Customer Reviews

Apple Branch

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Kondratiev's name may be Russian, but his heart is Celtic for sure based on this text. It's a wonderful antidote to the nonsense being perpetuated by poseurs such as McCoy, Stepanich, and Monroe. He encourages the reader to actually understand the Celts as they were and are as part of their spiritual and cultural growth, and his research and clarity of understanding shines through on every page. It's useable by Pagans and Christians alike, making it even stronger. This may be the first book targeting Celtic Pagans that I've seen which has a recommend from a professor of Irish folklore (Daithi O hOgain at University College Dublin), and it's well-deserved.

As I read this book, I felt I had found a rare treasure I had been seeking for a very long time. Alexei Kondratiev has created a textbook of Celtic spirituality and ritual that rings with authenticity and meaning.

It begins with a clear and fascinating description of what is known of the history of the early Celts, including their class of priests and bards, the Druids, and what is understood of their culture. The author makes plain how much is not known about these people, who, until long after the early flowering of their culture, left almost no written records; yet, based on later writings, archaological evidence, and a deep study of the six surviving Celtic languages and the people who speak them, he manages to elucidate much about the world view of this ancient culture, focused on the connection and tension between Tribe and Land, the oscillation of all existence between polar opposites, and the Otherworldly influences that shape this world.

Then he lays out an exciting and beautiful pattern of ritual for use by anyone who feels the powerful pull of these ideas; our connection with the natural world, and an affinity for the mystical and enchanting spirituality that still haunts the Celtic psyche in the world today. These rituals, based on the ancient seasonal festivals, the cycles of the natural and agricultural year, and the waxing and waning of the moon, Mr. Kondratiev invests with a depth of meaning, connectedness, and purpose that surpasses anything else I've found.

One thing I love about this book is the very high quality of Mr. Kondratiev's writing, in a field where good writing is amazingly rare. With great clarity and beauty, he reveals his own deep and passionate identification with the Celtic spiritual world, and he lights up an inviting path for seekers who wish to penetrate more deeply into that world.

Kondratiev's work The Apple Branch is well worth reading for many reasons. Let me say that from the beginning, because I did like this book, but it has some big problems too. It was rather difficult for me to rate this book because certain sections deserve 5 stars, and other areas and points emphasized in the book really only get a 2. Likewise, portions of the book really deserve more than 5 stars, and other aspects of the book drop off the meter and don't even deserve a 1. With that said my comments are these. On the upside, read Chapter One, the Tale of the Celts, because it really is excellent. It is historically accurate, well-researched, and lacks the typically over-romanticized nonsense that so many Celtic books today seem plauged by. I think he depicts these Celtic cultural evolutions in a balanced light, from the imbalanced conquest-minded Celtic warriors, to the imperialism of Rome, to some Gaulish tribes aligning with Rome, and others fighting valiantly against it. Kondratiev also does not commit the neo-Celtic fantasy that all Celts were unified, or all somehow upset and overturned by the arrival of Christianity. He makes a convincing arguement as to the survival of Celtic consciousness within Christian tradition and mysticism of today. Something about the way Kondratiev writes in this section on history, and when he gets specific about traditions themselves, really brings the full scope of Celtic history alive. The downside of the book is the absurdity I found in the author's thesis on linguistic emphasis for cultural and spiritual experience or relevance. No one practicing Celtic spirituality or involved with their Celtic culture would deny the value or importance of learning (or learning about) the native tongue of one's ancestors and culture, but Kondratiev makes the suggestion that WITHOUT learning a Celtic language that one cannot truly claim to be involved with Celtic spirituality or Celtic culture. This is, of course, ridiculous. It's like saying one must learn Hebrew to becoming a practicing Christian, or Aramaic to be able to think like a Christian. In similar fashion, it is like saying that one must learn Japanese to master Karate, Aikido, or to experience the deep spiritual wellsprings from practicing Chanoyu, the Way of Tea--things that even the Japanese will say are guided by a larger indefinable spirit behind all things that doesn't speak Japanese. When this author settles in on something, such as Irish or Welsh cosmology, and really dives deep, he is excellent in his treatment of the subject, but all too often he bubbles back up into the domain of the silly--"let's create a pan-Celtic movement where at our rituals we blend Anglo-Saxon Wicca with Celtic ritual and try to speak Welsh, Irish, and Breton all in the same ritual." There is a great deal of value in the book. Read it. But be prepared for the shifting thesis of the book, and the inability of the author to acknowledge spiritual/transpersonal/mystical realities that exist beyond, before, and outside of the domain of linguistics. The parts that are good are GREAT. The parts putting forth a "Path of Celtic Ritual" are strangely schizophrenic, presenting a fundamentalist leaning regarding language (note: most Irish, Welsh, and Scots people are not fluent in our languages, yet we do work with the spirits of place in the lands where we live), while taking rather bizarre and typically neo-Celtic liberties with ideas of a pan-Celtic spiritual movement. The creation of such a phenomenon on a spiritual level is, ironically, very un-Celtic.

This book is the best book of Celtic history and ritual that I have ever read. Alexei's scholarship is incredible, and while most such books are dull, he presents the information in a very interesting way. He does not handfeed you pre-written ritual, but gives you the framework for you to customize and research. This book is for Pagans as well as open minded Christians, which makes the book countlessly usefull. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is interested in true Celtic heritage.

There are very few books like The Apple Branch- the scholarship is impeccable and the author's knowledge of and passion for Celtic culture shines through on every page. This is the one book which everyone involved in Celtic spirituality must read. The underlying logic of Celtic religion is laid out in a clear and understandable way, but no easy short cuts are offered. Instead, Kondratiev stresses the need to learn a Celtic language and be involved in Celtic culture. This book would be useful to Celtic Christians as much as to Celtic Pagans, for the author makes no strict division between the two. This is a book to be read and re-read; an ongoing source of both insight and inspiration.

