The Celtic Book of Seasonal Meditations [Hardcover]

Claire Hamilton (Author), Maria Green (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2003

The Celts lived in close harmony with nature, celebrating the seasons through their uplifting festivals, inspirational tales and beautiful verse. This attractive gift book allows us to share their poetic understanding and to appreciate the natural world through eyes and ears untainted by 21st- century hustle and bustle. It will include - Descriptions of the ancient Celtic year, its natural rhythms, major feasts and festivals, and seasonal celebrations - Tales and verse of warriors, lovers, goddesses and gods - Insights into war and love, ritual and magic and the Otherworld - Nature poems, riddling exchanges and empowering elegies - An authoritative commentary on the Celts, their wisdom and beliefs The Celtic Book of Seasonal Meditations allows us all to enter another magical world and to partake of its wisdom.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Claire Hamilton is a well-known Celtic authority and professional harpist, who has a number of commercial albums of Celtic music. She was a founder member of The Company of Strangers, a theatre group who specialises in presentations of Celtic myths. In the last few years she has written several books on Celtic, Arthurian and Greek mythology. She tutors Celtic Harp and Myth courses at Hawkwood College in Stroud. She is also a member of OBOD, the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 263 pages
• Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590030559
• ISBN-13: 978-1590030554
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,725,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful presentation of some lovely material, April 11, 2005

By 

Boudica (Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Celtic Book of Seasonal Meditations (Hardcover)

The idea of this book is to provide the reader with points of meditation and inspiration based on the seasons of the year and Celtic sources.

The author takes the viewpoint that the Celts lived in harmony with the seasons and the cycles of the year and uses literature and writings to provide brief vignettes for the reader to focus on.

This book is a lovely presentation. A small, hard covered book, the dust jacket is a colorful Celtic knot work, but if you remove the dust jacket, the hard cover is embossed with the title and more Celtic knot work. Each page is graced with a Celtic knot "watermark" in light grey that is not distracting but repeats the Celtic theme on every page. A very lovely presentation overall.

The book is pocket sized, making it easy to take along. And the meditation pieces mostly cover one page, sometimes two at most. This allows for brief meditations if the time is limited, say at lunch time or early morning.

The mediations are mostly derived from myths and legends of the Celtic people. The author is well qualified in this area, as she is a Celtic scholar with several books published on this topic, founding member of a theater group specializing in presentations of Celtic myths, and an accomplished harpist who has a number of recording of Celtic music to her name.

Some of the material may have a lead-in to the meditative passages. Shapeshifting, for example, is basically outlined, and then a poem on shapeshifting is offered for meditation. I found this to be a nice addition to the material.

The meditations are grouped according to their content, focusing on the four seasons. As the Celts were very seasonally focused in their practices, the material presented is well placed for the associations. Each section is introduced with some background, a basic overview of the holidays associated with the season, and some facts that explain why some material is included in the section.

Material is taken from a variety of sources, and while some are easily recognized, others will be new to you and are just as delightful. From the story of Finn mac Cumhail to poetry that the author reworked from some ancient Celtic poems, the material presented is varied and does offer points for meditative contemplation and some personal soul searching.

There are meditations on some plights of various heroes and heroines, Celtic symbols, various Deities of the Celts and their stories and deeds, stories of the fairies, seasonal holidays and some delightful short poems. An example, which I found very appropriate for its ability to invoke meditation on several levels, comes from the "Autumn" section:

"After the delight of summer
in each field and hollow
comes the weeping of the leaves,
the long sorrow."

A beautiful passage, and very much one to invoke much contemplation, not only about the season, but also on life itself.

The conclusions you draw on this material will be your own. The author does not suggest any kind of "right or wrong" material, but merely provides the food for the thoughts you will come to on your own. This is a book to draw your own thoughts about, and maybe reflect on in your own personal life.

This is a lovely work, and if you are drawn to the Celtic traditions, and find meditation a part of your life, this book will provide some material that will compliment your life style. If you are curious about Celtic literary works, or just want a book of some interesting material for occasional reading, again,
this book can provide a good starting point to your reading. I very much recommend this title for your library. boudica