01Kissing the Hag, Book Review
Kissing the Hag: The Dark Goddess and The Unacceptable Nature of Women
By Emma Restall Orr 2009
Kissing The Hag
Review by Polly Lind
Often books come into my life when they are needed, and other times I by a book and it takes me several months or years before they get read. This one is a little of both, I knew of its existence, when it was first published back in 2009 but never really felt the need to buy it until recently and it is one that I pretty much started to read straight out of the box.
This book is not a how to book, nor does it have rituals, rites, spells or seasonal correspondences, and despite its content and title with the Dark Goddess in it, is not strictly a pagan book either, but then it also is. .. given that it is written by a practicing druid priestess. I am also reluctant to call this a self-help book, as it is not telling you that you are broken so much as helping you to more fully experience the different aspects of who you are, as a woman.
This book is about the often unspoken aspects of woman’s nature both the powerful and dangerous sides to the often unacceptable nature of women. Emma writes about these unacceptable natures in the form of Dark Goddesses, I guess you could class them all as Hags in one form or another. Emma also uses coarse language in places, using it as an effective tool to get you away from your indoctrinated thinking, and start thinking about difficult topics from a completely different angle.
I have to admit that when I first started reading this book, I was several pages in when I stopped and asked. “ What the blazes is this weird incomprehensible drivel?” however after a few more pages I was beginning to understand that it was not incomprehensible drivel but rather, it is more theological psychological and spiritual in nature. Emma writes about concepts that will both enlighten and challenge how as a women you understand yourself, and I suspect as a man how you perceive and understand women. She also writes about The Bad and The Ugly as society has taught us it is, and how confidence, power and sense of self can be found within the different aspects of these various Dark Goddess types, which are so often seen as The Bad and The Ugly, so to speak.
The Blood, The Virgin, The Whore, The Mother, The Bitch, The Witch, The Old Bag and The Hag these Goddesses of both Light and Dark, as they have aspects of both can been seen in each of us as we go from birth, living, and on towards Death. Emma posits that they are not always tied up with ageing as we can be pretty much any of them, but she also posits that they do represent women as we do age.
All in all I am very glad that I stuck with this book and have read it, it has certainly been timely, and has given me some spot on concepts and understandings to work through in my own life. I want to recommend this book for all women, but also for pretty much all genders. I also want to say that it is not a book that should be read quickly, as it can take some time and quiet contemplation to unravel each sections meaning and how that relates to you. And another thought, I wonder how a trans-woman would find this, if it would be useful in opening them up more fully to being a woman, embodying the various goddesses both dark and light?
So no this is not a heavy magical occult tome, but it is magical and has an energy that challenges but also comforts. Kissing The Hag is a book that will make you think. It is a book that will confuse you in places and it is a book that will definitely challenge you in interesting and somewhat unusual ways. Part of me wants to say not for the faint at heart, but you know what, if you are faint at heart, read this book because it will help you understand how to be strong of heart.
I give this book 4 cups of tea out of 5
Emma’s Website Druidnetwork Bio Book Depository
Originally posted Here
I cannot. I just cannot.
Justin, get away from that asshole violinist. Brian, throw your boyfriend a freaking birthday party.
ohhh. i am just watching season three and thinking the same thing… O.O
Dancing the Sacred Wheel: A Journey through the Southern Sabbats
By Frances Billinghurst
TDM Publications, 2012
300 Pages
There is a certain style of writing about the various topics of witchcraft and magic that I look for when reading books about, well, Witchcraft and Magic, which is difficult to pinpoint exactly but I can tell you that several of the books I have been reading lately have it. It is something to do with how they make you think about the topic at hand, and how they provide you with further things to think about, or as I like to call it food for thought. It is important for not just books but podcasts as well.. .. but I digress.
I am very pleased to say that Dancing the Sacred Wheel by Frances Billinghurst also has this quality that I enjoy in good pagan themed books. Which is most excellent as it can always be tricky to review a book of someone that you kinda know. I met Frances way back in 2003 at a Pagan festival here in New Zealand, and needless to say we got on like a house on fire, in the pavilion of judgement, and at the table of dissension. *coughs*. There is now a seat of sarcasm, but that is a different story from a different Festival.
Dancing the Sacred Wheel is a book about the Pagan Seasonal Wheel as it is celebrated in South Australia, along with information about Aboriginal seasons for the different temperate climates of Australia. This should be interesting to anybody who practices in a country that is not England. I do not mean this to insult people from England, but instead to encourage those who have been asking ‘why do the seasons in the country where I live not fit the Pagan Seasonal Wheel I read about in all of these books?’, even if you live in a Northern Hemisphere country. This is because this book will give you a new perspective with which to perceive the seasons in the reader’s own country. Hell, I live in New Zealand, just to the east of Australia also in the Southern Hemisphere where we cast our circles anti-clockwise and have Christmas in the summer, just like Australia, and I gained a deeper understanding of how to honour the seasons where I live.
Frances is also careful about including both Southern Hemisphere and Northern Hemisphere dates for the Sabbats. In some ways it is a little ‘compare and contrast’ with an excellent explanation as to why we here in the southern hemisphere cast our circles starting in the east then north then west then south. It follows the path of the sun, as our sun rises in the east, like everywhere in the world, but then tracks north, not south.
What I like about Frances’ book is the combination of historical, mythological and traditional information about each season. It is well researched and referenced, which is engaging and interesting. It encourages the reader to celebrate and practice their craft, not just read about it. I also enjoyed the excellent referencing, so that if the reader is interested in any aspect of what Frances is writing about, finding further reading material can be done with a quick Google search, or by searching their library or online bookstore and from the bibliography at the back of the book. This is not something that you find very often in modern Pagan books… just saying.
As well as history, each Sabbat chapter has a section on mythology and traditions. There are examples of how Frances and her coven honour the season, and an example of what they do. This is not in the form of the infamous ‘Ritual Script’ as in other books, but done in a reflective style that the reader can gain inspiration from. Again this encourages the reader to actually do something rather than just read. Perhaps the subtitle for this book should be ‘The book that gets you to read and practice.’?
Intertwined in each chapter as you follow the season are several traditional myths, such as the Oak King and the Holly King, and the descent of the goddess. These lead into the section about inner work for each Sabbat and season, again encouraging the reader to actually do things. At the end of each chapter are correspondences for the relevant season which include colours, candles, scents, and items that are traditional to have on your altar for that season — a most helpful reference for the beginner and adept alike.
All of this combined in an excellent book becomes not just about the seasons as Frances and her coven celebrate them, but more about helping the reader to figure out the season where they live and the land they live in and how to honour and celebrate them.
I give this book Five cups of tea English Breakfast tea! and very worth the read no matter which hemisphere you are from.
You can purchase you copy from Frances’s website here
Hedgewitch III, Hare, Death Moth, Fox, Toad Wall Hanging!
Made in New Zealand by me your Urban Witch!
$150.00 NZD plus P&P
Two Wonderful Paintings one by Caroline Williams and the other by Krissy Wadek and a God and Goddess Wall Hangings that I Made.. all looking very awsome and sacred together.. *♥*
