Runebound (The Last Rune of Rungardvik Book 1) by Alessa M. Norwen; Evocative Historical Fantasy About a Kingdom in the Crossroads of Great Spiritual Change

 

Runebound (The Last Rune of Rungardvik Book 1) by Alessa M. Norwen; Evocative Historical Fantasy About a Kingdom in the Crossroads of Great Spiritual Change

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: Alessa M. Norwen’s evocative Historical Fantasy Runebound, the first book in her The Last Rune of Rungardvik series is about a kingdom caught in the crossroads of great change. Change in religion, change in alliances, change in expected gender and social roles, and a change in conflict and diplomatic relationships between separate kingdoms.

Milena, Princess of Mecklenburg, is arranged to marry Heinrich of Lundberg of the Saxon House of Welf to secure Mecklenburg's standing within the Holy Roman Empire. She is not happy about being sold and given away like a bargaining chip. 

Milena fights her own way. Despite the kingdom being Christian, Milena secretly studies the old Pagan religion and practices intuitive and clairvoyant abilities. She uses her secret practice to fight against this arrangement and to carve her own path.

Milena is a character who strives to find her own agency and independence despite this Christian upbringing which tells her that she should be submissive to male authority like her father, future husband, and the Church. It's a man's world and Milena is told that she has no choice but to accept it.

As previously mentioned Runebound features a kingdom that is on the crossroads of change. Mecklenburg in Pomerania was largely pagan and had several small enclaves with chieftains. Milena's mother, Woizlava was the descendant of pagan chieftains and still practices the old ways though she outwardly identifies as a Christian. 

Her husband, Milena's father Pribislav is a Christian and expects his family to follow suit. However though he holds the Church in high esteem, his conversion has less to do with spiritual reasons and more to do with pragmatism. The Holy Roman Empire is a formidable force that is expanding. Pribislav is simply backing the right horse and siding with the winner.

Milena also recognizes this division through two people in charge of her education: Bishop Anselm, head of the church and Pribislav’s spiritual advisor and Dobrawa, Woizlava’s midwife who trained her in the pagan arts in secret and is now doing the same to Milena. These two represent the clashing faiths that surround the story because unlike Melania’s parents who had to compromise who they were, Anselm and Dobrawa will not.

Bishop Anselm is a conniving manipulator who uses the fear of God as a weapon to maintain his authority. He is the type of person that would thrive in modern day as the living embodiment of the Christian hypocrisy that would order murder, rape, and genocide on anyone and throw Biblical buzz words and Apocalyptic terms around to make it justifiable. Anselm uses threats, violence, intimidation, abuse, spies, and at one point arson to force his authority.

Anselm is a prominent advisor that keeps Milena at a distance. He knows that she is a threat to him with her intelligence, intuition, and strong will. He stresses the Biblical passages which state women should be subservient to men and that they are the bearers of original sin so Milena’s observation could be considered questionable even potentially Satanic. As long as she is packed away and married off, he is free to dominate Pribislav and rule Mecklenburg from behind the throne.

While Anselm uses Christian doctrine to diminish Milena’s presence, Dobrawa encourages her. Instead of dogmatism directed on behalf of a male God, she tells the princess stories about ancient gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines from Slavic Mythology (Those who are interested in mythologies from around the world will like this beginner's introduction to figures like Perun, Veles, Rod, Mokosh, Morana, Chernabog, The Firebird, and Baba Yagga). 

Dobrawa guides Milena through visualizations where she displays precognitive abilities. Milena is gifted runes that serve as touchstones to communicate with the deities and spirits around her. Instead of telling her to be submissive, Dobrawa inspires her to maintain her own strength and leadership skills.

Milena is able to retain a willful presence despite attempts to censor or stifle her. She challenges an arranged marriage without her consent. Then when the situation becomes dire and marriage veers towards inevitable, she decides that even if she has to get married, she is going to give her future husband a hell of a time. He won't have even the slightest notion that he can control her.

Murder Under Redwood Moon by Sherri Dodd; A Realistic Mystery Thriller Starring a Modern Witch

 Murder Under Redwood Moon by Sherri Dodd; A Realistic Mystery Thriller Starring a Modern Witch

By Julie Sara Porter

Spoilers: Sherri Dodd’s murder mystery, Murder Under Redwood Moon is a Supernatural Murder Mystery that doesn’t feel like one. Many Supernatural Murder Mysteries that star witches or similar people, for lack of a better term, Harry Potter the book. They depict witches using superpowers like clairvoyancy, precognition, telekinesis and often depicts them going against paranormal characters like other witches, ghosts, demons, vampires and the like. The emphasis is less on mystery and more on the fantasy-like setting in which they live. Muder Under a Redwood Moon is a realistic Murder Mystery that happens to star a witch.

