Hecate's Secret Book Club ~ July 2021

When I finished A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durbin, I was left with the feeling that I had lived the book and then was abruptly dropped back into harsh reality. This is what I felt as a child when I read. It is now a precious and rare experience.

A young boy is sent to live with his grandmother in the country due to the threat of a nameless war. She is wise in the ways of natural magic and introduces him to the deep forest where there is a glade of huge stone sculptures with a mysterious magic. As the war begins to threaten even this secret place, the boy learns to face a human’s ultimate life question in both his inner and outer experience. This book is an enchanted, though gritty and unflinching, journey to adulthood, a modern fairytale that deserves to be added to the list of classic children’s books.

I've been reading the Book of English Magic, I found that the book was a little underwhelming as someone that grew up listening to traditional English folk stories. But if you live outside of England or didn't grow up in a rural community around this kind of stories it has room to be really useful. Personally, I was hoping for something that expanded on the ideas it discussed further. I liked the interview elements though and the way it involved the people it was written about early on in the book. There are elements that delve into the history in a really interesting way too, in the latter part of the book personally I loved the part on anglo Saxon magic as I live near a reconstructed Anglo-Saxon settlement and their history captivated me as a child. Sorry for uploading this late I thought I would have finished this book sooner.

I haven't read a lot of books that I would want to talk about here lately so I'll share with you one of my recent finds in my favourite bookshop. I'm hoping to read it soon! Miracles of Our Own Making: A History of Paganism, by Liz Williams. Here's the synopsis: This is a historical overview of pagan magic in the British Isles, from the ancient peoples of Britain to the rich and cosmopolitan landscape of contemporary paganism. Exploring the beliefs of the druids, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings, as well as Elizabethan Court alchemy and witch trials, we encounter grimoires, ceremonial magic, and the Romantic revival of arcane deities. The influential and well-known—the Golden Dawn, Wicca, and figures such as Aleister Crowley—are considered alongside the everyday “cunning folk” who formed the magical fabric of previous centuries. Ranging widely across literature, art, science, and beyond, Liz Williams debunks many of the prevailing myths surrounding magical practice, past and present, while offering a rigorously researched and highly accessible account of what it means to be a pagan today." I am so incredibly interested in learning more about the history of paganism and how it evolved to what we know today. From the reviews I've seen, one of the strong aspects of the book is the insight pf the author, being a part of the pagan community, she can show what it is really about, sharing the facts in a more meaningful way than if it was a true history book from an "outsider's" perspective.