Seasons of a Magical Life

<b>An invitation to return to a simpler time of earth-based spirituality and ritual living through writings from a small forest-farm in the Appalachian Highlands.</b><p> This book looks at the agricultural year as a starting space for a deepening of earth-centered spirituality. It gives a set of backstories to ease the reader into a time between the pre-industrial era and the modern one into a place where the fast-moving stress of American life can be affected by a better connection not only to the natural world but to the elegant expression of the year as expressed through seasonal festivals and celebrations. <p> The chapters are broken into four seasons with the quarter days a highlight within each and feature simple skills that accompany each marker in the year. Author H. Byron Ballard offers advice on spiritual and physical immersion into the seasons that applies to readers from all areas: rural urban and suburban. <p> This is also a deeply practical book including insights into the following: <ul><li>Farming & gardening: composting manure soil preparation pests seed-saving</li><li>Food: cooking preserving foraging the summer kitchen mushrooms and mycelium</li><li>Fiber arts: knitting crocheting spinning weaving decorative cut-work and embroidery</li><li>Sewing: treadle machines electric machines hand sewing</li><li>Household crafts: candle-making soap-making broom-making sharpening tools</li><li>Health: medicines tending the dying death and death rituals</li><p> A glossary is included for any unfamiliar terms. </p></p></p></p>