Arista lives in Boulder Creek, California near her Aunt Bethie who raised her and works at a New Age shop called Earth and Ocean. A former high school acquaintance, Michelle is missing and later her body is found. She has been murdered so Arista, Bethie, Arista’s best friend Maddie, boyfriend Shane and their other friends try to find out what happened to her. Could the new Goth couple, Jaxon and Yelena have anything to do with it? How does this correlate to another missing woman? Why is there a strange connection to Arista’s own past and those of her missing parents?

Murder Under a Redwood Moon is the closest many fiction writers can get to portraying what it’s like to be a witch in the real world. They may have different rituals, traditions, and invoke the names of gods, goddesses, or an unnamed deity. But the magic is very understated and not fanciful. It is based not on amazing magical things physically happening but on the power of belief over what witches can do. 

We don’t see magic spells work except in situations that could be interpreted as magical or mundane. Arista has flashes of insight that could be examples of psychic powers but could just as easily be signs of her being a good judge of character. There are communications with the dead mostly via Ouija board, but they are not set up as unspeakable demonic horror. It's depicted as a ritual to cleanse the mind of confusion and hopefully get some solid leads and answers. 

When Arista and her aunt chant to their gods, it’s treated like prayer, something that they believe in but is not noticeable by anyone else. It's a means to open their mind to possibilities and release tension during stressful and tense times. When they use magical objects like crystals and Tarot cards, the only power is what they put into them through their belief and intentions. 

The protagonists’ Pagan path is portrayed authentically and so is the antagonists’ path. In many Occult/Supernatural Based Mysteries, the antagonist is often something or someone magical. It could be a demon, a more powerful witch or wizard, or another fantastic creature that defies expectation. Here they are human, all too human. They have a sick perverted mind over how they think that the world should be and who they have to hurt to make it happen. 

The opening chapter which is a flashback to Arista’s childhood shows the kind of enemy the characters are stacked against. Someone who will hurt anyone, even those close to them, if it means their goals are met. It’s an all too real action, one we are exposed to every day through the myriad of true crime stories involving people with destructive violent impulses, no respect for those around them, and an outlook that dehumanizes their victims. 

Murder Under Redwood Moon is not the type of Supernatural Mystery that one reads for escape. It is the type that one reads when they want to find a path that helps them face the darkness that surrounds them every day.

Red Gifts in The Garden of Stones: A Tale of Grief and Ghosts and One Small Dog by P.A. Swanborough; Mystical and Relatable Novel About Mothers and Daughters

 Red Gifts in The Garden of Stones: A Tale of Grief and Ghosts and One Small Dog by P.A. Swanborough; Mystical and Relatable Novel About Mothers and Daughters

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also available on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: I come from a family of mostly women with my mother, myself, and four other sisters as well as two brothers. So I understand what conflicts between mothers and daughters are like. That's probably why P.A. Swanborough’s book, Red Gifts in The Garden of Stones: A Tale of Grief and Ghosts and One Small Dog resonates so much with me. It's about four generations of mothers and daughters who get on one another's nerves but still love each other.

The Coombe Family that resides in Ty Merched (The Women's House) are the type of family that invites suspicious rumors and haunting stories from the other residents in the town of Swansea, Wales. There is just something odd and peculiar about them. 

 Lizzie, the matriarch is celebrating her 100th birthday and she spends most of her time talking to the ghosts that live around her house. Her daughter, Myfanwy feels things strongly and is barely hiding an explosive temper. Myfanwy’s daughter, Sarah Maud practically lives in an alcoholic stupor and haunts the local pub. Sarah Maud’s daughter, Jenner wanders through the woods on endless treks and is fascinated by ancient powers that her ancestors might have had. 

The Coombe women have a love-hate relationship that threatens to explode during the week of Lizzie's birthday when Jenner goes missing, old lovers are reunited, pastor Rev. Morgan incites his flock against the Coombes, a group of hippies and other outsiders show up and befriend the family, a friendly dog appears as a guide, and the family ghosts are begging to be heard by the living.

