Customer Reviews

Principles of Paganism

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

 

 

Just the basics in a concise format. Ms. Crowley addresses such subjects as: Pagan Beliefs, Deities, Holidays and the modern Pagan. This book should appeal to those who are curious and want their questions answered "now". It's one of the books I use and recommend as reading in my "Introduction to Wicca" classes

This is the first book on Paganism that I have read in a long while that didn't goof anything up.

Its a wonderful read, and I would hand it to any non-Pagan friends, who are curious to know some of the more common aspects of what Paganism is.

oh dear. ms crowley seems to have missed the point somewhat. yeah, okay, so she has thrown in the basics. yeah, she touches base on most of the major topics of interest. unfortunately, in doing so, she shows her wiccan bias to the full. in a book like this one, the bias must be strictly non-specific, as it would otherwise violate the point. she puts forward the notion that 'all pagans' do certain things, but even the pagan federation can't find common enough ground for such statements.

in general, it's wishy-washy, puerile, pointlessness in book form. i can ignore the wiccan bias (by now, i'm getting used to it) but i can't ignore innacurate information from a condescending child-psychologist type. there's many better books out there.

Viviane Crowley can be an inspiring woman, her sense of mysticism was one of the things that got me into Wicca (see: The old religion in the new age) but, and there is a but, she has recently taken mysticism very stupidly into dangerous political teritory she'd have been better staying out of. In short, the Queen(Elizabeth II) is, according to Vivianne the direct descendent not just of King Arthur but through him of Bran the blessed and a lot of other characters of nationalist mythology as well. She bassically beleives, and exhorts other new pagans to beleive in the divine right of monarchy. The English civil war was for nothing, the French revolution was for nothing, all we need to do, (by extension of her idea) is to touch the robe of the reigning monarch and we may be healed of all manner of ills. In the same way people crowded around the cage of the incarcerated Charles I hoping for a breif bodily contact. (For a while he got the nickname 'stroker') until the parliamentarians, quite rightly, cut his head off. This is what Vivianne is trying to drag us back to- a bunch of dizzy peasants trying to stroke the robe of whatever idiot is on the throne at the time. Her search for mysticism has taken away all common sense and she doesn't realise the inherant nationalist danger of what she is saying anymore. For pity's sake don't buy it, and if you have bought it burn it, some naive young pagan could be deflected very easily into monarchistic wotanist nazism by this sort or stuff. I mean it, it is nasty. One Star given begrudgingly as the reveiw would not post unclassified.

Viviane Crowley can be an inspiring woman, her sense of mysticism was one of the things that got me into Wicca (see: The old religion in the new age) but, and there is a but, she has recently taken mysticism very stupidly into dangerous political teritory she'd have been better staying out of. In short, the Queen(Elizabeth II) is, according to Vivianne the direct descendent not just of King Arthur but through him of Bran the blessed and a lot of other characters of nationalist mythology as well. She bassically beleives, and exhorts other new pagans to beleive in the divine right of monarchy. The English civil war was for nothing, the French revolution was for nothing, all we need to do, (by extension of her idea) is to touch the robe of the reigning monarch and we may be healed of all manner of ills. In the same way people crowded around the cage of the incarcerated Charles I hoping for a breif bodily contact. (For a while he got the nickname 'stroker') until the parliamentarians, quite rightly, cut his head off. This is what Vivianne is trying to drag us back to- a bunch of dizzy peasants trying to stroke the robe of whatever idiot is on the throne at the time. Her search for mysticism has taken away all common sense and she doesn't realise the inherant nationalist danger of what she is saying anymore. For pity's sake some naive young pagan could be deflected very easily into monarchistic wotanist nazism by this sort or stuff. I mean it, it is nasty. One Star given begrudgingly as the reveiw would not post unclassified. END