The Holy Wild: A Heathen Bible for the Untamed Woman

by Danielle Dulsky, Bayo Akomolafe (Foreword)

Ode to Our Wild Feminine Souls

This provocative book invites you to create your own spiritual path based on often-suppressed ancient principles and contemporary practices. Using the elements (earth, water, fire, air, ether) rather than traditional patriarchal hierarchies, this "holy book" is designed to connect each individual to their universal -- but often denied -- powers. Wild woman Danielle Dulsky takes you deep as she explores and embraces sacred feminine archetypes such as the Mother Goddess, the Crone, and the Maiden. Join her as she guides you to envision and explore a world that enriches and supports your spirit, body, and mind as well as our global community and the Earth.

Genres: Nonfiction, Spirituality, Witchcraft, Self Help, Feminism, Paganism, Audiobook

312 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 10, 2018

Reviews

[Anna Katherina · Rating 1 out of 5]

What can I say? This book is filled with the same nerve grating Radical Feminist "Sacred femme" Goddess cult-esque rhetoric as pretty much every other woman-centric NeoPagan text on the market ... Maybe not always in quote overt words, but it's most definitely all over within the subtext; there's no denying that the majority of the rhetoric in the book comes from the very ideologies and traditions I originally left mainline "Wild" Paganism to get away from, because they made my skin crawl. And I'm incredibly disappointed (though hardly surprised) to find it in a book about the Wilds.

Speaking of the Wilds: Like many materials on this topic, this book is so out of touch with what it means to actually be in touch with any element of the true wilds, that it was legitimately mentally painful to read. I had to put the book down every other paragraph in order to keep myself from throwing my brand new Kindle across the room; I got roughly 80% of the way through the book before I finally had to cave and just give up. I couldn't complete it.

Every time I read a book about modern so called "Wild Spirituality" (this one included) I genuinely have to wonder if any of the people who write these books have ever actually taken a single meaningful step into the landscapes they continuously call "untamed and without hierarchies and fences"- let alone ever genuinely worked with any of the named "Wild Goddess" whose history can actually be traced through the centuries (and not some simple, vague "Goddess" figure they might falsely call by someone else's name on occasion); have they ever actually experienced the wild landscape- or have their experiences of "the wild" only been the cultivated pseudo-wilds? My instincts tell me the later.

I've become intimately acquainted with the landscape of the legitimate Wilds over the course of my entire life- first through absolute necessity as someone who actually grew up in the country landscape outside of a rural agricultural community in the Great Plains, and again through later adult desire to return to and reconnect with that landscape (and the Goddesses who preside in those domains) ... And there’s one thing I know about it for certain, that people who idealize the Wilds from the safety of the Cultivated (at best), or the comfort of their urban apartments (at worst), don't ever seem to actually understand:

To be Wild isn't "to live radically, one with the primality of nature, without  any rules or boundaries", as Dulsky asserts here ... It's learning how to play by a different set of them entirely ... Because the Wilds aren't nearly as uncultured or feral as the uninitiated think they are- and the true Wild Goddesses are far more demanding than you think; to be "untamed and uncultivated and free" is not, by default, to be uncultured or feral- and that's certainly not what the Wilds are about, nor what they offer.

To be "feral", in fact, is to be dangerously, aggressively, and disastrously against rules, balance, or the very structure of the Wilds; to be against the healthy order of nature itself; to be sick, and uncontrolled ... The Wilds are not feral. If they are, there is something wrong. Because ferality is an illness; to be feral is to be sick- to be rabid.

To be uncultured, itself, is to exist without etiquette, or rules, or systems. And the Wilds may not be concerned with the trappings and politics of urban / domestic / cultivated society specifically… But they most certainly do, have always had, and will always have their own structure, rules, and hierarchies of their own; they do, in fact, have plenty of their own “fences” so-to-speak. And they demand these hierarchies and boundaries be respected.

We'll always do well to remember that. Because crossing over the wrong boundaries, even unintentionally, can mean the literal difference between life and death in the true Wilds. And the Wilds won’t show you any mercy when you do, because they give you plenty of warning as to where those boundaries lay, well before you're ever in any danger of crossing them in the first place ... It's not their fault that you didn't pay attention to the signs that were handed to you- let alone bother learning their language before you entered.