Red Gifts in the Garden of Stones treads a thin line between Contemporary Fantasy and Historical Fiction/Reality. It describes the real conflicts of a family of women in the late 1960’s in rural Wales but there is always a poetic mystical sense of the other world in the background.

At the forefront, we are given a story of four generations of mothers and daughters who vie with each other and the society around them. These are women who alternate between loving and irritating each other.

Lizzie is in mourning for her late husband and family members. Because of her deep grief, she finds it hard to be emotionally close to the living, often creating friction between herself and her descendants. One could see her behavior as signs of Alzheimer's or dementia but there is just as much evidence that she hangs onto those old memories of her ancestors for emotional reasons. The present is too difficult to live with so she prefers the past and willingly withdraws from those around her.

Lizzie's behavior has been going on since her daughter Myfanwy was very young so naturally she would be bitter and resentful. She is caught between her distant mother and troubled daughter and granddaughter. She is someone who may have had dreams of getting away but family responsibilities tied her down. Now she is stuck at Ty Merched looking after a barely functioning family and becoming more resentful. She too feels abandoned by the man who left her and Sarah Maud and is isolated from the community that spreads rumors about her behind her back and sometimes to her face. 

To face the world around her, Myfanwy barely bites back sardonic comments and expressions and a rising temper that strikes back at everyone else in ire.

Of all of the family members, Myfanwy is the one who has the most potential to one day snap and commit violence, like a vengeance goddess raining her wrath on those who would hurt her and her family.

If Myfanwy reacts in outward anger, Sarah Maud does so inwardly. She isn't a potential danger to anyone but herself. Like her mother and grandmother, she too had been abandoned by the man that impregnated her. Even worse, he was a prominent towns member who refused to acknowledge his one-time mistress and illegitimate daughter. So Sarah Maud lives every day in the same town as the father of her child who is well known but ignores her. She lives with a constant reminder of a moment of youthful indiscretion and weakness which became a lifetime of regret. 

Sarah Maud is practically the living embodiment of a wailing ghost. She drowns her sorrows in alcohol and takes to her bed to escape sleep. She retreats into Depression like her mother does to her rages and grandmother does to her memories.

The fourth member of their family, Jenner, is also a product of this difficult environment of three older women who are in their own worlds. Since Jenner finds no comfort at home with a melancholic mother, choleric grandmother, and nostalgic great-grandmother, she has often had to rely on herself. This is an upbringing that she takes all too easily to heart.

Jenner does what her antecedents are too afraid or too tied down to: she leaves Swansea. She goes on long nature walks, sometimes for hours and even days on end. On one of those trips, she is accompanied by a small dog called, originally enough, Smalldog. Her trips are a way of distancing herself from the problems at home and give her a chance to get away from it all, even if temporarily. Her connection to nature gives her the emotional connections that her family cannot provide.

As striking as their unhappiness is, the Coombes’ loyalty resonates just as strongly. There are moments where the character's love for each other is clearly visible. Lizzie defends Jenner in front of a nosy Rev. Morgan. Myfanwy and Lizzie hover over a bed ridden Sarah Maud. Myfanwy barely restrains a clenched fist as she hears a hate filled speech directed at her family particularly her mother and daughter. 

The older women realize many of their flaws in parenting led to the moment when Jenner goes missing and vow to be better people, which they take to the letter. This is a family that are experts in supporting each other and driving each other crazy. Anyone who is a mother or a daughter can certainly relate to the “I love you, even if I don't always like you” mindset.

There are other traces of the real world of the 1960’s around them. A group of hippies arrive and take some of the weird labels often given to the women of Ty Merched. In a case of one outsider group bonding with another, they befriend the Coombes to the point that Sarah Maud in particular bonds with one of them, hovering close to a romance.

The status and roles of women have changed, particularly as we see Jenner. Unlike her older relatives, she isn't contented to stay where she is and is more self-assured when it comes to dealing with men. She won't be caught up in a haze of romantic nostalgia, rage, or despair when a relationship ends. She will just move on and forward.

One of the more humorous anecdotes in this book is the Swansea residents' reaction to the historic Moon Landing. A world shaking news event may be important to most people, but not them. It barely gets a mention in the book, just a non sequitur sentence solely to say when this book is specifically set. It has that rural town attitude in which world events sometimes are seen as not as important as the events around them. “Forget that Armstrong fellow. Did you hear what Lizzie Coombe did yesterday?! That's the real scoop!!”

