The Cult The wolf - review


A dense and elaborate narrative about a sorority of witches in the Middle Ages. A mix of historical reality, feminism, eroticism and science fiction that weave an original and surprising plot. The Cult of the Wolf is a unique book that brings the Inquisition and the values ​​of the Middle Ages as a backdrop. In a natural way, it situates the reader at this time and reminds us how much of the human ills are still so current, even with a refined facet.

The axis of history is the challenges, conflicts and leadership of the sorceress Urtra from the betrayal of one of the leaders of the brotherhood that has as a consequence the persecution of the inquirers. She is then chosen as the new matriarch of the brotherhood or what remains of her. After his rite of passage, the heart of the narrative, he is given the task of preserving what is possible from that tradition of so-called witch-volves.

The book begins with Urtra telling us the recent history of her life, manifesting a bitterness there, mixed with a not very patient humor, but without dispensing with her witchcraft's power and authority. Many years had passed, now she is a mature sorceress and proud to have fulfilled her role, or almost.

It is in this context that when she feels lonely and seeing her end approach (or so she believed, she wished or even staged for herself), Urtra decides to finish her last mission, to deliver a certain book of her old tradition to a stranger, as he had been determined many years before.

This promotes a new breath in your life. Then she decides to look for such a book in which she tells the stories of the sorceress sisters in their last and dramatic moments, events that have never completely disappeared from her mind. But that he had left aside not to relive sufferings and sorrows.

The tone of your narrative is intimate and honest in relation to all events and subjects. Urtra remakes her alliance with time, with the elements of nature, allied with her powers, but above all with herself. In this way, equipped with an intuitive knowledge, personal determination and his unwavering sense of duty, he begins to fulfill his mission.

The Worship of the Wolf is not a simple book or with easy language, in fact tends to a refining of the same and expressions little used. In addition, it is loaded with a certain lyricism. "Out in the woods, there is a croaking that was loud inside the house by the proximity and silence, reverberating like majestic bells in the central nave of a church." A hungry bird had just announced its nocturnal awakening. "

The book has a slower narrative rhythm in its first part, The Darkness, which may confuse the unsuspecting reader as a work of little action and centered only on the women's relations of that fellowship. On the other hand, from the beginning there is rumor of a great mystery in the brotherhood, but few of them know it, and that the imminent end is being restored at that moment in its greatest crisis.

Women of the Sisterhood of the Wolf, like the legendary Amazons, did not admit men into their community. They were frowned upon and banished at all costs. Even the amorous bonds were between them primarily, which is one of the dominant themes in the first part and described with skill, presenting an eroticism without any ingenuity.

The other theme is precisely the mystery that goes from crescent to culmination, and is indeed surprising, when the book takes a turn and gains elements of science fiction, revealing part of the origin of humanity and a connection with mythical Atlantis . Primarily, the fellowship is committed to the sacredness of the Goddess and to natural magic, but it is clear that the powers of some extrapolate from simple intuition or mystical visions.

Either way the book is far from being something fantastic or just fanciful. It is also a story about the feminine in her difficulties in an extremely oppressive age. In contrast, having in them the warlike disposition and the way of union with the Goddess. An obvious counterpoint to a male God. And as a symbol of courage, her main heroine, Urtra, is an active beacon of what is nowadays talked about female empowerment.

Finally, The Worship of the Wolf is a thought-provoking book, with its own strength. The reading takes us into the plot and mobilizes the emotions around the human drama, the mystery and the fantastic, even more if the reading is nocturnal. For readers who like the genre, they enjoy a more elaborate language, the work of passing in a balanced way to all their vocations. I was really hooked on this intense reading.

By Carmen Azevedo

Ensaist, pedagogue and theatrical director