The Ethereal Dragon's Realm

Published 2025

“Anna Franklin guides your unique journey into the hearth witch’s world and helps you form a spiritual relationship with your home. She provides a complete course on hearth witchery that walks you, step-by-step, along this path. With the garden as a sacred space and the kitchen as a magical workshop, you will develop your herb cunning and formulate your own spells for courage, luck, and much more.

Forge partnerships with your house spirit and various deities. Explore magical cleansing, banishing, and warding. Align your rituals with the sabbats and moon phases. Discover dozens of elemental, planetary, herbal, and color correspondences. Craft incenses and oils for protection, consecration, purification, and blessing.

The Hearth Witch’s Path presents in-depth domestic lore alongside the modern practice of this tradition. Tips for achieving balance and living in harmony with nature are featured throughout, making this book an essential part of living a richer life with deep connections to the sacred.”

- from the back of the book

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What I Liked

While I don't really do deity work/worship myself, I do like that each goddess the author mentions in the first chapter is given her own unique invocation. Sometimes you'll see invocations that just plug a deity in, but these ones really think about the role that goddess plays in it's cultural context as well as modernly.

The second chapter is great for working with household spirits and setting up shrines. It also gives good ideas to connect with a house spirit in a house you're moving into as well as reconnecting with one that may have been neglected.

While I don't know that I personally give much credit to the idea of spiritual "miasma," the author gives some interesting thoughts on the matter. While I don't necessarily agree with everything she says when talking about it on page 33, it does make me think and play with different ideas. Which I don't get much of from similar books like this these days.

I can see that the author has had growth when it comes to cultural appropriation. Which is great! In my review of her earlier book, "The Hearth Witch's Compendium," I noted that she used the term "smudging" for smoke cleansing; in this book she actually mentions the issues around using white sage (though this is not the only herb used in smudging rituals) and gives alternatives to smudging and white sage. I will note that white sage is not endangered, however people are concerned about it's status due to the large amount of consumerism around this keystone species. If you would like to learn more about Indigenous-led safeguards for and information about this plant, please check out this website.

I often see people ask how to banish, and this book gives a banishing ritual. This would be a good one to look into for people who have Wicca adjacent practices as well as those that work with the elements. It can also be easily modified to fit another person's practice.

Franklin has some really good historical information on Witch Bottles, you can find my own post on them here. The actual way she makes witch bottles is more modern (no urine) and has incantations that are Wiccan. It is just nice to see a witch bottle being an actual witch bottle in a modern practice book. (There's a change to this later on, see "What I Didn't Like")

In the beginning of Part Two of the book, titled "Herb Cunning," I really like that Franklin acknowledges that plants are living beings. They have sentience, they communicate with each other, take care of each other, having communities, etc. and has SOURCES for this science. I really want more people to realize this about plants in more than just a "cool knowledge" point of view.

I love that Franklin talks about herbalism not being a replacement for modern medicine. As I said in my review of her earlier book (see above), I was worried that her rhetoric around herbal medicine would lead to dangerous anti-vax, anti-modern medicine mind set. Here she gives no room to doubt her support of modern medicine and how herbalism can work alongside it, with safety precautions.

There's a really quick chapter on the garden, but she does cover the garden extensively in other books. Here we get a nice little dedication for an herb garden and a discussion on how the garden can help us connect with the "web of life." The next chapter also has a section talking about connecting with plant spirits that is very good for those who want to learn a bit more about that.

Very rarely do I see anyone talking about using stones found in your own environment, but I was so excited to see this discussion here! She has so many ideas for how to work with them, the types you may find and the properties she has found that they have. I also was surprised to find myself enjoying the small prayer that's included to the spirit of the stones that the author has dubbed "stone mother."

I also really liked that she talks about working with animal parts; bones, feathers, and shells mostly. While I love the information here, I would warn that those in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Russia, and Japan need to remember that it is illegal to pick up feathers from migratory birds. You can find more information on the Migratory Bird Treaty Act at the link which leads to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website page on it. You will also want to look up local laws on gathering bones from deceased wild animals. You may need to report to your local conservation officer, obtain a tag for the animal, etc, or not depending on state, province, country, etc.

After all that information, Franklin gives a whole lot of different spell techniques that she has dubbed anchors. These are different ways to perform a spell that can easily be changed per intention.

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What I Didn’t Like

Some of the pseudohistory from her previous book that I reviewed (linked and named in above section) has calmed down a bit. Though it feels like she still has the idea that women carry special knowledge of magic. So while it's not as bad as the previous book, I still say tread cautiously around the history of women in this book, including the idea that every woman was the priestess of her household hearth, every woman knew how to make their own medicine, and male physicians got planetary correspondences from women and then forbade them to practice (this one in particular was a class issue).

