Book Review No. 30 - The Magic of Trees by Tess Whitehurst

Welcome! As it is a new year, I have a whole bunch new books that I want to get too. Yes, my husband has spoiled me and took me book shopping and then I order some more online. I have an addiction. I've also "committed" myself to reading 25 books this year, well that' the goal at least. I didn't read nearly as many books as I wanted last year, so I hope to remedy that in the next solar cycle.    I finished this book awhile ago and took some time to digest its contents. This is such a lovely book, full of a lot of great information. Tess Whitehurst's The Magic of Trees: A Guide to Their Sacred Wisdom & Metaphysical Properties is such a great resource into tree magic. Without a doubt, you can tell Whitehurst put a lot of work and energy into this collection.  

  First, this book has beautiful images images. I adore the black and white drawings of the trees and other nature elements. These clean, crisp images not only are great for reference but the are ascetically pleasing. At first glance, they remind me of images in an vintage fairy tale storybook my mom owned. Since I adored that tome, I immediately felt a fondness for this book.     The book is set up into very user-friendly sections. There is an opening orientation chapter, providing background on tree magic and how to use the book. This section is not drawn out, but does give the reader a nice platform for getting the most out of her well-written work. The next section is about the trees themselves, and Whitehurst covers a lot of different trees. Each tree has its own section, exploring many different aspect of the tree including symbolism, attributes, petitions, and magical correspondences to name a few. The back of the book has three appendices, which I appreciate in a resource material. These appendices help facilitate searching for a specific magical use the reader may want to explore, elemental correspondences and planetary correspondences.   If you have a magical predilection, I recommend this book for your library. I can see referencing this book before doing spellwork, ceremony or ritual, nature meditations and so much more. Since trees are a integral part of the many landscapes, incorporating them into spiritual practices is an ancient and time-honored tradition that you could bring into your own life easily with this book by your side.     That's all I have today, I'm off to go make a big cup of tea and put on a pair of thick socks.  Until next time, Jenny