The Holy Wild: A Heathen Bible for the Untamed Woman

With conviction, defiance, and a broad, inclusive definition of womanhood, Dulsky (Woman Most Wild) calls on women to reconnect with their wild, instinctual feminine power in this poetic yet practical guide of heathen rituals and observances. “We sprang from the Earth, and the Holy Wilds of nature are ancestral,” Dulsky writes as she addresses women as “priestesses” and calls on “the wild woman who is through making apologies for her own divinity” to “claim your heathen crown” and be validated in spiritual autonomy. Chapters connect women to this earth-bound heritage by drawing on five spiritual elements: earth (which Dulsky links to selfhood), water (fluidity, prayer), fire (transformation), air (love, gratitude), and ether (spirit). Each chapter contains pertinent rituals, incantations, dances, spells, poetic verses, and even wedding vows. Dulsky also presents enlightening stories of goddess archetypes—such as Freya, Brighid, Aphrodite, and Mary Magdalene—to hold up as examples for the basis of her rituals. Readers of all stripes will appreciate Dulsky’s call for women to release themselves from society’s judgment and dismissal, but this impassioned book will mostly appeal to witches and pagans seeking new avenues for ritual worship. (Sept.)