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iPagan
With fifty-nine contributions from over forty authors, iPagan is an anthology that covers Druidry, Shamanism, Witchcraft, Goddess Spirituality and a range of contemporary issues that affect Pagans across the globe. The book is an ideal introduction to the writing of each of the authors as well as an essential primer for anyone interested in modern Paganism and for those wishing to engage in current Pagan thinking.
547 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 11, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 6, 2018
I totally fell in love with this book, will be rereading this, for certain.
I loved the miltidimentionality of this book: Druidism, Paganism, Witchcraft, Shamanism. Various authors address approaches to meditation, dreaming and praying, living and prospering in body and mind, inspiration and progress, spirits and action, transcendence, self-awareness and worldly concerns. Even the more quirky concepts of Spitirit Spouses is reviewed. History marries myth and issues the changed spiritual perspectives.
Q:
As a Neo-Pagan Druid myself, I first experienced Paganism, as a child, through the mythology of the Greeks, Romans, Vikings, Egyptians and Celts. I did not choose to become a Pagan until I was already an adult; being free to explore a number of different religions over time. Eventually I settled on Celtic Polytheism, not because I was born into it, but simply because it suits my beliefs. (c)
Q:
Just as every dandelion leaf is unique, the face of the gods is unique to each and every one of us. Perhaps it is not the divine that has changed at all, it is us, humanity that has undergone immense changes over thousands of years. As we change so does our ability to see, feel and understand what the divine actually is and what our relationship with the Creation is, or should be.(c)
Q:
some ‘interesting’ discussions, not least of was an extremely puzzling sentiment that I later found repeated in a number of other places. This was that Geoffrey of Monmouth, one of the chroniclers of Arthur and Merlin, wrote The History of the Kings of Britain as a hoax. This stopped me in my metaphorical tracks. I had to read it several times. I was so utterly perplexed I went investigating. Writing is difficult enough at the best of times, but sitting in a cold scriptorium using expensive materials and sometimes having to wait months for a reply (or go travelling to other monasteries to consult books) would tend to put off the most ardent hoaxer. Besides which, why would Geoffrey of Monmouth do such a thing? Did the person who made this claim mean that Geoffrey wrote a huge book in the hope of fooling… who? His patron? His contemporaries? Future historians? Aliens? ..
It seems, on reading further, that what was being said is that Geoffrey of Monmouth’s book is not history. Because it is not history, it is a LIE. Excuse the shouting, but that is the impression I got from some of the online discussions I stumbled across. There are some very scary people out there. Never mind that they were not prepared to give a definition of what they meant by history or even whose history they were considering, let alone take on the fact that notion of history has changed over the centuries. And you can imagine a discussion in which you pointed out that ‘ history’ is a somewhat imperfect translation of the Latin ‘historia’, embracing as it does the notion of history, narrative, story, inquiry, and hypothesis. These online ‘historians’ had made up their minds and that was that.
There was so much wrong with what was being said, that I beat a hasty retreat. You do not mix it with such people. You do not even politely suggest they may have misunderstood or missed the point. That would probably be worse than using capital letters to call them rude names.(c)
Q:
Myths are wonderful. They are not fairy tales (and even if they were, so what). They are not bits of fiction or sly attempts to expose children to bits of pagan religion (and even if that were the case, so what). Myths are stories of wonder. Myths are multi-coloured, mind-expanding adventures. Myths are metaphor. Myths are truth. Let’s be straight about this. They are not facts. They are not knowledge. They are truth.
They are part of the collective wisdom of the people with which they originate. In some cases they are faltering first steps in science (explaining natural phenomena). In other cases they embody basic social, legal, and ethical principles. They are the foundation of what we have since become. If you get the foundations right. If you understand them and can see where they are inadequate, you stand a much better chance of building a lasting and equitable structure on top of them.
Our ancestors were not stupid. They knew that myth was just that. They knew the difference between fact and a fiction that conveyed other truths. Druids were certainly aware of this difference; otherwise they would not have been employed to preserve both history and myth. And just as they knew the difference, they knew the importance of both strands of our understanding of the past. Myths help to shape the way a people thinks. (c)
Q:
The Ancient Greeks had a better idea as they had 4 different words for different kinds of love, Eros for romantic love, Philos for brotherly love, Agape for charity and Storge for empathy. (c)
Q:
Incidentally if you have never actually hugged a tree I encourage you to do so, as it really is an experience worth having. (c)
Q:
I change how I experience the world because I am hungry for wonder, and for a sense of the numinous. I do it because I’m not prepared to accept banal and rationally tidied up reality as all there is. I do it in search of inspiration, and experience. I do it because it changes me, and while I neither understand nor am in control of that process of change, it calls me and I relish it. Sometimes it puts me at odds with consensus reality. (c)
Q:
My preferred method of working has always been to contemplate, or pray along the edges of sleep. It is a time when our state of mind is already not in everyday mode, and it is a roomy, permissive part of the day, when my sense of time is less solid, and my thoughts more naturally flow freely and without constraint. There are things it is possible to think on the edge of sleep that are not otherwise available to me, and when it comes to matters of personal transformation, I can access ideas at this point in the day that I am not reliably capable of thinking about when awake. I have a better and healthier sense of self and wellbeing on the edges of sleep and tend to develop better perspectives on life... the time between sleep and wakefulness is fertile and full of possibilities. (c)
Q:
Showing up regularly, to prayer, meditation, dream work, contemplation, even to daydreaming, changes things. (c)
Q:
Showing up creates the possibility of something else happening. It makes space for miracles, whether they turn up or not. If you don’t make space for something numinous to get in, if you don’t actively create the opportunity for wonder and amazement, then the odds of experiencing it are much reduced. However awkwardly we do it, taking time to pray, meditate and dream is a way of offering the self up to the universe as a whole. You may choose to think of it as deity, inspiration, higher self, or any number of things. I don’t believe the terms matter, because we’re trying to express that which is beyond us. (c)
Q:
Some say that the study of philosophy was of barbarian origin. For the Persians had their Magi, the Babylonians or the Assyrians the Chaldeans, the Indians their Gymnosophists, while the Kelts and the Galatae had seers called Druids and Semnotheoi, or so Aristotle says in the ‘Magic’, and Sotion in the twenty-third book of his ‘Succession of Philosophers’ (c)
Q:
Let him keep my advice which follows here.
