Seasons of Moon and Flame: The Wild Dreamer's Epic Journey of Becoming

by Danielle Dulsky, Mat Auryn (Foreword by)

Overview

Prepare to Be Mentored by the Sacred Hags!

The yearning to slow down and simplify, return to the earth, and maybe even “rewild” what has been tamed in ourselves persists even though that dream may seem ever more remote in contemporary life. Danielle Dulsky shows that even in our high-tech and high-pressure lives, it is possible to manifest your own “year of the wild” and to tap into often-forgotten holy wisdom. Seasons of Moon and Flame guides you to live cyclically while working with the archetype of the Sacred Hag, or wild grandmother, who appears in various guises. Wonderfully inclusive, with adaptations for families, spiritual groups, and other traditions, this book is a potentially life-changing guide to living mystically, magically, and in empowering harmony with the worlds of spirit and nature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608686421
Publisher:	New World Library
Publication date:	03/10/2020
Pages:	376
Sales rank:	503,206
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Danielle Dulsky is a heathen visionary, Aquarian mischief maker, and founder of the Hag School. Author of The Holy Wild and Woman Most Wild, Danielle teaches internationally and has facilitated embodiment trainings, wild circles, communal spellwork, and seasonal rituals since 2007.

Mat Auryn is the author of Psychic Witch.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Introduction: Our Year of the Wild

Sovereign within the Collective

Way of the Witch-Fractal

Wander ‘Round the Path

Meet the Four Sacred Hags

Grow the Circle Wider

Whisper Words of Lineage

Return to Embodiment

Live Cyclically

House of Initiation: The Beginning and the End

The Spiral Journey

A Softer Witchery

Our Wilder Circles

To Tend a Better Altar, To Write a Better Book of Moon and Flame

House of the Garden Hag: Opening Spring’s Portal

Chapter 1: Season of Tender Roots

Sunrise Reflection: The Beloved Dead

Spring Equinox Celebration: Twin Eggs of Birth and Renewal

New Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Let’s Get Some Blood in the Dirt

The Chicken-Witch of the Grove: A Ceremonial Ostara Tale

Opening Practice: Your Spring Initiation

Waxing Moon Practice: Writing It Real

Full Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Eat Now

Full Moon Practice: Cosmic Eggs of Creation and Will

Waning Moon

Grandmother Speaks: The Strongest Medicine

Waning Moon Practice: The Great Galactic Fabric

Dark Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Tomorrow We Get Dirty

Dark Moon Practice: Memories of Joy and Grace

Chapter 2: Season of the Elders’ Altar

Sunrise Reflection: Calling in the Stubborn Dreamers

Beltane Celebration: A Fire of Demand

New Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Up and at ‘Em, Lazy Bones

Temple of the Flame-Tender: A Ceremonial Tale of Wild Redemption

Opening Practice: Flame-Tending for the Yet-to-Be-Born

Waxing Moon Practice: The Wildness of Our Longing

Full Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Blessed by the Most Primal Rivers

Full Moon Practice: The Truest Healing

Waning Moon

Grandmother Speaks: This Is Hardly A Day to Be Timid

Waning Moon Practice: The Feeling Body

Dark Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Let’s Dine Like It’s Our Last Night

Dark Moon Practice: A Wild Walk

Chapter 3: Season of Mud-Caked Hands

Sunrise Reflection: The Love-Language of Wild Queens

New Moon

Grandmother Speaks: You Belong Here, Too

Bawdy Betty and the Lady in White: A Late Spring Tale

Opening Practice: A Helper-Tree Found

Waxing Moon Practice: Humble Offerings by Morning’s Light

Full Moon

Grandmother Speaks: You’re on Your Own Now

Full Moon Practice: Sweet Reward

Waning Moon

Grandmother Speaks: There’s So Much Joy To Be Had

Waning Moon Practice: Grieving Spring

Dark Moon

Grandmother Speaks: This Place Has Been Good For You

Dark Moon Practice: The Purge before the Fruition

Wild Spring Practices and Sacred Remembrances

House of the Desert Hag: Opening Summer’s Portal

Chapter 4: Season of Wild Delights

Noon-Day Reflection: Lit by a Lone Star Come Too Close

Litha Celebration: Rejoining the Band of Storytelling Heathens

New Moon

Grandmother Speaks: If Your Heart Is True

The Fairy-Doctor’s Daughter: A Ceremonial Solstice Tale

Opening Practice: Your Summer Initiation

Waxing Moon Practice: A Practiced Thanks

Full Moon

Grandmother Speaks: You’ve Got Stories, Child

Full Moon Practice: The Three Stories

Waning Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Of Honest Contentment

Waning Moon Practice: A Moment of Pause

Dark Moon

Grandmother Speaks: With Feeling Flesh and Low-Drumming Hearts

Dark Moon Practice: The Spirit of the Moment

Chapter 5: Season of Holy Thunder

Noon-Day Reflection: The Gift-Giver’s Breath

Lughnasadh Celebration: The Bread of Life and Death

New Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Rough Places Show You What You’re Made Of

