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68 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
So bad, words fail to describe how bad it is -, March 6, 2004
I did my research. Other authors casually promote this book in their reading lists. It has four stars here on Amazon, with 42 reviews! I was hoping for something like the book Earth Prayers, with a Pagan / Goddess-oriented theme. Or, I thought, if it were more formal, I might find written prayers for those times I'm asked to comfort the dying, or the sick or bereaved. The author, after all, is an ordained minister who has reportedly studied many religions. The prayers in this book, almost all written by Ventimiglia, are trite, soulless, and boring, beyond the ability of those words to convey, and I would never dishonor the Gods or myself with them. He even "Adapted" the much-loved Charge of the Goddess to the point of making it unrecognizable, editing out everything that makes the Charge beautiful and True and leaving the reader with dross. It's like a bad practical joke. It's just - unbelievable. And where is his head? He prefaces the book with a sick little parable about a ten-year-old getting hit by a car while playing ball, and hearing the voices of the God and Goddess as he DIES, presumably as a reward for telling them every day that he loves them! Religious sadomasochism much? It reminds me of the kind of made-up morality tales I heard as a Christian kid! And this description makes it sound better than it is, because the man can't even write a parable! Let alone a prayer! Here's a taste of the philosophy of the book: "The first thing you should do to create a lasting bode between yourself and the God and Goddess is to set up a daily schedule of prayer." Again it's like bad Christianity - mouth these words at your deity at nine o'clock every morning and you'll experience true spirituality. His prayers themselves show a similar sad shallowness (after awhile the revealed prejudices in such prayers as the one written to pray for parents-in-law, or before housekeeping, get kind of funny, they're so unbelievable) and no feel at all of Wicca's basic idea of immanent deity. This man is somebody's high priest? You have GOT to be kidding me! I've read every word of it, and this book has no, zero, redeeming characteristics. I'm not going to re-sell it, pass it on, or give it to charity - I'm going to rip out the pages for recycling and give the rest to the dumpster. There are 42 reviews of this thing out there already - mostly favorable enough. I put this out in the hope that someone, doing better research than I did, will come across these unflattering words and NOT BUY THIS BOOK. I'll repeat it: please, friend, fellow-traveller: DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. I understand the desire for Pagan prayers, but this particular well is bitter and polluted. Rider, pass by.
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40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
How did this get even 3 1/2 stars?, September 26, 2004
I came onto Amazon after reading (as much as I could handle of) it, and honestly, I was quite surprised that it had gotten even 3 1/2 stars.
Mostly it just seemed like someone had gotten a trite, poorly written book of Christian prayers (which are usually better than this) and done a find & replace on the word "God". But don't take my opinion, just use the 'search inside' feature to read the excerpt before you buy it, maybe you'll like that style.
Oh, and definitely search on the word "Larry". *shudder*. That was a shocker.
It's a pity, because the 'idea' was nice. As an alternative, I'd recommend the two "Book of Hours" : Prayers to the Gods/Goddesses by Galen Gillotte. I've also heard A Book of Pagan Prayer by Ceisiwr Serith is good.
But onto something *much* worse, and a *much* more serious problem with this book. On Amazon anyway.
Once I'd gotten over the shock that it'd even managed 3 1/2 stars, I noticed it had gotten *42* reviews. What?!?
Take a look at other, even more popular wiccan books published at around the same time. That's a *lot* of reviews for this book to be getting.
I started reading them.
And the ones for his other books.
And I know this is a horrible allegation to make, but someone's been ballot stuffing. On *all* of his books.
There's many very similar (positive) reviews for his books which say very similar things, with very similar gushing praise as to personal attributes of the author, and even similar spelling/grammar mistakes.
Just for this book, there are at least 8 *named* reviewers who have *only* reviewed Ventimiglias books - Lady Sabrina, Jimmy Durgan, mary zues, kathy McMillian, Moab, Greg, Lord Goth, and Joy Bennett.
One of two may be legit, but I doubt all of them are.
I'll be contacting Amazon staff to inform them of this, and ask that *something* be done about it, because it's pretty shoddy ethics and moral principles on the part of "whoever" is doing this.
:(
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31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Trite with strong Christian overtones, November 16, 2003
By A Customer
I have no idea where this author gets his ideas but they smack more of fundamentalism than wicca. His personal outlooks on "sin" and "morality" alone set off warning signals with me. I'm sure you can find a much better book suited to your Path than this one.
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