Pagan Portals – Venezuelan Folklore

Spirits and Legends of the Dead

by Alan U. Dalul

‘A delightfully compact digest of Aesopian-esque legends and lore… shared by a local with a unique view into Latin American magic.’ Tomás Prower, author of La Santa Muerte: Unearthing the Magic and Mysticism of Death

Pagan Portals – Venezuelan Folklore is a collection of articles from the author’s regular column in The Wild Hunt. In concert with an increasing interest in Latin American spirituality, this book is a welcome addition both for those interested in the oral tradition of Venezuela and for those who enjoy folklore and mythology in general.

REVIEW

5 out of 5

This was an easy-to-read collection of short articles, followed by journaling prompts, that gives the reader some insight to Venezuelan folklore and beliefs. I must admit my knowledge of folklore south of the US border is very limited, so I was quite interested to see what was waiting inside this. While I enjoyed reading each article, the ones that stuck with me most were Prayers for Walking Late at Night, and The Tears of La Llorona: A Tarot Spread for Mental Health. As someone who feels uncomfortable being outside at night despite living in a fairly safe area, I bookmarked the prayers chapter to circle back around to later. I’ve been slowly getting back into my tarot practice, and the tarot spread interested me, especially because it’s linked to mental health. It’s not a spread I encountered in any of my beginners books when I was first starting out, and I’m eager to try and incorporate it into my practice as I get back into reading tarot regularly. If, like me, you want to learn more about folklore while using journal prompts to take a deeper look at yourself, then you need to grab this!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alan U. Dalul is an independent author, journalist, and blogger from Venezuela, recently based in Millcreek, Utah. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication, with a concentration in Social Development, and a Master’s in Communications and Development, with a concentration in Information and Communication Technologies for Human Development. He has published several independent novels, published academic articles on Gothic Studies and folklore for different postgraduate portals, and become a book reviewer for the University of Wales Press. While studying, he kept a monthly bilingual column for The Wild Hunt.