Tell him before every [other] word,
Bring him with every word this lasting advice.
Let him preserve justice, it will preserve him.
Let him raise justice, it will raise him.
Let him exalt mercy, it will exalt him.
Let him care for his tribes, they will care for him.
Let him help his tribes, they will help him.
Let him sooth his tribes, they will soothe him.
Tell him, it is through the justice of the ruler that plagues [and] great lightnings are kept
from the people.
It is through the justice of the ruler that he judges great tribes and great riches.
It is through the justice of the ruler that he secures peace, tranquility, joy, ease, [and]
comfort.
It is through the justice of the ruler that he dispatches (great) battalions to the borders of
hostile neighbours.
It is through the justice of the ruler that every heir plants his house-post in his fair
inheritance.
It is through the justice of the ruler that abundances of great tree-fruit of the great wood
are tasted.
It is through the justice of the ruler that milk-yields of great cattle are maintained.
It is through the justice of the ruler that there is abundance of every tall, high corn.
It is through the justice of the ruler that abundance of fish swim in streams.
It is through the justice of the ruler that fair children are well begotten. (Audacht
Morann, §4-21)...
The word translated here as ‘justice’ is fîrinne, which can also be translated as ‘truth’, and is related to the word fîor, which has to do with truth, correct-ness, and reality... we can infer the meaning of firinne from that description:
Tell him, let him be merciful, just, impartial, conscientious, firm, generous, hospitable, honourable, stable, beneficent, capable, honest, well-spoken, steady, true judging. For there are ten things which extinguish the injustice of every ruler. (Beware that you do not do it, beware of everything, o all rulers.) Announce from me the ten: rule and worth, fame and victory, progeny and kindred, peace and long life, good fortune and tribes. (Audacht Morann, §55-6) (c)
Q:
“Do not speak noisily; do not mock, do not give insults, do not make little of old people. Do not think ill of any one; do not ask what is hard to give. Let you have a law of lending, a law of oppression, a law of pledging. Be obedient to the advice of the wise; keep in mind the advice of the old. Be a follower of the rules of your fathers. Do not be cold-hearted to friends; be strong towards your enemies; do not give evil for evil in your battles. Do not be given to too much talking. Do not speak any harm of others. Do not waste, do not scatter, do not do away with what is your own. When you do wrong, take the blame for it; do not give up the truth for any man. Do not be trying to be first, the way you will not be jealous; do not be an idler, that you many not be weak; do not ask too much, that you may not be thought little of. Are you willing to follow this advice, my son?” (Gregory, Cuchulain of Muirthemney, pg. 639-670)(c)
Q:
... the Councils of Cormac offer us a much more comprehensive picture than all the other wisdom-texts. Its 37 chapters cover a wide variety of topics, from specialized advice like what is expected from kings and leaders, to more ordinary topics like mead hall etiquette, health and nutrition, and growing up. One of its most memorable passages describes a general principle of temperance, as follows:
§ 29. ‘O grandson of Conn, O Cormac’, said Carbre, ‘I desire to know how I shall behave
among the wise and the foolish, among friends and strangers, among the old and the
young, among the innocent and the wicked.
‘Not hard to tell’, said Cormac.
‘Be not too wise, be not too foolish,
be not too conceited, be not too diffident,
be not too haughty, be not too humble,
be not too talkative, be not too silent,
be not too harsh, be not too feeble.
If you be too wise, one will expect (too much) of you;
If you be too foolish, you will be deceived;
If you be too conceited, you will be thought vexatious;
If you be too humble, you will be without honour;
If you be too talkative, you will not be heeded;
If you be too silent, you will not be regarded;
If you be too harsh, you will be broken;
If you be too feeble, you will be crushed. (c)
Q:
77. Three things which justice demands: judgment, measure, conscience.
78. Three things which judgment demands: wisdom, penetration, knowledge.
80. Three things for which an enemy is loved: wealth, beauty, worth.
81. Three things for which a friend is hated: trespassing, keeping aloof, fecklessness.
82. Three rude ones of the world: a youngster mocking an old man, a healthy person
mocking an invalid, a wise man mocking a fool.
84. Three fair things that hide ugliness: good manners in the ill-favoured; skill in a serf;
wisdom in the misshapen.