That realistic view of small town life doesn't just play into their interest in local gossip but also in how easily mob mentality takes hold especially when influenced by religious figures. Rev. Morgan, the latest in a long family line of pastors, is particularly influential towards his parishioners. One of his favorite topics is suspicions towards the Coombe Family. 

Morgan creates dissent within his flock and drops hints here and there that the four women are witches and highlights the strange things that happen around them. The appearance of a dead body and the women's history of missing men provide enough fuel for Morgan's accusations. Sure enough he creates enough kindling of hatred and judgment to set all of Wales on fire.

The religious intolerance to witches isn't the only supernatural trait in this book and that's where the poetic mysticism comes in. While the forefront of Red Gifts in The Garden of Stones is in the real world, there is a more metaphysical element in the background, one that is firmly entrenched into the Old World of Welsh Mythology and Pagan practices.

There are a lot of descriptions of mist and grayness making the Reader instinctively feel haunted. The characters, particularly Jenner’s, connection to nature calls to mind Wicca priestesses or early witches who meet in the woods and pay reverence to nature in their spells. This is a world that may be approaching modern times but hasn't lost its sense of the ancient world.

What is particularly compelling about the supernatural events in the book is how anticlimactic most of them are and how they can easily be seen with a more scientific explanation at least by the Reader. Jenner’s dog, Smalldog, could be a lovable spirit guide leading her on her solitary journeys but it could just as easily be a friendly stray dog who found a new human friend. There is a mysterious woman, Blodeuwedd, who appears in and out of the book and who could be a friendly but reclusive neighbor, a ghost, or a character from Welsh Mythology helping the mortals who still believe in her and her kind. 

What about those ghosts Lizzie talks to? We read her conversations with them but are they real? Are they proof that Lizzie and the rest of her family have clairvoyant abilities or are they signs of dementia or an emotional desire to live in the past? What are we to make of some of the events prophetic, synchronicity, or coincidence? Even though we are given some theories, ultimately we are left to make our own conclusions.

One of the strongest links with Paganism is that this is a book which is led entirely by women. The fact that this book has a large cast of women of different ages and has significant ties to paganism is not a coincidence. The four Coombe Women reflect the different stages of the Triple Goddess which is a strong belief in modern Pagan movements and was often told in myths and legends as well.

Jenner is the Maiden, innocent, virginal, adventurous, reckless, naive, emotional, immature at times, and always ready to move ahead and forward in life

Together Sarah Maud and Myfanwy form different aspects of the Mother. Sarah Maud parallels the Nymph side, sensual, earthy, existing for physical pleasures, melancholic, self-centered at times, driven by passion, romance, and emotion.

Myfanwy reflects the Mother, warrior, protector, nurturer, something of a martyr complex, temperamental, combative when necessary, and choleric

Last but not least Lizzie is the embodiment of the Crone, wise, experienced, resigned, nostalgic, family leader, filled with sage advice, guide and has seen it all. They embody and are the Goddess.

Red Gifts in The Garden of Stones is a book that is very meditative and lyrical but at the same time relatable and contemporary. It reflects a poetic dream-like world of spirits, magic, and ancient traditions but also faces a reality of addiction, abandonment, grief, and intergenerational conflicts. It doesn't fit nearly into any one particular category or genre so much that it crosses them and opens a veil between reality and fantasy. 

Holiday Classics Corner: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum; A Very Pagan Holiday Reading Tradition

Holiday Classics Corner: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum; A Very Pagan Holiday Reading Tradition

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Every Holiday, we all have traditions we do every year or it just doesn't seem right. There are those favorite decorations that we put up in the same places. The movie or cartoon special we watch every year even though we know the words by heart. Maybe that favorite place we go filled with lights, songs, and familiar characters that was cute when we were younger and is now a little embarrassing but by God that inner child still has fun and at least for a few minutes still believes. Well, I have favorite holiday traditions too. Favorite reading traditions. There are two books that I read every year without fail.

This is favorite Holiday Reading Tradition #1: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum. While Baum’s OZ books take the lion's share of credit for Baum's brilliant and original journeys into a fantasy world, his not-as-well known book, Life and Adventures of Santa Claus also deserves that distinction as well. (See my previous entry Forgotten Favorites: The Fairy Rebel by Lynne Reid Banks about the difficulties when one book or series by an author is so well known that their other works, which are often equal or better in quality, are overlooked.) The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus offers rich details to the Santa Claus Story but most importantly delivers a unique pantheon that hovers close to Pagan deities and concepts, so close that many Pagans have claimed this work as their Yule tradition. (It is to many Wiccans what A Charlie Brown Christmas is to many Christians. It explains Pagan beliefs in a way that is informative and engaging and shows what the Holidays are about without being too maudlin or preachy.)


