H. Byron Ballard - Seasons of a Magical Life: A Pagan Path of Living

H. Byron Ballard has written a completely original book designed to reconnect Pagans with the land and the Wheel of the Year. Part lyrical philosophy, part guidebook, and part instruction manual, Seasons of a Magical Life will stay with you long after you have read it. Deborah Blake, author of Everyday Witchcraft

The gentle art of engaging with the everyday through time and space is wonderfully gathered up here by Ballard, showing us how we can reconnect with the continuity of ancestral life through our own daily actions. Sheer magic. Caitln Matthews, author of Singing the Soul Back Home and Diary of a Soul Doctor

In today's quest for authenticity and elder wisdom, we are blessed to have the wise voice of one of the most authentic witches I know: Byron Ballard. By authentic, I mean someone who is truly living it and willing to share the hard-won wisdom of her life. Ballard practices all that she teaches, living the magical life with the land she loves and spreading the love of that land wherever she travels to inspire us to love our land. As the proverbial Village Witch, she weaves the strands of poetry, science, history, farming, medicine, and magic into her holistic vision. Christopher Penczak, cofounder of The Temple of Witchcraft and author of The Plant Spirit Familiar, Spirit Allies, and Sons of the Goddess

Our world needs elders speaking their truth and sharing their wisdom teachings. Ballard is such a global elder, unafraid of using her voice. Seasons of a Magical Life demonstrates an earth-based spirituality that seamlessly weaves together land and soul, building fences and seeking solidarity, tending bees or chickens, and the chore of laundry as a meditative practice. A truly great piece of advice I once received is Don't get mad, get curious! This book takes that concept to a new level and demonstrates how preserving the profound innate curiosity of a child can lead us to a life of meaning and authenticityeven when a pandemic rages and challenges all previously held assumptions! Brava! Imelda Almqvist, author of Natural Born Shamans, Medicine of the Imagination, and Sacred Art

A cozy stroll through H. Byron Ballard's forest-farm, Seasons of a Magical Life offers inspiration for a down-home, yet revolutionary, Pagan, animist path. Christine Grace, author of The Witch at the Forest's Edge

This deeply personal work may be Ballard's best yet. Her words hum quietly from the page, puttering in her garden or decorating for the holidays, but then settle into you like a shot of bourbon. In sharing the seasonal movements of her own corner of the world (and she makes you long to live among the forests of the Smokies with every page), Ballard reconnects the reader with their own lands, spirits, sunshine, and storms. There are reminiscences and recipes, and the philosophical blends seamlessly with the practical as she takes you juneberry picking or teaches you the hidden history of her homeland. She builds upon both magical lore and regional animism and is as likely to lead you down paths of biodiversity and permaculture as altars and charms. In so many ways, Seasons of a Magical Life is that still, small voice that goes beyond religion and into the realm of spirit, of nature, and of what it means to be a magical human animal in a living and enchanted world. Cory Thomas Hutcheson, author of New World Witchery

This edition first published in 2021 by Weiser Books, an imprint of
Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
With offices at:
65 Parker Street, Suite 7
Newburyport, MA 01950
www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2021 by H. Byron Ballard
Foreword copyright 2021 by Amy Blackthorn
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
Reviewers may quote brief passages.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-723-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.

Cover design by Kathryn Sky-Peck
Cover photograph by Iuliia Kandaurova/iStock.com
Interior by Ellen Varitimos
Typeset in Centaur

Printed in the United States of America

IBI

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter

Every step forward brings us closer to home.

Casimira Davie

This book is dedicated to the ragtag army of miscreants who are making soil from kitchen scraps, stepping through the borderlands and into terrible realms, speaking from impossible visions, and building new worlds from the rubble of the Tower. You are my beloved kindred and our only real hope.

PART ONE
REACHING BEDROCK: BACKGROUND ESSAYS

PART TWO
THE WHEEL OF THE AGRICULTURAL YEAR

PART THREE
HEARTH

The idea for this book was suggested by two acolytes of homelinessMelissa D'Ortensio and Maiasaura WinterHeartas well as the ongoing work of Dr. Sharon Blackie, which feels like a reunion as well as a revelation (especially her soul-breaking sojourn in the sacred harshness of western Ireland). Dr. Martin Shaw's exquisite work in modern animism inspires and confounds me. To these earth-dirtied souls I owe my thanks. And to these humble and divine beings, Paul Stamets, Paul Strauss, Amanda Strawderman, Bob and Lucia White, Lauri Newman, Jacqueline Honeybee-Durban, Jen Rue, Leann Ticknor, Julie and Sam Thompson, Paul Patton, Amber Shehan, Charlene Suggs, AC. Stauble, and Isaac Alexander Salamander Hill: may beauty be always before you and strength be in your wild, raw hearts. To my wonderful team at WeiserPeter Turner, Judika Illes, Jane Hagaman, Mike Conlon, Kathryn Sky-Peck, Ashley Benning, Be Engler, Ellen Varitimos, my cheerleaders Bonni Hamilton, Eryn Eaton, and Michelle Spaneddamy deepest thanks.

I awake to the cool breeze of late September 2018 in Asheville, North Carolina. I grab a light cotton robe and shuffle into the kitchen for a morning cup of Hecate tea. The whistle of the tea kettle, the clink of the bottles on the refrigerator doorthese sounds ground me in the moment of early morning, the sky still pink. I open the door to the little house and exit the screen door, settling into the chair on the porch to breathe in the morning dew. The little house is the main character of this story, each generation seemingly adding their own personality.

It's such a personal thing to be invited to be a guest in someone's home. You get to know them in a way that is impossible outside of such close quarters. I have known Byron nearly ten years, and she has always regarded me as a trusted friend and co-conspirator. She is forever exposing new depths and constantly evolving her practice and the minds of those around her.

The house belongs to one H. Byron Ballard. Although it seems funny to say that anyone can own such a treasure. Rather, Byron belongs to this house. I was in town for the week as a part of the book tour for Blackthorn's Botanical Magic, and Byron had offered me the use of her beautiful home. In reading Byron's own Seasons of a Magical Life, I picture the land that inspired the year-long journey you hold in your hands. It doesn't just explain the year; it drives us to cycle with the land on which you find yourself and, in doing so, reach who you are, with less hustle and bustle. You find the part of yourself that you cherish with your morning rituals, before society takes its pound of flesh.