Prophecy on the River: An Orisha Shaman's Journey in New Zealand

2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Best Book Finalist2020 Ashton Wylie Best Mind Body Spirit Book Awards: Best Book FinalistLights with no apparent source heating her back while she walks along a riverbank initiate American anthropologist Judith Hoch into a decades-long process of spiritual renewal. In this vividly written memoir Judith describes what happens when she and her husband struggle to restore newly-purchased New Zealand land to native forest. It quickly becomes a spiritual as well as ecological task-and proves far more difficult than she ever anticipated. In a rare meeting of the Afro-Cuban Lucumi and Aotearoa Māori cultures Judith uses skills learned as a student of Orisha divination and mediumship to delve into the tragic events that historically impacted the land as she seeks a way to heal it. Guided by her Miami-based padrino Ernesto Picardo and working with her Waitaha Māori friend Aroha Ropata Judith connects with the lands ancestors and the spiritual forces required for her ecological efforts to succeed.