The author operates on the idea that all hearth goddesses are one goddess under many names. I personally don't subscribe to this idea, I think it can lead to a few bad habits when it comes to other cultures. However I'll say that she does at least seem to treat each goddess she talks about as specific to the culture they come from and gives them their own individual invocations and offerings (as talked about above).

On page 15, Franklin is talking about household gods shrines and she talks about different ways to dedicate them. It's all well and good, but she says she offers bread and rosemary and then leaves it out for the birds if it's not burned on the fire. Please do not feed birds bread. You can learn more about that here.

On page 56 Franklin recommends hanging your herbs in direct sunlight to dry them. DO NOT HANG THEM IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT! Sunlight dries up the volatile oils making them weaker in your herbal concoctions, and bleaches the color. Hang them in a place with lots of air flow and NO direct sunlight.

There's a couple of vernacular things that I wonder is maybe just a difference between UK and US dialect. For example, on page 59 Franklin says marigold is Calendula officinalis as well as Tagetes. But Calendula is Calendula officinalis while marigold is in the Tagetes family. On page 60, she says "An herb simple can be an herb tea, an infusion (a greater proportion of herb to boiling water than a tea), or a decoction (the herb is boiled in water)." But tea is a plant. Infusions are called teas because they were made with... tea. Also, while I know what she was getting at with her description of a decoction, she probably should have clarified that an infusion is hot water poured over the plant and left to steep, while a decoction is the hardy plant matter (such as roots and bark) boiled in a pot.

In that same chapter (chapter) there are some plants that need safety precautions, such as St. John's Wort and Valerian root. Please make sure you are looking up contraindications before ingesting a plant.

On page 172 Franklin mentions blue moons. She says "A blue moon is a second full moon in a calendar month. It is coincidence of the artificial calendar and has no resonance in the natural cycle or natural magic." But this is false! This blue moon is actually a mistype by a 1946 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine. There are typically three full moons in an astronomical season (aries, taurus, etc.); but when there are four full moons in an astronomical season, the third one is a blue moon. Learn more here.

At the beginning of Part Five, titled "Operative Witchcraft," Franklin says "Spells are cast for power, never power over, and if you practice such dark magic you will be corrupted by it." Bullshit. There is no difference between casing magic for power or power over. Those are the same things. Also, there is no dark magic, just magic you have deemed to be so. You will never know another persons circumstances or why they cast the spell they did, unless you sit down and have a very honest and open conversation with them. So don't judge. In this same area, Franklin fear mongers around deities, such as Nemesis, and certain types of magic. I'm just... tired.

While I applauded Franklin's description and use of the witch bottle earlier on in the book, in her spell anchors section on page 183 she creates a spell jar instead, but calls it a witch bottle. I feel like witch bottles are a specific working, while a spell jar is a type of working that can be changed with intent. On page 191 she changes the chant written by Doreen Valiente for the Nine-Knot charm, but doesn't give her credit despite it's barely being changed.

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Overall Thoughts

This book is Wiccan in practice, though those who are not beholden to a specific type of witchcraft or tradition and enjoy's hearth craft may enjoy this book. I'd like to note that the US doesn't have any official medical herbalists, but the UK does have an organization for it which information for can be found here. The US does have an herbalists guild, though this does not mean it is medical licensing. Something to keep in mind as the book does suggest learning from a medical herbalist. I feel like I would only really recommend this book to those I know have a good grasp on women's and witchcraft history, but most of it is also pretty basic.

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Conclusion

Natural Isn't Always Safe

First thing I want to get out of the way is that not everything you find outside is going to be safe to put in your body or even touch. On top of that, not everything that is safe for someone else is going to be safe for you. We each have different bodies and how we react to something will not always be the same. When you first start foraging, it's important to have a guide book that will tell you of any safety measures to take when dealing with a plant. Some will interact with medications in ways that are not healthy, some have fluid that can make your skin photosensitive, and some... some people are just allergic to.

When it comes to medications, you can find contraindications (when not to ingest something) with a quick google search of "[plant name] contraindications." Generally this will give you a safe answer, however always check with your doctor if you are unsure. Better to pay for a consultation than a hospital visit.

Some risks come from the environment that the plant grew in. If you are foraging near train tracks or buildings that could leach lead into the soil, the plants will pick that up as well. Contaminated soil and pesticides sprayed onto the plants can also lead to health risks. Be very mindful of where you are foraging.

Some plants that are safe will also have toxic look-alikes. A famous look-alike is wild carrot and poison hemlock (thank you Oregon Trail video game). Unless you know what characteristics you are looking for, it's very easy to confuse the two plants. One is a delicious snack, while the other is highly toxic (the poison hemlock), to the point of causing muscle death and kidney failure. This isn't to scare you away from foraging. Only to drive home the importance of making sure you know what you are gathering.

