A few months ago, I caught a piece of writing on a woman's blog, and it blew me away.* It read, in part:
"Ready yourself, pilgrim, for these are not the mundane musings of an angelic scribe or pompous prophet. Pour yourself something strong and take a seat. The sunlit road has you weary, and you tire of tamer stories and happily-ever-afters. I have some bitter indulgence for you, my love. I am hiking up my skirt and tucking it between my legs. Lean close enough to feel the sweet musk of my breath on your face and see the demonic flecks of silver in my eyes."
At the bottom of the post was a blurb about the author, mentioning she had a book coming out. I've been waiting for its arrival ever since.
Woman Most Wild: Three Keys to Liberating the Witch Within by Danielle Dulsky is an astonishing, liberating, gorgeous book that fully acknowledges the power women contain within themselves. Dulsky is angry and compassionate; wise and empowering. You want to own this book.
At its core, Dulsky's three keys are not new: 1) align your bio-rhythmic cycles with those of the natural world; 2) create personal magickal and ritual practices of magick; and 3) connect with (in her words) “a sacred circle of other wild women.” It's how she offers up this information that makes it so phenomenal. Written in the second person, its like sitting down with the witch you've always wanted in your life, the woman you want to be, and learning to reclaim the power and wildness we somehow lost along the way.
Over the course of twelve chapters, the reader is offered ways to work with the lunar and solar cycles, menstrual-based rhythms, yoga and chakra work, elemental energy, and spellwork, using rituals, meditations, her knowledge to help unlock our connection to the feminine Divine. The last section (four chapters) concentrates and creating the wild women's circle through preparing to manifest such a circle, basic leadership and communication necessities, and ends with benediction for your courage in creating the circle.
Dulsky isn't perfect, and while her fierceness is refreshing and empowering, she glosses over social issues such as how a trans woman will feel doing menstrual based Work. Nor will a woman with few, or limited, resources necessarily feel able to be the Wild Woman Dulsky sees us all as: working two or more jobs while raising a family tends to eat into that contemplative chakra work.
That said, I really truly absolutely loved Woman Most Wild. I want to be Dulsky when I grow up.
Five out of Five Moons.
~review by Lisa Mc Sherry
by:Danielle Dulsky
New World Library, 2017
pp. 235, $15.95 US
* It was "Don't Pray For Me, Pilgrim: A Witch's Wicked Secret," found at: http://thehouseoftwigs.com/2017/04/07/dont-pray-for-me-pilgrim-a-witchs-wicked-secret
