The Book of Hedge Druidry: A Complete Guide for the Solitary Seeker by Joanna van der Hoeven

Joanna van der Hoeven, a practicing Druid, has written an excellent introduction for anyone interested in creating their own similar spiritual path.

The book has four parts: Theory, Practice, Study, and Skills and Technique

The first part, Theory, discusses various aspects of Druidry including the mysterious Awen, the role of gods and ancestors, the three realms, the world tree, the wheel of the year, the cycles of the moon and more.

“Druidry is the quest to find our place in the world and to work in the world in balance and harmony.” pg 2

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I loved how the author presented this section, which could have been mammoth, very succinctly. She gives so many aspects of the practice because she’s encouraging readers to find the parts that work for them. You don’t have to embrace everything, only what speaks to you.

The second part, Practice, outlines various rites and rituals to incorporate one’s practice into daily life.

She talks about how the ancient practice of Druidry has been lost and how practitioners today are creating their own versions of what that might have looked like. I liked that she emphasizes that unbroken lineage doesn’t lend credence to the practice as much as personal exploration and empowerment. Again, she encourages readers to make these rituals their own.

“We don’t know what ancient Druids really did, nor do we wish to emulate them in every aspect. We seek to find out as much as we can and learn from it, thereby creating wisdom in our being.” pg 66

The third part, Study, looks into herblore, ogham (a type of alphabet that can be used like runes), and spellcraft. Practitioners are encouraged to study and learn these various topics in order to deepen their knowledge.

The final part, Skills and Technique, was the most interesting to me. In it, Joanna van der Hoeven discusses ethics, peace, voice, body and movement, as well as leadership roles.

I found the topics of ethics and peace to be timely.

“We cannot control how others behave. We only have control over how we behave in the world, how we act and react to others. We can lessen our reaction to others to a more intentional way of being through mindfulness of our thoughts, our bodies, and the world around us.” pg 296

Change ultimately starts at the individual level and goes from there. Thank you, Joanna, for the reminder.

Highly recommended for spiritual seekers who may be looking for an earth-based spiritual practice.

Trance-Portation Learning to Navigate the Inner World by Diana L. Paxson

“The goal of this book is to teach skills that underlie the spiritual practices of a variety of traditions, from the ceremonial to the shamanic. But acquiring the ‘gifts of the spirit’ cannot be an end in itself. They have to be used.” pgs xv-xvi

Author Diana Paxson pulls from a variety of spiritual traditions in an effort to teach readers the basics of going into trance.

The first few chapters are about how to prepare yourself, set up cues for trance work, and to do the exercises “safely” which include setting up wards and how to come back out of trance.

“All of the senses can provide cues for psychic or magical work. By repetition, we condition ourselves to move into a particular state when we experience a specific stimulus.” pg 64

The next chapters delve into what practitioners may find once they’re in trance and how to navigate this other state of consciousness. This includes how one might find guides, how to behave, and how to deal with the various entities that may be encountered.

The final parts of the book tackle the difficult topic of spiritual emergencies and give some suggestions for group trance work.

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Overall, this book covers a wide variety of topics that spiritual practitioners may need when they begin the practice of going into trance. In that way, it could be an invaluable addition to your library.

On the other hand, I didn’t agree with all of the advice given. It didn’t make sense with my experience of the trance work I’ve completed and I think it might scare beginners away.

The particular advice that I’m referring to is the idea that if you come out of trance too fast that you might leave parts of your soul behind, which you will then need to retrieve before you are able to feel like yourself again.

I understand, from the book, that soul retrieval is a common enough shamanic practice. Still, I feel like we are doing beginners a disservice to plant in their minds the idea that this is something that could happen.

Why not instead say it is best to come out of trance slowly and leave it at that? Anyone who falls asleep knows that it is more pleasant to wake up slowly than to be shaken to consciousness. Do we leave portions of ourselves behind when we’re jolted awake by an alarm clock? I say no.

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In addition, when Paxson talks about the kinds of entities one may encounter in trance, including animal guides or even gods, she gives them all of the foibles that go along with being a part of the human race. In the section about developing a relationship with a god or goddess, she talks about how practitioners may have to deal with divine jealousy.

I think it might be better to say, you bring your entire self with you when you go into trance. Your strengths and failings are on full display in your interactions with what or who you find there. Again, this avoids planting any negative expectations for practitioners while still providing ample warning.

Recommended with reservations for spiritual seekers who are looking to add trance work to their repertoire.

On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious by Douglas E. Harding

Douglas Harding had a strange experience when he was a young man. As he was hiking in the Himalayas, Harding had a moment he would later describe as of “no thought”, and where he perceived his body as having no head. In addition, he had a vision of his body as a house with a single window, but inside the house, there was nothing looking out at the world.

