The Ancient Ways: A Healing Year of Nature, Myths, and Folklore

Organized around the pagan wheel of the year, The Ancient Ways introduces readers to the natural rhythms that governed our forebears’ lives. Woven through with ancestral wisdom and folklore, it explores seasonal changes alongside time-honored traditions, celebrating solstices, equinoxes, and other milestones of the year. Discover a wealth of traditional lore from deities like Eostre, the goddess of the spring; or the Green Man, a personification of the wild; to festivals like Beltane, a summer fertility celebration; and Samhain, a precursor to modern Halloween. Hedge witch Seren Hawley-Plows grew up steeped in herbalism and pagan traditions and belongs to a community that reveres the natural world. In this stunning illustrated edition brought to life with folkloric woodcuts, Hawley-Plows teaches how age-old but oft-forgotten practices can help us feel grounded and reconnect with both nature and ourselves.