This month at The Three Little Sisters, we are honoured to spotlight the brilliant Holly Walters and her collaborator, illustrator Adam Wassil.
Holly’s latest work, Outward Spirals, is far more than a field guide; it is an expansion of her foundational research, Shaligram: Sacred Stones, Ritual Practices, and the Politics of Mobility in Nepal. Working on this project was a genuine delight for us. It offered a front-row seat to Holly’s signature "academic/relatable/cool" style—a rare blend of rigorous scholarship and a storyteller’s soul that makes complex ontology feel like a conversation over coffee.
Holly’s work challenges the modern, "disenchanted" view of the world. As she notes in her thesis:
"From the pilgrimage routes required to obtain Shaligrams to their intimate social ties within community and kinship networks... Shaligrams blur the lines between stones and bodies." Shaligram: Sacred Stones, Ritual Practices, and the Politics of Mobility in Nepal
For the modern Heathen or practitioner of Northern traditions, this resonates deeply. We see a striking parallel between the Shaligrams of the Himalayas and the amulets, rings, and ritual staffs found in Viking Age graves. In both worlds, the "object" is never just an object.
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In India: A Shaligram is both a Jurassic-era fossil and the living presence of the deity Vishnu. It is geology and divinity held in the palm of the hand.
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In the North: As explored in The Norse Sorceress (2023), non-human agencies pervaded every aspect of life. A sword could have a name and a soul; a stone could house a land-spirit (landvættir).
Bridging the East and North
The connection between Asian and Northern spirituality isn't just a coincidence—it’s a map. The Sami people, whose ancestral roots link back toward Central and Northern Asia, have long served as a cultural bridge to the Nordic regions. Their animistic worldview—where the landscape is alive and "deity" can be found in a sacred rock formation---echoes the vibrant, living landscape Holly describes in Nepal.
Whether it is the Vedic Agni or the Norse Muspelheim, both traditions grapple with the primal force of the elements, proving that spirituality didn't develop in a bubble, but rather flowed along the same ancient migratory veins.
Holly has a gift for "breathing life" into the inanimate. In her academic work, she tracks the movement of stones across borders with the precision of a detective. In her more personal or fictional explorations, she captures the sheer wonder of a world that talks back.
Outward Spirals is a gorgeous manifestation of this duality. It is:
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Detailed: Packed with field journals and specific stone guides.
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Visual: Brought to life by Adam Wassil’s evocative illustrations.
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Profound: A bridge between the paleontology of the past and the mythology of the present.
Whether you are a scholar of South Asian traditions or a Heathen looking to understand the universal mechanics of animism, this book is essential.
Outward Spirals is available now at The Three Little Sisters. Grab your copy and start your own pilgrimage into the spiral.
