have understood Zeus’ plan and what was going to happen, and willingly assisted. For when Persephone finally brings life back to the dying lands, Earth/Gaia is covered in festive glory.
Whereas Staff of Laurel, Staff of Ash travels back through time and myth in a quest to the roots of the environmental crisis in modern society’s perception of nature, groping and searching to define and find ways to overcome the violence, the abuse and all that went wrong in this disturbed relationship, Gaia is looking forward, concerned with what concrete actions modern pagans can take to support and celebrate Earth, with myth (and facts) providing motivation and a framework to relate to. The difference between both books reflects the different professions of their authors: Dianna Rhyan works as a mythologist and therapist with a focus on goddesses and sacred landscapes, and Irisanya Moon is a priestess and teacher in the Reclaiming tradition.
So if you’re interested in changing the dominant perception of nature as a storehouse of not-yet-dead matter by exploring ancient myths, to be able to experience the natural world as full of nymphs and other goddesses, a world in which wind blowing in leaves isn’t just wind blowing in leaves, but can be an oracle – the rustling in the oak trees of the temple at Dodona, or the scattered leaves with oracular texts of the Cumaean sybil – Staff of Laurel, Staff of Ash provides you with stories, images and ideas that make you feel ancient attitudes are still to be found in the present, somewhere, somehow. It offers the hope that perhaps humanity can find healing for ourselves and the planet if we manage to retrace our steps on the path of violence and exploitation and establish a friendlier attitude toward our environment.
If you are interested in hands-on tips along the lines of: you can seek out environmental organisations or groups to support; celebrate Earth Day; form a group dedicated to cleaning up areas like parks or beaches… or if you want to design a ritual for Gaia but don’t know how; feel you could use a ritual to cleanse yourself of the paralysing feeling that all your actions and rituals are futile; or are considering building a Samhain altar for murdered environmental activists – Gaia – Saving Her, Saving Ourselves offers advice on all this and more.
Obviously, you don’t have to choose between these two! One could say they complement each other. And with all their differences, both books provide food for thought and action, to work on both the inner and the outer world. For those who, while or after reading the books, want to explore and study for themselves the source material used by the writers, there are notes and bibliographies.
Sadly, the bibliography in Staff of Laurel, Staff of Ash is not easy to use. It is alphabetically ordered, mostly by title, but some books are ordered by author. This means that if, for instance, you want to know what exactly is referred to by “Theogony”, you must already know that if there isn’t something with this title mentioned under T in the bibliography, it must be sought under H (its author is Hesiod). But it is a pleasantly extensive bibliography, and useful book data such as year of publication, publisher, and names of translators or editors are mentioned.
Gaia – Saving Her, Saving Ourselves has some endnotes, a short list of resources (books and websites), and a short bibliography. Of the books in the resources list and in the biography, only the author’s name and book title are given, not the publisher and year of publishing. In the bibliography, a little printer’s devil must have had some fun: Green Religion as a book title looks plausible there, but it’s by Walter Burkert and should of course be Greek Religion.
Over Medeia
Een belangrijke, niet-christelijke basis van onze zgn. westerse beschaving is het oude, deels imaginaire, Griekenland. Medeia is een naam uit de Griekse mythen, waar zij echter werd beschreven als een sinistere snuiter uit het barbaarse Oosten. De spanning die voortkomt uit een denken in tegenstellingen, zoals erbij horen / een buitenstaander zijn, is in Medeia’s beleving een drijvende kracht in ‘de oude religie’. Uit de nalatenschap van de klassieke oudheid stamt ook het ideaal van de Kunst als toegang tot een andere dan de alledaagse werkelijkheid. Medeia schrijft sinds 2010 voor Wiccan Rede. ~ Over Medeia, https://wiccanrede.org/2024/04/review-staff-of-laurel-staff-of-ash-gaia/
Earth Spirit - Gaia
Irisanya Moon's work speaks lovingly of Gaia. Reading this book moved me in ways that made me realize how disconnected I had become from Earth and how homesick I felt for the quiet bayous and heavy forests I called home for over fifty years. Sitting outside underneath the ancient oaks in front of my apartment in San Antonio, I started connecting again.
I sensed the profound sacredness in the darkness of totality when the eclipse passed over our city. I feel Gaia's breath upon my cheek in every breeze and see her in the shy flicker of fireflies dancing among the leaves. I have found Gaia through the sounds of people shouting, singing, and laughing in multiple languages. There is joy in Latin music drifting through apartment windows. On the street, I hear Gaia there, telling her stories, singing, and dancing with her people. And she whispers to me, San Antonio es amour.
Earth Spirit Gaia encourages us to connect deeply with the earth through meditation, ritual, activism, and simply living out our lives as the Children of Earth. It is easy to do, as we are all connected to her beyond any untying. All we have to do is open ourselves up to her. Through activism, we can protect the sacredness of our world. The simple act of picking up a piece of trash from the sidewalk as we take our morning walk each day is a powerful practice that helps, even in a small way, to take care of our world. Donations to legitimate activist sites and joining a community clean-up group are other simple but powerful ways of spending time with Gaia but also helping our world heal.
Oracles are offered in the book. They are done by a group of people, each accessing the elemental energies of Gaia plus spirit in a way that is more of a seance than an oracle. I think that earth-based oracle cards could also be used to access the spirit of Gaia. Experiment with making spreads to this effect and journal the results.
