Customer Reviews

Omens, Oghams & Oracles: Divination in the Druidic Tradition

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

 

 

An excellent book covering several sources of Celtic and Indo-European divination systems. The information on Oghams is quite satifactory to learn and get started. The information of geomancy is indispensible for those interested in the divination, and not the endless rhetoric and lore attributed to the classical ceremonial application. The sky stones are an excellent simple divination tool. (An interesting footer note, in the book the author claims to always carry his sky stones, but when asked in person, he didn't have them. The author is a scholar, not necessarily a widely practiced adept, though this takes nothing away from his work!)

If I could give zero stars I would. I know a lot about the subject of this book, and even when I did not, I bought this book and threw it down in disgust. It is bare of facts, poorly written, and your typical Llwellyn fare from the 1990's.

Friends don't let friends read this sort of tripe!

I picked this book up in the bookstore one day. The title sounded great. I turned to a section were he discussed using a bodhran (a celtic drum) in a spell and I realized that he must never have tried it himself since a bodhran has at least one or two cross pieces which would make it impossible to use as he described. Maybe I'm picky but I won't buy or recommend a cookbook where I knew the receipes hadn't been kitchen tested. I decided to save my money.

The back cover says this book contains 'ancient' oracles, but most of Mr. Webster's material is borrowed from Mr. Monroe's "21 Lessons of Merlin", the ogham divination is a complete rip off of Mr. Murray's "Celtic Tree Oracle", yet the back cover states that this has 'never before been published'. Another newly revealed divination system is the druid sticks, but this is identical to geomancy, simply using four binary lots like I-Ching. The phrase 'druid sticks' he picked up from a woman he met in England, and includes geomancy in his book solely because it has this nicname.(page 131) Who wrote the back cover? This is the most interesting thing about this book.