Customer Reviews

Goddess Afoot!: Practicing Magic with Celtic & Norse Goddesses

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Michelle Skye is the perfect example of what a pagan writer should be. She uses primary source material for her mythic information--can you imagine!?! And better than that, she is very clear in where her writing differs from the primary source, or has no basis in the source. To me this is an outstanding practice that should be adopted by all pagan authors of non-fiction.

I always tell people that there are two ways to know the goddesses--through study and through direct contact and both are totally necessary to get the whole picture. This is the approach that Skye uses in her books. The meditations, rituals and spells arise from and are complimentary to the factual information on each goddess. This being said, she is not a reconstructionist or purist in any sense, which may turn some people off to her work--for example she recommends the use of white sage in the rituals honoring European goddesses, and one ritual even uses runic yoga--but I see no harm in bringing the goddesses into our lives in ways that differ from our ancestors.

I am hard pressed to find fault with this book--but I do have two minor complaints. On page 16 Skye writes that guided meditation is also known as shamanic journeying--but the two practices share very little in common--I would have to say that statement is completely false. My other problem comes when in the chapter on Eriu, she writes about how the goddess's sons are known by the god they worship: "Mac Greine --Sethor, the sun his god" (p148) and doesn't mention that the sun "god" in Ireland is female--I find this misleading. She corrects this later in the book in the Sunna section when she writes "that the Celts and the Norse related the orb of the sun with the Goddess" (p.248), but if you are only interested in the Irish goddesses and only read their sections of the book, you will be sadly misinformed.

But those two complaints aside, I feel that this is an excellent book and I do hope that Llewellyn continues to publish books by Michele Skye and finds other authors of her caliber to publish.

I love this book! It's a wonderful blend of information and ways of connecting with the Goddesses of the Norse and Celtic pantheons. Skye has a great writing style...knowledgeable, sassy and light.

Love the parts about the Welsh Goddesses!

Bendithion Afallon Michelle!

Michelle Skye has done it again with Goddess Afoot. Goddess Alive and the follow-up are both excellent books for learning about Celtic and Norse Goddesses and taking them into your life. The chapters have myth, history, craft, spells, path-working and guided meditations as well as a full ritual. Would recommend them to anyone wanting to welcome the Goddess into their hearts.

The book is awesome. I follow a Nordic Pantheon and the information is amazing. Another great thing about it is that my patron goddess is Skadi and it tells specifically how to personally work with her. I really liked the book and it was very informative.

After reading my first book by Ms Skye "Goddess Aloud" I had high expectations for this book. I was slightly let down. To fill the book, it seems she had to streatch material very far. A lot of lesser known goddesses are included here, but since not much is known of there myths and orgins, at best she can speculate. I haven't researched each goddess indivdualy, but I have sought information about celtic and germanic gods and godesses long ago prior to knowing this book exsited, so I know she really did do her best when seeking information and turning it into a lesson. I would reconmend this book. While not as satisfying as her previous one, it is worth while reading. Some of the guided mediations are very good.

Goddess Afoot! by Michelle Skye is a wonderfully written, well-organized and delightful book for anyone who practices (or wants to know more about) magic. It is organized into three sections: one for the Welsh goddesses, one for the Irish goddesses, and one for the Norse goddesses. Each section contains four representative goddesses. For each goddess, Skye writes a "biography," the reason why the goddess is important, a "pathworking," a guided meditation, an invocation to the goddess, and then one or more magical activities. Taken together, the three sections provider the woman or man who practices magic with a wide range of suggested spiritual guidance for different situations and different times throughout the wheel of the year. Skye does a beautiful job of combining ancient belief with modern practice, in just the right tone of not-too-serious open-mindedness.

I guess I shouldn't buy used books, because I got a copy of this off Half-com that was supposedly in Very Good condition and they sent me a promo book, without illustrations! I mean, that was half the reason I wanted this book, because I am not familiar with these goddesses and would like to study their pictures to make me more acquainted with them!

Disappointment aside, I like this book. I like the fact she uses goddesses I haven't normally encountered via Welsh myth and some I know a little bit from Norse Mythology. I had a problem with her a/b/c approach to magic, which I guess she got from Silver Ravenwolf, which states how you react to a problem, like if you hear people shouting, do you: Get your bat and run to the door to help, call 911 or do nothing. Well, if you live the city, like I do, people yell out all sorts of crazy things and have the time, even if they are yelling "help", sometimes they are kidding. If I ran out with a bat to defend someone every time I heard people yelling, I would upset a lot of people, become a laughing stock and maybe get myself stabbed. To me, this a/b/c system isn't the best way to tell you what kinds of magick you should do, like if you run outside with a bat at the basic sense of danger, why does that make you able to do all magick, while if you call 911, that makes you only able to do this or that magically? Just because I'm not an idiot walking about with a stick doesn't mean I am a bad witch, it means I am a cautious one and not enough pagans are taught caution. I feel new readers to the craft might get the wrong idea here. Maybe this part could be explained better in the next edition.

But other than that, the book is nice, great illustrations, though in my promo copy there are only two, I really would like to see the rest. The meditations look like they would be good for the beginner or advanced pagan and her writing style is practical, she explains the theory of magic well, even high vs. low, etc. I like the goddesses she has selected and the activities are nice.

I gave this 4 stars because of the a/b/c thing, not because of getting a promo copy. I look forward to trying to buy another copy of this so I can get the full effect, so if you want to buy an used copy, write the seller first and make sure you get a non-promo copy. Practice caution!