Book reviews

Queen of the Night: Rediscovering The Celtic Moon Goddess

Posted on May 15, 2013 in Book reviews

I found this book as I was about to start researching the moon and its links to the goddess in original Celtic culture myself. This area of spirituality feels like home to me, being a quarter Irish and having chosen to live in Wales. I was aware that up till now I’d been working mostly on second hand information, much of which has been influenced by fairly recent neo-paganism (from the 1900s). So I was thrilled and a bit relieved to find that scholar and teacher Sharynne MacLeod NicMhach had already done the hard graft for me!

The Underground Stream: Esoteric Tarot Revealed

Posted on Feb 25, 2013 in Book reviews, Tarot

If, like me, you’re primarily an intuitive Tarot reader and tend to avoid the older decks, this book will open up a whole new avenue of appreciation and interpretation for you.

I’ll be honest and say that it’s not the easiest, lightest read in the world. The author, Christine Payne-Towler, is a serious Tarot researcher and scholar of many years and this is apparent immediately just by the size of the book. It looks like a text book and almost demands to be laid open on a desk and pored over intently, not curled up with casually on a sofa (although I did take the latter approach occasionally with the result of aching arms)!

Transformations of Myth Through Time

Posted on Nov 27, 2012 in Book reviews

This was one of my many fortuitous second-hand finds. I’m lucky to have an endless source of used books as I live just half an hour from Hay-on-Wye, otherwise known as the second-hand book capital of the world!

Anyway, I’ve been meaning to read some of Joseph Campbell’s work for a long while, but this is the first of his books to present itself to me so it must be the right time. Campbell was a well-respected writer and lecturer who specialised in comparative mythology and religion. He is probably most well known for his collected works entitled The Hero with a Thousand Faces, and the conclusions of his extensive research as well as his philosophy of “follow your bliss” has found its way into many self-development and spiritual development teachings.

The Apple and the Thorn

Posted on Oct 24, 2012 in Book reviews

Recently I posted the following entry on Facebook:

“Men and women – different yet equal. Let’s celebrate and enjoy the differences instead of averting and fearing them.”

Almost immediately afterwards synchronicity steered me to stumble across the book The Apple and the Thorn by Emma Restall Orr and Walter William Melnyk, and to my amazement I found myself reading a beautiful and haunting story that perfectly illustrates that statement.

Fairy tale wisdom

Posted on Sep 30, 2012 in Book reviews, Spiritual living

by Michel Zablodskiy: http://bit.ly/MlT5xQ

I’ve always loved fairy tales and could sense in them, even at an early age, a kind of innate magic and significance, but I don’t think it was until my university days that I realised the depth of their wisdom.

I chose to study Old French as one of my English literature options (don’t worry, this isn’t going to get too cerebral!) and one of the authors I read was Marie de France and her wonderful 12th century lais – short but vivid narrative poems about knights, maidens and adventure.