Witch Wisdom for Magical Aging: Finding Your Power through the Changing Seasons

Description

* Presents four loving, feisty old witches, one for each season, who share earth-honoring wisdom, rituals, and spells to help you embrace your journey through the sacred latter half of life * Filled with magical recipes, inspiring ceremonies, playful activities, and meaningful meditations You are invited into the magical world of four loving, feisty old witches, one for each season, who share earth-honoring wisdom, rituals, and spells to help you embrace your journey through the sacred latter half of life. In the season of Winter, the earthy Root Witch reminds us that bodies are made for pleasure and that Winter is made for dreaming. She offers spells, rituals, and ceremonies to reframe your perspectives on aging and promote acceptance of your changing appearance. She also shares secret recipes for a healthy, happy body, focusing on preparations that help maintain and restore hair, skin, and bone. In Spring, the airy Winged Witch offers a witchy approach to spring cleaning, both in the traditional sense and in self-understanding and relationships. She shares recipes and rituals for jettisoning the dead past, discovering your own authentic style, adding magic to your clothes, and feathering your nest so it feels like home to your spirit. The fiery Summer Merwitch helps us to be more joyfully creative, with activities and wisdom to help overcome the obstacles that prevent us from fulfilling our creative dreams. She honors the senses, encourages us to embrace our sexuality, and gives us ways to express our fiery anger cleanly and powerfully. The watery Autumn Kitchen Witch shows us how to honor our harvests and our ancestors, how to make peace with death, and how to make every meal a celebration of life, with magical recipes and rituals that bring joy to the soul. The Kitchen Witch also explores several goddesses and wise old women from folklore who can offer templates for a rich and spiritualized maturity. Offering practical and enjoyable ways to make aging an empowering, magical, and transformative adventure, this book of spiritual guidance will help you love yourself through the aging process.

Cait Johnson is an author, counselor, teacher, playwright, performer, and witch. The author of six books, including Witch in the Kitchen and Celebrating the Great Mother, she trained with the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and has a private practice as an editor and intuitive counselor in New York's Hudson Valley.

"What a wise, wonderful, singing, shining book! Its embrace of aging is filled with practical as well as spiritual and emotional advice. And joy. There's no looking away from the difficulties of aging--just the opposite--but the joy of living and dying well is there on every page. Plus, Ania Aldrich's gorgeous paintings!" * RACHEL POLLACK, author of A Walk through the Forest of Souls * "What a marvelous book! Witch Wisdom for Magical Aging is sheer wisdom cloaked in love, humor, and glorious sensuality. Cait Johnson has written a book so desperately needed in this world, not only to dispel the myths of growing older but to celebrate its delicious secrets. Think you know what happens as we age? Think again. Read this beauty." * Alise Marie, author of The Beauty Witch's Secrets * "How comforting to be taken in hand--and heart--by these four wise witches with their ancient knowledge of the seasons and of our lives. If you have ever felt daunted by the challenges of aging, here you will find courage and inspiration, kindness and good counsel. Practical and lyrical, Cait Johnson's beautiful book is an invitation both to new adventure and timeless homecoming." * Elizabeth Cunningham, author of The Maeve Chronicles series * "In Witch Wisdom for Magical Aging, Cait Johnson covers an often-neglected topic, helping women to age in a healthy and magical way. And, since women are all different, she presents many different aspects of aging, using the four elements and their seasons as a backdrop. From practical advice, inspirational wisdom, and rituals and activities, there is something here for everyone, no matter what kind of witch you are. Most of all, Johnson encourages us all to find peace, acceptance, and joy in our older selves." * Alice Karlsdottir, author of Norse Goddess Magic * "Old age is lots more than crepey, creepy skin and wrinkles. As Cait Johnson tells us, the usually pejorative words 'crone' and 'hag' really mean 'crown' and 'holy.' When we follow the advice of the four witches of the seasons in this book, we can attain our own holy (and practical) wisdom. We can put on our own crowns. The guys say that 'getting old ain't for sissies.' Well, guys, witches are not sissies! We read this book, we grow, we get wiser and more beautiful, we live our holy lives." * Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D., author of Secret Lives and Finding New Goddesses * "When we women reach a 'certain age' there is often no one there to show us the next steps. Older women need an even older woman to illuminate the path ahead--and that is what Cait Johnson has done. Too often we are greeted by images and accounts of goddesses who are described as young, nubile, and objects of desire. It is refreshing to be reminded of the divinity within the hag (from the Greek hagios, 'holy'). This book would make a perfect gift at a croning rite or for any woman over the age of fifty or so, no matter the occasion. It would also make a delicious gift to yourself, whatever age you might be, with its many hints and advice for self-nurturance." * Ellen Evert Hopman, author of The Sacred Herbs of Samhain * "I learned so much from this wise, witty book of unexpected delights. Cait Johnson extends a generous invitation to journey from earthy practicalness to sublime mysteries. With loving guidance from the supernatural voices of the four witches who turn the Wheel of the Year, this book inspires us to imagine the dream of our elder selves." * Starr Goode, author of Sheela na gig * "This sorceress's brew contains the soulful warmth of a therapist, the thoughtful pedagogy of a beloved teacher, a poet's sensitivity to language's intricacies, and a feminist's clear-eyed truth and rebel yell. Visit and revisit these pages, not just for the wonderful recipes, rituals, and meditations but to spend more quality time in the company of Johnson's witches who, by book's end, feel like soul friends. Women of a certain age: feast on this book to feast on your life." * Lissa Kiernan, author of Two Faint Lines in the Violet * "Cait Johnson's words are like a broomstick ride into the enchantment of aging and its rich underground cave of Feminine Mysteries. This world needs the full power and presence of the crone with her medicine cabinet of earned wisdom, compassion, and paradoxes. Witch Wisdom for Magical Aging returns the aging woman to her noble throne. I look forward even more to becoming a crone after drinking in the power and insight in this book." * Maya Luna, creator of Deep Feminine Mystery School * "Witch Wisdom for Magical Aging offers an irreplaceable compendium of lifetested wisdom, straight from the hands of one of today's most powerful Wise Women. Blessed be you, Cait Johnson, for stirring up such a rare cauldron of delicious, inspiring, and practical delights!" * Annie Finch, author of The Poetry Witch Little Book of Spells * "Witch Wisdom for Magical Aging is a fabulous book that teaches real wisdom through fictional storytellers, adding a bit of whimsy to the mix. It is a perfect guide for those who want to embrace the magic of aging and the power of the Crone. This book is perfect for those new to the craft, as well as the seasoned witch stepping into the next incarnation of their magical self!" * Salicrow, author of The Path of Elemental Witchcraft *