Traditional Witchcraft for the Woods and Forests

Traditional Witchcraft

by Melusine Draco

No matter where you live, there will always be a wide variety of trees in the immediate vicinity, whether open countryside, urban parkland or municipal gardens. Get to know them, learn to recognise the different species, and draw on the magical power of the Tree. Be humbled in the presence of the trees, by their great size and beauty … and learn to work with them as a witch.

Genres: Witchcraft, Occult, Paganism, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Magick, Ebooks

159 pages, Paperback

First published March 16, 2012

About the author

Mélusine Draco originally trained in the magical arts of traditional British Old Craft with Bob and Mériém Clay-Egerton. She has been a magical and spiritual instructor for over 20 years with Coven of the Scales and the Temple of Khem, and writer of numerous popular books including Liber Agyptius: the Book of Egyptian Magic; The Egyptian Book of Days; The Egyptian Book of Nights; The Thelemic Handbook; The Hollow Tree, an elementary guide to the Qabalah; A Witch's Treasury of the Countryside; Root & Branch: British Magical Tree Lore and Starchild: a rediscovery of stellar wisdom. Her highly individualistic teaching methods and writing draws on ancient sources supported by academic texts and current archaeological findings. She now lives in Ireland near the Galtee Mountains and has several titles currently published with John Hunt Publishing including the Traditional Witchcraft series.

Reviews

[Katje van Loon]

I had some issues with this book.

First, it's very much geared towards the climate of the UK, and this is not stated up front. It's not hard to figure out, but if it had been stated up front I might not have picked up the book. Or at least would have been better prepared going in. A lot of stuff is transferable to N. America, but the rest I'll have to figure out on my own -- which is okay. I'm really just irritated that it didn't say "Traditional Witchcraft for the Woods and Forests of the UK" right off the bat. Truth in advertising, and all that.

Second, Draco needs an editor. She is waaaay too fond of sentence fragments. If you start a sentence with "While" you need to have 2 parts to it, not one. I'm normally okay with sentence fragments if I encounter them in fiction; there they can be an element of the writing style. In non-fiction it's best to avoid them.

An editor would also probably have helped with structure. One chapter was over 30% of the book, and the next was less than 10%. I felt like I'd run a neverending marathon after that one chapter, and then the next one seemed unreasonably short. Chapter length variation is fine, but not to that extent.

That said, I did find the book useful. It gave me a lot to chew on about forest witchcraft, and ideas on how to build my own, BC-based practice, as well as a place to start. So, 3 stars.

[Wendy Forte]

I wish I would have read the reviews before purchasing. I live in NY about an hour outside of the city. This book is about Ireland, Britain maybe Scotland trees and woods. Although it is interesting and informative I rather have had a book that I can walk around my local woods and find the trees they are talking about. So about a third of the way through I started skimming and skipping around. Looking up what they were talking about on the internet to see if that type of tree was local to me at all. Many weren’t. If anyone knows of a book like this but with trees around NY that would be cool.

[Karen Harper Ren Ruggiero]

Great book for British witches

This is an informative volume about tree lore of Britain. The author writes with a beautiful sense of poetry and mystery. I am giving four stars because it needs editing. I learned a lot about British woods and only wish someone would write so comprehensive a book on American trees.

[Suzanne Ruthven]

Traditional Witchcraft for the Woods and Forests came as a bit of a surprise after reading Fields and Hedgerows because the approach to the subject was much darker - simply because, as the author points out, the energies are much different in the two environments. This really is ‘a witch’s guide to the woodland with guided meditations and pathworking’ and you learn so much about the individual trees with their magical, mystical and practical usage. As with the others in the series, there are practical exercises in each chapter, and there were times when the descriptions were so vivid that there were tingles up and down my spine.
Carys Llewellyn

[Nimue Brown]

Taken from http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2015/03/rev... this is part of a much longer review of Path to the Mysteries, written by 'bad witch' Lucya Starza. 
 
I've tagged the other books in the series, which Lucya refers to in her review, and also David Salisbury's excellent 'Deep heart of witchcraft'.

[Awenydd Orchantra Faeryn]

It may have been an alright book, but it is nearly entirely specific to the trees of the UK. It should have been more clear from the start.

[Min]

The British author paints a vivid image of several landscapes found through the Isles, and speaks particularly to the practitioners of that country. This is a wonderful resource to begin to learn the native trees of the UK, and work with them.

A call to embracing Nature as a place of contemplation, and taking it as it is, for veneration. Setting our celebrations not by a written calendar, but by the signs Nature offers to signal the cause for celebration. Therefore, one needs to learn the plants, especially trees around oneself. The author makes a special plea for learning, and attending to native plants. This I can understand, however, being American, there are many, many species introduced here that have long supplanted the natives, then, themselves, become the native. Additionally, she reminds us of the legacy of our Ancestors, and the importance of giving them acknowledgement.
Using guided meditations, and pathworkings, the author assists the reader to connect "with the spirit of the landscape and learn to walk softly through the woodlands of both the physical and the astral realm". Draco further defines these terms:
--Visualization as controlled thought projection of a magical journey or scenario in which we can *consciously* take part.
--Pathworking is an astral journey for the purpose of gaining magical/mystical instruction whereby the practitioner has *no control* over the outcome or sequence of events. This state can be reached via visualization.
--Meditation is achieving a state of mind in which the conscious is expanded in order to probe the inner depths of the subconscious.

Chapter ends include a Practical, and a Magical Exercise to better integrate the thoughts, and ideas into daily life.

Counting the shrubs blackthorn, and elder with the trees of Britain, there are 37 to the islands. The author offers a general guide to each with mystical, and folklore associations for use in baths, incense, sachet, wands, fires, or other magical working.
A highlight of the book is the chapter The Changing Seasons, as a walk through the forest for the most easily recognizable trees of that season, of the major stars, and meteor showers in the sky, and meeting the common animals.

[Cat]

Heavily England based. Fine for foundational work and ideas but most specifics (especially the many, many pages on the actual ecology of British trees and forest) are going to be relatively useless for those outside the British isles.

[Ember Valkyrie]

Lovely introductory book with lots of folklore and tidbits about the trees found in the beauty of the UK's woodlands.
Draco includes wonderful practical and folkloric ideas for all the plants they bring up within the book, while not being preachy in regard to the spiritual-ness of some of the uses.

[Jennifer Vekert]

Geolocated pretty strongly to britain.

[Kate Harfield]

Didn’t work as a kindle book for me.

[J.W. Ellis]

So informative. So much knowledge in such a small book. Will reread

[John Coleman]

Book review

This book is well thought out. The author is well versed and sympathetic to the spirit of the pagan paths

[Betina Jackson]

Hard to put down

It is not very often that I pick up a book and have to remind myself to eat and drink. This book did just that. It has renewed my passion and curiosity for nature, trees, and staying on the old tracks

[Elen Sentier]

Excellent "starter" book, well written and researched.