Now ... Admittedly the wilds do look and feel different in different locations. But whether you want to acknowledge it or not, these baseline truths remain the same regardless of where you manage to stumble into them. and they've held true, in my personal experience with the Wilds, for my entire lifetime of experience.

The Wilds described quite romantically and idealistically in this book, however? Is nothing more than an anger filled farce; an overblown impostor; it is a Radical Feminist "monstrous femme" power fantasy built on nothing more than psuedo-myths and outright lies. One laid upon a foundation of stones chiseled from trauma both real and unhealed, and deeply imagined.

It bears absolutely no resemblance to the true Wilds that I grew up with and have developed a deep connection with over the 30 year course of my life- or any of the additional Wilds I visited as a guest, elsewhere ... Nor is the generic, faceless, and unnamed "Wild Goddess" described here similar to any of the actual named Wild Goddesses that I’ve worked with in the past; she bears no resemblance to the no-nonsense Cailleach who demands the hunter only take what’s fair, and demands he do it ethically- or Na Morrígna who demand order and protocol alongside their sovereignty of the land. Nor any of the others I've invited to cross my threshold, most of whom demand we understand and abide by nature's laws- and will laugh at us without a moment's hesitation, as it gobbles us up for forgetting them.

What is here in this book is a masquerade; a blind and heavily bound, romantically idealized version of the Wilds that's deeply devoid of any meaningful connections to or understanding of them, and the Goddesses to be found within; in the end, it's just the same old modern New-Agey, Ra-Ra Radical Feminist NeoPagan spirituality with a cheap feral (not Wild) veneer that would make the people I know who practice truly feral spiritualities cringe.

And quite frankly it's annoying to be called a "Priestess" of the Wilds every other paragraph as a matter of "recognizing my sovereignty" and "affirming my authority"; the irony of the cover being a creamy pink and somewhat shiny / glittery (at least on my screens) while the author uses pink and glitter both to deride the softer, feminine images of the same vague "Goddess" (multiple times), also isn't lost on me.

If you're looking for the real wilds you certainly won't be finding it here. But if that's your thing? By all means, enjoy it... I'm taking a hard pass, however.

[Jessi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't hate this book, but I definitely didn't like it nearly as much as I wanted to. Dulsky's writing style just subtracted so much from what this book could have been. In some ways it was pretentious, constantly calling the reader "my love" was condescending. The flowery purple-prose was so distracting from the point of the book that I had to put it down frequently and give myself a pep talk to pick it back up. What's more, this book was completely filled with unresolved anger and angst without an outlet.

[Jillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Danielle Dulsky has somehow captured the essence and evolution of not only so many women, but anyone who feels that nagging, scratching urge to withdraw from the prescribed suffocating constricts of ‘society’ and reconnect with something primal. Something wild. Raw. Untamed. Divine. I’ve lost my breath more times than I can count reading this book, which proves how absolutely essential and timely it is. Please, Danielle - keep writing.

[Jaclyn Cherie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a balm for the wounded, weary Soul of the Wild Woman and Heathen. Danielle has this way with words where she can weave a story within a story, and you become so immersed in what's coming next that you almost forget she is sentence by sentence changing your life. In many ways this book page by page grants the reader permission to find themselves, to be themselves unapologetically and to howl at the Moon.

She reminds us that we are simultaneously animals and Spiritual beings.

The book itself is a journey of elemental enchantment and Magick, and I can't recommend it enough.

The practical, real life advice given will elevate you on your Magickal and mundane paths; not many Authors can accomplish that.

We are blessed to have Danielle's voice, and I honor the Wild within her because of it I have been able to honor my own.

[Sosanna Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Today I'm reviewing The Holy Wild - A Heathen Bible for the Untamed Woman by Danielle Dulsky.
Generally I like to start out with a disclaimer. I am an atheist witch. I look for the connection between magic and science without the need for a deity. I receive no compensation for these reviews and all my links are standard Amazon links and not affiliate links. I am a practicing photo reader and have spent the last 13 years honing my craft. I offer personal readings by request and have a strong online history that boasts nearly 400,000 views.

