Customer Reviews

The Celtic Way of Seeing: Meditations on the Irish Spirit Wheel

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I am a big time fan of Frank MacEowen and his teachings on Celtic Spirituality. To say I was pleased that he'd come out with a book on the Irish Spirit Wheel would be an understatement.

The Irish Spirit Wheel is a mandala, and is akin to the Native American Medicine Wheel. For many years now I'd been interested in learning about the Medicine Wheel, but I longed for something that was more directly connected to my own ancestors. And this is it!

I have had so much fun, and learned quite a lot, by going through this book.

In the first part of the book, Frank re-tells the Irish story "The Settling of the Manor of Tara," which is a tale of forgetting. But it's much more than just forgetting something like where we left our wallet or grocery list. It's about the wisdom and knowledge deep within our spirit, told through stories by our ancestors, that's been forgotten. He also goes into the five sacred directions and their basic meanings.

In part two he goes into more detail. He gives detailed exercises, meditations, questions and reflections for each of the five sacred directions; the Center (our center, where we find balance), East (prosperity), South (inspiration), West (knowledge) and North (battle).

In my previous studies on the medicine wheel, I found that I was taking the directions too literally. Through the exercises in this book, I find that I'm connecting with the metaphorical directions and the energies of the sacred directions.

For instance... I've been working on prosperity. According to the Celtic Way of Seeing, prosperity is in the East, along with house holding. This is important because the energy of our home directly affects how abundance comes into our lives (and I'm not just talking financial abundance, but love and health also). It's also important to be a "hearthkeeper" because being a keeper of the hearth makes the home inviting. It makes visitors feel welcomed and nourished. And it makes those who live there also feel cared for. It's all these "feelings" that ultimately bring prosperity into our lives.

To be a hearthkeeper myself, I've let myself become more domestic. I light candles, I bake, I keep the house clean. I read to my children, I support my husband. And I find that these actions all add to the energy of our home. These yummy energies are so inviting, that prosperity can't help but come to visit. And I've experienced this in my own business too.

The Celtic Way of Seeing is a guide back to our selves. It's filled with wisdom, and I've enjoyed both reading through it, and going back to it again and again and again. I would highly recommend it to anyone wishing to follow the path back to their heart, and see through the eyes of wisdom just how beautiful life can be.

I really disliked this book. I really had trouble with the author's idea of the Tuatha De Danann as doe eyed, peace loving people that didn't understand violence. Interesting take on a warrior class of people that used force and violence to take the island from the Fir Bolg ... especially since they brought a sword and a spear as two of their treasures and the direction North is associated with battle. His take was too happy and shiny, hold hands and sing Kumbiaya for me. I prefer Celtic books to have some basis in Celtic history and Celtic values. To me it's really a slap in the face of Irish people everywhere to dumb down what it means to be a warrior to fit a new age peace loving sugar and spice agenda.

Frank's work constantly invokes change within my life and his new book 'The Celtic Way of Seeing' is no different. Deep within it's pages lie the boundless and enlightening knowledge to place your life back in line with the Great Song of the universe. Through exercises, storytelling, meditations and student examples of the four directions and center, we are shown how by reclaiming our connection with the natural world, we can bring about a beautiful awakening within our own lives and inspire those around us.

Once again Frank MacEowen takes us beyond the surface to find the mysteries within and around us. This slim volume seems so simple, and it is, yet time and again it has been proven to me that the simplest things yield the most profundity. That is certainly true here, and the imp in me suspects he gave us this pared down volume on purpose; he could have said a great deal more about all the meanings of each direction, etc. but the whole point he is making here is that we wade in and "get it" for ourselves. In fact I believe he even writes of the necessity of moving the material out of the cerebral realm we in the industrialized West live all too much, and know this stuff with our hearts and intuition, which is where the needed balance comes from, from being centered properly in all the various parts of life. No matter what your way, or faith or path, I can't think of anyone who wouldn't benefit from working with this material.

There is a lot that I could say about the book but that would take pages and pages, and this is supposed to be a review.

This book takes you on a journey to realign yourself and your goals. It mixes Myth and reality in a very beautiful way to give you a map to your soul.

The meditations are enlightening and very interesting to perform. Something you can easily encorperate into your life. But don't let the name fool you, as the author says this is not just the CELTIC way of seeing as each culture that has seers can lay a claim to this book.

This book came along at a critical time for me. I had a growing fascination with the four elements, the four directions, and the idea of archetypal and Celtic spirituality, but I couldn't seem to find all of those topics in any one volume. Then I found The Celtic Way of Seeing. It has permanently altered both how I see the world around me and how I view myself. It has opened my mind to the simultaneous multiplicity and unity of all things. It could just as easily have been called, "The Celtic Way of BEING."

As someone who considers himself a earth-centered christian, but has no religious affiliation whatsoever, it is difficult to find creation-centered spiritual writings that aren't focused on specific deities. This small book, however, is full of concentrated and practical advice on how to incorporate an awareness of nature and your environment into not only your explicitly spiritual practices, but you "mundane" ones as well, yet it is universal in application. It can be read and put into practice by anyone of any religion or faith tradition who has an open mind and heart and has a hunger to continually grow as a spiritual person.

Along with The Book of Creation: An Introduction to Celtic Spirituality, this wonderful work of spiritual art has been my main source of inspiration when it comes to the authentic spirit of Celtic spirituality. It's worth every penny!

Blessings!

Jason Leslie Rogers
pencilsandpixels [at] gmail [dot] com

After taking a course in Celtic Prayer and the Mystics, this book was on the bibliography and further explains the wheel and how many of our Christian beliefs and seasons come from this tradition. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and am considering use of it in my faith discussion group
Linda from Portland,OR

This is the second book I have purchased from Frank MacEowen, thinking it might have an interesting perspective on Celtic spirituality and more specifically on this "Irish Spirit Wheel". Nope, instead he peppers his book with philosophies from Buddhism, Tao and Lakota - as if to add filler rather than state how they could be similar. I wanted to hear more about Celtic meditations, not other philosophies. I mean this book is supposed to be about the Celtic view, no? He didn't really have much to say on the subject. But more importantly, he just isn't a very good writer. Opting to go round and round on superflous and flowery writing that really doesn't say anything. Platitudes like "we should this, we should that". Too bad, I wanted to learn something new here.

I am over half way through the book and it is well written and full of the exact information I was seeking. Very great buy. I highly recommend this book.

I've always been interested in Celtic beliefs and ways. This book certainly opened my eyes to even more interesting ways of the Celts.