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Earthwork is a word used to describe a constructed bank of dirt, often raised in ancient cultures as a means of defense. Earth Works is a book of essays and rituals for a time of deep cultural change, a shift that author Byron Ballard calls Tower Time. The first part of the book explores scenarios in these chaotic times and suggests possible reframing to understand the historic underpinnings and the long-term effects on both the planet and its inhabitants. The second part of the book--called Berms--consists of tried-and-true rituals and ceremonies for communities, small groups and individuals to improve resilience and face inevitable change with courage, consideration and humor. Ballard has decades of ritual experience and brings that understanding to the practical and esoteric considerations of making ceremony both personal and powerful. You will find ideas here and inspiration--and something like hope.
Natural Magic and Folkways from Those Who Call the Blue Ridge Mountains Home
The southern Appalachians are rich in folk magic and witchery. This book explores the region's customs and traditions for magical healing, luck, prosperity, scrying, and more. Author H. Byron Ballard--known as the village witch of Asheville--teaches you about the old ways and why they work, from dowsing to communicating with spirits.
Learn the deeper meaning of haint blue doors, magic hands for finding, and medicinal herbs and plants. Discover tips for creating tinctures and salves, attuning to the phases of the moon, interpreting omens, and other folkways passed down through the generations. Part cultural journey and part magical guide, this book uncovers the authentic traditions of one of North America's most spiritually vibrant regions
Your Hands-on, Back-to-Basics Guide to Building a Magical Practice
As if you're having face-to-face lessons on her porch, H. Byron Ballard introduces you to the ways of magic, answering vital questions about what it is, why it matters, and how to do it. She teaches the mechanics and foundational skills of practice, offering no-nonsense techniques that practitioners of any skill level or tradition can use.
Drawing from her many years as a practicing witch, Ballard demonstrates how to engage daily with the energy around you. She encourages you to experience magic with fresh eyes--whether you're a beginner or need to regain a beginner's mind. This book provides grounding exercises, shielding methods, healing magic, insight on witchcraft tools, and more. Ballard offers everything you need to live a full, enchanted life in our deliciously magical world.
Journey into the Wilderness Within and Around You
Through a series of guided meditations that lead you from one solstice to another and back again, H. Byron Ballard empowers you to journey into the uncharted and feral lands of your imagination, where you will connect to the primal mother--the Goddess. Ballard shows you how to leave your domesticated world and enter a place of wild worship and joy, a feral church unbound by dogma or liturgy.
Your spiritual pilgrimage will take you to places familiar and unknown, both internal and external. Framed as one big pathworking, this book guides your journey with a new meditation, plus a section to reflect on what you discovered, in every chapter. As you find your way to the Goddess, you will step into the darkness, reconnect with ancestors and various spirits, and emerge ready to live your fullest life.
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.
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.
This is also a deeply practical book, including insights into the following:
A glossary is included for any unfamiliar terms.
This is a saga both serious and ridiculous of how the author came to love her body and listen to it, even when it whispered nonsensical things. Embracing Willendorf: A Witch's Way of Loving Your Body to Health and Fitness is a kind of memoir, a story of walking and pondering, of thongs and tight Levis. And it is about transformation. About choosing to be healthier and achieving that through a wonderfully simple idea--that when we love our bodies, we will do what we need to do to nourish these exquisite and beautiful machines. Try out the tasty and healthy recipes in the back, then pick up a few rather naughty books from the suggested reading list. Because once you start loving your body, all sorts of interesting opportunities may present themselves. This book is your personal recipe with the ingredients for living a rich and vibrant life--and perhaps discovering your true self in the process. Embrace your life and your strong physical self. Embrace your Willendorf.
After years of pondering, Byron Ballard has finally written a primer for the kind of magic she practices. Driven to it by colleagues, friends, and students, writing this little book is an act of stubborn devotion to a fading culture. This deceptively simple system of folk magic has come down to modern Southern culture through the immigrants and natives who called these blue hills home. Written in an easily accessible style and filled with insights and stories, Staubs and Ditchwater is part memoir, part workbook - and an important contribution to the study of Appalachian folklore.
Sharing these practices and this beloved but fading culture has led me far afield, teaching and speaking. I've rambled from the bayous of Louisiana to the ruined hills of West Virginia, and from Memphis to Glastonbury in search of stories and materials and ways of doing. There are so many old ideas newly integrated into my personal practice and my teaching - enough to fill a book. And here it is. May you remember well and enjoy this next journey.
