Becca Piastrelli - Root and Ritual: Timeless Ways to Connect to Land, Lineage, Community, and the Self

Praise for Root & Ritual

Root and Ritual is a brilliantly written book exploring the ancestral traditions that help women reconnect to their power, the land, and the important role they have held in cultures as spiritual leaders and healers. Becca Piastrelli helps women to reconnect to their birthright of rituals, healing knowledge, and instructions on how to survive challenging times. This is an important book for the times we live in.

Sandra Ingerman, MA

author of Walking in Light and The Book of Ceremony

This book will find you grabbing a soft blanket and warm cup of tea and curling up on the couch as you follow Beccas wise, loving voice into the deepest parts of yourself. Through land, lineage, community, and self, you might suddenly find yourself in an enchanted, lush land, the rhythmic call of her words unavoidably breathing life into the dreams of your heart. Beware! Only read this book if you are ready for your longing to take deeper root in your life. You just might find dirt under your fingernails; sticky concoctions brewing in Mason jars; smoke thickly matted into your hair; and eyes, ears, and whole body opening to something that you can feel but perhaps not see. In short, this book could make you deeply joyful to be alive.

Elle Luna

artist, designer, and author of The Crossroads of Should and Must

Its so easy nowadays to feel disconnected from ourselves and each other. In Root and Ritual, Becca Piastrelli offers us a way to find connection in every area of our lives, from our natural environment to our relationships. The delightful illustrations and detailed instruction for every ritual and recipe make this treasure of a text accessible to all. And I am particularly moved by Ms. Piastrellis guidance in honoring different cultures while celebrating their traditions.

Rebekah Borucki

mother, author, and publisher

This book is my bible for earth-based rituals and cultivating true belongingness in myself and the world. I will be holding this one close and coming back to it again and again.

Majo Molfino

author of Break the Good Girl Myth

Root and Ritual is the book our disconnected and lonely culture needs. It is magical and practical, otherworldly and grounded, nurturing and nourishing. Beccas words, rituals, and guidance in this book feel like being held in a warm embrace by an old friend. Her sage wisdom provides us a way to intentionally return to the land we live on, the people were connected with, the lineage weve come from, and the true self many of us have lost sight of.

Lisa Olivera

author of forthcoming book Already Enough

Belonging is a healing balm for the loneliest parts of our beings and a beacon, compassionately guiding us toward the rich lives we long for. In illuminating the difference between ownership and stewardship, Becca Piastrelli gently provides a powerful reframe for our relationship with the land beneath our feet, our homes, the communities we belong to, and our bodies. Deeply resonant and powerfully nostalgic.

Mara Glatzel

author of forthcoming book Needy

A beautiful and important reminder of the healing that tradition, ritual, and community can bring to our lives, despite their erasure in our current cultural context. An invitation to welcome back our innate wildness and embrace what our souls are truly longing for, this book will touch many souls.

Erica Feldmann

author of HausMagick

Becca Piastrelli

Boulder, Colorado

Sounds True

Boulder, CO 80306

2021 Becca Piastrelli

Illustrations 2021 Amy Grimes

Sounds True is a trademark of Sounds True, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author(s) and publisher.

This book is not intended as a substitute for the medical recommendations of physicians, mental health professionals, or other health-care providers. Rather, it is intended to offer information to help the reader cooperate with physicians, mental health professionals, and health-care providers in a mutual quest for optimum well-being. We advise readers to carefully review and understand the ideas presented and to seek the advice of a qualified professional before attempting to use them.

Published 2021

Cover design by Linsey Dodaro

Book design by Linsey Dodaro

Cover image by Linsey Dodaro with illustrations by Amy Grimes

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Piastrelli, Becca, author.

Title: Root & ritual : timeless ways to reconnect to land, lineage, community, and the self / Becca Piastrelli.

Other titles: Root and ritual

Description: Boulder, CO : Sounds True, 2021.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020050927 (print) | LCCN 2020050928 (ebook) | ISBN 9781683647720 (hardback) | ISBN 9781683647737 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: WomenReligious life. | WomenPsychology.

Classification: LCC BL625.7 .P53 2021 (print) | LCC BL625.7 (ebook) | DDC 204.082dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020050927

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020050928

For Atlas.

The moment I became your mama, I knew all of this was for the world you will inhabit.

Go out in the woods, go out. If you dont go out in the woods nothing will ever happen and your life will never begin.

Clarissa Pinkola Ests

Women Who Run with the Wolves

As children, we believed in worlds that existed beyond our own. It was perfectly normal to spend our days in search of the key to the secret garden, the portal to another world, or the cottage in the woods with crooked windows and smoke billowing out the chimney. We swam with selkies, collecting shells that whispered secrets, and took to overgrown jungles with hand-drawn maps in pursuit of hidden treasure.

But with time and age, as the world becomes louder and more demanding, many of us stop searching and start living as if the way things are is all there is. The summers of earthen play and feeling connected to something greater than us become blurred figments of the past as we spend our days working, scrolling the Internet, and trying to somehow manage the noise and grief of our disconnected, modern world.

And then one day something inside of yousomething weary and heavily predictablesnaps. Its time. You grab your backpack and water bottle and choose to finally climb over the stone wall at the edge of your property that youve walked alongside for years. Pressing your way through the tall grass and into the dense forest, it is as though the trees are bowing to you, and the crickets erupt into chorus upon your entry. You know, in your bones, that you are undeniably welcome here. Though certain youve never walked this path before, the nudges of nostalgia stir the pine-infused air in your lungs. You may not know where you are going, but you trust that the path forward does.

Your freshly enchanted mind begins to play with those old childhood dreams of a hidden cabin deep in the woods. You envision a woman who opens a creaking door and welcomes your tired body inside. She does not need to speak for her wisdom to be felt. You can hear the cups clinking and the floorboards groaning as she prepares tea for youmade with plants from the wild land around herand sits down with you, ready to listen.