Laura Perry - author, artist, creator

I've decided to tidy up my online presence a bit. With that in mind, I'm moving my blog from its longtime location here on Blogspot to my website . I'll be leaving the Blogspot site up - the book reviews and a few other posts, anyway. If you have any particular posts you'd like me to migrate over, please let me know. As always, I'll announce Minoan Path blog posts  on my personal blog as well, for those who prefer to keep up with only one blog. Time for new adventures...

Today I'm reviewing another great book by Elen Sentier  - you can check out my earlier review of Elen of the Ways as well. Today's review is of the follow-up book titled Following the Deer Trods . Both books are part of the Shaman Pathways series by Moon Books , the lovely people who were so kind as to let me publish Ariadne's Thread . This is the best kind of sequel:  Following the Deer Trods  picks up where Elen of the Ways  leaves off, giving the reader more information about this fascinating spiritual path. While Elen of the Ways  introduces the major concepts of native British shamanism, Following the Deer Trods  provides an in-depth set of practical exercises that guide the reader along the way to learning how to practice this tradition on a daily basis. Like the other Shaman Pathways titles, the book isn't terribly long but it is meaty, full of information and instructions that you can really use. The descriptions of the worlds and directions ...

Shamanism - that's the strange thing that people used to do a long time ago in Siberia, right? It doesn't exist any more, right? Wrong. If you're interested in shamanism, there are multiple ways to approach the practice, and books are more accessible for many folks than workshops and classes. If you're like me and your heart calls to a particular part of the world, perhaps one of the places your ancestors came from, then you might want to investigate the shamanic practice that is native to that region. What place calls to me? Britain (among others). What book would I recommend to anyone who wants to learn about British shamanism and test those waters? Elen of the Ways by Elen Sentier. Yes, that's a reindeer on the cover. Long ago, when the ice sheets covered much of Europe and the shamans worked their magic in caves and small settlements, there were reindeer in Britain (and there are once again, in the Cairngorms in Scotland !). Though Elen appears to pe...

Today I'm reviewing a lovely book that really captures the essence of the Goddess Spirituality movement and makes it meaningful for people - both women and men - in ordinary life. I enjoyed talking with the author on her radio show a few weeks back about Minoan spirituality and its egalitarian values. This book emphasizes similar values and gives a wide variety of interesting viewpoints. Mythology drives culture and hence politics and the economy, so in order to change politics and economics, we have to change the mythology. That is exactly what Karen Tate has been doing for nearly a decade now with her radio show Voices of the Sacred Feminine. Her new book, also titled Voices of the Sacred Feminine , is an anthology that collects many powerful thoughts about Goddess spirituality as a tool for implementing that change on a personal, community and world level. Some of the pieces are essays written for this collection and some are transcripts of interviews from the radio show...

I've just been introduced to a new goddess. Actually, she's a very old goddess, but one I had only heard of in passing, in discussions of Druid groves. Joanna van der Hoeven's marvelous little book, Pagan Portals Dancing with Nemeton a, explores the human relationship not only with this goddess but also with the concepts of sacred space and boundaries. Known as the Lady of the Sacred Grove, Nemetona teaches us that we are each a kind of living, moving sacred space, and the way we interact with other people, animals and the places we visit affects us (and them) at a very deep level. That's a truly profound concept that we often give lip service to in Pagan practice, but it underlies so much of the Pagan worldview, I think we would do well to focus more closely on it and learn to understand the implications of this interconnection more clearly. This book is a big step toward that end. Like the other titles in the Pagan Portals series, this is a fairly short book bu...

I'm delighted to announce that I have just begun a new, monthly blog series on the PaganSquare/Witches & Pagans website. I'll be blogging about Minoan spirituality in the modern world. My first post, about how I stumbled onto this particular path, is here: Walking the Minoan Path: Easier Said than Done I will offer a new post at the end of each month. If you have particular topics you'd like to see me address (related to Minoan paganism, of course) please let me know.

I have to admit, I haven’t been particularly intrigued by any of the books I’ve come across about Fairy Witchcraft. That is, until now.  This is not a fluffy, New Age, everything-is-goodness-and-light book, and for that I am grateful. Pagan Portals Fairy Witchcraft is a concise introduction to making a connection with the Fairy world and working with those energies in your personal magical practice. Like the other books in the Pagan Portals series, Fairy Witchcraft is a slim volume, but it is packed full of information. Ms. Daimler provides a great deal of background about folk belief in Fairies, particularly in the Celtic world, so the reader will understand that they are not the delicate, sweet, gossamer-winged creatures of Victorian fantasy. They are, in fact, ancient beings with a great deal of power who are not always friendly to humans. Working with them has its dangers, and Ms. Daimler makes that very clear. Ms. Daimler shares her own experiences with the Fairies as...