The opening describes a ritual in which The Great Ak, the Master Woodsman of the World and his companion Queen Zurline, the Fairy Queen, in which they drink from the same Golden Chalice. This ritual resembles the Great Rite in which the Goddess and God drink from a Chalice to show their sexual intimacy. Not to mention the Great Ak's horned helmet, long beard, mastery over the forests, leadership of the Immortals, and home in the Forest of Burzee is intentionally similar to various Pagan gods like Cernunnos, the Celtic god of the Woods and Odin, the King of the Norse gods and God of Wisdom. The beautiful Queen Zurline guards the Fairies similar to Danu, the Celtic Mother Goddess (whose Fairies are called Tuatha de Danann, Children of Danu.) Like Odin’s wife, Frigg, Zurline influences the sterner Great Ak with a gentle reprimand. The two share a duality as leaders as many who follow Wicca honor the God and Goddess equally.


While it is uncertain how familiar Baum was with Paganism and the organized tradition of Wicca was not officially established until Gerald Gardner brought it to light in the 1930’s and ‘40’s. (It wasn't made an official religion in the U.K. until after laws against witchcraft were repealed in 1951 and then didn't enter the U.S. in large doses until the 1960’s with the Hippie and New Age movements.) Gardner claimed he learned the tradition from an older woman and many of the Celtic, Norse, Native American, and Greco-Roman myths were familiar to many, including Baum, throughout the 19th and 20th century. Many thinkers and authors such as Henry David Thoreau and the Romantic poets wrote of these legends as well as a deep connection to nature through books and poetry in ways that were reverent and almost worshipful.

Baum was also known to be a strong supporter of women's suffrage as his mother-in-law was an ardent suffragist. Keep in mind the major heroes and leaders in his OZ books are all female such as Dorothy, The Witches notably Glinda the Good, and Ozma, ruler of OZ and are proven to be strong, courageous, and capable. (While many of the male characters are often found wanting like the Wizard who starts out as a con artist or Dorothy's friends who believe they lack a heart, brain, and courage but in reality lack self-esteem and awareness they already have those things.) So it's not out of the realm of possibility for Baum to become familiar with what would later be identified as Wicca in an early form and certainly believable that he might have conceived of writing about a world that was receptive to Pagan philosophies without his being aware of it.


One of the strongest Pagan concepts the Baum book explores is the concept of pantheism, that spirits reside in all of nature. Besides the Great Ak and Queen Zurline, there is Kern, the Master Husbandman of the World who oversees grain, farmlands, and domesticated creatures, Bo, Master Mariner of the World, who cares for the Seas, the Queen of the Water Sprites, the King of the Sleep Fays, the Gnome King, King of the Sound Imps, the King of the Wind Demons, King of the Light Fays, Peter Knook, King of the Knooks, Guardians of the Animals, and the King of the Ryls, Guardians of Flowers. Each spirit has their function and aid the world in their many tasks. The equally excellent 1986 Rankin-Bass special (which incidentally was the duo's final stop motion animated holiday special) presents an indelible image during the opening when the various Immortals arrive beautifully individualized to the haunting song, “Ora e Sempre (Immortality).” The song reflects the life of an immortal, never aging or changing “'til the last trumpet sounds/On the first crack of doom.”

The link between the Immortal Spirit World and the Mortal Human World is provided by Santa Claus, who like many heroes in myths and legends is led by the Immortals who act as Spirit Guides. His connections with Immortal magic turn Claus from ordinary human to folk hero.

Baum takes the folk hero of Santa Claus and gives him a back story rich in detail and explanation.
Baum tells of the figure’s birth and abandonment in the Forest of Burzee, a magical forest filled with sentient creatures and immortal beings. The infant is found by the Great Ak but is nurtured by Necile, a lovely nymph who is bored by an immortal life of little emotion. While Necile technically breaks the Great Ak's Law that Mortal Humans Are Not Allowed to Remain in Burzee, he relents and lets Necile raise the infant. (His name Claus, short for Neclaus, means “Necile's Little One.”) A moving passage illustrates how beautiful this book is describing a magical world that is fully aware of the darkness in the real world. It shows how difficult it is for Immortals and Mortals to coexist. The Ak and Necile sadly recall how Claus’ feelings for Necile will change the older he gets and she doesn't get. Claus thinks of Necile as a mother as an infant, then a sister as a youth, then a daughter as an adult, then a granddaughter as a senior all while Necile never ages.

