The Book of Mysteries: Wild Time and the Ritual Year

by Rebecca Tamás

'Insightful and a personal and political journey through the seasons' Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley
'A wonderfully unmooring passage through a year that connects to life that is deeper, looser, and more true than the tightly wound, unnatural calendars so many of us keep' Amina Cain, author of Indelicacy
'This book is a precious and life-affirming gift to our hearts and intellects' Rebecca May Johnson, author of Small Fires
At festive gatherings celebrating summer's peak, in reflective moments as winter gave way, Rebecca Tamás began to hear another rhythm. A faint hint that, underneath the rush of clocks and calendars, another, richer kind of time might exist.
As she suffered from grief and burnout, Tamás sought a deeper connection to the movement of the seasons through an immersion in old folkways. She set out on a journey across the UK guided by the Pagan wheel of the year, marking each solstice, equinox and the midpoints between them with a ritual drawn from ancient traditions. From a confrontation with the sharp pains of winter at Samhain in Edinburgh to a giddy experience of collective joy at Padstow's May Day, she found in these traditional practices electric potential for transforming our relationship to the natural world.Intellectually penetrating and richly lyrical, The Book of Mysteries follows the drumbeat of seasonal ritual towards an immersion in the wild time of the earth. Ecstatic, radical and irreverent, this book is a rallying cry to wrest time away from the structures of work and capital, so as to encounter the life-giving mystery of the natural world.

Genres: Nature

242 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 4, 2026

Reviews

[Albert Eccles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fleeting but poetic impressions of rituals undertaken once. Some theory has been brought in but not reflected on critically. The idea of wild time, as opposed to capitalist clock time - OK, I get this and also hate the drudgery of 9-5. But I started to wonder if there was really such a sharp distinction between these two forms of time. Although these two temporalities are repeatedly gone over I still feel at a loss to understand what wild time is other than the insight that rich cultural specificity exists in different places. I know the author does not wish to stray into nativism but I did start to wonder if that's what wild time would end up being... I thought this needed to be interrogated more.
This book seemed to be in the realm of nature writing by urban-based writers who feel they have lost a connection to the natural world. They describe a few surface level attempts at 'connection' and piously quote people who have cred for being more connected with a so-called nature. But in the end there is still this swimming around in alienation because they don't feel at ease living where they live.
This book reminded me of Richard Mabey and Jay Griffiths's books which are quoted. Those books I loved nearly 20 or so years ago but in the end I felt they overly romanticised nature. Amongst the praise of the wild is still this idea of nature-as-solace or a cure-all. Nature is held up as an idealised other, as leisure, something lovely and soothing seen over there at a distance. This book does this romaticisation too but at least Griffiths, for example, spent considerable time with people living in different worlds to her own. This book made me remember to appreciate that kind of hard work and those other works that draw on deep ethnography.
Instead, this book skimmed over some rituals the author improvised or experienced once and then threw in some fashionable theory. That would be OK if the author had got deeper into one of these - theory or memoir - but it hovered in between as so many non-fiction books seem to do these days. There are some gorgeous phrases in here - the vignettes describing the experiences are nicely done and so I give this more than one star. I think it would have been better if the author had decided whether it was a non-fiction/theory or a memoir. Then got in deeper, got wilder.

[Juliano · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Capitalism's greatest trick has been convincing many of us that there is no mystery left in the world, that everything can be explained, understood and utilised, as if the earth and everything on it was a reliable, inert machine. […] No wonder I looked around at the world as a child and considered it boring. I had been almost nowhere, done nothing, but all the messages I was receiving from society made it seem as if everything interesting or transformational had already been conceived of, that all the mystery had been discovered, analysed and used up. My adult future would be a closed circuit of work, family and taxes; mystery and magic would be relegated to books and stories, to the beliefs of the superstitious and sentimental, or the piously devout. But everything I thought then was wrong.” Reading Rebecca Tamás’s long awaited The Book of Mysteries: Wild Time and the Ritual Year was a frequently gratifying experience of recognition and contemplation. Tamás, in her personal diagnosis of the ills in her life and the world around her, sets out to reconnect with the natural world through a shift in perspective around time, and resisting entrenched (often capitalist) ideas of time by using Pagan rituals and seasons (the Wheel of the Year) to reframe her own understanding of time as something more malleable and more connected to planetary and elemental factors. The result is a rich book, never smug or preachy or too “hippie” (though there’s always a risk thinking in this way can easily lapse into those qualities); it is informative and generous in considering ritual history, and it is very generous in how it lays bare the personal, be it in consideration of grief or depression. It is a book that makes me want to be more thoughtful in my own relationship with time and the world, and one that made me feel less alone in that kind of despair mentioned above that I grew up with and am trying always to shes, the misconception that there is no mystery left when really it is all around.

[Ria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up because at the time, I was reading a book about Irish folklore, history, using nature to heal and the "old ways." I was expecting a book about paganism and the "old ways" from Britian. That's not quite what I got.

This is more of a use of nature to improve mental health books. Whilst it does include the Pagan wheel of the year, it didn't go into as much detail as what I personally would off like. The author does also blame capitalism for the shift away from the "old ways." I'm not disagreeing completely with that view. However, some of the arguments, especially around shift workers, are not working at night because it's not natural I did take issue with. It's not natural, no, but there are records of shepherds watching the sheep at night, women giving birth, and needing the help of others in the community. Whilst it may not be natural to be up at night, society has always had someone up at night to keep watch.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, I actually found it intreasting. It just wasn't the book I expected.

[Hannah Jung · Rating 4 out of 5]

This reads like a diary, as the author observes the seasons pass over the course of the year. She deals with grief and depression and uses nature to help her tune into a more mindful way of life.

She travels to various festivals and locations around the UK, celebrating Celtic, Scandinavian and Germanic traditions.

I liked her references to other Indigenous peoples around the world, and her inclusion of quotes from writings and poetry.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enchanted by this. I knew most of the rituals but it was great to encounter some new ones. I really felt in sync with Rebecca's journey. Really insightful criticism of how time has been used by capitalism to - to well wreck our lives!
I do wish there was a bit more personal grounding about Rebecca in the book. Such as what rituals did she/her family engage with when young...
But still a great book, great writer will read more from her.

[Christine Best · Rating 4 out of 5]

A guide to the elements of the pagan ritual year seen through British traditions and also a meditation on the need to escape the temporal constraints of capitalism by embracing what the author calls 'wild time' '. Also contains elements of a memoir.

[jess wilkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

touch grass maxxing i need to get out of london

[Beth · Rating 2.25 out of 5]

Interesting ideas but not a whole book's worth, I would say. I found it slow-going - lovely cover art though!

[Kristiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tamás’ The Book of Mysteries follows the Pagan Wheel of the Year and its rituals. It’s an interesting look at all of the rituals and celebrations many people in Britain still hold close, as well as a clear exploration of how far Capitalism has driven us away from practices which kept our ancestors grounded and aligned. Did how she wrote about the Eleusinian Mysteries annoy me no end as a Classicist? Yes, yes it did. Particularly as Tamás unfortunately quotes a lot of secondary information rather than primary sources throughout this book… But, if you are interested in this topic, it’s still a good read.