86. Three things that kindle love: a face, demeanour, speech.
90. Three ungentlemanly things: interrupting stories, a mischevious game, jesting so as to
raise a blush.
93. Three fewnesses that are better than plenty: a fewness of fine words; a fewness of
cows in grass; a fewness of friends around good ale.
96. Three ruins of a tribe: a lying chief, a false judge, a lustful priest.
110. Three maidens that bring love to good fortune: silence, diligence, sincerity.
113. Three impossible demands: go! though you cannot go, bring what you have not got,
do what you cannot do.
115. The three chief sins: avarice, gluttony, lust.
119. Three things that constitute a physician: a complete cure; leaving no blemish behind;
a painless examination.
122. Three things that constitute a harper: a tune to make you cry, a tune to make you
laugh, a tune to put you to sleep.
173. Three doors of falsehood: an angry pleading, a shifting foundation of knowledge,
giving information without memory.
174. Three doors through which truth is recogised: a patient answer, a firm pleading,
appealing to witnesses.
177. Three glories of speech: steadiness, wisdom, brevity.
178. Three ornaments of wisdom: abundance of knowledge, a number of precedents, to
employ good counsel.
179. Three hateful things in speech: stiffness, obscurity, a bad delivery.
194. Three things that make a wise man foolish: quarreling, anger, drunkenness.
197. Three signs of a bad man: bitterness, hatred, cowardice.
201. Three candles that illume every darkness: truth, nature, knowledge.
(Meyer, The Triads of Ireland, pp. 8-35) (c)
Q:
Shamanism is a Mystery. It is that which constantly dances beyond the horizon of the known, the expected, the understood. It is an amazing dance that some of us find irresistible in our spiritual journey. This dance calls us to join, to engage, to whirl into the depths of the unknown in search of something our souls hunger for.(c)
Q:
Vast emptiness can be somewhat daunting. It is only when we realize that this emptiness is filled with light, that we begin to experience soul awareness. (c)
Q:
Invisible wounds... I have seen many clients and students simply forget about addictions that had troubled them for years as they deepened their connection with ancestors, spirit and soul. (c)
Q:
We live in individualistic culture, where it’s every man or woman for themselves. This has created many heart wounds in our disconnection from any sense of community and the togetherness and support this brings. This, I would say, is causing a loneliness of spirit in many modern people, which in itself creates much sickness.
We are also taught to constantly worry about the future and to be prepared for it, to make our homes and belongings as safe and secure as possible – the ultimate effect of which is to disconnect us from nature. Nature can never be still, even when it may appear so on the surface, it is in constant movement and flux. It is the same with us. If reality is too fixed, as it often is in modern society, this often creates the fragmenting of parts of our souls that cannot fit into such a narrow criteria of what it means to be alive. Again, this paves the way for diseases of spirit that give birth to most sickness. (c)
Q:
Mabinogion... To know them we sit with them, dreaming and journeying, full of expectancy but without any expectations, allowing the stories to show themselves to us... The Lady has many names including Ceridwen, Arianrhod, Olwen, Ffraid, Morgan, Don, Iwerydd. Underlying them all is Elen, the antlered reindeer goddess, goddess of the twilight and threshold guardian, lady of the deer trods. The stories also tell of the gods, the guardians to the goddess, and they too have many names – Arawn, Gwyn ap Nudd, Gwydion, Cernunnos, Amatheon, Bel, Bran, Dylan and many more. All of them offer us different aspects of nature and reality, just as the Lady does, through their different names.
The gods watch over the goddess and care for her, we call them guardians and husbandmen...
The Lady is Sovereignty, the ultimate goddess, and she grants the power of sovereignty to the gods, not the other way around.(c)
Q:
all of us are multi-dimensional beings and that there is more to us than we can ever perceive or express in everyday reality (c)
Q:
spirit guides are far more active and interact than our concept of deities. Guides are entities, who upon manifesting themselves, elected to provide insight to humanity. They are angelic beings, mythic creatures, precocious nature spirits, fantastic figures that entrance, comfort, and sometimes frighten. However, it’s often forgotten that they must be fed. Relationships with spirit allies must be tended, just as relationships in all other aspects of our lives must be. They must be allowed to evolve and bridge beyond our limited concepts of who they are and should be. In this way, spirit allies become living forces. We embody them, and in doing so, they sustain beyond the trappings of time and mythology.
Likewise, we must be willing to act on the wisdom of our spirit allies. (c)
Q:
If we try to imagine a web of perhaps fine, vibrant fibres of light that connects each of us to each other and to every other thing that exists, to all time, past, present and future and then imagine that these strands of light are two way connections and that communication flows back and forth along these connections every moment of every day it might sound a bit like science fiction. (c)
Q:
Have a good look around your room, home or garden.
What do you have there that is important to you?
Do you have collections of any kind?
Think back to your childhood. What did you surround yourself with?
Have you held onto any of those things as an adult?
Make a list of anything that comes to mind. (c)
Q:
Have you ever awoken from a sleep so delectably deep, one where you knew you had been in an entirely different state or reality? (c)
Q:
After leaving full-time employment, opening a high street Shamanic healing clinic had unearthed many further life lessons...I remember a gleeful feeling of freedom that came when I walked away from the confines of nine-to-five working. (c)
Q:
And if not now, when?
