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Vila

Vila SpiderHawk, author of Hidden Passages: Tales to Honor the Crones

About Me

HI!
I'm Vila SpiderHawk. I am the author of Hidden Passages: Tales to Honor the Crones (available now at all online booksellers) and Forest Song: Finding Home (coming out soon).
I live in the woods of Pennsylvania with my husband, our six cats, and our many woodland friends. I am an avid gardener and a gourmet vegan cook. I love to read, of course. And I like to crochet. I'm a dedicated news junkie. And I love to walk in the woods.
link Vila SpiderHawk here
link publisher here

My Interests

Reading, writing, gardening, cooking, wicca

I'd like to meet:


Get Your Sexy Name


I would love to meet Wiccan women and others who love the earth. Also people who enjoy reading. I'd like to meet women who are postmenopausal, the ones we call Crones. We Crones have so much wisdom to share. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SpiderHawk interweaves many different loving relationships in these uplifting and poignant tales. My favorite tale presented the life-changing bond between a curious girl and the neighborhood wise woman. But throughout, SpiderHawk expertly portrays the joy of new experiences as well as the protective affection and devoted concern connecting mother, daughter and grandmother during transformative passages of their lives. Here is a book destined to be a classic.Three Feathers
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Panic squeezed all rational thought from my mind. I could not move my feet. I thrust out my arms, feeling for something more substantial than air. My heart raced, and my mouth went dry. I ran my tongue over my teeth, but my lips stuck to them anyway. I dropped to the floor and spread my fingers over its cold surface. At least the floor was solid. At least I knew what it was, where it was, and what I could expect from it. “I think it’s time to go home now,” my voice oozed, slick and oily from my lying smile. Crow Woman said nothing. I would not have known she was there save for the slow rhythmical hissing of her breath. I had come to search for Cara, but I wanted my mother. I called for her. I screamed for her. My voice bounced from the walls and assaulted my ears with a hollow boom. - excerpt from Hidden Passages: Tales to Honor the Crones by Vila SpiderHawk, pp 121-122 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last night I finished (for the first time- I will read it over and over again!!) your book. There are no words to describe it!! It was the finest book I have read ever!! I look forward to being able to give this book to people that I love so they can enjoy it also!!! Thank you for writing such a marvelous book Vila!!! (Any more planned in the future???) Love from Rob
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Tichu considered what the women had said. The fire festered like a wound, melting the snow around its base to a sickly oozing slush. Sitting cross-legged, the women waited, still as ice, unwilling to disturb her reflection. At last Tichu drew her hand from Harugi’s, kissed the Crone on both her cheeks, and rose to speak. Her eyes flashed defiance. “When I die,” she poked her chest fiercely with her finger, “it will be in Grandmother Spider’s arms, not on the end of a spear.” Her voice, sharp as flint, chiseled between her clenched teeth.
Hidden Passages: Tales to Honor the Crones by Vila SpiderHawk, page 203~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Vila, your book [Hidden passages: Tales to Honor the Crones] is wonderful! I can put myself in any one of the stories. There was laughter and crying and the most important thing, it makes you think of things of your life and all that you have done in your past. And the most important things in my life are my two wonderful sons and all that I gave to them and what I gave up for them. Like Dorothy Morrison book, In praise of the Crone as crones we have the right to be us and if you would just listen to us you would know we are RIGHT!!!!! So from one crone to another GOOD JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SilverCrone
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"You don't know? You can't feel it? This is the cloak of life. It's made of the generations, Donnata, of the cycles that they make. See how they interact?" She traced a coil of blue. "See how Grandmother dies and returns as daughter, how the babe grows to be Crone and dies? See how the cycle never ends but feeds on itself, swirling backward, swirling forward." Her finger followed the intricate pattern on my lap.
- excerpt from Hidden Passages: Tales to Honor the Crones by Vila SpiderHawk, page 113
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In Vila SpiderHawk's /Hidden Passages/, rich imagery awaits the reader in each delightful chapter. Her wonderfully human characters experience the transformations of life with honest emotions. As an example, any adult will recognize the loving trepidation and poignant devotion of a daughter when she suddenly realizes that she sees signs of old age in her mother. Wonderful relationships grace each story. Many types of love and many facets of life flow through these pages. The powerful, loving females embodied in SpiderHawk's tales will touch your heart.
Lillith T. Lewis Columnist and feature writer for /If . . Journal of Spiritual Exploration/ and /Listen Media, Inc./
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Kathleen’s mother was ghoulish in her vampire outfit, her lipstick blood trickling down her chin, when she took us trick or treating that Halloween night. She swooped and swept her cape over us and laughed her deepest, most menacing laugh in a parody of the vampire movies we had all seen. Feigning terror, I squealed with delight. Immune to her mother’s antics, Kathleen constantly adjusted her silver foil tiara and complained relentlessly about the itchy pink tulle of her ballerina’s tutu.-Excerpt from Hidden Passages: Tales to Honor the Crones by Vila SpiderHawk, page 13
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I truly love your book "Hidden Passages". I'm really Looking forward to your next book! I have two daugthers, ages 16 and 12, who are reading it now! This is a book that women of all ages can enjoy and relate to in so many ways! Without saying too much to give the story away, I'll just say that there are books that one could read over and over again and just get so into the story that you find it very hard to put down, and you want to read it over and over again, well I truly believe this is one of those books and that other woman will agree! Much love and light to you and yours! ShayLStringer/PaganMoon)O(

