Friday, 23 February 2018

Book Review: Divining with Animal Guides

A new book called Divining with Animal Guides: Answers from the World at Hand is officially launched today. I was lucky enough to read a copy before it reached shops and it resonated with me.

It starts with a personal story of an event that happened to author Hearth Moon Rising, of encountering a dangerous wildcat and gaining a message that experience.

I am lucky that I have never encountered a really dangerous wild animal - at least nothing more dangerous than a swan with attitude that tried to mug me for my sandwiches. However, I have divined meanings from creatures I have seen or have crossed my path when out in the countryside.

Once, I was at a junction in a pathway across a meadow and unsure which way to go. At that point a hare ran out of a hedgerow and sat for a moment in the middle of one path. It stared at me, then turned and ran back into the hedge. I took it as a message to use the other path - and it was the right choice.

Divining with Animal Guides is full of stories like the one with the wildcat or my hare. It teaches ways of using both intuition and knowledge to get messages from animals and offers excellent research and practical guidance.

Publisher Moon Books says about Divining with Animal Guides on its website:
A chance encounter with a shy or beautiful animal is an auspicious sign, but a sign of what? Divining with Animal Guides explores animal divination from a process perspective rather than providing generic lists of meanings. Nine animals are given in-depth treatment, many more are mentioned in passing, and all are presented with the aim of developing tools for personal insight. You will be encouraged to examine symbolic and metaphoric encounters as well as physical ones, making the material useful in both urban and wilderness settings.
The nine animals covered in depth are cat, alligator, horse, bee, scorpion, raven, woodpecker, deer and crane. I might be unlikely to encounter an alligator in England, but that really isn't the point. They are just examples and the techniques taught can be used to find meaning from any creature you spot, whether in real life, in a dream or in a meditation or shamanic journey.

Author Hearth Moon Rising's first book was Invoking Animal Magic. You can view Divining with Animal Guides on Amazon and on the Moon Books website.

Links and previous related posts
http://www.moon-books.net/books/divining-with-animal-guides
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2013/08/review-invoking-animal-magic-for-pagan.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/12/bluebirds-dreams-and-spirit-animals.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2017/03/review-pagan-portals-animal-magic.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2013/02/review-aubrys-dog-power-animals-in.html

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