As a child, Claus is sheltered by Necile and the Immortals in relative peace and ignorance. However, The Great Ak is aware that Claus is not filling his potential as a mortal. So he tells him the truth and shows him the human world of poverty, illness, war, mercantilism, and eventual death.

Claus is moved particularly when he sees the faces of children prematurely aged by poverty. So he decides to settle in the Laughing Valley of Hohaho (Ho Ho Ho, get it?) and make his life’s mission to make children happy. As Joseph Campbell showed us, The Great Ak takes Claus down a Road of Trials in the Mortal World where he receives his Call to Adventure to make children happy and become the generous gift giver of Legend.

All of the details of the Santa Claus Mythos are present and are provided with imaginative explanations on how they began. The first toy Claus makes is a wooden figure based on his pet cat, Blinkie (and were colored by the Ryls, this book's answer to the Elves). After he gives the toy cat to Weekum, a little boy, he delivers toy cats to other children seeing how happy the toys made them feel. Like many budding entrepreneurs, Claus also learns to diversify his brand by creating other toys such as a doll based on Necile for Bessie Blithesome, a rich lord's daughter (proving the ideal that children are children whether they live “in a cottage or a palace”) and a baby doll for Mayrie, a nervous poor girl who accidentally breaks the toy cat Claus gave her.


Other details are given brilliant attention and explanation. The reindeer? Provided by Peter Knook who also gives Claus magic acorns to make the reindeer fly. (But only on Christmas Eve which is for the good becauses as Claus’ fame spreads to all children, desires for his toys increase as well.) The stockings? They are “hung by the chimney with care” by four children who dry their wet and cold clothes. Claus realizes what a time saver it is and the children share that secret with others. The tree? Claus sets a tree freshly decorated with candles and ornaments for a group of poor children who live in an area without trees (perhaps the city slums).

Even the name Santa Claus gets an interesting reinvention as the children believe that if Claus could magically travel to different houses in one night, then he must have the powers of a Saint. While this adheres slightly to Christianity as does the name Christmas itself, neither terms are explored much for their religious contexts. This suggests that these terms are frames of reference from a world that is familiar with them on a cultural level.

Fortunately, one piece of the Santa Mythos is left out: The Naughty and Nice List. The book explains that Claus realizes that kids are kids and will mess up and shouldn't be punished for bad behavior. It helps in this world that children's bad behavior is often influenced by the Awgwas, a group of dark Immortal creatures that cause children to bad things. The Awgwas also cause friction in Claus’ trips by stealing the gifts and kidnapping Santa Claus. The troubles between the Awgwas and Claus culminates in a battle between the Awgwas and Claus's Immortal friends. The battle is given short shrift but shows the contrast between Claus’ mortal vulnerability who is incapacitated through the battle and the Immortals such as The Great Ak and Queen Zurline who are able to carry the day with their magic and powerful weapons like the Great Ak's ax which delivers a definite strike against his enemies.

Claus also transcends his mortality as some who follow Pagan philosophies believe many heroes and legendary figures did (such as King Arthur, Gilgamesh, Hercules, and others)
As he lies dying, the Immortals bestow the “Mantle of Immortality” on him so he can continue his mission to bring happiness to children. So he continues to live on in deeds, stories, and song.
Claus is also similar to the Holly and Oak Kings of Wiccan lore. Every year the Oak King surrenders his rule to the Holly King during Winter Solstice. The Holly King does the same for the Oak King during the Summer Solstice. Some believe that the two battle each other for dominance. Others believe that they are one in the same and the one must become the other (a reincarnation.) Like them the mortal Claus must die so he can be reborn and transcend into the immortal Santa Claus.


While I explored the Pagan connection to The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus in great detail, other Readers will find something to love in this book. Christian Readers will perhaps enjoy reading about a character who exhibits the Christian principles of charity, faith, and “doing unto others what you would have done unto you.” (The Golden rule, a basic principle applied to all faiths and beliefs whether spiritual or secular.) Readers of other faiths and secular Readers will perhaps enjoy the dissection of a legend and the detailed back story that Baum gives to the legendary figure. Above all, any Reader will find it a beautiful enchanting story that will lighten up any Holiday Season.

