Totem Magic: Dance of the Shapeshifter
Yasmine Galenorn
Crossing Press, 2004
224 pages
This is definitely one of the best books on animal magic to come out in recent years. First and foremost, I want to commend Ms. Galenorn for breaking away from the totem animal dictionary format and creating something unique. It’s nice to see an author who trusts the reader to be able to figure out hir relationship to hir totem on hir own.
I’m also really pleased with the wonderful anecdotes that are used to support a variety of spiritual and practical material. I especially liked reading about the spirit who decided to take up residence in an elk skull on the wall, but Galenorn is a wonderful storyteller no matter what she’s talking about. Her writing style flows well and is very accessible without being watered down.
Pretty much my only complaint would be the pre-crafted rituals and spells, though this is more of a personal pet peeve, and other readers will quite likely find them useful, especially newbies. And the pre-crafted material is inventive, rather than being formulaic as in some books on this and other topics.
Four and a half pawprints out of five.
Pagan Book Reviews 
AstroHerbalist said,
February 21, 2011 at 12:02 pm
Aha! Now I found it – I looked under the category “Animal Magic” since it was the closest – but didn’t think of using your search bar. Thanks for this recommendation, I also enjoyed this book and really like Yasmine’s writing!!