I’ve been quiet online, but mainly because there is a ton of energy going around and I’m trying to focus on utilizing it to the best of my ability.
With this energy also comes a tumbleweed of anxiety and my healthiest anxiety management tool is reading. With un-diagnosed chronic health issues, I never quite know when I’m going to feel any resemblance to normal and the occurrences have been happening less and less. So keeping a reading schedule helps me cling to some kind of consistency, helps me get out of my own head, refocuses my mind, asks me to view problems from new perspectives and has a meditative and qualitative element to it that keeps me motivated.
With my lack of energy and focus, my spiritual practices have gone to the wayside-- holla to my fellow lazy witches-- and while I still have plenty of mundane practices I try to do day-to-day, I don’t get to connect in a larger way regularly. So, I’m using my reading list to help me channel that larger connection and continue my studies. I’ve recently been really interested in the history of early Abrahamic religions and what is now referred to ancient Paganism. My sparked interest started with Karen Armstrong’s scholarship in her book “Field of Blood” and has been exposed to a world of ancient history in James J. O’Donnell’s “Pagans: The Fall of Traditional Religion and the Rise of Christianity.” Both of these writers clearly have their biases, but they are open and obvious and can be taken into consideration while reading, in a mindful and unobtrusive way.
My current witchy reads are John Michael Greer’s “The Occult Book” and “Mystery Teachings from The Earth: An Introduction to Spiritual Ecology”. The physicality of “The Occult Book” is beautiful and intriguing. Point 1 for the local library having a copy. I love it when libraries have a well-developed esoteric section. They can so often be neglected and outdated in public libraries. And the information in Greer’s “Mystery Teachings from Earth” is far more subjective, but it is accessible and I’m enjoying exploring more into the spiritual aspects of ecology and environmentalism. As an animist, it is helpful for me to hear these ideas explored in more general ways, since so many animist studies and practices are tied to specific indigenous and cultural practices, even if those practices are found all over the world, in all kinds of traditions.
I have a long list of to-reads this year, including a few books I managed to land for Christmas, so we’ll see how I do. What are you reading, babes? Any suggestions? I’d love to see what witchy and study books you’re loving, hating or dying to read.
You can find me on goodreads at: saltandsapling