New Book Alert: Resurrecting Cybele by Jenifer Mohammed; A Brilliant Satire About the Dangers of Cults and the God(dess) Delusion

New Book Alert: Resurrecting Cybele by Jenifer Mohammed; A Brilliant Satire About the Dangers of Cults and the God(dess) Delusion

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: From Charles Manson's Family to Nixivm, cults are a scary bunch. They are mesmerizing, seductive, and incredibly violent. They may start with good intentions to heal the world and teach others. However, the members and leaders get caught up in the delusion that they have a direct pipeline to God and discover the road to Hell (or their version) is paved with said intentions. The weak willed followers under them become susceptible to filling out their most dangerous violent and sexual urges and then the trouble really begins. Jenifer Mohammed's insightful novel, Resurrecting Cybele, is a thought provoking look at the dangers cult produce from their Genesis to their Revelation. This is what Paulo Coelho's Brida and The Witch of Portobello would be like if they were written in a more cynical manner.

Cybele Moondragon and her best friend, Janus Styx are bored with preparing their master's theses, concerned about the state of the world heading towards violence and prejudice, and short of money so they do what any bright idealistic cash poor young adult would do in such circumstances: create their own culture of goddess worshipers.




The cult is created to worship the Phrygian nature and Mother Goddess, Cybele and pull the world out of its patriarchal destruction or at least that's Cybele's intention. Mohammed wrote a memorable deeply flawed protagonist. She sells New Age trinkets like crystals, herbs, and amulets that she hopes will empower every recruit. She also leads courses that are variations of yoga which will lead followers to communicate and meditate to the Goddess. Like those who began religions before her, Cybele sees a need and aspires to fill it.




Which is the opposite of the intentions in Janus her associate. Mohammad cleverly brings out the contrast in the two leaders and their intentions towards the cult and their followers. Besides the fact that Janus has one of those names to run away from really fast because he is named after the Roman two-faced god, Janus is also a psychiatric counselor who could probably use some counseling himself. He works at a soup kitchen but sees it's residents as vermin particularly four dumb guys who serve as Janus’ lackeys that do whatever he forces them to like playing pranks on an ex boyfriend. It becomes clear to the Reader though not to Cybele that Janus sees a financial benefit to heading a cult as well as a lot of gullible people that he can use to do his bidding.




While Resurrecting Cybele is a book that takes a strong look at the dangers of cult worship, it also has time to project other emotions. It also provides its Readers with an underwritten triangle between Cybele, Janus, and Gabriel, an investigative reporter turned administrative assistant for the cult. The triangle is played out in a way that is short on high school romance and theatrics and long on motive as Gabriel is not only attracted to Cybele but shares her ideals to guide the cult in a positive direction. Janus is gay and has no such designs on Cybele but feels that Gabriel is a threat on their friendship and Janus’ influence on his female friend.




Besides romance and drama, Resurrecting Cybele is also a clever satire. Before their friendship implodes, Cybele and Janus are TV addicts and often quote references to their favorite science fiction programs back and forth. When starting the cult, the duo compare the beginnings to the feuds between the Bajorans and Cardassians of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. To shake a depressed Janus after being dumped, Cybele reminds him of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode in which one character said that people are so caught up in their own problems that they don't notice when someone else needs help. Tellingly as the two protagonists end up on opposite sides of the cult debacle, the TV references stop as if to remind the Reader that satire is over and the world is no longer funny.




Using these conflicting emotions of humor, romance, and drama allow Mohammed to open up the conflict on a wider scale so that the resolution towards the cult is less predictable and doesn't follow the particular destructive patterns that real-life forbears had led.

Weekly Reader: Brida by Paulo Coelho: The Ultimate Magical Mystery Tour

Weekly Reader: Brida by Paulo Coelho: The Ultimate Magical Mystery Tour
By Julie Sara Porter, Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers Ahead: We come to another Paulo Coelho book and this one discusses many of the points made in The Alchemist about following one's Soul and believing in the magic around us. Though this puts Coelho's lessons in a more urban contemporary setting. Instead of a the Sahara Desert in an undisclosed time period, we are taken to 1980's Dublin to see the magic that could be around us right this very moment.

