Customer Reviews

Pagan Spirituality: A Guide to Personal Transformation

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Did you know that there are different levels of spiritual development? I didn't until I read this book.

The initial chapters of this book explore the theories of Ken Wilber, a spirituality psychologist. His ideas are related to Pagan spiritual development in a way that the non-scientist can understand. The authors explain how a person progresses from infant to young adult and beyond the young adult stage into stages of more wisdom and self-reflection. The authors liken one's spiritual growth to the changes one goes through when going from helpless infant to someone who can run marathons.

In all there are nine developmental "spaces" and four different quadrants that readily conform to a Pagan world outlook. Joyce and River take the reader on a tour through each space and each quadrant with exercises, meditations and other activities.

The book is set up as a teaching guide, and would work best for a group situation, although the authors do include notes on how to make the contents work if you happen to be solitary, which a great many Pagans are.

Each chapter of the book is beautifully designed to make navigating through the book as easy as possible. Each chapter has section headings such as Questions to discuss, Exercise, My Journal, or Visualization. At the beginning of the book the reader is encouraged to create a spiritual progress map listing things that he or she wishes to accomplish in the coming year. The following chapters build on this map by returning to it and checking on progress toward the goals set forth in it. Each chapter builds on the lessons learned from the ones previous.

Chapters focus on different aspects of growth, both of the individual self and the way in which that individual interacts with the greater Pagan community, the mundane world and beyond to the spirit world. Chapter titles show what the reader can expect to find with such descriptions as Growth and Magick from the front end of the book to Energy Work from the back end of the book.

This book would be most useful to a shop that gives classes or a coven leader working with beginners that have progressed beyond the basic Wicca 101 level. It would also be a perfect workbook for a group of new seekers that are forming their own study group. Pagan Spirituality builds on the lessons and explanations found in the authors' first book, Paganism, and the authors suggest reviewing their previous work before tackling the projects of this one. I haven't read their first book, but on the basis of my reading of this one, I will at some point.

The only down side of the book for me was the repetitiveness of the various visualizations, but since each one builds on the last, I understand the reasoning behind the repetitions. If the reader were using the book as a lesson plan meant to encompass a year's study, this slight flaw most likely would become an attribute instead. This is a book I definitely recommend to anyone wishing to deepen their connection to the spiritual side of existence.

W. Lyon Martin Author/Illustrator of "An Ordinary Girl, A Magical Child"

In the sequel to Paganism: An Introduction to Earth based Traditions, Joyce and River talk about growth as a Pagan and how to deepen your practices and help others in the process of growth.

To be honest, I think this book is more of a workbook that you progress through rather than a sit down and read book. And being honest again, while this book is useful for those who are just getting beyond the beginner stage (or beginners looking for practical ways to move up from beginner level), for me it wasn't that beneficial.

The exercises themselves are interesting enough and I will probably actually do them at some stage. I may find the book much better if I actually complete the tasks you're meant to! I suppose though the problem with the exercises is that they made the book almost too practical. I like Pagan books that make an enjoyable read that you can then put into practice. This book focused so much on the practical the writing became almost tedious.

I did however enjoy the initial chapter on stages of faith. The psychology of it was very interesting and I liked the comparisons with the different theories. This chapter actually forms the basic format for other chapters, explaining for example how magic may be viewed by someone at a certain level of faith development. The thee dos become repitious by the final chapters I must admit though.

In general, though flawed, this is not a bad book, it's simply for someone at a very particular level and probably won't be a useful for someone with a few years under their belt. I liked it ok, in the end, but it wasn't the gem their first book was.

Oh and I think Pagan Growth would have been a much better title as it's not at much about the spirituality side of things. ;)

I truly enjoyed the authors' first book- Pganism: An Introduction to Earth-Centered relgions much more than this one. For some reason- I had to force myself to finish it! Maybe this one seemed to drift off too much from the core points, or maybe certain parts were just too focused and narrowed down- but I just didn't enjoy it. It still is a decent book, from authors that have a grasp of much of the heart of the Neopagan spiritual movement. However, this book didn't display that to me.