And if not us, then who? (c)
Q:
I loved the stars in the night sky though, they seemed always, from as young as I can remember, a form of comfort, grace and infinite promise.(c)
Q:
Stir it up:
Don’t get caught up in the ‘how to’. Once you’ve decided on an idea, you have to get moving on it. Stirring up the energy gives you the confidence to take that first step. Motivation is everything. The journey gets easier and Witches, especially, can always make good use of their magical tools to boost the energy. (c)
I loved the miltidimentionality of this book: Druidism, Paganism, Witchcraft, Shamanism. Various authors address approaches to meditation, dreaming and praying, living and prospering in body and mind, inspiration and progress, spirits and action, transcendence, self-awareness and worldly concerns. Even the more quirky concepts of Spitirit Spouses is reviewed. History marries myth and issues the changed spiritual perspectives.
Q:
As a Neo-Pagan Druid myself, I first experienced Paganism, as a child, through the mythology of the Greeks, Romans, Vikings, Egyptians and Celts. I did not choose to become a Pagan until I was already an adult; being free to explore a number of different religions over time. Eventually I settled on Celtic Polytheism, not because I was born into it, but simply because it suits my beliefs. (c)
Q:
Just as every dandelion leaf is unique, the face of the gods is unique to each and every one of us. Perhaps it is not the divine that has changed at all, it is us, humanity that has undergone immense changes over thousands of years. As we change so does our ability to see, feel and understand what the divine actually is and what our relationship with the Creation is, or should be.(c)
Q:
some ‘interesting’ discussions, not least of was an extremely puzzling sentiment that I later found repeated in a number of other places. This was that Geoffrey of Monmouth, one of the chroniclers of Arthur and Merlin, wrote The History of the Kings of Britain as a hoax. This stopped me in my metaphorical tracks. I had to read it several times. I was so utterly perplexed I went investigating. Writing is difficult enough at the best of times, but sitting in a cold scriptorium using expensive materials and sometimes having to wait months for a reply (or go travelling to other monasteries to consult books) would tend to put off the most ardent hoaxer. Besides which, why would Geoffrey of Monmouth do such a thing? Did the person who made this claim mean that Geoffrey wrote a huge book in the hope of fooling… who? His patron? His contemporaries? Future historians? Aliens? ..
It seems, on reading further, that what was being said is that Geoffrey of Monmouth’s book is not history. Because it is not history, it is a LIE. Excuse the shouting, but that is the impression I got from some of the online discussions I stumbled across. There are some very scary people out there. Never mind that they were not prepared to give a definition of what they meant by history or even whose history they were considering, let alone take on the fact that notion of history has changed over the centuries. And you can imagine a discussion in which you pointed out that ‘ history’ is a somewhat imperfect translation of the Latin ‘historia’, embracing as it does the notion of history, narrative, story, inquiry, and hypothesis. These online ‘historians’ had made up their minds and that was that.
There was so much wrong with what was being said, that I beat a hasty retreat. You do not mix it with such people. You do not even politely suggest they may have misunderstood or missed the point. That would probably be worse than using capital letters to call them rude names.(c)
Q:
Myths are wonderful. They are not fairy tales (and even if they were, so what). They are not bits of fiction or sly attempts to expose children to bits of pagan religion (and even if that were the case, so what). Myths are stories of wonder. Myths are multi-coloured, mind-expanding adventures. Myths are metaphor. Myths are truth. Let’s be straight about this. They are not facts. They are not knowledge. They are truth.
They are part of the collective wisdom of the people with which they originate. In some cases they are faltering first steps in science (explaining natural phenomena). In other cases they embody basic social, legal, and ethical principles. They are the foundation of what we have since become. If you get the foundations right. If you understand them and can see where they are inadequate, you stand a much better chance of building a lasting and equitable structure on top of them.
Our ancestors were not stupid. They knew that myth was just that. They knew the difference between fact and a fiction that conveyed other truths. Druids were certainly aware of this difference; otherwise they would not have been employed to preserve both history and myth. And just as they knew the difference, they knew the importance of both strands of our understanding of the past. Myths help to shape the way a people thinks. (c)
Q:
The Ancient Greeks had a better idea as they had 4 different words for different kinds of love, Eros for romantic love, Philos for brotherly love, Agape for charity and Storge for empathy. (c)
Q:
Incidentally if you have never actually hugged a tree I encourage you to do so, as it really is an experience worth having. (c)
Q:
I change how I experience the world because I am hungry for wonder, and for a sense of the numinous. I do it because I’m not prepared to accept banal and rationally tidied up reality as all there is. I do it in search of inspiration, and experience. I do it because it changes me, and while I neither understand nor am in control of that process of change, it calls me and I relish it. Sometimes it puts me at odds with consensus reality. (c)
Q:
My preferred method of working has always been to contemplate, or pray along the edges of sleep. It is a time when our state of mind is already not in everyday mode, and it is a roomy, permissive part of the day, when my sense of time is less solid, and my thoughts more naturally flow freely and without constraint. There are things it is possible to think on the edge of sleep that are not otherwise available to me, and when it comes to matters of personal transformation, I can access ideas at this point in the day that I am not reliably capable of thinking about when awake. I have a better and healthier sense of self and wellbeing on the edges of sleep and tend to develop better perspectives on life... the time between sleep and wakefulness is fertile and full of possibilities. (c)
Q:
Showing up regularly, to prayer, meditation, dream work, contemplation, even to daydreaming, changes things. (c)
Q:
Showing up creates the possibility of something else happening. It makes space for miracles, whether they turn up or not. If you don’t make space for something numinous to get in, if you don’t actively create the opportunity for wonder and amazement, then the odds of experiencing it are much reduced. However awkwardly we do it, taking time to pray, meditate and dream is a way of offering the self up to the universe as a whole. You may choose to think of it as deity, inspiration, higher self, or any number of things. I don’t believe the terms matter, because we’re trying to express that which is beyond us. (c)
Q:
Some say that the study of philosophy was of barbarian origin. For the Persians had their Magi, the Babylonians or the Assyrians the Chaldeans, the Indians their Gymnosophists, while the Kelts and the Galatae had seers called Druids and Semnotheoi, or so Aristotle says in the ‘Magic’, and Sotion in the twenty-third book of his ‘Succession of Philosophers’ (c)
Q:
Let him keep my advice which follows here.
