Arteles Catalogue 2023-2020

Fall into Focus program / SEPTEMBER 2023
Ariel Kusby
Portland, Oregon, USA
www.arielkusby.com
About
I write children’s books about magic and witchcraft. When
engaged with the magic of the everyday world—through
ritual, intention, and imaginative play—we live more deeply
connected to other people, to nature, and to ourselves. I
want to empower kids (and adults’ inner children) to embrace
wonder and curiosity, seek enchantment, and find their
unique magic within.
I am interested in the power of ritual, childhood magic, time
travel, fairy tales and folklore, somatics, plant medicine,
trancework, exploring liminal spaces, inner child healing,
poetry as spellcasting, Jungian psychology, Jewish
mysticism, and meditation.
My children’s grimoire, The Little Witch’s Book of Spells was
published in 2020 by Chronicle Books, and my divination
deck/book, The Little Witch’s Oracle Deck will be released
in 2024.
Green Magic
I arrived at Arteles with a plan for what I wanted to work on,
anticipating that I would immediately retreat into that work.
What I didn’t expect was that I would first be pulled so deeply
into the magic of the land, and into communion with the spirit
of the place. The mushroom-dotted forest trails, beds of
electric green moss, dramatic ice-age boulders invited me
to sit and meditate with them, and in the privacy of the quiet
woods, to communicate. The fiery sauna tonttu, the runelike
pillars of the meditation hall, and the spirits of school
children who once played and learned on the land all wanted
to connect. I knew this magic of place would influence my
writing, but I didn’t know how. Instead of trying to rationally
understand, I allowed myself to sink into the experience and
be changed by it. From this open space, I began to write
in earnest, completing a large chunk of a novel and the
beginnings of a nonfiction book based around the magic of
plants. Additionally, I wrote many guided meditations based
on the local landscape, so I could bring a little of the Arteles
enchantment home to share.