The Higginbotham's have done it again. Only 4 stars because it wasn't QUITE as good as their first book, "Paganism, an Introduction to Earth Based Religions" which was a fantastic Paganism 101 book and in MY eye, the BEST Paganism 101 book on the market. This book is so much more. If you're looking for intermediate level book, look elsewhere. This is ADVANCED Paganism- we're talking Paganism 301 level here.

The 101 level is about learning the Craft, the 201 level is about furthering the Craft and the skills you've developed. The 301 Level is about going deeper than the just the Craft and into understanding of Paganism's broader scope and how it fits in the world about you. Here you stumble over ethics, you start to explore your responsiblity to your religion and how it fits in the world, and so on.

The book is readable but with exercises and journaling included that makes it a workbook in a sense, so if you are looking for something simply to read, but not experience, again, go elsewhere.

This book works to expand your concepts of your role in the Universe, your role in Your Religion, and determine YOUR meaning to them. It has sound metaphysical principles about it and talks in depth about the progression of spiritual developement, including the concept of the "Dark Night of the Soul" that is an actual process of a crisis of Faith that ANY religious practicioner goes through. It talks about stages of spiritual development and takes a look at ethics and why they are what they are.

If you're new to Paganism, avoid this book because you're not here yet. If you're an ADVANCED practicioner and someone looking to understand your role as an Elder/Mentor and how to find the meanings to pass on to your students, the insight gained from this book is REQUIRED.

And again, this is coming from a Priest of a local Coven who has been practicing since I was in [...]

I received this book yesterday, and can't put it down. The Higginbothams are awesome writers, and I can hardly wait to put their work to the test.

However, my copy started falling apart immediately - by now about 40 pairs of pages have come loose. I haven't yet told Amazon about it, but hopefully they will replace this defective copy. If not, I'm going to get it spiral-bound, it's that important of a book.

Jouce & River Higginbotham's PAGAN SPIRITUALITY: A GUIDE TO PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION explores how Pagan spirituality relates to modern culture, presenting exercises to encourage readers to foster magickal skills and spiritual growth through journaling, visualization and meditation. Questions to discuss, exercises, and periodic plan analysis blend with divination and the art of receiving and understanding information from spiritual pursuits.

This book is wonderful. It teaches all sorts of different spiritualities, the levels of them, progression etc... though in my opinion it heavily lacks more interactive and inspiring ways to make progress spiritually. Sure there are a lot of questions offered to ask yourself but there aren't as many activities. I feel like it spent too much time explaining and analyzing the types of spirituality from a general perspective than getting right to PAGAN spirituality and ideas of how to progress your own.

I really appreciate the approach of this book and how it's not an attempt to sell the religion, but a presentation of thoughts and beliefs held by the general Pagan traditions. Kudos to the authors for that approach.

Though this book does gloss over some of the differences between Pagan groups, I found it was a very good, readable text that challenges the reader to do. To do what? Deepen their spirituality, understand their own place in life and spirituality better, to try to come to grips with how to advance their spiritual life if they want to, or simply accept and see there are other avenues to the same place. I recommend this book to any Pagan wishing to deepen their spirituality. It certainly helped me. I found the reflective questions great, and the consistent coming back to the self and identifying where one is at an excellent addition to the book.

There are probably two things I love most about the Higgenbothams. The first is that they write about Paganism, and don't just write mostly about Wicca with a little bit of other stuff and call it Paganism. The second is that to get the full effect of their writing, you have to do the work they provide.

Yes, in that sense, it, like their previous book, An Introduction to Paganism, is basically a workbook. It doesn't mean that you won't get anything out of this book without doing any of the activities, but if you're just looking for a passive read, you might be better off sticking to authors like Cunningham. But what's the point of studying Paganism or spirituality with the intent of growing spiritually without doing something?

As a "sequel" to Introduction to Paganism, it is definitely more advanced. Another reviewer mentioned that it was "301" level. I don't know if I'd consider that advanced, but it is more understandable if you're at least vaguely familiar with things like basic Jungian psychology (as it relates to spirituality), as it covers a lot more psychology than just the usual rehashing of beliefs (or even the old traditions). That doesn't make it any less interesting or useful, though, particularly if you're looking to get beyond the fluff of most of today's "101" books. It also has its share of rituals, but like their first book, they're supplemental to the text and don't take it over.