Brida O'Fern, a young Irish woman, appears in front of a teacher known only as the Magus and tells him, out of the blue, "I want to learn about magic." She didn't have any premonitions or supernatural encounters as a child, Brida just has a need to know about the Universe and most of all about Love.

Fair enough, says The Magus. As all guides do in a story where someone searches for their heart's desire, gives her a task. She must spend the night in the woods. Brida spends a terrifying night where her imagination runs wild with frightening noises and her own doubts and insecurities about her desire to learn magic and whether or not she can trust The Magus. (After all spending the night alone in the woods because a total stranger twice one's age told them could lead to a specific case of "Stranger Danger" at the very least.)

Lucky for us and Brida, The Magus has only the best of intentions and she passes the first test, that she is sincere and confident in wanting to learn magic. Brida is then led to another teacher, Wicca who takes a more hands-on approach to the young student.

One of the most unique ways that Wicca (and Coelho) show Magic is how commonplace it is and how effective a teacher is Wicca. Wicca hands Brida a deck of cards and asks Brida if she can see visions within them. After several days of trying and giving up in frustration, Wicca launches into a boring story about her plumber. While Brida half-listens, she sees changes in the cards. This passage illustrates that Magic isn't supposed to come from commanding it, but comes when it isn't expected.

Wicca uses other commonplace methods to help Brida learn more about the secrets to Magic. In one scene, the two take a trip to a
cathedral and Brida has a dream of a past life in which she was a persecuted Cathar in Medieval France. In another passage, Wicca asks Brida to close her eyes and describe the contents in a shop window which she does effertlessly. These passages highlight Brida's real world setting and how her magic could be used in her everyday life.

A refreshing take that Coelho explores in Brida is the concept of Love and Soul Mates. While he puts Brida in a love triangle, he does it better than most writers by having his characters act like adults. The moment The Magus sees Brida, he notices the "light in her eyes" which his tradition dictates that she is his Soul Mate. Instead of pursuing her, The Magus helps her by learning magic.
Unfortunately, Coelho gives him an upsetting back story in which he broke a happy relationship with a woman simply because she was not his soul mate making him something of a heel. However, the follow up to that story suggests that The Magus was simply young and inexperienced at the time-practically Evangelical in the concept of Soul Mates. Now he's older and wiser, there could be another chance for that relationship and that sometimes you don't need the light to see that you can have more than one Soul Mate.

Brida is also involved in a relationship with Lorens, a young physics student. The Reader braces themselves for a tired Magic Vs. Science Debate. Instead Lorens is 100 percent supportive as they discuss the different terms for energy and the Universe that they could be he same things spoken in different languages. Lorens is very similar to Fatima in the Alchemist in that he loves her so much that he is willing to wait for her. (Even wanting to go to the Pagan fires with Brida to see her get Initiated.)

Brida herself is constantly concerned about the concepts of Soul Mates. While she loves and admires both Lorens and The Magus, she is confused about which one is supposed to be her Soul Mate. Her back story of having several broken relationships convey that her quest to find her Soul Mate is based on her fear and assurance over who her true love is. Like the lesson with the cards, once she stops looking and worrying about it, the solution provides itself in a satisfactory and happy way for all involved.

Coehlo's symbolism can sometimes be pretty obvious and right on the nose. The Magus and Wicca are named for two distinct forms of Paganism and Magic. The Magus' name suggests an older tradition of druids and sorcerors bound by rules and rituals. People in history, mostly men but some women who stay at the right hand of Kings and we're instructors and teachers before they fell by the wayside and went into hiding (Much like The Magus who retreated into the woods after his teaching days were done.)
 Wicca's name suggests the more modern Pagan movement created by Gerald Gardner in the 1940's which while somewhat structured is more intuitive and fluid with various rituals and means of pursuing magic. It is often practiced by many who are environmentalists and feminists, particularly women who want more than what the Abrahamaic religions offer for a woman's role. ( Much like Wicca, herself, who is still actively involved in teaching young witches and organizes group rituals.)

 It is also no coincidence that The Magus' tradition is called the Tradition of the Sun (often seen as a Masculine symbol in many myths and religious followings) and Wicca's is called the Tradition of the Moon (often seen as a Feminine symbol) or that the book us drenched with descriptions of sex magic. Nor is it a coincidence that Brida is interested in and studies both. It is as though Coelho is saying that to truly understand Magic, and the Universe, a person should be willing to accept both their masculine and feminine sides and overcome the societal perceptions of both to find equality in oneself, their Soul Mate, and the Universe around them.