I had the pleasure of reviewing Ms. Kiernan’s book entitled The Book of Altars and Sacred Spaces: How to Create Magical Space in Your Home for Ritual and Intention for the July 2020 issue of PaganPagesOrg and was impressed with the content and the beautiful photographs that underscored the visual components of creating altars. It was both a feast for the eyes and for the inspired mind. The Ultimate Guide to the Witch’s Wheel of the Year: Rituals, Spells & Practices for Magical Sabbats, Holidays & Celebrations by Anjou Kiernan is another installment from Anjou that stimulates your creativity and uses photography and illustration to conjure up a diverse palette of possibility.

The contents of The Ultimate Guide to the Witch’s Wheel of the Year: Rituals, Spells & Practices for Magical Sabbats, Holidays & Celebrations give ample attention to each of the eight Sabbats and provide the reader at the onset with the origins and reason for the seasons. The Resources section at the end of the book provides the reader with a listing of the rituals suggested in each of the individual chapters with a quick look index guide to find them readily.

Each of the Sabbat sections is organized in such a way, that everything you would need to know, both as a beginner and more advanced practitioner, is presented in a clear and precise manner. Dates of the Sabbat, expanded Correspondences, Astronomical Basis, Ancient Sites, Pagan Cultures and Deities, Ancient Traditions and Modern Spells are some of the categories explored with rituals and active workings specific to that Sabbat strewn throughout. There is enough variety in recommended activities for celebration that would resonate with herbalists, craftspeople and ritualists, alike.

Being an Imbolc baby, I was especially interested to see the treatment given to this Sabbat and any new ideas I could use for my own celebrations. Additionally, being in my 60’s and a new grandmother, the “Crone Annointing Oil” was timely in reading. The inclusion of the Cailleach, the Morrigan and Hecate at this time of the year was a nicely surprising intention. The Crone is not often associated at this time of the year, but entirely makes sense in alignment with the seasonal tides and the underpinnings of energy experienced. In keeping with the more traditional assignations of Imbolc, there is a recipe for crafting a candle honoring Brighid and her potent triple flames. Cleansing amulets, weather divination and ritual and poppets fill the pages for this Sabbat, offering a cornucopia of ways in which the magick and celebratory nature of the Sabbat can be accessed and flow nicely with a modern or more traditional approach.

This comprehensive style is used for each of the Sabbats and the overall sense is one of bolstering and feeling confident in at least one of the forms of honoring used, while being open and receptive to the implementation of new traditions.

Would I Recommend:

The Ultimate Guide to the Witch’s Wheel of the Year: Rituals, Spells & Practices for Magical Sabbats, Holidays & Celebrations by Anjou Kiernan could easily fit into the category of a coffee table book given its rich and beautiful imagery throughout. But the real gift here is the thoughtful crafting of a book that engages the reader at all levels while instructing in the fundamentals of the Witch’s Wheel including the nuances of each celebration.

Overall, this book is really all that is needed to craft meaningful, visually beautiful and powerful expressions of the Witch’s Wheel of the Year. Additionally, if the reader takes the time to move through each of the possibilities presented in content and idea, the thread of continuity and flow from one Sabbat to the other as suggested by the “Wheel” as semantic, comes to life in a dynamic and self-generated manner. The Ultimate Guide to the Witch’s Wheel of the Year: Rituals, Spells & Practices for Magical Sabbats, Holidays & Celebrations by Anjou Kiernan is definitely a book to proudly place on your shelf and return to frequently.

-Reviewed by Robin Fennelly of PaganPagesOrg

I loved all the details in this book. I made sure to send the link to this book to my friends to preorder. I got an audible copy so I could relisten in my car.

This is a great book for most public library collections. It covers all of the basics needed for beginners and seasoned witch's. I'll probably end up buying it for my personal collection!

This is a very insightful and useful guide for the Craft. I learned a lot about the sabbats and their history, which allowed me to understand my own religious celebrations better.

I love books about the occult and I am proud to add this to my collection. It was interesting to learn about the different eras of magic and what ‘magic’ truly means. This book covers so much of the history surrounding the occult arts and breaks down the traditions and practices celebrated by witches. I really loved learning more about the various sabbats and I learned a lot about celebrations thorough this title. Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a free digital Advanced Reading Copy (ARC e-book) of this title.

Although the information in here was well presented, I didn't feel as though it added anything unique to the subject. That said, the presentation was very lovely and information was easily found throughout.

A decent introduction into the sabbats with correspondences, rituals, and projects. The information is basic and general, but an overall good visual for the rituals and projects.

Gorgeous guide. It has a lot of information that's laid out nicely. The photos were absolutely beautiful. I liked the different cultures and deities. I highly recommend this book!

This is a beautiful, well laid out book which gives a wonderful overview of the witch's wheel of the year. It is clear, full of relevant information and illustrated with photographs making it a joy to read. They inspire you to do the rituals, make the potions and spells. Divided into the 8 sections covering the year from Yule to Samhain it provides history of the festival, astrological information as well as rituals and associated lotions, potions or spells. I can't wait to make some daffodil flower essence to bring joy as we head into spring.

