85 Books Like Soul Retrieval

On September 12, 1984 I relocated from South Florida to Los Angeles where I had just one friend who was preparing to move to NYC in 10 days. With a very small budget and no job, I was terrified about how things would turn out. 

Fortunately, on the long plane ride I read Creative Visualization in which I discovered the secrets to manifesting! Thanks to the lessons in this book, within two weeks I launched myself into a new home, a new career, and found a new best friend. This book is truly responsible for helping make my dream life come true.

Reading High Magick, opened my eyes. Before my formal magickal training, I innately knew that Magick and Witchcraft open a path to access the divinity within. My Wiccan Elder High Priestess recognized this inner sight and chose me for private Magickal lessons with tailored parables in the oral, storytelling Goddess tradition. I didn’t realize I had been learning High Magick. Although structured in a linear, Divine Male perspective, this book offers the same endpoint: Magick is a direct connection to the Divine Source. I have always applied magick to transform trauma into wellbeing and Damien Echols, sentenced to death and later acquitted, did the same. By incorporating magickal practices, he preserved his humanity and safeguarded himself against negativity, thus elevating his awareness to envision his release from prison.

I admire and deeply respect Vicki Noble, a wild, witchy woman whose legacy and ongoing activity paved the path for reviving the Goddess. Her book, Shakti Woman, was bequeathed to me from my best friend’s magickal collection after she crossed to the Other Side. This book is a fierce reclamation of the Divine Feminine within each of us and a rallying cry for equalizing the imbalance of energy that has caused so much mental, physical and spiritual instability, and pain. When the female is left out of the divine, we all suffer, and our Magick and Witchcraft are covered up. Shakti Woman brings us to wholeness because when we see ourselves as equally God and Goddess then we come to know that self-care is how we tend the Divine within. 

I felt a kindred spirit in Robin Rose Bennett, author of Healing Magic, when I interviewed her for an article in SageWoman Magazine. She has her own school, WiseWoman Healing Ways-Herbal Medicine and EarthSpirit Teachings. We passionately agree that respectfully connecting with the unique conscious spirits of the plant world as the foundation of Green Witchcraft. Healing Magic emphasizes that the rote memorization of plant’s attributes is not nearly as imperative as humbly communicating with herbal allies, especially when asking for their healing powers of self-care and wellness. This book teaches a path to connect with the emotional intelligence of the natural world that will in effect bolster the healing powers of connection and personal Magick.

From an early age, art seemed magical to me. Through books, paintings, music, etc. I found I could delve beneath the surface of my existence and grow closer to real life. Art can be more than entertainment, more than inspiration, it can be a magical act that can help us all. I know this to be true from my own experience and I write books and make art with this intention. Jodorowsky believes this too and prescribes artistic acts as therapy in a way that is totally audacious, moving, and often hilarious.

First, I just love Natalia O’Sullivan. I appreciate her understanding of the topic and that this book includes so many facets.

I enjoyed reading the anecdotal stories from people she’s worked with, as I can always relate in some way, even if their stories don’t seem to apply to my version of trauma. I also appreciated her suggestions on creating an ancestral altar to work with my ancestors. 

I love a good ritual, too, and she suggested some great practical exercises that helped me receive a lot of “Aha!” moments.

This is the book I recommend to any clients or friends struggling with their anxiety. It’s a unique take on how anxiety has been understood throughout history and how it can impact us, told as Sarah goes on her own journey to discover how to live with the condition.

It’s beautifully researched, and I could see myself and my own beliefs about anxiety challenged and understood in so much of the text. My own copy is dog-earned, highlighted, and worn down due to multiple readings and referencing. A must-read! 

This culturally rich book, written by an Indigenous Medicine Woman, guides you through a different set of paths you can walk on your healing journey. For many, these traditions will be new and unfamiliar, but they are universal in their focus on honoring both oneself and one’s roots, in this case, one’s ancestors and Ancestral guides.

When I picked up this book, I was vaguely aware that a lot of people pray when someone they know gets sick, and I had read that there’s interesting social science research on how religion helps people lead healthier, happier lives. But I had never really thought about whether prayer actually works.

Candy Gunther Brown takes up this dicey question of what scientists should do when people say that prayer cured cancer, restored sight to the blind, or even raised someone from the dead. She gets into the history of how people in the medical world and the church world have thought about whether it’s possible to “test prayer”—and, if it is, whether it’s a good idea to try. 

I came to the subject of miraculous healing in a skeptical frame of mind, but Brown is so meticulous in going through medical records, clinical trials, a zillion surveys and… show more.

Rankin is a doctor who is disheartened by allopathic medicine and is looking for the answers to how we heal in this exploration of different and ancient perspectives of gaining wellness. To solve the mental health crisis, we have to solve the physical health crisis because they are connected. Rankin talks about what disease does to the mind and what the mind does to disease, empowering people to take healing into their own hands. This is how we want to raise our kids to think about wellness. In this tell-all, she debunks the myths of healing and explains the unexplainable in a way that engages our agency in our healing process giving us empowered hope.