Tell him before every [other] word,
Bring him with every word this lasting advice.
Let him preserve justice, it will preserve him.
Let him raise justice, it will raise him.
Let him exalt mercy, it will exalt him.
Let him care for his tribes, they will care for him.
Let him help his tribes, they will help him.
Let him sooth his tribes, they will soothe him.
Tell him, it is through the justice of the ruler that plagues [and] great lightnings are kept
from the people.
It is through the justice of the ruler that he judges great tribes and great riches.
It is through the justice of the ruler that he secures peace, tranquility, joy, ease, [and]
comfort.
It is through the justice of the ruler that he dispatches (great) battalions to the borders of
hostile neighbours.
It is through the justice of the ruler that every heir plants his house-post in his fair
inheritance.
It is through the justice of the ruler that abundances of great tree-fruit of the great wood
are tasted.
It is through the justice of the ruler that milk-yields of great cattle are maintained.
It is through the justice of the ruler that there is abundance of every tall, high corn.
It is through the justice of the ruler that abundance of fish swim in streams.
It is through the justice of the ruler that fair children are well begotten. (Audacht
Morann, §4-21)...
The word translated here as ‘justice’ is fîrinne, which can also be translated as ‘truth’, and is related to the word fîor, which has to do with truth, correct-ness, and reality... we can infer the meaning of firinne from that description:
Tell him, let him be merciful, just, impartial, conscientious, firm, generous, hospitable, honourable, stable, beneficent, capable, honest, well-spoken, steady, true judging. For there are ten things which extinguish the injustice of every ruler. (Beware that you do not do it, beware of everything, o all rulers.) Announce from me the ten: rule and worth, fame and victory, progeny and kindred, peace and long life, good fortune and tribes. (Audacht Morann, §55-6) (c)
Q:
“Do not speak noisily; do not mock, do not give insults, do not make little of old people. Do not think ill of any one; do not ask what is hard to give. Let you have a law of lending, a law of oppression, a law of pledging. Be obedient to the advice of the wise; keep in mind the advice of the old. Be a follower of the rules of your fathers. Do not be cold-hearted to friends; be strong towards your enemies; do not give evil for evil in your battles. Do not be given to too much talking. Do not speak any harm of others. Do not waste, do not scatter, do not do away with what is your own. When you do wrong, take the blame for it; do not give up the truth for any man. Do not be trying to be first, the way you will not be jealous; do not be an idler, that you many not be weak; do not ask too much, that you may not be thought little of. Are you willing to follow this advice, my son?” (Gregory, Cuchulain of Muirthemney, pg. 639-670)(c)
Q:
... the Councils of Cormac offer us a much more comprehensive picture than all the other wisdom-texts. Its 37 chapters cover a wide variety of topics, from specialized advice like what is expected from kings and leaders, to more ordinary topics like mead hall etiquette, health and nutrition, and growing up. One of its most memorable passages describes a general principle of temperance, as follows:
§ 29. ‘O grandson of Conn, O Cormac’, said Carbre, ‘I desire to know how I shall behave
among the wise and the foolish, among friends and strangers, among the old and the
young, among the innocent and the wicked.
‘Not hard to tell’, said Cormac.
‘Be not too wise, be not too foolish,
be not too conceited, be not too diffident,
be not too haughty, be not too humble,
be not too talkative, be not too silent,
be not too harsh, be not too feeble.
If you be too wise, one will expect (too much) of you;
If you be too foolish, you will be deceived;
If you be too conceited, you will be thought vexatious;
If you be too humble, you will be without honour;
If you be too talkative, you will not be heeded;
If you be too silent, you will not be regarded;
If you be too harsh, you will be broken;
If you be too feeble, you will be crushed. (c)
Q:
77. Three things which justice demands: judgment, measure, conscience.
78. Three things which judgment demands: wisdom, penetration, knowledge.
80. Three things for which an enemy is loved: wealth, beauty, worth.
81. Three things for which a friend is hated: trespassing, keeping aloof, fecklessness.
82. Three rude ones of the world: a youngster mocking an old man, a healthy person
mocking an invalid, a wise man mocking a fool.
84. Three fair things that hide ugliness: good manners in the ill-favoured; skill in a serf;
wisdom in the misshapen.
