Experience the power of magical workings using items you created yourself. Utilize natural ingredients for the well-being of your community, home, and body. This comprehensive sourcebook shares old-world wisdom and contemporary approaches to living the hearth witch way, where spirituality nurtures an ecologically balanced life. (Llewellyn)
The TLDR Review
Pros
– Excellent reference book
– Great introduction to natural living
– Lots of recipes
Cons
– Formatting of some recipes
– Maybe not be detailed enough for more experienced practitioners
The Actual Review
In her introduction of ‘The Hearth Witch’s Compendium’, Anna Franklin states she wants to share the awareness and knowledge she has gained of the natural world through her decades long practice as a Hearth Witch, and boy, does she deliver.
This book is crammed with 500+ recipes ranging from wine, cider and beer making to making your own dyes using vegetables. In between all the recipes, she adds tidbits of experience and advice for incorporating a more natural way of living, whether you live a magical or non-magical life.
While the sheer number of recipes in this book is impressive, I feel I was familiar with some of them already, especially some found in Chapter 5 ‘The Witch’s Home’. There are a bunch of cleaning recipes in that chapter that quite honestly, I have found simply by Googling ‘homemade cleaning products’. I wouldn’t necessarily say this is a negative though, as if a natural cleaning product works, it works! It wouldn’t make much sense to change something that works well just to make it ‘unique’.
I found the Magical section, (especially the section on magical herbalism) fascinating. If you are an experienced practitioner of Magical work, you may find this section (and potentially other sections) too brief and straight to the point, but as someone in the beginning of their spiritual practice with Hearth Witchery, I found it to be perfect. General information covering lots of essential oils, herbs and even planetary influences to be the in the right amount of bite-size chunks.
I had an issue with the formatting of some of the recipes shared in here. They are written in block paragraphs, and I personally find a list/step-by-step format easier to process.
Having said all this, I love this book. It is an excellent reference book, and I’m not joking when I say my kitchen feels empty without it.
Personally, I am trying to incorporate more vegetarian food into my family’s meals, and this book only has vegetarian recipes. There are pretty much meal plans for every celebration on the Wheel of the Year. I plan on finally starting my own garden next year, and in there is even a chapter on magical gardening!
I’m also trying to cut down on my plastic consumption when it comes to personal hygiene, and there is an extensive amount of recipes for personal care and natural beauty. I don’t think I am quite brave enough to try the egg shampoo recipe, because as Anna Franklin warns, if your water is too hot, you will have scrambled eggs in your hair.
Despite this book being so full of recipes, it didn’t feel overwhelming to me. Anna Franklin emphasizes to make true changes in your life and to adopt natural living for the long term, your personal education will take time. There are small bits of advice throughout on things you can do to aid this.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in natural and/or magical living, the novice or experienced. As this is largely a reference book, if the magical aspect of this book doesn’t interest you, you will still have a lot to gain from the natural living sections of this book. I imagine everyone, including the experienced, still need to double check information from time to time, and this is an ideal book to help with that.
If you are interested in buying this book, you can do so using this link (this isn’t an affiliate link, I honestly don’t have any affiliates yet).
What books do you consider to be an essential for your home and/or kitchen? Let me know in the comments below!
As always, may your day be filled with cozy magic.
Blessed Be!
Amrita