Neolithic Shamanism: Spirit Work in the Norse Tradition - Raven Kaldera 2012

Earth
Appendix

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, by Timothy Egan

The Dust Bowl is fairly well-known in American history, but what makes The Worst Hard Time of particular value to students of magic is its focus on the experiences of the people who stayed behind on the plains during this disaster. Timothy Egan describes in agonizing detail the lives of people whose world quite literally was turned upside down as the earth beneath their feet took flight, with clouds of Midwestern topsoil at times drifting as far as the Atlantic Ocean. On the turbulent ground, the earth choked the life out of people as it clogged lungs and was unavoidably consumed in every bite of food.

This book isn’t just about suffering and tragedy, however. Egan explains with excellent clarity the causes of the Dust Bowl from an economic and environmental perspective, as well as the steps taken to finally alleviate the crisis. It is important to remember that while the great Midwestern Dust Bowl is perhaps the best known, it is far from the only one of its kind (the Desert of Maine is the result of a dust bowl in microcosm, for instance). For those of us who work with natural forces in our spiritual traditions, The Worst Hard Time is a stunning reminder of what happens when Earth, traditionally seen as the most stable of elements, is pushed past its breaking point.