86. Three things that kindle love: a face, demeanour, speech.
90. Three ungentlemanly things: interrupting stories, a mischevious game, jesting so as to
raise a blush.
93. Three fewnesses that are better than plenty: a fewness of fine words; a fewness of
cows in grass; a fewness of friends around good ale.
96. Three ruins of a tribe: a lying chief, a false judge, a lustful priest.
110. Three maidens that bring love to good fortune: silence, diligence, sincerity.
113. Three impossible demands: go! though you cannot go, bring what you have not got,
do what you cannot do.
115. The three chief sins: avarice, gluttony, lust.
119. Three things that constitute a physician: a complete cure; leaving no blemish behind;
a painless examination.
122. Three things that constitute a harper: a tune to make you cry, a tune to make you
laugh, a tune to put you to sleep.
173. Three doors of falsehood: an angry pleading, a shifting foundation of knowledge,
giving information without memory.
174. Three doors through which truth is recogised: a patient answer, a firm pleading,
appealing to witnesses.
177. Three glories of speech: steadiness, wisdom, brevity.
178. Three ornaments of wisdom: abundance of knowledge, a number of precedents, to
employ good counsel.
179. Three hateful things in speech: stiffness, obscurity, a bad delivery.
194. Three things that make a wise man foolish: quarreling, anger, drunkenness.
197. Three signs of a bad man: bitterness, hatred, cowardice.
201. Three candles that illume every darkness: truth, nature, knowledge.
(Meyer, The Triads of Ireland, pp. 8-35) (c)
Q:
Shamanism is a Mystery. It is that which constantly dances beyond the horizon of the known, the expected, the understood. It is an amazing dance that some of us find irresistible in our spiritual journey. This dance calls us to join, to engage, to whirl into the depths of the unknown in search of something our souls hunger for.(c)
Q:
Vast emptiness can be somewhat daunting. It is only when we realize that this emptiness is filled with light, that we begin to experience soul awareness. (c)
Q:
Invisible wounds... I have seen many clients and students simply forget about addictions that had troubled them for years as they deepened their connection with ancestors, spirit and soul. (c)
Q:
We live in individualistic culture, where it’s every man or woman for themselves. This has created many heart wounds in our disconnection from any sense of community and the togetherness and support this brings. This, I would say, is causing a loneliness of spirit in many modern people, which in itself creates much sickness.
We are also taught to constantly worry about the future and to be prepared for it, to make our homes and belongings as safe and secure as possible – the ultimate effect of which is to disconnect us from nature. Nature can never be still, even when it may appear so on the surface, it is in constant movement and flux. It is the same with us. If reality is too fixed, as it often is in modern society, this often creates the fragmenting of parts of our souls that cannot fit into such a narrow criteria of what it means to be alive. Again, this paves the way for diseases of spirit that give birth to most sickness. (c)
Q:
Mabinogion... To know them we sit with them, dreaming and journeying, full of expectancy but without any expectations, allowing the stories to show themselves to us... The Lady has many names including Ceridwen, Arianrhod, Olwen, Ffraid, Morgan, Don, Iwerydd. Underlying them all is Elen, the antlered reindeer goddess, goddess of the twilight and threshold guardian, lady of the deer trods. The stories also tell of the gods, the guardians to the goddess, and they too have many names – Arawn, Gwyn ap Nudd, Gwydion, Cernunnos, Amatheon, Bel, Bran, Dylan and many more. All of them offer us different aspects of nature and reality, just as the Lady does, through their different names.
The gods watch over the goddess and care for her, we call them guardians and husbandmen...
The Lady is Sovereignty, the ultimate goddess, and she grants the power of sovereignty to the gods, not the other way around.(c)
Q:
all of us are multi-dimensional beings and that there is more to us than we can ever perceive or express in everyday reality (c)
Q:
spirit guides are far more active and interact than our concept of deities. Guides are entities, who upon manifesting themselves, elected to provide insight to humanity. They are angelic beings, mythic creatures, precocious nature spirits, fantastic figures that entrance, comfort, and sometimes frighten. However, it’s often forgotten that they must be fed. Relationships with spirit allies must be tended, just as relationships in all other aspects of our lives must be. They must be allowed to evolve and bridge beyond our limited concepts of who they are and should be. In this way, spirit allies become living forces. We embody them, and in doing so, they sustain beyond the trappings of time and mythology.
Likewise, we must be willing to act on the wisdom of our spirit allies. (c)
Q:
If we try to imagine a web of perhaps fine, vibrant fibres of light that connects each of us to each other and to every other thing that exists, to all time, past, present and future and then imagine that these strands of light are two way connections and that communication flows back and forth along these connections every moment of every day it might sound a bit like science fiction. (c)
Q:
Have a good look around your room, home or garden.
What do you have there that is important to you?
Do you have collections of any kind?
Think back to your childhood. What did you surround yourself with?
Have you held onto any of those things as an adult?
Make a list of anything that comes to mind. (c)
Q:
Have you ever awoken from a sleep so delectably deep, one where you knew you had been in an entirely different state or reality? (c)
Q:
After leaving full-time employment, opening a high street Shamanic healing clinic had unearthed many further life lessons...I remember a gleeful feeling of freedom that came when I walked away from the confines of nine-to-five working. (c)
Q:
And if not now, when?
