Review: Rites of Passage
Posted by Morrighan on November 21, 2011 at 12:00 pm | Last modified: November 4, 2011 11:01 amTitle: Rites of Passage
Author: Christine Hall
Publisher: Capall Bann
ISBN: 186163-086-7
Pages: 146 incl. back matter
Copyright: 2000 Christine Hall
Still available, but possibly out of print?
For every book out there on the store shelves that holds the info pagans seek – not many, if any focus so well on just the rites and celebrations pagans have to mark the passage of time.
Yes, in our mundane travels we have birthday parties, baby showers, weddings; but this book finally focuses specifically on the pagan aspects. A welcome and refreshing change indeed – no sorting through a tide of “101” drivel looking for saining information!
Quote pg. 95 para. 1, 3 & 4 from the chapter on ‘Divorce’
“This is a ritual you can use if you want to cut yourself free from a relationship, if your partner doesn’t want to participate, and if you don’t like the formal or public element of a group ritual.
Explain to the tree what you are going to do, and why. Dance around the tree to raise power. Sit down under tree (or, if it is wet and muddy, lean against it’s trunk).
‘Tree, I ask you to be my witness as I release myself from YYYY and YYYY from me.’”
This book came in very handy in the past decade. Two members of Glas Celli pledged their hearts and souls in handfasting rituals (one legal, one ritual ceremony) and at the time Wren, the bride, consulted the book for ideas and in fact eventually wound up with a copy of her own. We’ve consulted the pages for other rituals as well, including saining, first blood, and the inevitable mourning rituals.
We as a grove are pleased to have this on our collective shelf.
5 of 5 Broomsticks
–
Jodi Lee, aka ierne Morrighan Corvidae, is a 20+ year veteran of pagan paths. A full-time freelance editor, she is the owner/publisher of Belfire Press.
Review: A Patchwork of Magic
Posted by Morrighan on November 14, 2011 at 12:00 pm | Last modified: November 4, 2011 10:54 amTitle: Patchwork of Magic – Living in a Pagan World
Author: Julia Day
Publisher: Capall Bann
ISBN: 1-898-307210
Pages: 164 incl. back matter
Copyright: 1995 Julia Day
Currently out of print?
Within the pages of “Patchwork of Magic” one will find humor disguised as thinly veiled sarcasm. Or – the author is using sarcastic humor to whack the reader with a ‘wake up!’ stick. Ms. Day takes a kind of look into pagan life that most folks only do in silence.
She’s telling it like we all see it, but are too uptight or too non-confrontational to say anything.
Yes, there are some useful tidbits of magical information. Yes, in some ways it’s a short version of a regular old “101.” Realistically I would not have given this book a second glance nor the enthusiastic thumbs up I am doing, had Ms. Day not loaded it down with the giggles.
Quote pg. 62 para. 1 & 2
“Get a soapbox! Get a pedestal! Get a grandmother who was in the Craft, or failing that, an elderly aunt that didn’t go to church too often. Make sure that you DO NOT tell anything of worth to anyone and make them promise not to tell what little they do glean to anyone else, (as you are already writing a book on the subject).
Get people to take very complicated oaths that do not quite fit in with commonsense and then get really miffed when they come to you a while later and say it is not what they were hoping for.”
A definite must have for the shelf, if you can find a copy.
5 of 5 Broomsticks
–
Jodi Lee, aka ierne Morrighan Corvidae, is a 20+ year veteran of pagan paths. A full-time freelance editor, she is the owner/publisher of Belfire Press.