*credit to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture

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Laws and Foraging

I am a resident of the United States so these will be more geared towards that country. It would be to your benefit to look into the foraging laws of your own country/state anyway, as it can still differ. The majority of states in America prohibit foraging on public lands, which makes it really hard for those who don't own their own property. If you live in Alaska and Hawaii, however, congratulations your local government allows it. Even among those states that do allow it, there can be designated areas where it's not allowed such as a nature preserve. Breaking these laws tends to come with a hefty fine and possible jail time, if caught. Though these laws are hard to find with a quick google search, especially for a specific area.

The laws in the United States prohibiting foraging are generally colonial, imperial, classist, and racist (surprise, surprise). Foraging was protected by law well into the 1800s (except for Native Americans who were pushed off their ancestral hunting and gathering grounds), even when doing so on another person's private property. After the Civil War, many newly-freed African-Americans would sell their foraged and hunted goods for an income, while also using the practice to become self-sufficient. The southern plantation owners needed this system to go away so they could chain what used to be their "property" to their old line of enslaved work. Starting with criminal trespass laws. Eventually anti-foraging laws spread to the average white rural American. Outside elites began to believe that the "backwards" people of the countryside, who made a subsistence living off the practice of foraging, fishing and hunting, could not be trusted with the stewardship of the land; using "conservation" as a way to "protect" it from the people who lived there (Linnekin, "Food Law Gone Wild: The Law of Foraging" p.1008-1014).

I do believe we need to protect our resources and lands. However, foraging can be regulated, not outright outlawed as it is. Learning about the plants and animals that live around us and can help us in our lives, leads us to learn more deeply about their role in the environment and just WHY we should protect them...

All this to say, look into your local foraging laws (and how local law enforcement actually enforces them, if they do at all) and then you can decide if you want to follow them or not. At your own risk.

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Invasive vs. Native vs. Naturalized

There is a lot of talk in foraging communities about invasives vs. natives. Sometimes even bringing in naturalized plants. So let's talk a little bit about what these words mean in ecology and how this may effect your foraging habits.

Invasive and naturalized plants have one thing in common; they are both transplanted outside their natural ecosystem. A plant that is invasive in one place, can be naturalized in another. What matters is the impact the plant has on the ecosystem it has been transplanted into.

Invasive =  plants or animals that harm regional ecosystems.

Naturalized = plants that have successfully established and reproduced in a new environment, integrating into their new home without inflicting ecological harm.

To make things a bit more complicated, let's introduce the 10% rule. According to the Huron River Watershed Council, "the '10% rule' postulates that of all species introduced to a region outside of their native range, only 10% will survive to reproduce in their adopted environment. This 10% of non-native survivors are often called 'naturalized' plants. Of that 10%, another 10% (or 1% of the original non-native transplants) may thrive to such an extent that they dominant their new home, out competing their native neighbors. These prolific competitors are known as invasive species."

So what makes a native plant? The US Forest Service defines a native plant as "plants [that] are indigenous terrestrial and aquatic species that have evolved and occur naturally in a particular region, ecosystem, and habitat. Species native to North America are generally recognized as those occurring on the continent prior to European settlement."

Some native species can be endangered due to habitat loss from agriculture and/or competing invasive species. It's good to have a list (many state DNR (Department of Natural Resources) will have a list available on their website) printed so you know which ones should be cultivated in your garden if you wish to work with them. Avoiding these and working with invasive species can help with conservation efforts as well. Native species can still be worked with in the wild if they are not endangered.

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Animistic Foraging

You'll often see witches giving advice about asking the plants permission before harvesting. This is from the belief that the plant has a spirit, an animistic belief. Asking permission to harvest isn't the only way we can forage mindfully and with respect to the plant. The way that I do this is by following the Honorable Harvest set out by Robin Wall Kimmerer (a Potawatomi botanist, and the director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry) in her book "Braiding Sweetgrass."

Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so you may take care of them.

Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life.

Ask permission before taking and abide by the answer.

Never take the first, never take the last.

Take only what you need.

Take only what is given.

Never take more than half. Leave some for others.

Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.

Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken.

Share.

Give thanks for what you have been given.

Give a gift in reciprocity for what you have been given.

Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.

The first rule really helps you to follow the rest of them. Know the plant. Walk by it several times, offer water even if you aren't taking something, say hello. These plants are our neighbors and when we harvest we are asking for their help.

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Conclusion

Each plant will have it's own method of harvest to minimize the harm done to it. Some you have to pull the whole thing up, but there are ways to repopulate it. It's so individual that I couldn't add it to this post. Hopefully what's written here can help you keep a few things in mind when going out and learning about your local flora.