The Green Witch’s Guide to Self-Care: Natural Spells, Rituals, and Remedies for Your Mind, Body, and Spirit

• Author: Autumn Willow
• Genre: Paranormal/New Age
• Publication Date: December 13, 2022
• Publisher: Rockridge Press

Thank you to NetGalley and Rockridge Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Nurture your mind and body with the power of natural magic. 

The green witch lives in harmony with the Earth, using elements of nature like plants, herbs, and crystals to grow their craft and strengthen their spirit. Uncover the link between green witchcraft and self-care with this collection of practices and spells that can help you cure everything from a headache to a heartache. Open this book today and start living a more magical life.

I was already looking forward to this book just based on the title, but honestly? The blurb doesn’t do this book justice at all. And I could tell that within minutes of starting to read this book.

Willow clearly knows her stuff, and starts out by detailing her own experiences, and how witchcraft relates to self-care in a world that often feels focused on keeping us going and being productive 24/7. One of the most important things she talks about in this section is the definition of self-care. It’s something that so many of us hear on a regular basis, but rather than just limiting self-care to mind, body, and spirit, she also expands it to include home and community. I liked that she included the systems that we are situated within, since imbalance in these areas should also be addressed in self-care. 

This isn’t the kind of book you have to read start to finish, although that is what I did in the interest of providing a review. Instead, you can read the section that serves you when you need to. There’s a part that explains what green witchcraft is, how to use it as self-care, and gives a quick summary of the various tools and ingredients that are used in green witchcraft. Then it’s onto the different practices.

One thing that I especially loved is the way the author consistently emphasizes that magic isn’t a quick fix. While the spells in the book are a great way to address various issues and practice self-care, there’s also hard work that goes into taking care of some of the other issues. If we’re talking about a headache, then the remedy offered in this book is the kind that’ll work without any extra assistance. But if we’re talking about anxiety, the author mentions how the remedies can assist the hard, mundane work of therapy. I love when a book like this merges the more spiritual treatments with the scientific ones to provide the most benefit to people. 

Speaking of benefit, there are so many great spells, rituals, and remedies in this book. They are made with ingredients that are relatively easy to source, and since green witches work with natural ingredients, the author also talks about growing your own herbs in a garden or window boxes. The idea of using natural ingredients, including those that we can grow ourselves. 

This is the kind of book that makes me want to start trying out spells immediately, and I love the down-to-earth and sensible tone of the author. But my favorite part of the book was at the end, and I noticed that she cited peer-reviewed sources to back up her claims throughout the book. This is definitely one of those high-quality books that I’ll be referring to many times in the future.