The Witch and the Lightning Tree: A Midsummer Tale

Opening Practice: Our Web of Being

Waxing Moon Practice: To Make Peace with the Mystery

Full Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Initiation into the Priestesshood of the Lightning Keepers

Full Moon Practice: Held by the Long Arms of Time

Waning Moon

Grandmother Speaks: It Shall Heal

Waning Moon Practice: The Made and Maker

Dark Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Wanderers Such As We

Dark Moon Practice: Calling On the Ancestors

Chapter 6: Season of Midday Grace

Noon-Day Reflection: Just between You and Those Old Crows

New Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Now’s Not the Time to Look Up to Heaven

Biddy’s Retreat: A Late-Summer Love Story

Opening Practice: Ponder the Fractal

Waxing Moon Practice: The Witch’s Retreat

Full Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Lightning Struck Skin

Full Moon Practice: An Offering to the Broken

Waning Moon

Grandmother Speaks: I Wish to Speak Only of Such Love

Waning Moon Practice: Grieving Summer

Dark Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Walk West, Beloved

Dark Moon Practice: Welcoming the Great Letting Go

Wild Summer Practices and Sacred Remembrances

House of the Sea Hag: Opening Autumn’s Portal

Chapter 7: Season of Orphaned Dreams

Dusk Reflection: Once Upon an Ending

Autumnal Equinox Celebration: The Best and Last of Their Names

New Moon

Grandmother Speaks: We Are Blessed by These Changing Tides

The Selkie-Hag’s Pelt: A Harvest Moon Tale

Opening Practice: Your Autumn Initiation

Waxing Moon Practice: A More Sacred Gaze

Full Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Where the Dead Swim

Full Moon Practice: A Eulogy Lived Out Loud

Waning Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Let the Current Lick the Shivers from You

Waning Moon Practice: A Letter to a Loved One Gone

Dark Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Your Soul Is Home Here

Dark Moon Practice: A Sweet Release

Chapter 8: Season of the Haunted Heart

Dusk Reflection: The Shadow Family

Samhain Celebration: The Silent Supper

New Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Dead Things Don’t Spark

Goldie’s Shadow: A Ceremonial Ghost Story

Opening Practice: Communing with the Shadow Creatures

Waxing Moon Practice: The Shadow Doll

Full Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Welcome the Monster to Your Table

