Dancing with Raven and Bear: A Book of Earth Medicine and Animal Magic

Author Sonja Grace takes on a storytelling journey using Earth Medicine in the book Dancing with Raven and Bear. The tales are a mix of her Hopi heritage and Norse. The stories are presented in the way you would expect to hear them if you were sitting around a campfire. Each story has a teaching lesson and is followed by meditations, energy exercise, or other Earth Medicine techniques you can do on your own.

The themes the author covers are grounding, dancing with raven, releasing pain, holding the darkness at bay, power, dreaming, the burden and even death. She also covers chapters on the illusion, a safe place, the medicine path, what deer had to say, love, the river’s edge, earth spirit, mending a broken heart, warriors of the earth, and the next seven generations.

The stories are lovely as are the accompanied artwork in the chapters. The two main animals that guide the stories and lessons are raven and bear. Raven has a strong influence in both the Norse mythology as well as the Native American mythology. Raven in Norse is a companion to Odin and to Native American tradition is a messenger or a trickster that teaches how to overcome adversity. Bear is the healer and strength against the darkness. Both animal spirits have a gentle and simple way of reconnecting us to the earth and her teachings.

~review by Amber Barnes

Author: Sonja Grace
Findhorn Press, 2018
pp. 144, $12.99