Crescent Shadows On-Line Newsletter of the Hudson Valley Pagan Network, Inc.

As a person whose spiritual path in Paganism began with eclectic Wicca, I’ve been frustrated in the lack of well researched, historically accurate Wiccan literature. One of my primary motivations in undertaking a study of Wicca was because of an intense desire to reconnect to the spiritual practices of my ancient European ancestors. At first I believed that Wicca was able to provide this, but as I learned more it became evident that a great deal of wishful thinking had been mixed with smatterings of Celtic / Germanic tribal beliefs and a healthy dose of ceremonial magick. It is not that I have any opposition to spiritual creativity, on the contrary I think it is crucial to the life and vitality of any tradition. I do have issue with newly created materials being passed off as “ancient sources handed down over generations”, however. Just as frustrating to me were the various books pumped out by the same authors that claimed to offer Wicca from a variety of cultural sources, the “insert your trad here” type of literature. Basically the same books were generated providing a basic eclectic Wiccan format but inserting different God/Goddess names from the culture of the moment. Based on my past experience it was with a jaded perspective that I first glanced at the book of this review, Celtic Wicca, by Jane Raeburn. However, I was genuinely surprised and excited to find that this was not yet one more of those “insert your trad here” types of books.

I was encouraged right from the start when in the preface the author comments that she wrote this book because she wanted to find a book like it and could not. She went on to speak of the same frustrations with Wiccan literature that I myself had experienced. She also stated right from the start that she would be clear about which aspects of her work were based on Celtic history and which were taken from modern Wiccan or self created ideas.

In the first chapter she gives a synopsis of Ce ltic history and does a nice job differentiating between current understandings and earlier misinterpretations of history as well as explaining why a certain amount of ambiguity will always be involved. The information conveyed was largely in agreement with the literature that I’ve read from scholarly sources. Chapter two was a wonderfully candid review of Wicca as it has manifested in this past century. Along with covering the basics of eclectic practice the author gives some good suggestions of how to incorporate Celtic elements into these.

The remainder of the book builds on these first two chapters including chapters on working with a variety of Celtic deities, constructing Celtic Wiccan ritual, seasonal celebrations, creativity as part of exploration of Celtic spirituality, and Celtic Wicca in daily life. The book concludes with a chapter on ethics that goes beyond the simple “harm none” philosophy and an extensive notated bibliography of recommended books covering both Celtic and Wiccan topics.

I found the book to be an easy read and, frankly, difficult to put down. It was worth every penny of its $12.00 cover price and probably more than that. My enthusiasm was such that I even emailed the author to thank her for the impressive contribution to Wiccan literature. I’d highly recommend this work to anyone interested in Celtic Wicca as the first book to read and the standard against which to compare other works of this type.

-Review by Allan F. Patnode
 
 

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Last Updated: January 30, 2002
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