Music:

classical, New Age

Movies:

Not all that much for movies.

Television:

Definitely not much for TV

Books:

Hidden Passages: Tales to Honor the Crones; The Temple of my Familiar by Alice Walker Also The Color Purple, also by ALice Walker. In fact I love just about anything this woman writes.

Heroes:

My mother. My friend Helen. And a whole pantheon of goddesses

My Blog

Mrs. Po

People think living in the city is anonymous and solitary, and maybe it is for some. But the block I grew up on was as intimate as a small village. I lived in the corner house at the end of a row of s...
Posted by Vila on Mon, 20 Aug 2007 04:38:00 PST

review

In Vila SpiderHawk's /Hidden Passages/, rich imagery awaits the reader in each delightful chapter. Her wonderfully human characters experience the transformations of life with honest emotions. As an...
Posted by Vila on Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:01:00 PST

review

In Vila SpiderHawk's /Hidden Passages/, rich imagery awaits the reader in each delightful chapter. Her wonderfully human characters experience the transformations of life with honest emotions. As an...
Posted by Vila on Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:12:00 PST

Adventure

With Grandmother gone the woods had gone dark. Great tenebrous shapes hulked all around me with wide hunched shoulders and small angry heads. They loomed high above me and skittered under my feet, as ...
Posted by Vila on Wed, 25 Jul 2007 04:24:00 PST

review

Vila: I am terribly hooked on the book [Hidden Passages: Tales to Honor the Crones]--I can't put it down I am so absorbed in what Heraulta is going through and your description of the soul's picking t...
Posted by Vila on Fri, 13 Jul 2007 08:49:00 PST

Recovery

This article was published in Sage Woman's Issue 71 The Healing Power of Happiness On February 19, my husband's fraternity brother Steve died of pancreatic cancer.  Over the decades they had re...
Posted by Vila on Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:48:00 PST

sadness

And all the animals drew near to him and said: "We do not like to see you so sad... Ask us for whatever you wish and you shall have it." The Man said:"I want to have good sight." The vulture replied:...
Posted by Vila on Sun, 01 Jul 2007 06:36:00 PST

Aunt Hattie

This article appeared in The Beltane Papers, Issue 40 in the Spring issue, 2007.  I tried to copy the article as it appeared in the magazine but couldn't get it to copy into the blog.  So I ...
Posted by Vila on Tue, 26 Jun 2007 07:23:00 PST

reviews

..> Helen ..> Vila, Hidden Passages is an awesome read. Each of the eight stories (of course,you know this already!) is a wonderful life story in which older women, the wise women, help you...
Posted by Vila on Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:10:00 PST

review

I really enjoyed reading this book!  It made me laugh, cry and think about all the many facets of becoming and being a Crone.  Hidden Passages is a great book to cuddle up with to ...
Posted by Vila on Mon, 18 Jun 2007 03:53:00 PST