Customer Reviews

The Celtic Consciousness

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I teach celtic shamanism classes and this book is an excellent resource for understanding the Celtic mind. With essays on the historical archaeological, mythological, literature, religion, art, music, politics, and the psychological it is an exhaustive and fascinating account of the celts from pre-historic times to the present. I find this to be an invaluable resource for my students.

When I was a kid, before I really started reading books without pictures, I remember my dad had this book, and I used to look at the cover--and all of the pictures inside of it--all the time. I had collected all sorts of books about the Celts, Ireland, Welsh and related subjects that I could find in the house or in local bookstores. I couldn't really understand what a lot of it was saying, but I was very fascinated with the idea of it all.

Since then I've forgotten about these books, and the memories of the feelings that it gave me became more distant. I was reminded of this book when visiting my dad again a few weeks ago and decided that I'd order one for myself.

What's great is now I can read it and understand it--and know the full value of it. This is a thick and heavy book full of different perspectives of different aspects, questions, theories, etc. about celtic society, beliefs, customs, art, literature, and everything else. I find that I can't stop reading it. The speakers that they chose for this event were very well picked. Each of them have a very deep and fascinated perspective in a subject which you can tell they find reward in studying. The writers/speakers have a fever for knowledge of the celts that is very contageous.

I'm surprised there aren't more reviews for this book. I consider this an essential classic of all writings concerning Celtic studies. I doubt anyone interested in the subject could get this book and not find many essays that interest them. :)

A massive volume full of papers presented at a Celtic symposium in Canada. Since they were written by different authors on a wide-range of subjects, the content and styles vary from article to article. So you are not going to sit down and plow through this one like a novel. The breadth is wide but not the depth and there is always something to find that is interesting and thought-provoking, even when you don't agree with the author. It may be a little too green for most tastes, but there's no denying that it's a terrific resource.