Book Review: "The Magic of the Mountains" by Tim Carmichael

Yes, I'm reading another book by one of our fellow creators. It's surprising to me how many people have published or self-published some really cool books - I've always wanted to do it but I don't think I'd have the guts. Tim Carmichael has written this wonderful text about the healing women of the Appalachian regions. I really enjoyed reading this mainly because I enjoy anything that has its basis in folk culture and I think this is about as folk as you can possibly get. Let's take a look at what made Tim Carmichael's book so good, shall we?

Check out Tim Carmichael's Profile here:

First of all, we have who the Granny Witches are and what they do. These people use folk spirituality and herbal remedies to heal people and yet, they can be practically anyone from any walk of life. They often share their knowledge with others and the author talks about them doing a community service rather than living on the fringes of society. This is definitely different to the folk witches we usually hear about who are more out-there. The Appalachian remoteness would, I imagine, lend itself to small, close-knit communities.

He includes a list of example herbs and spices that the Granny Witches use to heal. I found this quite interesting because of the fact that some of them are definitely not native to America and so, must have been brought over at some point and shared. Each of these things would have their own histories and to think that they all exist together in Appalachia is really something else. There's even lists on how to make certain things for certain purposes. To be honest, this book is very well researched and, if for thousands of years this stuff has healed people - then there may very well be something to it.

There are many folk stories of women who could sense death and cautionary tales of things that were not so nice. From healing powers to crop failures, these stories capture the atmosphere of the Appalachian setting whilst also informing the reader about the fables that were passed around the campfires, passed down the families and let the people in on the ways of these women of whom I'm sure, you'd want to stay on the good side of. As the author moves on to look at the legacy of these women, we learn that the oral tradition was perhaps more than just a tradition in place to pass the stories down - it was a sacred way of conserving knowledge in a time before technology. This generational learning is still around in some cultures today but in many cases it has been overshadowed by the internet. I'm glad to see the Appalachian setting still lends its hand to tradition.

One of the really cool things I learnt from this book was about the Midwives of Appalachia. These women who were Granny Witches but also some of the most dedicated midwives I have ever read. We have Sibby Kelly who passed through the rough terrain of the Georgia mountains just to tend to births. We have Mary Breckinridge who founded the Frontier Nursing Service and sought to make sure there was a service for mother and child care in places that were perhaps too remote for one person to do all by themselves. We get to see what things like raspberry leaf do for labour and how these two women helped to lower infant mortality rates in the mountains.

We get some insight into how divination worked amongst the Granny Witches and how their magical practices often connect to the landscape of the Appalachian mountains. It really does feel like these women are a part of the land, or perhaps the land is a part of them. But my favourite thing is thet in the back, there's 25 recipes that if read logically, would actually definitely work to lower things like inflammation and fever, take away the flue and relieve and headache. There are also practices that have been seen to work as well. As someone who has a deep love for everything folk, this is very interesting to me.

All in all, this book is a fantastic read and I hope that if you can, you can get Tim Carmichael's book and support one of our fellow creators for writing something so outstanding.