That nothingness is where Harding envisioned his consciousness resides.

Trippy, I thought. If that had happened to me, I might have been pretty freaked out.

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Not necessarily so for Harding, who described the experience as incredibly peaceful and enlightening. When he came back from this experience, he applied his insight to various Eastern schools of philosophy, notably Zen.

The result is this book- a discussion of not only what happened to him, but an examination of consciousness itself. Where does consciousness reside? Where is the ‘me’ of our constant thoughts and emotions?

It’s somewhat of a winding path to get there, but Harding eventually points to the idea that consciousness is space in which reality is perceived.

When I first hopped into this book, I thought, how ridiculous. We all have heads attached to our necks. We can see them and feel them. Not only that, we can see and feel the heads of other people if we really wanted to.

Harding takes this idea of ‘seeing’ and ‘touch,’ and questions what it is that people actually perceive. Yes, he says, you can see your head in a mirror. But that is a reflection of your head and not the head itself.

Everybody says these constructs are the thing itself. However, as Harding points out, they’re not really, are they? If you look down your own face, you can usually ‘see’ your nose as a series of splotches and shapes. Is that your nose though, or just splotches?

And he goes on from there.

By the end of the book, I was nodding my head a little and felt like I could understand something of what he was saying. But now that I’m trying to write a portion of it down, it just sounds like nonsense.

Perhaps this is a book to be experienced rather than described. Rather, I might humbly suggest, like consciousness itself?

Recommended for spiritual seekers or anybody who enjoys pondering koans.

Thanks for reading!

The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman

Authors Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman examine archaeological evidence in an effort to shine further light on the writing and creation of the first five books of the old testament of the Bible or the Pentateuch.

From a historical perspective, this book was fascinating to me.

“Recent developments in archaeology have finally allowed us to bridge the gap between the study of biblical texts and the archaeological finds. We can now see that the Bible is – along with distinctive pottery forms, architectural styles, and Hebrew inscriptions – a characteristic artifact that tells a great deal about the society in which it was produced. pg 22, ebook

This was the first time I had read a non-fiction book about the actual history of events and leaders from the Bible rather than a theological interpretation. This may have been one of the reasons why I enjoyed it so much, but, despite my inexperience with books on such topics, I still believe it is very well done.

The Bible Unearthed could be a challenging read for some. For example, it doesn’t hesitate to look at potential political reasons for why the Bible was written and constructed in the manner that it was.

The authors also don’t shy away from discussing when there is a lack of historical evidence for long-held assumptions or ideas.

“As far as we can see on the basis of the archaeological surveys, Judah remained relatively empty of permanent population, quite isolated, and very marginal right up to and past the presumed time of David and Solomon, with no major urban centers and with no pronounced hierarchy of hamlets, villages, and towns.” pg 132

Religion doesn’t seem to be a topic that invites inspection or examination. This book does, in my opinion, a brilliant job of looking at only the evidence.

The Buddhist on Death Row by David Sheff

David Sheff examines the life and spiritual transformation of Jarvis Jay Masters, a man who has spent years on death row and in solitary confinement for a crime he says he didn’t commit.

“Even if Masters was innocent, I didn’t know what to think about the claims that he was, as his supporters described him, an enlightened Buddhist practitioner who had changed and saved lives.”

It is a powerful non-fiction account not only because Masters is honest and open about how he came to be where he is today, but because the spiritual lessons he has discovered throughout his experience are applicable for all of us. You don’t have to be sitting in a literal prison to feel like you’re locked in a cell and can’t get out.

The mind and heart can create suffering wherever in the world you are.

“Set in a place of unremitting violence, insanity, confusion, and rage, Masters’s story traverses the haunted caverns and tributaries of loneliness, despair, trauma, and other suffering- terrain we all know too well- and arrives at healing, meaning, and wisdom.”

I don’t think you need to be a practitioner of Buddhism to appreciate the wisdom in this book. Spiritual lessons like the knowledge that can be found in self awareness and how to obtain freedom from suffering can be helpful for all of us.

I enjoyed the book so much that I read it in only a few sittings.

The lama wrote that all people have been sentenced to death- in that way, Jarvis wasn’t unique. … “We all live in a prison, and we all hold the key,” Chagdud Tulku wrote.

Highly recommended for spiritual seekers of all types.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital copy of this book.

Masks of Misrule: The Horned God and His Cult in Europe by Nigel Jackson

My mind has been going in circles as I’ve pondered, for days, how to review this book. It is a poorly organized and bewildering publication that could be tremendously important for pagans or religious scholars who are looking for information about The Horned God.