Other offerings are rituals for deceased activists, where you can pay homage to the dead and the work they did during their lifetimes. Adding pictures to your ofrenda during Samhain to honor their lives would be most appropriate. If an activist is buried in a nearby cemetery, you might collect some dirt from their grave for earth-healing activities.
The final chapters discuss the hazards of white nationalism and colonialism; both are detrimental to human society as well as to the earth itself. Hoarding resources, as well as destroying the earth and taking wealth from other countries, is detrimental to all. This kind of attack on humans and the planet needs to stop. There is only one true race on Earth: the human race.
We are all Gaia's children.
~review by Patricia Snodgrass
Author: Irisanya Moon
Moon Books, 2023
p. $12.95, pp. 112
~ Patricia Snodgrass, https://facingnorth.net/books/deity/gaia-saving
Pagan Portals - Artemis
REVIEW
5 out of 5
I’ve worked with Artemis over the years, and even after that long, I still learned some things from this book, and I’d definitely recommend it to beginners looking to work with her. Moon not only gives great advice on connecting with and working with Artemis, but delves into the mythology surrounding her a bit. (I have to admit, I loved reading the myths again, it’s been awhile). The book is broken down in easy-to-digest sections, and it would be easy to find what you’re looking for if you wanted to use this purely as a reference book. The bibliography has a lot of good references if you’d like to do more in-depth research for yourself later on. Highly recommend for anyone who has worked with the goddess and is looking for ways to deepen their connection, or beginners. ~ Liliyana, https://lshadowlynauthor.com/2024/04/01/review-pagan-portals-artemis/
Pagan Portals - Artemis
Liliyana
5.0 out of 5 stars Great for beginners or those looking to deepen their connection
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2024
I've worked with Artemis over the years, and even after that long, I still learned some things from this book, and I'd definitely recommend it to beginners looking to work with her. Moon not only gives great advice on connecting with and working with Artemis, but delves into the mythology surrounding her a bit. (I have to admit, I loved reading the myths again, it's been awhile). The book is broken down in easy-to-digest sections, and it would be easy to find what you're looking for if you wanted to use this purely as a reference book. The bibliography has a lot of good references if you'd like to do more in-depth research for yourself later on. Highly recommend for anyone who has worked with the goddess and is looking for ways to deepen their connection, or beginners. ~ Liliyana, Amazon
Pagan Portals - Artemis
Annarella
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2024
Artemis is one of the most intriguing goodess. The myth is about a very independent lady who's ready to kill if she feels abused.
This book is about the wild side of feminime, there's a lot to learn and food for thought even if you think you already knew her.
Well researched and well done.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine ~ Annarella, Amazon Review
Embody Your Inner Goddess
Embody Your Inner Goddess is a transformative book that beckons readers on a profound journey of self-discovery and empowerment. Crafted with the intention of guiding individuals towards embracing their fullest potential, this book is not just a read; it’s an experience. Through a carefully curated blend of personal anecdotes and practical exercises, Leduc opens readers with the divine feminine energy within, encouraging a radical acceptance and celebration of self. Readers will find this book a great companion on their path to self-realization and empowerment; it’s perfect for those ready to deepen their spiritual connection with themselves and live a life of authenticity and purpose.
FULL REVIEW > https://musingmystical.com/embody-your-inner-goddess-by-lauren-leduc/ ~ Musing Mystical, Review
Treasures of Egypt
Ever since I was a kid, I have been intrigued by Egyptian culture and mythology. This was the main reason I picked up this book.
It gave me so much more. I loved the characters. The main characters fully stole my heart (looking at you, Khaf), but I also adored many more of the characters. They were simply fun and complex most of the time, and I loved following them through their journey. I cried, laughed, wanted to yank my phone away, and got very annoyed, too. It was a full rollercoaster of a book, but it was perfect as a cosy little book that hurts you just perfectly.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ~ Virag Viszus (Reviewer, Netgalley
Treasures of Egypt
I really liked this book. Egyptian mythology is one of my favourites, and I love reading about it and seeing other people's takes on it. I think Nefiri was a strong character who carried the book along with the other characters. I love the author's interpretations and characterizations of the Egyptian deities and mythology. It was really great and paced well. The writing kept me engaged the entire time, and I enjoyed it. ~ Emma Lynn (Reviewer), Netgalley
Mind Beyond Words, A
Jes Kerzen
I hope that A MIND BEYOND WORDS by Jes Kerzen is widely read, knowing that it's out there for many readers who want to push the boundaries of what we believe to be reality to a far wider, wilder, and more fascinating place. When teacher Jen Kerzen encounters and gets to know Asher, a student designated to be on the autism spectrum, she is drawn into a world she never dreamed possible, of telepathy and wonders beyond the typical expectations of a neurodiverse classroom, never mind fitting into our culture and definitions of reality. I deeply enjoyed having my expectations blown by the incredible bond the pair developed and still live to this day, as well as how a supposedly deficient person is familiar with and expert in realms no one dreamed possible. Written in a conversational style, Kerzen brings the reader along in an ultimately mind-blowing experience with a child leading the way.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ~ Louise Foerster (Reviewer), Netgalley
