The Cunning Farmer

“Prayers, rituals, and supplications have long accompanied agriculture, and I’ve never seen a more thorough treatise on the subject than The Cunning Farmer. In this well-researched volume, Todd Elliott takes us on an esoteric journey from ancient history through various ages and cultures, examining the ways farmers appease their gods, spirits, and deities. The illustrations alone deserve a detailed browse, but most fascinating to me is how Todd has integrated decades of folklore research into his own practices on an organic farm in Northern Kentucky.”

“The Cunning Farmer provides fertile ground to enrich the animistic, land-centered practices that are the legacy of ancestral traditions from around the world. Whether you are tending a small garden, overseeing acres of farmland, or incorporating plants into your spiritual practice in other ways, Todd Elliott brings together elements of ancient philosophy, traditional beliefs, folklore, and spiritual ecology, providing tools to reinforce one’s connection to the land and its unseen inhabitants on a microcosmic and macrocosmic level."

“A lovely exposition of nature spirituality and faery lore that teaches us to see the divine life within plants, trees, weather, and the very soil upon which we stand. A useful guide for all who seek to know and work in partnership with nature and the sacred land.”

“This is a seminal work for partnering with the world. The world is a temple; the cunning farmer is its priest. This book guides you through the story of how to partner with the earth in a magical way, how to attend to the beauty and power of the natural world daily. It’s a deep dive. Savor it. Remember, you are a servant to the holy.”

“One often hears practitioners speak of ‘working with the land’ and ‘following the Wheel of the Year,’ yet modern life often places countless layers of separation between the practitioner and the natural world. Todd Elliott is an exception. As a farmer, he works the land in the most literal sense, and his magical practice is deeply rooted in an intimate relationship with the fecund forces of nature. The Cunning Farmer is an outstanding work, distilling more than twenty years of blending esoteric practice with the rhythms of farming. Drawing on a rich tapestry of influences, Todd shares knowledge tried, tested, and refined in the fields themselves. It is a rare and remarkable book—earthy, wise, and utterly authentic.”

“Like minerals and animals, plants constitute links in various ontological chains that reach back up to the divine potencies of which they are tokens, recapitulating the gods themselves within the world of matter. To cultivate a plant is therefore akin to harnessing something of the essence of a given deity—and the farmer is a veritable magus, capable of conjuring and containing the vegetative energies of that god. Todd Elliott has ploughed this fertile soil and, true to form, laboriously passes the rich bounty of his discoveries on to us, his ravenous readers.”