Season Songs

EMMA KATHRYN (Nottinghamshire, UK) is a staff writer at Witch Way Magazine, The House of Twigs blog, Stone, Root, and Bone blog, the Spiral Nature blog, and Gods & Radicals. As the author of Witch Life (9780738768649), Emma won Modern Witch's Witchies Award for Outstanding New Author of 2022. She hosts Wild Witch Podcast and has spoken at several UK Pagan events, including Magickal Women Conference in London. EmmaKathrynWildWitchcraft.com

"Season Songs sets out to restore our connection with the natural world around us and ‘rewild’ the Wheel of the Year, taking you on a journey through the seasons to enhance your magical practice with an animist perspective. . . . I especially loved that upon completing your first revolution around the Wheel of the Year, Emma gives some brilliant pointers on how to continue deepening Your connection to the rhythms of nature."—Pagan Dawn"This one is straight from the heart." —Flange & Prong Witchcraft"I love this book!" —Cat Gina Cole, author of Psychic Skills for Magic and Witchcraft"Emma Kathryn has supplied a profound exploration of Animism and its correlation to the Wheel of the Year. In this book, Emma provides exercises that help a practitioner connect in concert with both the seasons of the year and the spirit of the land. From working with plants to the planets and their corresponding days of the week, there is a spiritual playlist of sorts in this approach to Animism, which undulates throughout. Not only has she reflected upon a practice that works with the larger cycles of the year, but also Emma takes into consideration the smaller cycles in nature as well, such as those of the sun and the moon. With explorations, exercises, visualizations, and meditations, this book will provide insight into expanding the practice of witches, both new to the path and seasoned alike." —Vincent Higginbotham, author of How Witchcraft Saved My Life and Thrifty Witchery"Emma Kathryn has done the intensive work of studying, learning, reassessing, and unlearning back the teachings and practices of the Wheel of the Year, to put into writing the core and heart of these traditional teachings from a practical, modern, and animistic perspective, inviting the reader (regardless of their religious traditions) to reassess their connection to nature and spirits. Making use of the days of the week, the lunar phases, and all kinds of active exercises, Season Songs invites you to reconnect with the essence of local spirits and deities, to discover the mysteries of the earth and its seasons, and to embrace those secrets that the spirits of nature have safeguarded for you." —Elhoim Leafar, author of The Magical Art of Crafting Charm Bags"Emma Kathryn lovingly shows us how to navigate the cycles of contemporary life by honouring and working with the allies we meet along the way." —The Magickal Women Conference"Emma Kathryn takes the reader on a wonderful and enspirited journey that centers an animist practice while exploring the cycle of sabbats, seasons and one's life. Pulling in folklore and her own personal explorations, this book is a wonderful companion that could serve as an almanac and welcome accompaniment to one's practice." —Nathan M. Hall, author of Path of the Moonlit Hedge

• ContentsExercises • xiIntroduction • 1Chapter 1: The Wheel of the Year and the Cycles of the Seasons • 7Chapter 2: Meeting the Land • 19Chapter 3: Lessons from the Past • 29Chapter 4: Songs of Day and Night • 41Chapter 5: Songs of the Moon • 55Chapter 6: Songs of Spring • 67Chapter 7: Songs of Summer • 91Chapter 8: Songs of Autumn • 113Chapter 9: Songs of Winter • 139Chapter 10: Spiral Songs • 157Encore • 175Bibliography • 177