Spring 2018:

I love, love, love discovering this new set of Wheel of the Year books exist. I'm going to be picking these up one at a time, per holiday, as the year goes on and adding them all to my collection.

I was incredibly quite pleased the whole first third of the book is broken up into Old Ways and New. I love that the Old Ways section is, indeed, delved research into the references of spiritual practices for any people or rites related to this holy day through centuries. I love the clarity of some things not having an answer, or us still not being certain.

The invocation page was fun, as well, though I do wish there were some more crafts and recipes than those listed. ( )

Probably could have been half the length if the more repetitive parts had been eliminated.

I was hoping for more of a historical/anthropological overview in the "old ways" and "new ways" sections, so found those sections a bit lacking. The ideas for activities, rituals, meditations, etc. were pretty useful, but just scratched the surface (there were pages dedicated to games to play with eggs!). ( )

[b:Ostara Rituals Recipes Lore for the Spring Equinox Paperback] and [b:Beltane Rituals Recipes and Lore for May Day|22351155|Beltane Rituals, Recipes, and Lore for May Day|Llewellyn Publications|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405868213s/22351155.jpg|41758027] are part of Llewellyn Publications new Sabbat Essentials series. They are the Martha Stewart of sabbat books, containing histories, modern celebrations, ritual ideas, divinations and spells, recipes, decorations, and correspondences. Each book is written by a different author, so each brings something a little different to the table, but they conform to Llewellyn's format.

The illustrations in both books are absolutely gorgeous. The ritual ideas are sparse, but good, in that they have ideas for solitaries and groups. The recipes seem pretty tasty and definitely suit the sabbats.

I think these books are good for beginners looking for an overview and for old-timers who are looking for something a bit more to spice up their celebrations. My one caution is that I feel as if the spirituality of the sabbats is missing from these books--and maybe it has to be, as they're targeted toward the entire neo-pagan community and not limited to one path. If you aren't familiar with a spiritual path you shouldn't count on this series to give you that familiarity.

(Provided by publisher) ( )

While mostly aimed at Wiccans- as are the books in this series I've read thus far- this book does have many ideas for celebrating the Spring Equinox, especially the recipes and crafts.

The themes of the holiday, in this book, are balance and new beginnings- two concepts that have a lot of resonance. Integrating them into a yearly celebration makes sense; I will be curious to find out of the Autumn Equinox features balance and endings.

It, like the other books, has a lot of materiel from which one can pick and choose what is most pertinent, and what resounds best with one's own holiday traditions. ( )