Customer Reviews

The Celtic Book of the Dead: A Guide for Your Voyage to the Celtic Otherworld (Cards/Spread-Cloth)

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One of the most fulfilling books I own on Celtic spirituality and mythology. Add on top of that a very thoughtful and deep card set to be used for both divination and shamanic travel, and you have a set that you will cherish in your collection. I can't praise it highly enough!

This isn't a how-to guide. This is, however, a book proposing a theory, legends and myths of the beyond according to Celtic traditions. It is fluent and very well put and I believe in can fit young readers and old as one. Although it is fairly leveled and can be used as more than just bedtime reading, it draws one into the wonderful, lost world of the Celts.

To those who practice witchcraft - it is a beautiful guide to the Celtic afterlife, and with it arrives an inspiring deck of Tarot cards, especially designed to read after-life journeys. The concept and the practice are a thing of beauty. I would recommend you practiced this specific reading thoroughly before applying it on others.

On the personal note - I bought this book shortly after a family member who was a dear friend had died. While pondering the meaning of death and what it suggests, I started a deep research on cultures and the way they have related to death, sorting out my beliefs in order to face fears and worries. This book was a lifesaver.

As always, Caitlin Matthews has managed to express in an outward and manifested object the deep strata of perennial truths of the Celtic soul. The premise upon which she approaches her subject is a fascinating one. . . that, indeed, like the Tibetans and Egyptians, that the Celtic tradition has its own particular expressions of a 'Book of the Dead': a compendium of stories or tales believed to be of Otherworld origin that speak to the soul of the living about the passage after death. The particular mythopoetic and shamanic root story that Caitlin approaches is that of Immram Curaig Maelduin Inso, or The Voyage of Maelduin's Boat.

Indeed, a fascinating account of a mystical voyage to thirty-three islands, each of which holds a particular adventure or lesson to the voyagers. Undoubtedly a strand of the many sea-faring tales of the Irish (such as St. Brendan the Navigator), the Immrama of Maelduin in THE CELTIC BOOK OF THE DEAD, proves to be an invaluable contribution to Celtic studies, visionary tradition, and the modern need to reincorporate the tools and sacred orientations of the psychopompic process (conscious death journey, or soul-leading). ...

A thought provoking journey into our own souls. Well written and researched. The cards are illustrated beautifully. I can't say enough for it. Those seeking to learn more about ourselves this set is a must.

Excellent reference/alternative to help with someone's passing. I was their guide, and this book helped me, and helped me help them. Beautifully written and illistrated. Caitlin is a jewel.

Many cultures all over the world have a "Book of the Dead", which are stories or poems, etc., meant to ready the dying for their upcoming Otherworld journey. Caitlin Matthews has applied this concept to Celtic immrama (wonder voyages), in particular using the Voyage of Maelduin for this card set. This set is a remarkable tool for shamanic journeying as well as a helper during "crossing over" points in life of all kinds. The set is wonderfully constructed and includes a cloth with the immram spread imprinted on it. The art is wonderfully like a collage and captures the Otherworld feel quite well. This set is fabulously complex with Matthews presenting multiple ways to grow and learn with these cards, as well as being a beautiful tool to actually lead the dying, should you be called or need to do so. I cannot recommend this book and card set enough.

I was severely disappointed when I got my package in the mail, and it only contained the book, no cards or spread were included, as the items description would have you believe.