This is a book I have added to my wishlist for a physical copy so I can dip into it throughout the year. It is great for newbies like me but also those with more experience.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Anjou Kiernan has written it beautifully. It is full of information and beautiful pictures. I too like others had a wee issue with the upside down pages on my ARC but it did not stop me enjoying the book. A must for anyone interested in the Wheel of the Year. I already had a lot of insight into the wheel of the year but the book had added information that I hadn't read before. .
Thanks to Netgalley and Fair Winds Press for the ARC

The Ultimate Guide to the Witch's Wheel of the Year by Anjou Kierman was an interesting read. I found it to be a very comprehensive read.

Each section was broken down into several parts. I found the projects to be very interesting. I liked the history of the different cultures as well.

One of the more interesting and well organized books I have read on Witch Wheels.

I received an eARC from Quarto Publishing and Fair Winds Press through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.

As always, another wonderful book that helps us pagans through the wheel of the year. For a relatively newish pagan, myself, this book is good about giving detail for the year, what to celebrate, why it's important, and, basically, what the heck is going on. Really easy to follow and has lots of good info.

5/5 Stars

Not just a look at the 8 celebrations that make up the Wheel of the Year, but a fascinating bit of the history of these celebrations from various ancient cultures, including Celtic, Roman, and Egyptian. And that history makes it perfectly clear where many of the "Christian" holidays get their odd traditions (rabbits and eggs for "Easter" (Ostara), decorated evergreens for "Christmas" (Yule)). The book just starts to scratch the surface but it makes me want to learn more, and Kiernan presents the info in a very poetic way.

As a practicing witch, I knew this qas something I'd be interested in. I couldn't be happier!
There is so much information here and perfect for beginners and more seasoned witches alike.

Thank you to the author, Net Galley and the publisher for making this enchanting book available for review. My review opinion is my own.

As a practicing witch I was pleased to receive this for review. The presentation of this book is quite stunning with beautiful illustrations throughout. I appreciate that the author covers all the different seasonal celebrations . This would be ideal for both beginners and experienced practitioners. All the blessings and rituals of traditions are here each with a stunning illustration. Beautifully presented this is a book for all practicing witches .

This book is divine!! Anjou Kiernan filled pages with such wisdom and intention to detail. I enjoyed the many perspectives brought in about each event and the many rituals to choose from to find those that resonate with you. Its easy to keep flipping the pages because the photography is magical and captures the mood!! Beautiful. Witchy. Magical.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

The Ultimate Guide to the Witch's Wheel of the Year is a beautiful and dedicated book of information to begin your journey as a Wiccan practitioner.
The pictures in this book are so beautifully set out and there are lots of different activities and different project ideas to try.
This book has lots of information and guides you through each activity and project too.
Holidays for different cultures and beliefs are explained in this book which was really interesting to read about.
I did find it hard to read in places due to some pages coming up sideways on or upside down which was very frustrating. I hope that anyone purchasing this book doesn't experience this. I ended up screenshotting the pages and then turning them in my photo gallery to the right way to enable me to read them.

I was really interested when I find out about this book on netgally. However my interest went downhill when I read the digital book.

I really wish that copy can be read clearly but this is not the case in this book. As much as I wanted to enjoy this I just couldn't because the format affected my reading and resulted to my interest fading away.

There may be parts that really caught my eye, such as the rituals, the ingredients and some topics that are really interesting and IT WOULD BE AWESOME IF IT'S READABLE BUT IT IS NOT.

It's just really frustrating as I spent most of reading it being annoyed because I'm trying so hard to read it.

Unfortunately I unable to provide feedback on this book due to the PDF not properly showcasing on Kindle and Netgalley applications. The pages/images appear distorted and it's near impossible for me to read the text.

Nonetheless thank you for this amazing opportunity and when the book is release, I will most definitely check it out.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. I am providing my honest opinion voluntarily.

This book was incredibly informative. I have next to no experience with any of this, and it's obviously well-researched. The author provided immense amounts of information, not just for the Northern Hemisphere, but for the Southern Hemisphere as well. Celtic, Norse, Germanic, and even other types of cultures are represented in the historical sections, including Egyptian, South American, and Asian cultures, which I found to be fascinating. In addition, it relates the historical basis for each of these pagan days to how they've been incorporated into Christian and Neopagan holidays.

The photographs that were included throughout the book were atmospheric and beautiful. I looked forward to seeing the pictures as well as learning about each of the different pagan dates. The rituals and different projects were eye-opening. I loved learning about how centuries old rituals are preserved and still practiced in the present day. The directions were easy enough for a beginner to follow in most cases, although some ingredients may be more difficult to find if you (like me) have no experience in this sort of thing, or live in an urban area with little access to meadows, forest, or dew.

Overall, there's a lot of really great information in this, and I learned a lot from reading this. I look forward to giving some of these things a try.