 is fantastic. Hey there saplings! Welcome back to esoteric moment. I have got a delicious book review for you. Another one by Penny Billington. If you've read her book The Path of Druidry, this is in many ways a continuation of that thought. If you look at The Path of Druidry as like bardic studies, this is kind of ovate studies. And I say kind of because it's not as structured in its format as The Path of Druidry, but still lots of like theology study, practicum, kind of pattern going on. But it's very, very focused to three specific trees and working with trees. Unlike like if you're studying ovate through the order of bards ovates and druid, there's a whole host of stuff that you're working with and studying. I do think this makes an excellent companion to any magical herb tree study work, ovate study work. This is a great addition to that. You can see that it's got lots of dog ears on it because there are some wonderful things that I keep referring back to even after long after it's sat on my shelf and I completed it. The format of this book is to study three different trees, the birch, the oak, and the yew. And each of these trees have kind of three attributes that the author is using to teach you how to incorporate into your druid practice and to just live a more peaceful, better life. Birch trees are known for like flexibility, freshness, new projects, so that's definitely the focus of the first section. It also establishes a strong foundation on the different techniques of connecting to trees per the author's kind of experience. The oak tree is all about nurturing and strength. This one is like really deep. I think it was my favorite section of the chapter or maybe it's just what I needed the most at that time. And then the third section is on the yew tree, which is about boundaries and mystery. It was a little hard for me because in our landscape we don't have yew trees. Even ornamental ones are pretty hard to find. And our oldest living tree is the oak boundaries. Sometimes we make with cedar trees, so that's the tree I connected with and did the practicum parts with. But it didn't quite mesh as well for me in my area. If these are trees that you don't have, I would say that my experience with the yew shows that the skills are transferable and maybe is better because you have to work a little bit more conscientiously in your ecosystem and find the trees that work and kind of fit those messages the way you need to. Many of the dog-eared pages that I've kept are these mantras for different attributes of the trees. I already have in my practice some prayer beads that I work with most mornings and I often repeat the same mantra over and over and over again as part of a meditative practice. And these worked really well to feed into that part of my daily morning practice. Some of them are a little more new agey, some of them are straightforward, some of them are very tree-like. For instance, for peaceful anticipation, the landscape is still and quiet. My thoughts grow like seeds in the soil. Through natural stages I grow, guided by my intent. I relax into growth. A new focus for life is growing and expanding within me. So that's just one of the like mantra or affirmations that you see in this book. What I also loved is this book was about trees but didn't just focus on om. Sometimes we get very focused on druidry and pagan circles on just the om trees. And while these definitely are in the om system, it wasn't like looked at from that frame. It was looked at as individual trees and what they have to offer to our lives. People who loved Penny Billington's other titles will love this book. Like I said, those working on overt studies, this is a great companion. I also think it's one that there's enough meat in here that you will want on your shelf. So obviously libraries are great. You should always just check out books. You don't have to buy all these books but this might be one that you'd consider for your reference shelf. Very easy to read, lots to do and think about. An excellent overall book for druids and pagans in general. I also think it is approachable enough that if you have a friend who's been I want to learn more about druidry but they maybe they've got a lot going on in their life and so an intro book like The Path of Druidry might not appeal to them. This feels more substantial in such a way that I think it will appeal to that type of new person or that person trying to understand what's important to you. In the comments below let me know if you've read this book. I am curious to hear your thoughts about Penny Billington and the wisdom of Birch, Oak, and you. And here is this week's sapling shout out. Yay! Thank you for your comment. If you want to be a sapling shout out in a future video definitely leave a comment below or over on Instagram where I also post and hang out with you. Thanks for watching and as always may you find peace in the sacred grove.