And if not us, then who? (c)
Q:
I loved the stars in the night sky though, they seemed always, from as young as I can remember, a form of comfort, grace and infinite promise.(c)
Q:
Stir it up:
Don’t get caught up in the ‘how to’. Once you’ve decided on an idea, you have to get moving on it. Stirring up the energy gives you the confidence to take that first step. Motivation is everything. The journey gets easier and Witches, especially, can always make good use of their magical tools to boost the energy. (c)
April 17, 2018
This is absolutely not an “introduction” to modern Paganism, and it really needed some additional editorial work. It's a bit of a sandbox, a veritable jungle gym of anecdotal, philosophical, historical, and experiential essays laid open for a reader’s exploration and play. Unfortunately, the quality of the "equipment" in this playground varies wildly; there are more creaking, loose-jointed articles in here than strong ones, there are probably more swings than a single park needs, and my metaphor is getting out of hand now, so I'll move on to some substance:
This text really, really needed an introduction by the editor. I needed a signpost, an indication of the overall goal or purpose of this text. Is this an introductory text, or as Moon Books puts it, an “essential primer” to modern Paganism? I would argue that if this is the goal of the text, this goal has not been achieved. This collection also would have been vastly improved by a brief introductory paragraph to each article by the editor, outlining who this contributor is, what they call their practice, and the purpose or source of the article. Without these introductions, this text is incredibly inaccessible, particularly to readers not already familiar with the material and contributors.
Even within each Section, I have not found the articles to be very cohesive in tone, style, coverage, purpose, or focus. I wish there had been some collaboration between the contributors, or at least some communication as to who would be contributing what to the collection to ensure broad coverage of topics and prevent overlap—for example, instead of multiple refrains of “druidic history is murky because of oral histories and Roman propaganda, etc.”, the Druid section contributors could have gotten together to agree on only one or two contributors who would focus on agreed-upon historical sources of the descriptions of druids (instead of a smattering of citations in multiple articles to the exact same passages in Julius Caesar’s The Conquest of Gaul). That could allow other contributors to discuss less-redundant topics, broadening the scope a bit. Instead, we have a collection of articles that do not feel like pieces of a single polished collection, and that instead seem to have been self-selected by their contributors, each of whom had a slightly different understanding of what the collection would be.
For most of this text, I was forced to wonder if a call had gone out to all of the most prominent pagan bloggers, asking “Send me your pieces that address modern paganism in the context of modern technology,” and each blogger did term searches of their work for words like "modern" or “internet.” The references to technology vary wildly: while one article discussed technology in terms of its effect on the uniquely druidic practice of seeking mastery of certain traditional skills (i.e., that modern druidry is necessarily informed by changing technology and increased ease of scholarly research), the only "modern" theme in another article about the legitimacy of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain as a historical/mythical text is a reference to a heated argument about this text between “online ‘historians’” on an internet forum. I hate to nit-pick, but as an editor, it was also hard for me to overlook the relatively poor proofreading (at least for the e-book) that reinforced an impression that I was basically clicking my way through the online pagan community.
There were certainly some spectacular stand-out articles, but they were only helpful in isolation, and not as part of a cohesive collection. I did not read every article in this book, and I would not recommend it as any form of introductory text. However, since it is so cheap as an e-book, I would not discourage anyone from picking it up to peruse. For the cost of 0.99 and a little skimming time, you might find something of value for you.
This text really, really needed an introduction by the editor. I needed a signpost, an indication of the overall goal or purpose of this text. Is this an introductory text, or as Moon Books puts it, an “essential primer” to modern Paganism? I would argue that if this is the goal of the text, this goal has not been achieved. This collection also would have been vastly improved by a brief introductory paragraph to each article by the editor, outlining who this contributor is, what they call their practice, and the purpose or source of the article. Without these introductions, this text is incredibly inaccessible, particularly to readers not already familiar with the material and contributors.
Even within each Section, I have not found the articles to be very cohesive in tone, style, coverage, purpose, or focus. I wish there had been some collaboration between the contributors, or at least some communication as to who would be contributing what to the collection to ensure broad coverage of topics and prevent overlap—for example, instead of multiple refrains of “druidic history is murky because of oral histories and Roman propaganda, etc.”, the Druid section contributors could have gotten together to agree on only one or two contributors who would focus on agreed-upon historical sources of the descriptions of druids (instead of a smattering of citations in multiple articles to the exact same passages in Julius Caesar’s The Conquest of Gaul). That could allow other contributors to discuss less-redundant topics, broadening the scope a bit. Instead, we have a collection of articles that do not feel like pieces of a single polished collection, and that instead seem to have been self-selected by their contributors, each of whom had a slightly different understanding of what the collection would be.
For most of this text, I was forced to wonder if a call had gone out to all of the most prominent pagan bloggers, asking “Send me your pieces that address modern paganism in the context of modern technology,” and each blogger did term searches of their work for words like "modern" or “internet.” The references to technology vary wildly: while one article discussed technology in terms of its effect on the uniquely druidic practice of seeking mastery of certain traditional skills (i.e., that modern druidry is necessarily informed by changing technology and increased ease of scholarly research), the only "modern" theme in another article about the legitimacy of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain as a historical/mythical text is a reference to a heated argument about this text between “online ‘historians’” on an internet forum. I hate to nit-pick, but as an editor, it was also hard for me to overlook the relatively poor proofreading (at least for the e-book) that reinforced an impression that I was basically clicking my way through the online pagan community.