“The Knell of Inbetweenness hath been struck,
The Bell of MISRULE soundeth;
Reverberating the Thirteen Angles,
Echoing through the Nine Spheres”

It begins with a foreword by Michael Howard speaking of the scarcity of information about a male god within the existing neo-pagan revival movement. Then, the author, Nigel Jackson, goes into what could almost be called a tirade against established religions and the current neo-pagan movement in a chapter entitled, “In the Sign of the Horns.”

“The old time is passed away and the ‘age between the ages’ is begun: the Aionic Twilight falleth over the world and the day of the cross and the mitre is wholly done with.” pg 11

Honestly, that type of tribalism and fear-mongering is a poor look for any type of spiritual movement. Why immediately alienate readers from other spiritual paths who are coming to your materials with an open mind and a willingness to learn?

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Despite his initial hostility, Nigel Jackson quickly turns his attention to what he believes are different aspects of a male pagan god, throughout history, and includes various rituals to invoke this ancient being.

As I mentioned earlier, it is a bewildering hodge-podge of material with only the thinnest of connecting threads between. Newcomers to occult matters or pagan practices may lose their way within the quickly shifting time periods, places, names and associated mythologies.

However, I found information in “Chapter Three: Cycles of the Midnight Hunt” and “Chapter Seven: Wudewasa, the Knowledge of the Green Man” that was completely new to me and interesting.

“It was held that when nocturnal thunder broke over the wildwood and the forked lightning-flash clove the darkness and the night-tempest roared and tossed the boughs, that the wild host of Woodwoses came forth in primal panoply, raging through the hoary oaks and pines, their eldritch voices mingling with the storm’s tumult.” pg 107

The printing of Masks of Misrule is a travesty for any lover of books. The font is irregular and fades, seemingly at random, within the text. The cover is ridiculous and does nothing to convey the seriousness with which the author treats his subject.

But if you set all of these concerns aside, some of the mythology contained within this book is entirely original, at least to me, and could be incredibly useful for seekers who are looking for a new movement within paganism that celebrates the male side of nature.

Thanks for reading!

Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm by Thich Nhat Hanh

In Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm, Thich Nhat Hanh simply and succinctly illuminates the Buddhist path beyond fear into an existence of freedom and joy.

“Nobody can give you fearlessness. Even if the Buddha were sitting right here next to you, he couldn’t give it to you. You have to practice and realize it yourself.” pg 6

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This book is more than theory, parables and anecdotal stories. Hanh also includes various meditations to assist in the effort.

“When the Buddha was very old, just before he died, he said, ‘My dear friends, my dear disciples, don’t take refuge in anything outside of you. In every one of us there is a very safe island we can go to. … That is a place where you can take refuge whenever you feel fearful, uncertain or confused.'” pg 71

He dissects the various forms fear can take in our lives- from fear of death, grief, anxiety about the future to reconciling with painful emotions from the past.

My main takeaway from the book was, to deal with any kind of fear, we need only to approach it with mindfulness and compassion for ourselves and the suffering of others.

“We don’t try to grab on to the pleasant sensation, and we don’t try to push it away. We just acknowledge its existence. When a painful feeling comes, we do the same thing. … A feeling is just a feeling. And you are much more than that feeling.” pg 135

Hanh reminds readers that we are more than the temporary thoughts and feelings that cause so much havoc on their way through our minds and hearts. Our true nature is something else.

My favorite metaphor that Hanh employs to remind readers of this true nature is his comparison of a life to a wave.

“The wave is always water; it doesn’t ‘come from’ water, and it doesn’t go anywhere. It is always water; coming and going are just mental constructions. … Birth and death, coming and going, are just concepts. When we are in touch with our no-birth, no-death nature, we have no fear.” pg 50

I appreciated the reminders and found a lot of comfort in these pages. I hope other readers find the same.

Recommended for readers who are interested in learning and utilizing Buddhist philosophy and techniques to overcome any fear or other unpleasant emotion that may be in their lives.

From Black Land To Fifth Sun: The Science Of Sacred Sites by Brian M. Fagan

From Black Land to Fifth Sun is the textbook for an online course I’m taking from Oxford University about ritual and religion in prehistory.

The opening chapter to the book seems promising, offering readers a glimpse into the hidden worlds of what could be called the “archaeology of the mind.”

“The emerging ‘archaeology of mind’ is a marriage of cultural systems theory, settlement archaeology, environmental reconstruction, contextual archaeology, and the decipherment of written records.” pg 11

Unfortunately, the text then becomes bogged down by the author’s lengthy descriptions of archaeological sites he visited during the course of his life and his interactions with some of the giants of the field, who, as he so helpfully notes, are dead now. One of my classmates described it as “perhaps the most boring travelogue ever.”

