About the Author

Brandon Weston (Fayetteville, AR) is a healer, writer, and folklorist who owns and operates Ozark Healing Traditions, an online collective of articles, lectures, and workshops focusing on the Ozark Mountain region. As a practicing folk healer, his work with clients includes everything from spiritual cleanses to house blessings. He comes from a long line of Ozark hillfolk and is also a folk herbalist, yarb doctor, and power doctor. His books include Ozark Folk Magic, Ozark Mountain Spell Book, and Granny Thornapple's Book of Charms. Visit him at OzarkHealing.com.

Reviews

"Every bit as entertaining as it is informative, Granny Thornapple's Book of Charms brings the time-honored traditions of Ozark charming to life. Following the story of the titular character, readers are presented with dozens of useful, and at times quite whimsical, charms for everything from health to hexing. Brandon Weston has once again provided an invaluable collection of folk magic and readers of this volume are sure to be both delighted and charmed by the fabulous Granny Thornapple."
—Kelden, author of The Crooked Path and The Witches' Sabbath "This book offers a unique exploration of Ozark charming traditions through examination of regional storytelling tropes, tales, and narratives....Brandon's careful analysis grounds these witch tales in the craft-logics and operative techniques of Ozark magical practices, offering supplemental advice, spell-craft, and formulary for working these storied charms in one's own work. In so doing, the author traces (amongst many other things) the oft-crossed hedge-lines between healer, charmer, granny, and witch and the uneasy folkloric tensions between communal fears of harmful witchcraft and the fondness for telling of the exploits of this larger-than-life granny/witch figure."
—Dr. Alexander Cummins, author of The Starry Rubric, An Excellent Booke of the Arte of Magicke (with Phil Legard), and A Book of the Magi "Brandon Weston masterfully takes us into the world of Granny Thornapple, where we learn about her life and the spells she casts to help her community. Storytelling in magick is a long-lost art that not only teaches us enchantments but also helps us understand the person who is conjuring the magick. Step into the world of Granny Thornapple, pull up a chair, and ask her to teach you the magick of the Ozarks."
—Chris Allaun, author of The Black Book of Johnathan Knotbristle "Weston weaves the reader into the flow of Ozark folk charming practices, showing how they move and change over time to meet the needs of those using them. Charms for healing and harm, charms for love and beauty, charms for knowing what others don't and speaking to the spirits others won't all fill this hearty compendium....The research we expect from Weston is still here but tempered by modern twists on old charms, linking the lore of the past to the world of the present."
—Cory T. Hutcheson, author of New World Witchery "A rare volume, not merely a collection of tales or raw folkloric data, but a whole landscape populated by characters you will come to love by the end. Weston's teachers, neighbours, and friends all find their voice in this deeply personal work, their stories supporting the magical practices outlined. So often in magical books we get the practices divorced from culture, but in this book we have all of it right in front of us. Weston gives us rituals, charms, prayers, and all manner of magical practices...and supports almost every single one with a story....This book will appeal not only to those interested in the Ozarks, but to all who want to connect to their own landscape as deeply as Weston has."
—Ben Stimpson, author of Ancestral Whispers "As a lifelong Ozarker as well, I was immediately drawn into the story of Granny Thornapple. She is the Granny woman we all wished we'd had in our life. Brandon Weston has given us a connection to those healers, teachers, and workers that many of us missed in our youth. He demystifies the charm practice, allowing us to give ourselves permission to explore this path. He shows us that anyone who is willing to do the work can fold this practice into their own."
—Debra L. Burris PhD, professor, farmer, and author of Weather Magic