INITIATED

"Effortlessly weaving Goddess myths from diverse cultures with her own life story, Garcia's reverent, powerful work will encourage readers to forge their own values and join in her 're-enchantment' of the world." Read more...

author's essay: In Order to Write, I Had to Break a Family Curse ... Read more...

I first became aware of Amanda Yates Garcia after she was interviewed on the Tucker Carlson show on Fox News back in September of 2018. I was instantly a fan. When I got the opportunity to interview near the release of her memoir Initiated: Memoir of a Witch I jumped at the chance. ... Read more...

Early on in her beautifully written memoir, Amanda Yates Garcia says of her sister, 'I decided to love her forever.' That is precisely how I felt about this gorgeous memoir that refuses to be labeled or to fit inside any kind of box. Part history, part mythology, part poetry, part prose; but mostly: magic. Which is to say: this is a book about love. A book which challenges the reader to a deeper understanding of what it means to be human in a complicated and beautiful world. My copy is dog eared and highlighted and I plan to pass it on to all my friends. This book reminds us that we all are powerful with the capacity to change the world, one witch at a time.

Interview with author - Amid the surging popularity of witchcraft, a community of writers and practitioners are opening up about their personal engagement with these ancient traditions. In Initiated: Memoir of a Witch (Grand Central, Oct.), Amanda Yates Garcia, the self-proclaimed Oracle of Los Angeles and host of the popular Strange Magic podcast, invites readers to discover their own connection to the sacred through stories from her journey, interwoven with Goddess myths from a number of cultures. Read more...

A journey through wild beauty and deep wounds, Initiated is the book we need right now-it is an embrace, an awakening, a forging by flame and an enchanted rallying cry.

"This account will reach readers with an interest in modern women's autobiographies, true stories about witchcraft and magic, and resistance to patriarchy."

UK: Sphere ; Czech Republic: Jota ; France: Editions Pygmalion ; Italy: Venexia Editrice ; Poland: Wydawnictwo Kobiece ; Russia: Eksmo

"In this stunning memoir, she recounts her experiences with sex work, poverty, sexism, and more, and writes about the magic of community, healing, and love."

In a world desperately in need of re-enchantment, Initiated provides more than its fair share. It is a battle cry, a blueprint, and most of all, a love letter to the traditions of witchcraft, the benefits of co-creation and interdependence, and our innate ability to manifest our collective power as women and humans.

Feature about author: The working witches of Los Angeles just want you to be your best self... Read more...

Initiated is breathtaking--gorgeously written, fierce, political, personal, and deeply inspiring. I love this book.

An Interview with Amanda Yates Garcia Read more...

Amanda Yates Garcia was first initiated as a witch at 13, but her journey in witchcraft didn't really begin until she began reclaiming her body and power after finding her way out of sex work, poverty, and misogyny. Garcia describes her experiences and her path back to witchcraft and self-discovery in this book. Part memoir, part manifesto, all feminist magic. Read more...

To read Initiated is to undergo your own. Amanda's wisdom and insight into the heart of the witch is complimented by her ability to weave together a story that is also a spell. Somewhere between a memoir and a grimoire, this book invites the reader to reflect on their own cycles of life and death as well as their own relationship to the witch. All in a way that's uplifting, engaging, feminist as fuck and so unapologetically fierce. No one else could have written this story, and whether you identify as a witch or not, you'll leave obsessed.

"She's also extremely well-read in the history of myths, witchcraft, and folklore from many parts of the world, and effectively draws connections between all of these stories, painting the world as a connected orb rather than a bunch of broken pieces, which is what things like borders and wars make." Read more...

Amanda Yates Garcia's Initiated is the ideal coming-into-witchhood story for our troubled times. It functions not only as a scathing personal critique of patriarchy and oppression, but as a manual for dismantling them from the ground up, told with style, deep spiritual insight, and brutal honesty. Raw, lyrically enchanting, and brimming with feminine power, this is the book of shadows and light our imperiled world desperately needs right now.

As much as witches are warriors, we are also guardians-of a history, culture, and practice that's been erased and persecuted for millennia. Recently, I've watched with apprehension as witchcraft, in a much-needed renaissance, has also become a lifestyle trend on Instagram, ahistorical and commodified. I've been hoping for a visibility that cannot divorce witchcraft from its insurrectionary origins, its lineage of liberation, its blood memory that connects us to its feminist fire. As Initiated luminously testifies, Amanda Yates Garcia is the kind of warrior and guardian witches need: subversive and scholarly, empowered and devoted, a magician and a firebrand.

Mythic journeys to the underworld, goddesses, ecstasies, fairy tales, ghosts, love, sex, female empowerment, challenging the patriarchy: Initiated is full of my favorite things, told with savage grace by my favorite oracle, the powerful and devastatingly enchanting Amanda Yates Garcia. This book will change your life.

Yates Garcia takes us on a sweeping, expansive, generous, and beautifully intuitive journey into feminine power in Initiated. She leads us fearlessly into the dark underworld of patriarchal oppression, intergenerational trauma, loss and grief, where, she says, every witch must go to find her magic. This book is a powerful political protest and a call to return to first principles as a nation, a society, and a people. Come to it seeking your own artistic and intellectual path, and leave trusting yourself, trusting others, and trusting in the unconditional love you will find in the collective soul of the world.

This bold and transporting story of one woman's awakening into her own spiritual power reads as a metaphysical coming of age, bearing gifts for anyone seeking her own alignment in the world.

INITIATED is one of their 9 Witchy New Books for Halloween: This memoir...is a great choice for the aspiring witches out there, especially the queer ones, who are all about social justice and forging one's own path. ...you don't have to be a witch, or even interested in witchcraft, to get carried away by Garcia's prose and the surprising turns her life path takes. You just have to be along for the beautifully-written ride Read more...

In Witchcraft There Are No Spectators: The Millions Interviews Amanda Yates Garcia Read more...

"Thoughtful, engaging, and fresh: a welcome addition to the annals of women's spirituality." Read more...