Staring with basic review of the physical book. I was sent a soft cover to review. The outside is made of that soft material that feels almost like fur. Not my favorite. However, I was blown away by the index. A full seven pages front and back are dedicated to helping you locate what you need to find quickly in this book. Many author's overlook this. In my opinion any good book will after at least a minimal index but this one goes over and above with this massive listing. The book has no illustrations or images. The cover image is impressive and I really enjoyed the forward by Bayo Aromolaf, PhD.

The chapters of the book are separated into books. Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. Each include a section on verses and a section on rituals for each book. As my interest is piqued by Hecate I grabbed the index and found the Book of Ether, on page 212 was Hecate. I was a bit disappointed to see that Hecate was referred to as the Crone/Hag goddess. We know historically that all depictions of her have been of a maiden. Only early references to her by Aleister Crowley mention Hecate as a "hag". That stuck and many authors use that description of her. She is a triple goddess but not in the maiden, mother, crone construct.

My favorite ritual by far in this book can be found on page 137. It's called "Our Shared Crucible: A Three-Part Ritual of Deep Transmutation. Further because of my interest in fire scrying I found the ritual "Pyromancy of the Prophetess: A Ritual of Divination by Firelight" to be extremely rewarding.
Over all, I believe this is a great book for any witchy library and has an uplifting "self help" quality to is. It is empowering and showcases the untamed women of witchcraft.

[Mary Drover · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is easily one of the best books I’ve ever read. I intended to write a separate (and longer) review for this, but that never happened, so you’ll just have to deal with me flailing a little here. If you’re curious about my reaction as I was reading, I have a highlight up on my Instagram page that are my genuine reactions while I was currently reading it. This is probably one of the few witch books I would actually recommend to non-witch friends because it’s more about female empowerment than it is anything else. Actually–I think the best way to explain this book is to just gift you the opening paragraphs:

In the beginning, there was She.

She was nature’s primordial pulse, the pan-elemental alchemy of birth; the fertile void of death; and the mysterious, enduring, and numinous cosmic infinite. All was She, and She was all. Her power pervaded the totality of existence and veiled all potential worlds in the name of holy manifestation. Her steady, purposeful rhythm pounded on, in, and through the stellar fusions, the planet building, and the great galactic swell. The universal dawn was a quantum prayer to Her, and SHe was dancing for us long before humanity’s blessed inception, long before the glow of the primal feminine was eclipsed by modernity.

While the rhythm of Her hallowed drum has slowed and quieted to a barely audible, near-whisper beat, while humanity’s spiritual landscape has been overbuilt and hums with man-made hymns, She can never be silenced. She is our elemental nature, the stuff of our souls, and we are She embodied. Every one of us could hear Her if we only listened, for She has sought safe harbor in our very marrow. She lives in us, and with Her genesis came our mandate to wholly and emphatically embody Her in the wake of the feminine’s historical denigration. If we only put our ears to the ground, we would hear the promised pulse of Her return not as She descends from gold-and-diamond heaven but as She claws Her way up so ceremoniously through rock and stone, destined to erupt from beneath the very structures built to keep Her contained.

Yeah. This is a Book. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read before, and I’m still thinking about it in great detail long after I finished it. I ended up taking a full week to read it because I would get so overwhelmed by just half of one of the elemental chapters and had to take a hot minute to sit with what was rising. This is an important book for women. It takes the original feminine sins (think Lilith, Mother of Babylon, Mary Magdalene, etc.) and transforms them, telling the story from the woman’s perspective. There are some chapters of rituals and magic in here, but even those are like an ode to powerful women. If you want to feel inspired or like you matter, this book is for you.

[Indigo Crow · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is so awful... I'm so sorry I wasted my time and my money on this piece of garbage!

I was first mislead by the term "heathen", as that term is used primarily by Norse pagans. While the author didn't necessarily use the word incorrectly, I can't help but wonder if she didn't decide on the use of the word because of its connection to a specific spiritual path, therefore drawing as much attention to her awful book as possible.

The viewpoint of the book is so lop-sided it's ridiculous. This author is so feminist that she's casting aside the divine masculine altogether, which presents an uneven situation that throws everything out of balance and is NOT a good thing. Couple that with the insistence on rejecting male pronouns to the point of writing the word "history" as "her-story" and it creates a narrative that feels downright immature and irritating to read. I got a headache from trying, as a matter of fact.

