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14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good for daily meditation, but a little too "New Age"., 31 Aug 1999
By A Customer
Caitlin Matthews has done an excellent job of creating a Celtic-inspired book of daily devotions, each page including a verse, a short "sermon", and a suggested activity or subject for personal meditiation. She has also done a good job of keeping the different Celtic tribes seperate by including countries of origin with each verse or myth. (As usual, though, I haven't come across anything about the silversmith Celts in the mountains of Spain, but I believe that is probably the fault of history and not Celtic researchers. In all fairness, though, I haven't finished the year of devotions included!) However, several of the verses seem to be excerpts from her own poetry. Having studied formalism extensively, it's apparent she is a fine writer, but I would have liked to have seen more historical verse used. (That's just my personal taste-- and I didn't take that into account with my rating.) I only gave it four stars because so far there seems to be a little too much "peace and love and be kind to animals" propaganda in it. I am a strict vegetarian, myself, but it seems to me that such things are out of place in Celtic Reconstructionism and are better left to Primitive Reconstructionists like Wiccans. These are, after all, the hunter/herder/warriors whose strength and intelligence frightened the bejesus out of Caesar's troops. There is also a mention of the "Three-Fold Law" which seems to be a way to bring in the Wiccan crowd. However, if you've started turning to the "Celtic Spirit" because you seem to have lost your way, or you feel some sort of daily discipline will give your life more structure, you could probably benefit from purchasing this book and reading a passage every morning. And for those of you historical purists, the historical and mythological passages appear to be accurate, and they provide a good introduction to each. In spite of my misgivings about the "New Age" nature of the work, I have continued to use it daily and am still finding it quite enjoyable.
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by Caitlin Matthews
by Caitlin Matthews
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