“I have not seen the Chauvet paintings: few outsiders have yet had the chance. Nor should they, for our primary concern must be to protect them from harm.” pg 50

Some of the most interesting parts of this were the author’s descriptions of rituals from modern peoples, such as the San. But there are perils galore to using any of this modern information to decipher rituals in prehistory. The culture and society is not the same. The hierarchies are not the same. The tools and materials available are not the same. The meanings assigned to the ritual movements may have changed if we even knew what those movements were, which in most cases we don’t. There may have been a charismatic figure at the center of the cult or religion, and who knows what they may have been like. I could go on and on.

“As they activated their potency, the medicine men trembled, then sweated, then bled from the nose, as the potency took hold of them – an eerie sight to behold. Many white hunters have seen dying eland, trembling with wide-open mouths, sweating profusely, with melted fat gushing like blood from their nostrils. Perhaps the San likened this phenomenon to ‘death’ in a medicine man’s trance.” pg 61

The fact that I find this book so dull truly is a shame. This topic could come alive with a little updating. Perhaps if the text had a digital component, where you could digitally “walk” through the sites the author is describing as he describes it, it might hold the attention.

Also, From Black Land to Fifth Sun was published in 1998, twenty-two years ago for those keeping score. It purports to be on the cutting edge of archaeological research but I find that extremely dubious when I consider how far technology has developed since then. One need only look at the state of our handheld devices to know it couldn’t possibly be true.

In addition to the meandering yet somehow dry descriptions and outdated technology, somehow the author has managed to suck the life out of a topic I find extremely compelling. What did ritual and religion look like during prehistory? I don’t know, but I can imagine so many different scenarios. So many!

I feel like this field could use people who use their intuition and imaginations in addition to scientific techniques to bring the past to life- almost like a shamanistic version of Indiana Jones.

Instead, we have either scientists putting locks and fences around sites to maintain each dust molecule in context and then droning on for hours about when the human brain may have become capable of religious thought or arguing about whether religion developed as a societal control for hunter-gatherers or agricultural people. On the other hand, there’s the spaced-out new agers who want to camp among the ruins of Stonehenge or wherever and commune with whatever spirits they claim are living in the rock, divorced from any kind of scientific evidence whatsoever.

Can’t we have some sort of happy medium?

Only recommended for the readers who are taking the same course I am. Otherwise, seekers are advised to steer clear.

Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America by Margot Adler

Margot Adler talks to adherents in different traditions all across the United States, and a few in Europe, in order to banish some of the mystery and misconceptions surrounding neo-pagan groups.

“Since Pagans are a very diverse group, it is wrong to say all Pagans believe this or that, but here are some beliefs that many people in this book share: The world is holy. Nature is holy. The body is holy. Sexuality is holy. The imagination is holy. Divinity is immanent in nature; it is within you as well as without. Most spiritual paths ultimately lead people to the understanding of their own connection to the divine.” pg 11, ebook.

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I didn’t know much of anything about pagan religions before I read this book, mainly because I am from a particularly conservative part of the country and there are very few groups of this type around. It’s hard to get to know people if there aren’t any to talk to.

In some circles, just the word “pagan” inspires fear because it’s not clear what this means or people might be threatened by how someone’s beliefs might be different from their own.

“Neo-Pagans look at religion differently; they often point out that the root of the word means “to relink” and “to connect,” and therefore refers to any philosophy that makes deep connections between human beings and the universe.” pg 24

Adler examines an extraordinary number of pagan groups, an almost bewildering amount. I liked that this book introduced me to so many different paths and ideologies, but at the same time, it began to get somewhat repetitive as she broke down all of the different groups.

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But as the friend who had recommended this book reminded me, Drawing Down the Moon was created in the years before the existence of the internet. It was intended not just to explain what these groups were, but also operated as a catalog of sorts, for readers who were looking for the right path for themselves.

Recommended for spiritual seekers who are looking for a tradition that fits or for anyone who is curious about the stunning variety of spiritual beliefs there are out there. I learned so much.

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Tag: religion

The Book of Hedge Druidry: A Complete Guide for the Solitary Seeker by Joanna van der Hoeven

Trance-Portation Learning to Navigate the Inner World by Diana L. Paxson

On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious by Douglas E. Harding

The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman

The Buddhist on Death Row by David Sheff

Masks of Misrule: The Horned God and His Cult in Europe by Nigel Jackson

Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm by Thich Nhat Hanh

From Black Land To Fifth Sun: The Science Of Sacred Sites by Brian M. Fagan

Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America by Margot Adler

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