Like, yeah, I highly dislike male-dominated religions too, but you don't see me throwing all men or the divine masculine under the bus because a few made me angry. Get a grip!

There's little in the book that I could gather that discussed spirituality. The whole thing appears to be a feminist daydream written by a woman that couldn't cut it as a fiction author.

I don't recommend this book. I don't see much value in it to most witches or spiritual folk. You'd be better off finding something else and spending your hard earned dollars on that instead.

[Kitty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to read this book, and I want to like it, but I don't. I'm sure this book had good meaning, but the author's writing style completely takes away from it. If written in such a flowery way with so many unneeded words and stories and sentences that it completely takes away from whatever point the author is trying to make. I didn't feel inspired or enlightened after reading this, I felt tired. I literally had to put the book down after each page, it was too exhausting to fully read. I don't think I'll try again to finish the book, it just wasn't enjoyable enough.

[Thankful Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book. It began beautifully, but alas I realized it was not feeding my soul. It's part myth, part self-help, and part one woman's edict. I wish the author had stuck with re-writing the myths. That I would have enjoyed.

[Tania · Rating 1 out of 5]

After not much time hearing "herstory" and drivel relating to the things this book would teach me, I had to stop reading it. Mindless hyped up "Pagan" fluff.

[Kristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the intention of this book was honest and genuine, the execution begged for editing and a bit more brevity. And while the author’s choice of heroines was unique, she tried just a bit too hard to force them to fit in new skins. In life, sometimes there are just bad people and sometimes there are villains in history’s timeline. I admire the author’s confidence and conviction; I just didn’t quite identify with her practice. Sue Monk Kidd did an outstanding job of weaving the same story in “The Dance of the Dissident Daughter” without relying so heavily on theatrics. Sorry.

[Luminea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parts of this felt alien to my experience or like old truths I wore proudly long ago and later discarded when I outgrew them. Other parts resonated deeply and fiercely down to my bone marrow. When returning to the words a year later, I found myself connecting with completely different verses than those in my first read through. This is as it should be. There is no one-size-fits-all spiritual path or heathen bible.

One of the things I admire about Danielle is how she writes with absolute passion and deep conviction in her personal beliefs, while always encouraging the reader to seek out their own inner truths. I immensely enjoy her writing prompts, which encourage me to pen my own "handwritten verses" and draw upon my inner wisdom.

This book guided me to review my past and envision my future from a new perspective. I'm grateful to feel "seen" and inspired by this book.

[Nicholas Ross · Rating 1 out of 5]

The core ideas put forward are intriguing, but they're smothered with non-stop over-the-top descriptive similes. At times, a lot of times, it was hard to finish a paragraph without getting confused, lost, or forgetting what was being said in the first place.

Would be interested in any other suggestions for these topics.

[Greg Soden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listen to my interview with the author: https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=569775...

The first book I’ve read in this genre and I really enjoyed it. It opened me to some new perspectives on the world that were immensely fascinating to ponder.

[Mary Ann Donnarumma · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many times while reading this book I said YES out loud. This book gets inside you and has the power to transform you, if you do the suggested journal prompts and rituals. This book is life changing.

[Robin Tobin (On the back porch reading) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a start stop -Holy Crap what did I get into kind of book.

[Katherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I support the mentality but it was so repetitive. Sometimes I felt like the author was trying to meet a word limit. Couldn't finish.

[Bex Kula Hildrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me. Too purple in its prose and the constant referring of the reader as “my love” really turned me off.

[Ora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Danielle has written another gorgeous book, full of prose that melts your heart and rings true in your bones and rituals for any woman looking to deepen her connection to her elemental, primal self, whether she is new to her wild woman witchcraft practice or has been delving deeply for decades. It's broken up into 5 books: earth, water, fire, air, and ether, giving specific instructions on how to connect with those elements, all while weaving tales of archetypes and legends into the fabric of the practice. I highly recommend this work to any woman who wants to howl in the forest under the moon.

