Customer Reviews

Celtic Women's Spirituality: Accessing the Cauldron of Life

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Edain's book is interesting to read. She poses some fascinating insights and questions about Celtic prehistory. My problem with the book is that it fails on a scholarly basis--she does not quote many direct sources--the primary sources she draws from such as the Lebor Gabala Erenn (The Book of Invasions) and the Yellow Book of Lecan are few and far between. Most of her sources are merely other New Age books. Which only gives added ammunition to critics of contemporary paganism who say we are "making it all up." I enjoyed her trying to make the warrior goddess aspect applicable to contemporary women. I enjoyed her trying to wed Celtic spirituality with women's spirituality. But I found myself reading this book with a critical distance, as much sympathy as I have to her views. To gain real insight into Celtic spirituality, one must read deeper into the primary sources, the surviving Celtic texts. It helps to learn at least one of the Celtic languages. I don't feel that she has made this leap of scholarship. To get a deeper view into Celtic spirituality, I recommend the work of Caitlin Matthews, although my personal problem with Matthews is that she seems positively anti-feminist. I had bought McCoy's book hoping to find Matthews' serious research wedded to a portrait of strong and resourceful Celtic women.

It's true that the scholarship in this book is very shaky. Although she calls herself a "historian" in her author's bio on the back cover, the historical resources are somewhat shoddy, and the work is certainly not written from a place of scholarship (for instance, no footnotes when historical assertions are made, no real references). However, I don't think that detracts from the usefulness of this book.

Although there is very little scholarship in this book, it is still filled with a number of useful meditations and spellwork that can be used in modern feminist spirituality. If you are looking for hard-core Celtic spirituality, this may not be the book for you. But, if you're looking for a book that will help you to enhance your (wiccan/witchcraft/goddess-oriented) practice with some ideas based in Celtic mythology and rooted in modern Wicca, then you may find this useful.

It may also be useful as a book to help you think differently about the Celtic spiritual path you are already on. If you are open to different ideas, then you will find it useful. If not, then you may want to pass.

....

I found it to be a beautiful, inspiring book. First, it pleasantly surprised me by assuming a working knowledge of "Wicca 101" and didn't spend the first five chapters rehashing "How to Cast a Circle." If you need that information, you can find it in the appendices; if you have already read some of the gazillions of Wicca 101 books on the market, you can just start at the beginning of the book and jump right into the new material. Reading on, it was chock-full of suggestions on how to incorporate ancient Celtic ideas into a modern spirituality that can be meaningful to women today, including guided meditations, rituals, folk spells, a neo-pagan calendar of Celtic women's festivals, and an absolutely tear-jerking "soul-friend" bonding ritual.

.... I see nothing in the book to indicate that McCoy is trying to pass this material off as ancient. On the contrary, whenever she discusses a concept that has no known basis in ancient Celtic history, she says so. It is important to preserve all the history we can, as a basis for our spirituality; it is also important to build upon that history, adapting and creating new rituals to make the ancient concepts more meaningful to us today. We need to look to both the past and the future. This book is not intended to be a book of history, but a book of dreams, designed to inspire modern women in their quest for meaningful new rituals. So, I say, read historical works on the Celts, and read this too.

It's also been said that McCoy is lumping together very different Celtic cultures into one homogeneous culture that never really existed. Actually, the only place where that generalization is used is in the title. She comes straight out and says that the Celts were nowhere near as unified as we sometimes think, and whenever she mentions a specific Goddess, she says "So-and-so, an Irish/Cornish/Welsh/Continental/etc. Goddess", not "Celtic Goddess." She is concerned with the common threads that the cultures _did_ have in common, but she keeps her pantheons straight.

My only gripe: There were a few errors that could have been caught in editing. For example, the name Cormac was used for Conchobar a couple of times. However, a reader with a working knowledge of the myths can easily mentally correct these arrors and read on.

Three stars for the Triple Goddess only, and NOT for the author! Can I grab Edain McCoy by her collar and shake her a few times? As an academic historian of Ireland and Irish people, I am always appalled at the way some authors toss around the word "Celtic"--as if all of the tribes existed in pure harmony with each other. Edain, you've heard of the Welsh, the Manx, the Bretons, the Scots, the Gallicians? "Celtic" is almost as impossible to define as American. At any rate, it's my thought that the author and publisher thought to take advantage of pliable minds subsceptible to, let's call it, Celtic Faery Magic. Preying on the weak is not a "Celtic" trait.

As for McCoy, I wonder that she finds herself authority enough to become the author of--what? Two dozen books, maybe?--on roughly the same subject. Her tradition of Witta, which is supposedly Irish Witchcraft, is pure fantasy. I would recommend that skeptical readers looking for tight information look elsewhere--after all, this book could very well be a flight of fancy too. Cheers.

Celtic Women's Spirituality is at best an introduction to Celtic Wicca. Without delving much into history or myth and legend, McCoy pulls out some aspects that she sees in ancient Celtic religion and connects them to aspects of mainstream Wicca. She envisions the three-faced Goddesses in Celtic mythology as the triple-goddess (virgin, mother, and crone) in Wicca, overemphasizes the female warrior in Celtic history in order to create a strong archetype for women to follow, has a number of sections about "Celtic shamanism," and provides a lengthy, somewhat arbitrary wheel of the year. The book is a broad introduction to Celtic Wicca, with a general overview of the factors that she sees as important and a sprinkling of guided meditations and rituals. What Celtic Women's Spirituality is not is an introduction to historic pre-Christian Celtic religion. Many of the factors that McCoy focuses on don't arise from Celtic myth or Celtic history, and they are heavily adapted to fit Wicca. If you are interested in "actual" Celtic religion and culture, or Celtic Reconstruction, this is not the book for you.

