This is a lovely, large, hard covered book on pagan rituals and rites throughout the year; beginning in October - as it does for the Northern Hemisphere. It's full of information about where these traditions came from, old-fashioned pictures, photographs of ivy, mistletoe and animals; as well as spells, potions and sayings for each season and Sabbath of the year. If you are a beginner at the Craft, this is most certainly a book you must track down and use as a reference in your first year or so as it's full of the information I wished I had when I was starting out and didn't have.
I have a section in my bookcase dedicated to the Craft and its traditions. However, this book is a much simpler way of looking at it; in its layout and feel. All the information I have collected through my books is inside this one; and is perfect for the beginner; as I have said.
Paddy Slade was born Patricia Harlow, 29th September 1931 and lived in Canterbury, Kent, and was the youngest of seven children. Her Mother as she was of Scottish decent and practiced the old ways of the village Witch or Wise Woman; and Patricia picked up on the traditional ways quickly and carried them on.
For her education Paddy went on to study at Cambridge University, from where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Medieval History and English. After leaving collage she joined the signals branch of the Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF). In 1955 while still serving in the air force, Paddy married her husband Philip (Pete) Slade and a year later gave birth to their first son Robert, a second son Peter followed in 1957. Most of their time with the RAF was spent serving overseas, mainly in Singapore and Fiji, and only returned to England after leaving the Force in the early 1960’s.
As time passed Paddy became known for her knowledge of herbal and magical remedies, and soon had a steady stream of students waiting to join her teaching courses, what she called “the Old Wild Magic. In them she would stress the need for individuals to experience the powers of nature and the elements for themselves, and before even trying to employ the use of spells or magic. With the sudden growth and interest in modern witchcraft as practiced as a religion and inspired by those above, Paddy felt that much of the basics of real magic was being lost.
If your looking for an “Occult book of Ritual and Magic”, then her books are not for you, but if you want a down-to-earth real book of Kitchen Witchery, her books are easy, fun and compulsive reading. I might mention however, that while her earlier book “Natural Magic” is beautifully illustrated, her later book “Seasonal Magic” is a re-write and basically the same, it has a few bits of added material and of course contains her now famous “Rite of Chocolate”.
If you'd like to know more about Paddy Slade, I've put a link to her website on the sidebar.
This was my first Yoga book that my Mum helped me purchase. I had to hunt it down through Folio Books in Brisbane City and it cost a small fortune to get it from Canada; as it was out of print at the time. I am so glad that I did go to the trouble of finding it as it's a wonderful book. This book gives you month by month exercises to do so you can formulate your own routine and pick out your own programme to suite your needs, lifestyle and so you can work out how fast - or slow - you want to go with your Hattha Yoga.
I've talked about Howard Kent in the previous book review. I'll be putting in a link so you can all go to a site where you can find out more about him and his books; which I've found some are out of print. So, if you're looking for books by him, you'll have better luck looking online at Amazon, Bookfound or Goodreads.com
This rather ugly-looking book was quite a find for me at a bookstore. I actually wasn't looking for it at all; instead, I was looking for a book on yoga (yes, that) but something a little more about the history of it that wasn't so thick. However, it was how I found it that was interesting... shoved down the back of a bookcase in a bookshop where new books were sold. I was kind of happy and disgusted at the same time at my find. Happy because it was a book no longer sold there, but disgusted that I had to reach all the way over the back of the bookcase and to the floor to find it. However, here it is in my possession.
Howard Kent is one of the world's best minds in Yoga. This little book has a lot of history about this practice in it and is well worth the read when you have time after a session of Hattha Yoga and you want to feed your mind. It's not the most attractive book - being a fluorescent green and hot pink colour - but it's certainly eye-catching and very informative. In all it's twelve parts, you'll be well-informed about the history, teachers, benefits, Chakras, the body's natural design, the importance of breathing, positions, stretching, Yoga in daily life; right up to Yoga for special needs people. This book is a must for anyone who wishes to get the right information about this very old - yet beneficial - lifestyle.
Howard Kent is the founder and director of the Yoga for Health Foundation in the United Kingdom, where he continues to practice and teach. The Foundation has approximately 125 branches in the British Isles and has branches or representatives in 23 other countries. Howard's television series, "Yoga for Health, was broadcast in over 20 countries, and he has written nine previous books on yoga, including "Day by Day Yoga, Yoga: Key Facts, The Complete Yoga Course, and "The Complete Illustrated Guide to Yoga. Claire Hayler, D.C., M.M.CA., is a registered chiropractor and has two clinics in the United Kingdom. She has been practicing yoga for 25 years and teaching since 1986. She has been closely associated with the Yoga for Health Foundation for many years and was invited to become a trustee in 2001.
Unfortunately, Howard passed away on 15th, February, 2005 at the age of 85; leaving behind the brilliant work of Yoga For Health Foundation behind; which had built a membership of 120 locations within the UK and had opened up others in 20 other countries.
This is a lovely book about living around and within your own garden of medicinal and herbal needs. Nerys Purchon is one of Australia's most popular herb and aromatherapy writers and in this book, she shares her vast knowledge and love these plants. She has a lifetime's experience of working with herbs from all over the world and Nerys explains in detail the properties of them in clear and simple language. I bought this book a couple of years ago just before Christmas and thought it was so good, I'd get my brother and his then girlfriend one too.
Nerys Purchon was born in North Wales and has learned all she knows about herbs from her Grandmother who used them in recipes and created many of her own. Together, they would collect herbs from the meadows, mountains and riverbanks, returning to the kitchen in the cellar where Nerys was taught to transform them into extracts, ointments, poultices and more. She has a great respect for the herbal tradition which has been bred into her from a young age. Then, her family arrived in Australia in 1968 on St Valentine's Day, which began a love affair with this country and the magic circle began to turn for her once more. They bought a condemned wooden house on eight hectares of neglected land in a small, sheltered valley where kangaroos and cattled grazed and the earth was rich. And this is where they began their own new traditions in a new land.
(bibliography: intro of this book.)
I have found a website for Nerys Purchon, which has got a blogspot.com address attached to it of what she does in her large garden. It's very interesting; however, I couldn't find a bio about her; instead, the blog does show recipes and other books she's written.
This is a book I've had on my shelves for years; and yet whenever I feel as though things aren't working, I can look it up in here and find exactly where I've gone wrong. This is a modern and comprehensive guide for home or garden in the use of herbs; for beautfy or hygiene, for relaxation or relief from illness. Now, more than ever, people everywhere are turning to the world of plants to find alternative remedies. The various sections included uses in wild food, spices, fragrant herbal baths and an important section on remedieds for adults and children.
Unfortunately, I'm unable to find out anything about Barbara Griggs on the net. She doesn't have an official website for me to be able to sent you to and there's nothing in the back or front of this book to say where she's from or her education or her herbal background. However, if any of you find out a good site that I could put up here for everyone else to be able to have access to, please leave a comment and tell me that url so Barbara's name can join the evergrowing list of authors on the sidebar. Thank you.
This is a lovely, large, hard covered book on pagan rituals and rites throughout the year; beginning in October - as it does for the Northern Hemisphere. It's full of information about where these traditions came from, old-fashioned pictures, photographs of ivy, mistletoe and animals; as well as spells, potions and sayings for each season and Sabbath of the year. If you are a beginner at the Craft, this is most certainly a book you must track down and use as a reference in your first year or so as it's full of the information I wished I had when I was starting out and didn't have.
