Author: Sirona Knight
Trade Paperback, 110 pages
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Publication date: 1998
List: US$6.95, C$10.95
ISBN: 0895949075 Price & More Info: Click Here
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Ms. Knight has written books on a variety of topics ranging from biographies
of modern-day Witches to Celtic Druidism and Faery Magick; as such she
brings wide experience to the topic of Celtic Spirituality. She is a
practicing member of the Celtic Gwddonic Druid Tradition and a Third Degree
Craftmaster.
This book contains an overview of Celtic folklore and mythology, the
spiritual teachings of the Celtic peoples; it explains the yearly
observances, the rituals and ceremonies and divination tools and practices.
Some of her assertions may be regarded with suspicion by many readers (e.g.,
the ability of Druids to assume the form of various animals), but depending
on how such assertions are viewed, there might be truth within them.
Her perception of the meaning of "dark" patterns within life strike me as
wrong. She appears to be saying that negative is also destructive and life
destroying, and therefore should be avoided at all costs. However, without
a balance of positive and negative, light and dark, etc., chaos results.
Her assertion that the Celts used the Tarot as a divination system seems
unlikely since the Celtic culture, as such, was pretty well extinct by the
time of the appearance of the Tarot. Individual Celtic families may have
held on to their heritage until that time, but the wholesale use of the
Tarot by the Celts seems unlikely.
More than other books in this series, this particular book appears to be
less about the reality of the topic, and more about how modern individuals
perceive it to have been. I have enjoyed other books by Ms. Knight, but I
was moderately disappointed with this one.
Reviewed by Mike Gleason
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