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Initiated
Initiated: Memoir of a Witch | Amanda Yates-Garcia
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes meets Suspiria in this haunting mystical memoir of finding meaning, beauty, and power through a life and work as a witch. An initiation signals a beginning: a door opens and you step through. Traditional Wiccan initiates are usually brought into the craft through a ceremony with a High Priestess. But even though Amanda Yates Garcia's mother, a practicing witch herself, initiated Amanda into the earth-centered practice of witchcraft when she was 13 years old, she didn't become a professional witch until she underwent a series of spontaneous life-induced initiations of her own. Starting with her initiation into her mother's coven, through years in the underworlds of poverty, sex work, and misogyny, Amanda describes her journey to return to her body, harness her power, and create the magical world she longed for through witchcraft. Hailed by crows, seduced by magicians, and haunted by ancestors broken beneath the wheels of patriarchy, Amanda's quest for self-discovery and empowerment is a deep exploration of a witch's trials-healing ancient wounds, chafing against cultural expectations, searching for love-along with mythology and tales of the goddesses and empowered witches throughout history. Squarely at the intersection of witchiness and feminism, this book will resonate with anyone who feels enraged by a culture built to disempower and subjugate them and who is searching for the answer one of today's most pressing questions: is it possible to live a beautiful life in a world that feels like it's dying? Historically and by definition, witches are not at the mercy of the patriarchal world. Witches have the power to take their visions and bring them into reality. Declaring oneself a witch and practicing magic has everything to do with claiming authority and power for oneself. Initiated is a manifesto calling the magical femmes of the world to take up their wands. Stand up, be brave, describe the world you want, then create it like a witch.
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Soubhiville
Initiated: Memoir of a Witch | Amanda Yates-Garcia
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October‘s #bookspin list. What am I reading next @TheAromaofBooks ? 🙂🩵📚

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 6mo
Soubhiville Bookspin is 19- Harold Fry 💛 and Doublespin is 10- The Duke Undone 💛. I kind of love that they aren‘t seasonal so I have to take some breaks from scary/spooky/possibly stressful. Thanks @TheAromaofBooks ! 6mo
TheAromaofBooks Yay!! Enjoy!! 6mo
41 likes3 comments
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KayPhoenix
Initiated: Memoir of a Witch | Amanda Yates-Garcia

"Empathy is a spell that creates intimacy and connection, a free exchange of information. Protection spells are sometimes necessary, but their objective is to keep things out. Create peace, and protection becomes less necessary."

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BooksNBowls
Initiated: Memoir of a Witch | Amanda Yates-Garcia
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Pickpick

I‘m not huge on memoirs, but Amanda is a great storyteller and I found myself really caring about her story. I related to her relationship with her mom. I learned a lot and was confused a lot too. Overall though, I give it 3.5 stars! I‘d love to visit her as the Oracle of LA. Putting this in the mail for my #LMPBC peeps this week!

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Pogue
Initiated: Memoir of a Witch | Amanda Yates-Garcia
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Pickpick

This was not what I expected. My only recommendation is to go to TheStoryGraph and check out the trigger warnings. #LMPBC #GroupW @BooksNBowls @katereads @sprainedbrain

sprainedbrain I‘m glad it was a pick for you! 2y
Pogue @sprainedbrain honestly I was surprised that it was. One chapter was a killer to get through. 2y
20 likes2 comments
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sprainedbrain
Initiated: Memoir of a Witch | Amanda Yates-Garcia
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Ashley, I absolutely adore the #SprinfEquinoxSwap you put together for me! The books are perfect, I love the candles, crystals, gemstones, and this lovely incense set is amazing. Going to post a closer-up for detail, and then I‘m having chocolate for breakfast. Thank you so much!

AmyG Cadbury eggs, to me, is an important sign of Spring! 😂 (edited) 2y
sprainedbrain @AmyG me too! Ashley clearly understood the assignment 😂 2y
BookwormAHN Your welcome 😺 2y
Chrissyreadit 💚😍💛😍💚 2y
emz711 Cadbury! 🥚🥚🐇🐇🐇 2y
74 likes5 comments
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Clare-Dragonfly
Initiated: Memoir of a Witch | Amanda Yates-Garcia
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When you get the Death card in tarot, the best thing you can do is pull the plug on whatever it is in your life you‘re keeping on life support. If you don‘t let it go, it will suck all your energy.

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Clare-Dragonfly
Initiated: Memoir of a Witch | Amanda Yates-Garcia
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Pickpick

Lovely. This is a memoir (of a life like a Francesca Lia Block novel), but it‘s also a book of magical philosophy. After all, Amanda Yates Garcia was raised in witchcraft; magic suffuses her life. Despite some dark places in her life (CW for sexual exploitation), this book felt calming and joyful to me, and the acknowledgements had me tearing up.

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Clare-Dragonfly
Initiated: Memoir of a Witch | Amanda Yates-Garcia
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“But then, when things did get easier and her life stabilized, like a plant in your garden some call medicine and others call a weed, the witch in her came flowering back.”

Photo of ribwort plantain taken from Wikipedia. When I was looking for this, I learned that psyllium—which has a husk that is used as a fiber supplement—is in the plantain family! (It‘s unrelated to the banana-like cooking plantain.)

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Clare-Dragonfly
Initiated: Memoir of a Witch | Amanda Yates-Garcia
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“Left to their own devices, most teenage girls are natural witches, and I was no exception. I played fortune-telling games with folded paper and contacted spirits with Ouija boards. … At slumber parties we used rhythmic chants to lift each other to the ceiling with our pinky fingers. We wore mood rings and ankhs and vials of blood around our necks.”

26 likes1 stack add
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MegCaldwell
Initiated: Memoir of a Witch | Amanda Yates-Garcia
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Pickpick

Loved this book because I loved reading Amanda‘s story and path through and to the Craft.

4 likes1 stack add
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Jen2
Initiated: Memoir of a Witch | Amanda Yates-Garcia
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Pickpick

Pretty good.

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LouBeth
Initiated: Memoir of a Witch | Amanda Yates-Garcia
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Pickpick

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was not expecting to have so many feelings while listening to this audio book.

48 likes3 stack adds
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Bookalong
Initiated: Memoir of a Witch | Amanda Yates-Garcia
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Pickpick

4/5🌟A Bewitching Read! Garcia lives her life as a modern witch. She takes the reader through her journey of being Initiated onto this path. Garcia unpacks so much in these pages, Memories, Mythology, Trauma, Self-Discovery, Empowerment and more! Her writing is strong and decisive. This is one of thoes memoirs that really shows what the human spirit can endure and what it looks like to come out the otherside. Out Oct 22nd! #bookreview #booklover

10 likes2 stack adds