[Baroness · Rating 2 out of 5]

Her words touched every part of me but I felt the book dragged. Most def going to read her other book.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my gosh we actually finished a book!!

Hard to rate. Potent and powerful, but not necessarily one to read front to back. My personality forced this upon it, breezing past the rituals and journal entries so that I can mark it as “read,” but I know I missed the point of it and will keep it close for when I’m ready for these activities. It’s a journey, not a one-stop shop to the mystical store and back. Xx

[Kaitlin Brace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was flabbergasted that the author gave a disclaimer to protect trans folk and minorities at the VERY END of the book. The whole time I was reading this I was thinking, this is def white lady bullshit 🙄 I was just completely put off until those 2 sentences in the last paragraphs. So I need a reread now 😂

[Kendra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book. Lyrical and flowery, but sensible. Really enjoyed reading it.

[Candice · Rating 2 out of 5]

I genuinely can't remember why I had this on my to read list... perhaps I saw some quote somewhere from it and thought it would be an interesting read? I mostly skimmed my way thru it while knitting, which is really more than I should have done.

[Shoshanna Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I bookmarked a bunch of stuff to return to.

But WHY does she say "Beautious" instead of "Beautiful" Every. Single. Time. Terribly annoying.

[Larissa Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Right off the bat, let me applaud Dulsky for how easily equality slipped into the story. Even though the title would imply this book is focused on cisgender folks, she immediately makes it clear (less than a dozen pages in) that she chose to emphasize the pronoun She/Her while seeing that divinity as “irrefutably pan-gender”. Again and again, she makes it clear that all feminine-leaning folk are welcome, regardless of physical form, to include mentioning their ability to use a Prayer for the Energetic Womb without having a physical womb (as it is about the energies of creation). This isn’t a common practice in books, which are either actively cisgender in their focus or passively so.

The writing portions throughout the book encourage you to write your own mythology, and to recognize the God-Goddess-Mystery within yourself in each story. As a writer myself, I find guided journaling to be an important tool for spiritual growth. The appendix at the end includes further questions and meditations to ponder, all of which fit in nicely with the path she outlines throughout the book.

I think there’s a lot of beauty in the poetic-prose Dulsky used to tell her tale. She built the book to be used out of order, and it shows in the way she allowed each elemental section to stand alone in its own story.

Less Enjoyable Bits:

As someone who has never been a Christian, I have a hard time connecting to biblical stories. Unfortunately, the main myth that’s retold in each section is based on a feminine figure from the Bible. Salome, Mary Magdalene, Lilith – they all have interesting pasts and are retold with a beautiful shift to the focus of each story, but I’m not familiar enough with the Christian mythos to really connect with them on the level Dulsky likely hoped I would.

Another issue came in the form of an unexplained reference to “the Red Road”. After getting about 50 pages in, I finally looked onto for what she might be talking about. I assumed it was Christian, but it actually comes from a loose interpretation of various Native American beliefs. Considering how often it came up, I’m surprised to say she never explained it from start to end.

I don’t think this book is made to be read in one sitting. I read it all at once, and the poetic-prose became a little foggy after too much flowery imagery. If you read it in pieces over a few days, though, I think that’d be mellowed out to something more enjoyable.

[K Kriesel · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is nothing new in this book.
But it is still important.

The Holy Wild echoes Women Who Run With Wolves, When God Was A Woman, and The Spiral Dance. Significant books that have brought about profound change to several generations of women. Because systemic change in the spiritual landscape of the US is so slow, these books have not been passed down to younger women - or they simply aren't interested. The fact that this book is new, trendy, and Instagrammable gives me hope that younger women are going through the same spiritual growth as their predecessors did.

I hope that soon we can stop reinventing the wheel.

[DaVonne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was more than I could ever ask for. It totally bade me take my time. Every store made sense and the prompts we're eye opening. Every woman identifying person should read it ❤️ (every male identifying person too)

[Dawn Stowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes, I thought to myself "WOahhh, slow down their girl!" But in a totally good way :) A truly juice earthy book replete with ritual suggestions. So much so that I could not take in more than about 5 minutes worth of reading at a time.

[Stephen Buisson-priest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Invigorating, powerful, and inspirational. Will re-read, and re-re-read.