Kondratiev has been hailed as one of the founders of 'Celtic Reconstructionism'. However, in my opinion, this book is less about Celtic Reconstructionism and more along the lines of Celtic Wiccan.

1. CR's celebrate the 4 celtic holidays, but Kondratiev has 8, following the historically inaccurate Wiccan model.

2. Kondratiev insists on 'casting the circle' another Wiccan invention.

3. Kondratiev follows the Wiccan model of the elements and cardinal directions, even though he acknowledges that the Celtic elements were Sky/Land/Water.

There's many more conflicts in the book as well. Although Kondratiev has clearly done a lot of research on the Celts, he is still closely intwined with Wicca.

---2009---

Although I gave this book a bad review 5 years ago, I have to admit that it sits proudly on my bookshelf and I've deferred to it often. Actually, I even have two copies of it, the US and UK version. Although I still wish that Kondratiev had been able to exclude the wiccan elements from this book, his research was still top notch.

If you are a "Celtic Wiccan", you will love this book. And actually, this is the perfect book for serious celtic wiccans who are tired of all the fluffy crap you may find in other books geared specifically for your demographic.

If you are a "Celtic Reconstructionist", this is still a good book, but take it with a grain of salt. Also, make sure to read plenty of other non-religious scholarly books written on the ancient Celts.

This book's opening chapter, with its history of the Celts, I found to be invigorating in a way that more academic and popular histories both lack. It makes you see the West from the Celtic perspective, with an almost "what if?" tone. The remainder focuses upon the author's attempts to rebuild from what we know of the historical record, folkloric practice, and modern re-creation what can be taken from the past and made relevant for modern seekers of Celtic wisdom, morality, and spirituality.

As with Caitlin Matthews' daily handbook of prayer and ritual, "Celtic Devotional," this book responds to a need for a less romanticized, more practically oriented approach to a way of living that concentrates upon one's interpersonal relations as well as one's orientation with the natural and supernatural realms. I applaud the author's insistence that Celtic languages be a part of the revival process within the learner. His own struggles to reimagine and reinvigorate ancient learning and mix it into ethical practice deserve wide attention and I commend this book to any of you curious to get beyond "new age" facades and delve into a truer, and less superficial, way to understanding. It's not always a quick read, but better taken in smaller amounts, to be pondered and integrated, before continuing. It's a book probably also best read with others and talked about--I wish I could've known people I could've shared it with! While Caitlin Matthews' devotional suits the solo reader, this book benefits from a group, preferably led by one more adept than first-time seekers, at least from my impressions.

This book exists as "The Apple Branch" and as "Celtic Wisdom," but it's the same contents. Not easy to find, but, fittingly, worth the quest. as is much beyond our impulsively mall-bound, chain-store, one-click grasp!

This is a well-needed book for those out there interested in learning about or pursuing a modern Celtic Pagan path. I only wish there were more out there! Although I didn't like all of the ritual formats and content, it is a ground-breaking book that provides inspiration for others to build upon. The history section in the front of the book is worth buying the book for alone, not to mention the information on the Celtic languages. Thank you Alexei!

It is refreshing to come across a book that is so well detailed and accurate as Mr. Kondratiev's Apple Branch. As a newcomer to Celtic religion,it is often difficult for me to weed out the books with questionable scholarship. You won't find any " Celtic Witches" or " 21 Lessons of..." in this book! What you will find is a well-written book by an author who is knowledgeable about Celtic language, history, and religion. I would recommend it one hundred percent!

I ordered this book, expecting a book on Celtic reconstructionist paganism. It is actually something a little different and yet quite inspiring in its own right. Where I expected to find a treasure-trove of lore, instead I found a handbook for Celtic tribalism.

There are three areas that some people are likely to find controversial but in both these areas, Kondratiev clearly lays out his case.

The first issue that some people may have is the language issue. Here I applaud Kondratiev. Celtic languages are structurally very different from either Romance or Germanic languages and the semantics are similarly very different. These two components create a fundamentally different way of relating to oneself and the world. Hence it is entirely impossible to adopt an authentic Celtic mode of consciousness without being fluent in the language. At the same time, I am well aware (through experience) that learning a Celtic language is FAR more difficult than learning languages closer to home. All I can say is that the time is well spent.

The second is the celebration of holidays. To the main four fire festivals, he adds the solar events (equinoxes and holidays). His defence is that these ceremonies are largely naturalized in Celtic countries. Furthermore, this is generally in keeping with his idea that this is not so much paganism as an embrace of the Celtic spirit (and hence he embraces both pre-Christian and Celtic Christian elements as separate golden ages). While I will say that this approach may not be for everyone, he is quite consistent in his methodology and it is unfair to characterize it as "wiccan" on this basis.

The third involves how sacred space is set up. Here he uses what looks to me to be an adaptation of Hermetic techniques to do so but he re-engineers these to be based entirely on Celtic lore. While I believe that his techniques are grounded both in lore and comparative studies, one must admit that they are probably not the same techniques which were used in either of the two golden ages he mentions. (For the record, it is not only Wiccans who cast circles-- they got this from the Hermeticists and the ritual seems to be based largely on Greek antecedents.) I suspect the issue here is that there may not be any viable alternatives at the moment other than creating the sorts of permanent structures which were found in both earlier periods......

On the whole I thought that this was a good book and I hope that Kondratiev publishes more.