Toll shares the story of her journey to becoming what Forbes called “a real-life Professor Sprout from Harry Potter” and founder of the Herbiary stores. From her early years as a seeker yearning for a life filled with magic, to her apprenticeship in Ireland with an acclaimed herbalist and healer, Toll’s colorful account reveals how her relentless search for magic led her to live the life of her dreams.
About Letting Magic In
From Maia Toll, the best-selling author of the Wild Wisdom series and The Night School, comes the enchanted story of her own magical awakening, a journey from Brooklyn to Ireland that will inspire readers to uncover their own inner magic.
What is the word for craving a relationship with the earth, plants, rocks, and stars? What do you call someone who finds their spirit sparked by these relationships; whose concept of the sacred is altered by the scent of jasmine in bloom or the deep indigo of a sky awaiting nightfall? We’re taught that doctors know our bodies and priests know our souls. But what if you’re a person seeking to understand both for yourself without an intermediary? What is the word for these feelings and the person we become when we honor them?
For writer Maia Toll, that word is magic. Magic points to something intrinsic to, and necessary for, the wholeness of the human spirit. It’s a marker for the gnawing craving for a connection which includes, but also stretches beyond, the human realm. The exploration of this word was part of her search for both personal empowerment and a sense of cosmic connectedness, the yin and yang of our lives. In Letting Magic In Maia shares the story of her own magical becoming—from the untimely death of a friend that leads her to abandon Brooklyn in favor of the small town of Beacon, NY, to taking a yearlong sabbatical of exploration, and finally to Ireland, where she studied under an herbalist and learned the true magic of listening to the earth itself.
This book is the story of one woman’s becoming—the story of pushing past the boundaries of what once seemed possible to discover the extraordinary all around us. In it Maia shares how she learned to let magic in so she could live the life she longed for—one filled with curiosity, connection, and the deepest kind of inner knowing. In this soulfully written recollection—peppered throughout with magical learnings and rituals gathered along the way—Maia uncovers the things that change you in unexpected ways and guide you to become the person you never knew you wanted to be, but perhaps, always were.
This she could call magic.
And through Letting Magic In you will gain the courage and the wisdom to find your own.
About Maia Toll
Maia Toll is the author of The Wild Wisdom series, including The Illustrated Herbiary, and The Night School. Toll apprenticed with a traditional healer in Ireland, spending extensive time studying the growing cycles of plants, the alchemy of medicine making, and the psycho-spiritual aspects of healing—and studied at The University of Michigan and New York University. She is the co-owner of the retail store Herbiary, with locations in Asheville, NC and Philadelphia, PA. You can find her online at maiatoll.com.
