Lupa

I regard this book as a gentle read. I initially didn't leave a review because I didn't have strong opinion or analysis to express. However, it is worth mentioning that Lupa gives excellent qualitative descriptions about ecological topics like bioregions, along side descriptions to help you open yourself to seeing the world in a spiritual like. It's wonderful to not only think about the natural world as a home, but to break it down by address--I'm in the Beaver Lake watershed in the Boston show more Mountains, a part of the Ozark Mountains within the Mississippi greater watershed.

Some spirituality books can be too "off" for me, which is part of the reason why I describe this book as "gentle." Lupa's views or her narrative don't grate me and are actually close to my own beliefs. Applying the concept of totems as a lens to see the world with evokes a sense of history, personally and culturally. Maybe some criticize that it's cultural misappropriation, but once upon a time, no matter where your ancestors were, they likely worshiped totems. No one culture owned the idea. I think revitalizing and personalizing the idea is a good way to appreciate so much about the world--human and natural, material or spiritual. show less

Truthfully, I wasn't really expecting to get much out of this one as opposed to her "Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone." Well, I was wrong. I have spent some time haunting the edges of the Otherkin community, and I was one of the 130 survey respondents, so the basic information wasn't new. That being said, I still learned a /great/ deal from the book. More importantly, (in my humble opinion, anyway), it inspired some more self reflection and musings that will be chewed on for a while.

Lupa's show more writing style, as I've come to expect, is fluid and conversational, making the book very pleasurable to read. The entire text is peppered with anecdotes from Lupa and the survey respondents, as well as plenty of outside sources. Everything was covered very nicely, with plenty of different views given. Each of the Otherkin "types" is given a chapter, and while the mythology/lore opening sections occasionally went into a bit too much detail, they were overall an excellent part of the text I wasn't expecting.

I highly recommend it for both Otherkin and curious non-kin. The origin theories chapter is definitely a must-read for anyone wanting to discuss Otherkin seriously. show less

THE book about practical animal magic! I have never read a better book on actual magical experiments along these lines. It is not simply a catalog of animal symbolism and correspondences; instead, it is an actual manual of how to use animal power and totems in your own magic and self-improvement.

I nice short little ebook of an interesting way to work with the four directions in the form of an animal rather than just a rather impersonal idea of an element. Very basic but still a nice little introduction to the concept.