There were certainly some spectacular stand-out articles, but they were only helpful in isolation, and not as part of a cohesive collection. I did not read every article in this book, and I would not recommend it as any form of introductory text. However, since it is so cheap as an e-book, I would not discourage anyone from picking it up to peruse. For the cost of 0.99 and a little skimming time, you might find something of value for you.
February 16, 2020
Not what I expected. It was ok
April 18, 2018
Interesting scope, mixed quality contributions
This is a collection of short essays, both original or relating to some of the authors’ work published elsewhere. It’s a reasonable way to get a feel for a cross section of approaches or experiences with a few main types of pagan spirituality, from shamanism to druidery to goddess focused beliefs. While most chapters are well written and argued, this is not the case for all. In particular, a chapter on reforestation makes the argument that all deserts are man made throughout history. This is a gross misrepresentation of the loss of historic forest in some regions over Millenia due to shifts in climate, directly related to shifts in latitude.
The chapter focuses initially on Australian loss of vegetation in the red centre and blames it on indigenous fire based land practices. This fails to recognise the mosaic of approaches used by indigenous Australians through time, but worse, aligns correlated events of settlement and non-linked geographic changes that resulted in lower rainfall and chooses to blame anthropogenic effects only. It’s very very poor science, and I would genuinely hope druids make an effort to have a better understanding of broad scale ecological factors.
While I agree that there is scope to work on our understanding and feelings regarding actions of our ancestors and their impacts on the ecosystem as part of our spirituality, this approach is an overstep and overstatement. To be clear- Antarctica also was once covered in rainforest. It no longer is. This is unrelated to human exploration in the last century, given that it’s been under ice for a bit longer than that. Some screening into the accuracy and quality of verifiable statements should have been made.
This is a collection of short essays, both original or relating to some of the authors’ work published elsewhere. It’s a reasonable way to get a feel for a cross section of approaches or experiences with a few main types of pagan spirituality, from shamanism to druidery to goddess focused beliefs. While most chapters are well written and argued, this is not the case for all. In particular, a chapter on reforestation makes the argument that all deserts are man made throughout history. This is a gross misrepresentation of the loss of historic forest in some regions over Millenia due to shifts in climate, directly related to shifts in latitude.
The chapter focuses initially on Australian loss of vegetation in the red centre and blames it on indigenous fire based land practices. This fails to recognise the mosaic of approaches used by indigenous Australians through time, but worse, aligns correlated events of settlement and non-linked geographic changes that resulted in lower rainfall and chooses to blame anthropogenic effects only. It’s very very poor science, and I would genuinely hope druids make an effort to have a better understanding of broad scale ecological factors.
While I agree that there is scope to work on our understanding and feelings regarding actions of our ancestors and their impacts on the ecosystem as part of our spirituality, this approach is an overstep and overstatement. To be clear- Antarctica also was once covered in rainforest. It no longer is. This is unrelated to human exploration in the last century, given that it’s been under ice for a bit longer than that. Some screening into the accuracy and quality of verifiable statements should have been made.
April 24, 2020
This is a collection of essays. There was little or no editing. I found glaring typographical errors in several of the essays. This tells me no one actually bothered to proof read it.
The content isn't all that useful, either. You could get opinions about what paganism means to different pagans by going on Facebook, joining a pagan community group, and asking them directly. This book might've had a place 20 years ago, but it wasn't published 20 years ago and hardly has much use now.
I have other books about paganism that will give me better information. I didn't finish this book. I'm not wasting any more of my precious time on it.
The content isn't all that useful, either. You could get opinions about what paganism means to different pagans by going on Facebook, joining a pagan community group, and asking them directly. This book might've had a place 20 years ago, but it wasn't published 20 years ago and hardly has much use now.
I have other books about paganism that will give me better information. I didn't finish this book. I'm not wasting any more of my precious time on it.
December 30, 2018
Have to agree with some of the other reviewers. Rather than an introduction/primer, it's a collection of disjointed excerpts and articles which vary in quality. I'm sure it'd be of some use to those who might be quote-mining, but I didn't enjoy it much.
June 10, 2025
Tidbits and book ideas.
This book of tidbits of books and book recommendations is informative in itself. A great place to start of looking for ways to educate yourself on books that may suit your needs of spark desired for not information on topics of interest. I enjoyed the book.
This book of tidbits of books and book recommendations is informative in itself. A great place to start of looking for ways to educate yourself on books that may suit your needs of spark desired for not information on topics of interest. I enjoyed the book.
September 13, 2018
Excellent review of the state of the art in paganism but I'm biased because I wrote something for it.
November 2, 2018
An informative anthology of essays, with a breadth of topics.
February 21, 2019
Very good insight into a pagan lifestyle
As somebody new to paganism I was looking for a book that showed many views to help shape my views and it certainly done that.
As somebody new to paganism I was looking for a book that showed many views to help shape my views and it certainly done that.
March 10, 2020
The book consists of different people with different views on how they see Paganism.
It was interesting but at points depending on who was the person was it could be quite long winded.
It was interesting but at points depending on who was the person was it could be quite long winded.
June 19, 2021
Good book for today
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