McCoy does her audience a disservice by not clearly separating Celtic myth and history from Wiccan aspects or showing where fact ends and her extrapolations begin. She writes as if everything she says comes directly from and applies well to Wicca, implying that aspects such as the three-fold Goddess and Celtic shamanism are authentic aspects of pre-Christian Celtic religions. However, the version of Celtic religion that McCoy presents in this book is actually highly adapted and modified to fit Wicca, sometimes picking up on similar strains, sometimes extrapolating from what was into what could be. As such, this book should be considered Celtic Wicca, not Celtic Paganism.

As a book on Celtic Wicca, McCoy writes a broad but clear introduction to the faith as she sees it. She doesn't delve into great depth but she gives an overview of a number of aspects (conceptions of self, conceptions of Goddess figures, a few rituals, a number of guided mediations, and a number of correlations between symbol/deity/meaning). The few Celtic aspects that she focuses on she translates well into a Wiccan context. The entire book is geared towards women, and encourages strength, independence, and self-association to the female deities. It is actually a rather enjoyable, self-affirming read.

That said, this book shouldn't be confused with Celtic myth, history, or pre-Christian religion. McCoy's basis in Celtic myth and history is limited at best, and all of the aspects she focuses on are highly adapted and interpolated. While she sums up the myths on a broad scale, the detail that she draws from them, as well as from Celtic society and ancient religious practice, are more opinion that fact. If your interest lies in actual Celtic Pagan religious beliefs and practices, for either academic or religious reasons, then you will have better luck reading textbooks and history books. I'd direct you towards the "Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism" religion and encourage you to skip this text--no matter how easy it is to read, it has a limited basis in history, comes highly adapted, and is misleading. Doing research on actual Celtic history and religion will take longer, but it will unearth facts rather than opinions and will provide much more depth than McCoy's text.

*Merry Meet* It's unbelievable how a great, simple book on women's neopagan sprituality can be misunderstood & misconstrued. Reading the reviews below, I take it that some folks(mostly fundamentalist euro-trads) don't understand the term NEOPAGAN. Yes, this book is NOT your early historical account on 'Celtic' lore but IT IS a progressive, updated, if you will; VIEW on the Celtic mythos. I have found this book to be a useful & a richly rewarding read. I can however, understand the current backlash against NeoCeltic ANYthing, especially from the authentic(?) descendants & historians of Celtic studies; but this book is about putting theory into practice. It deals w/ Ameri-Centric women's fantasies. Myth in action is what I call it:) I like this book for what it is. It doesn't scream dogma & rules. Personally, I feel that you either like Edain's writing style or you don't. I do. I gave this book 5 Stars because I GOT something from reading this book. BTW, check out Edain's other book Lady of the Night. Talk about useful!

B~~*B~~*

Aradia )O(

This is one of those books that is more about Wicca than about Celtic Spirituality. I have searched for books that would stop pasting Celtic spirit onto the Wiccan dogma and formats. This is not one. The only one I've found so far to fit the bill is Apple Branch. Read that if you are looking to find out what the Reconstructionists are doing and/or visit imbas.org. Apple Branch is where the Celtic spirit rises up on its own and forms a living tradion.

BUT if you are basically Wiccan at heart, and there is nothing wrong with that in the least, this is one of the most well constructed WICCAN "reconstructions" of Celtic Sprituality. Not pompous or dry and it gives you a way to fit Celtic spirit onto the forms and format you already know and love. :o) The scholarship is pretty sketchy though, don't let her degree in history make you think she's done real research here.

Come on people, use your head before you buy a book about "Celtic" spirituality that contains CHAPTERS devoted to using the "four elements" - and idea that is NOT Celtic or to be found in Celtic spirituality, but is in fact Greco-Roman. What this book really is about is Wiccan spirituality with a Celtic cover, masquerading a "woman's spirituality". It is very "Goddess" centered, which is nice I'm sure for feminists, but the Celts were Polytheistic with male AND female dieties, not to mention other spiritual beings which the author lumps together as "fairies" (another inaccuracy). There are plenty of decent books on Celtic Women's Studies, from authors like PB Ellis, Miranda Green, Jean Markale, to mention a few. Look there instead of here!

Although I do not feel that this book was written from a very historically correct standpoint, overall I enjoyed the information contained within. If you're looking for information on incoporating some Celtic knowledge/influence into your path, then I would suggest it. There are some wonderful meditations in this book. However if you're looking for history I'd suggest you try a different book.

I have experienced the death of a child and numerous other deaths of dear friends recently. I was also diagnosed with Breast cancer soon after my son's death. I have always done rituals and find my connection with the divine through the earth. I have welch ancestory and need to have help in finding my trust again in this world. This book leads the way to finding strength , wisdom and hope again. Anyone that wants to reconnect to this heart pull should read this book and when ready follow it's path.....