Full Moon Practice: The Darkest Medicine

Waning Moon

Grandmother Speaks: That Magick’s Been Yours

Waning Moon Practice: The Shadow as Gift

Dark Moon

Grandmother Speaks: The Annual Witching Hour

Dark Moon Practice: The Story of the Many Children

Chapter 9: Season of Spice and Hearth

Dusk Reflection, by Ember Glow: Inquiry of the Dud Myths

New Moon

Grandmother Speaks: You Are Still Warm

The Soul-Cages: A Ceremonial Autumn Story

Opening Practice: The Living Ghost Story

Waxing Moon Practice: Deep Listening and the Medicine’s Resurrection

Full Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Pray Into the Sunset

Full Moon Practice: The Great Purge and the Great Switch

Waning Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Let Them Come

Waning Moon Practice: Grieving Autumn

Dark Moon

Grandmother Speaks: No One Can Tell You Not to Cry

Dark Moon Practice: Rest, Ritual, and Reflection

Chapter 10: The Thirteenth Moon

On This, The Darkest Hour

The Unburnable Beloved: A Thirteenth Moon Tale

Wild Autumn Practices and Sacred Remembrances

House of the Mountain Hag: Opening Winter’s Portal

Chapter 11: Season of Salted Bones

Midnight Reflection: A Witch’s Year in Review

Solstice Celebration: Prophecy ‘Neath the Pine on the Longest Night

New Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Warm Yourself, Child

The Storyteller-Crone’s Jewels: A Yuletide Tale

Opening Practice: Your Winter Initiation

Waxing Moon Practice: Tending the Inner Altar

Full Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Tell me, Child

Full Moon Practice: Cleansing the Altar

Waning Moon

Grandmother Speaks: You’ve Come for Wisdom, Wild One

Waning Moon Practice: Something Far More Dangerous

Dark Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Let’s Not Be Too Hasty

Dark Moon Practice: A Puzzle-Piece Hymn, Hand-Written by the Witch’s Apprentice

Chapter 12: Season of the Wild Wolf

Midnight Reflection: Dream-Visions of the Near-to-Come

Imbolc Celebration: A Bridal Bed and a Flame Alight

New Moon

Grandmother Speaks: She Can Smell Your Fear

The Bone-Woman’s Brew, a Mid-Winter Tale

Opening Practice: Welcoming Sovereignty Home

Waxing Moon Practice: Choices Made, Choices Owned

Full Moon

Grandmother Speaks: For the Gods’ Sakes, Be Bold About It

Full Moon Practice: The Bravest Gardener

Waning Moon

Grandmother Speaks: You Did Good, Witch

Waning Moon Practice: Such Is the Way of Winter

Dark Moon

Grandmother Speaks: It’s a Wonder

Dark Moon Practice: Naming the Fears

Chapter 13: Season of the Cauldron Keeper

Midnight Reflection: The Muse of Our Own Becoming

New Moon

Grandmother Speaks: A Secret Good Enough

The Moon-Child and The Holy Wild Hag: A Ceremonial Tale

Opening Practice: Becoming the Crone-Weaver

Waxing Moon Practice: Beginning Again

Full Moon

Grandmother Speaks: All Ways Are True

Full Moon Practice: It Is Finished

Waning Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Lighten Your Heart

Waning Moon Practice: Grieving Winter

Dark Moon

Grandmother Speaks: Admit it, Witch

Dark Moon Practice: Spring’s Sacrifice

Wild Winter Practices and Sacred Remembrances

Return to the House of Initiation

Conclusion: Seasons of Moon and Flame

Epilogue

Appendices

1. Hag Stories of Moon and Flame

2. Hag Spells and Rituals of Moon and Flame

3. Hag Lessons Unpacked

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Danielle Dulsky is the poet of this generation of Witches, weaving the magical art of storytelling and ritual into our lives with Seasons of Moon and Flame. If we listen closely, we find that her voice is running through our very blood and bones and holds the keys to our ancestral wildness.”
— Ora North, author of I Don’t Want to Be an Empath Anymore

“Bold, exquisite, empowering, and healing in its concoction and execution, Seasons of Moon and Flame is an exceptional achievement and an essential read.”
— Mat Auryn, author of Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick & Manifestation

“This book is a map that leads not to the exotic faraway, but to the shocking and orgasmic nearby. Travel at your own risk.”
— Bayo Akomolafe, author of These Wilds Beyond Our Fences

“Danielle’s guidance, experience, practices, and teachings will spark the revolutionary heart of anyone ready to live their ‘year(s) of wild’ to the fullest. It certainly did mine.”
— Chris Grosso, author of Indie Spiritualist

“Danielle Dulsky continually creates works of the soul through her writing. . . . A calling not only to remember who you are but to remember the simplicity of it all in the unraveling of the spirit, land, and flesh.”
— Juliet Diaz, author of Witchery

“A rhapsody in celebration of the Holy Wild within and around . . . You’ll breathe the medicine smoke of sacred stories and be aroused to step outside the tame land and embody the secret wishes of your soul.”
— Robert Moss, bestselling author of Dreaming the Soul Back Home

Editorial Reviews

02/24/2020

Dulsky (The Holy Wild), a spellwork teacher and witch, evocatively combines myth, introspection, and ritual to create a yearlong plan for “rewilding,” or connecting with the Earth’s energy, based on the archetype of the “Sacred Hag.” Dulsky sets up a neopagan framework that invites readers to “fall in love with the liminal.” Each of the four sections correspond to a different season and appearance of the hag—the garden hag, desert hag, sea hag, and mountain hag—and are followed by Dulsky’s reflections, a related story, and practices based around the waxing, full, and waning moons. For instance, the autumnal sea hag teaches about “feeling into the wild ache of not knowing, of sitting in the mist without deciding too quickly which direction is the right one.” Imaginative writing prompts, as when Dulsky invites readers to imagine themselves as a living ghost, step far beyond the usual spiritual journaling fodder. While readers new to Dulsky might find her freewheeling style hard to penetrate, witches interested in in-depth rituals will love this. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly