PRAISE FOR THE HOLY WILD
“This book is an untamed, graceful invitation to taste the wild not yet lived. Brave and intimately connected to the gospel of the natural world, it reveals a reemerging path that has often been hidden and overlooked in modern society. It holds medicine for a broken paradigm and common sense for those who desire to live beautifully, empowered and free.”
— Tanya Markul, author of The She Book
“‘I will speak to you directly, for you are a Wolf-Woman of my bloodline and we share the same language, the heathen Mother Tongue of the wild word.’ These words from Danielle Dulsky’s The Holy Wild sing to the inner realms of who and what I stand for. I run with the wolves and howl relentlessly to proclaim and own my individual voice and my passion and my walk as the eternal woman who walks on water and eats roses and becomes nature Herself. The Holy Wild inspires us to wear the magnificence that is our true garb and not the unnecessary superficial veils that hide our insecurities, caused by deep wounds. To truly heal and become transformed is the reason for our presence here, and Danielle’s words are a manifesto of this reality. Let our feminine mystique shine, be alive, and be our eternal soul swords. If you wish to become your own femininity, this book will be a monumental help for you to be able to scream and play in the wilderness of your Self.”
— Manoshi Chitra Neogy, wolfwomanproductions.org
“I’ve long admired Danielle Dusky for her wild, authentic dedication to waking the wild and authentic in women, as these are the very attributes that will save us individually and on a global level. The Holy Wild is her gutsy and glorious offering to help dismantle a killer patriarchal system; it’s her unbridled, undomesticated howl at the moon to wake us and shake us all back to our Goddess-given, soul-driven life. Danielle is a heroine who is determined to live her wild, aching truth, and in so doing, she strikes a match in her reader to do the same.”
— Sarah Durham Wilson, teacher and writer
“Danielle Dulsky has brewed another deliciously soul-gasmic book filled with truth. The Witches are waking, and it is teachers like Danielle that will help guide this wild rising into the depths of realms hidden within us all.”
— Juliet Diaz, founder of The School of Witchery
“I sank into The Holy Wild like a seed into fertile, warm soil, and I was watered to my roots, shown how to flower, and sung into seeds flying free. Grab this book and savor it. It’s a breathtaking achievement — thorough, practical, and straight from the heart and womb of the Mother.”
— Susun Weed, Peace Elder, High Priestess of the Goddess, and author of the Wise Woman Herbal series
“[Danielle Dulsky] recalibrates haunting pasts and remembers what is now becoming a stunning realization: here, right here, in the mangle of the material, in the queer stirrings of telluric critters, in the murky depths of silent waters, in the wintry spirituality of the desolate, in the graceful appearing of moon, is the sacred.”
— from the foreword by Bayo Akomolafe, PhD, author of These Wilds Beyond Our Fences
ALSO BY DANIELLE DULSKY
Woman Most Wild:
Three Keys to Liberating the Witch Within
| New World Library14 Pamaron WayNovato, California 94949 |
Copyright © 2018 by Danielle Dulsky
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, or other — without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
The material in this book is intended for education. No expressed or implied guarantee of the effects of the use of the recommendations can be given or liability taken.
An early version of the material found on pages 73–75 has appeared on the website Rebelle Society, and that on pages 126–28 has appeared on the website The House of Twigs.
Text design by Tona Pearce Myers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dulsky, Danielle, [date.]–author.
Title: The holy wild : a heathen bible for the untamed woman / Danielle Dulsky.
Description: Novato : New World Library, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018020106 (print) | LCCN 2018032098 (ebook) | ISBN 9781608685288 (ebook) | ISBN 9781608685271 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Wicca. | Goddess religion. | Feminist theology.
Classification: LCC BP605.W53 (ebook) | LCC BP605.W53 D845 2018 (print) | DDC 299/.94--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018020106
First printing, September 2018
ISBN 978-1-60868-527-1
Ebook ISBN 978-1-60868-528-8
Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper
| New World Library is proud to be a Gold Certified Environmentally Responsible Publisher. Publisher certification awarded by Green Press Initiative. www.greenpressinitiative.org |
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To all the wild places
The Closest to Prayer
I dreamt of a Crone with sharp teeth and tough skin.
She bit down to my bone but found no sin.
I wasn’t afraid: “Please tell me your name!
Where have you prayed? Have you no shame?”
This Witch hissed, and she painted my face with cold mud
Then she kissed where she’d bitten and lapped up the blood.
“When do you pray?” I asked of her then.
“By night and by day, as only we can.”
“What do you mean, you vicious old beast?
Who is your God? Tell me, at least.”
“The bark and the stone, the wind, and the fire.
The flesh and the bone, the grief and the ire,
The brook and the bird, their land hums my prayer.
So long have I heard the Holy Wild sung there.”
“Why did you bite me? Answer me that!
Was it only to spite me? To taste of my fat?”