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Title: The Apple Branch: A Path to Celtic Ritual
Author: Alexei Kondratiev
Published: Ireland: the Collins Press, 1998
Page Count: 263
Total Page Count: 28,592
Text Number: 83
Read For: Celtic Reconstruction research, checked out from the library
Short review: How useful the reader will find this book depends primarily on what he is looking for in a Celtic-based pagan religion. Kondratiev's text has a much stronger Celtic background than many of the books published on Celtic Wicca and Celtic Neo-Paganism, but he deviates and modifies historical Celtic belief and practice too much for this to be considered an authentic view of Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism. Kontratiev proposes a Pan-Celtic practice, based in Celtic mythology but heavily modified to create a simplified view of the deities and a more complex wheel of the year. His book contains a useful overview of Celtic history and pre-history, both before and after Christianity, and to the Celtic culture, an introduction to ritual and sacred space, a year-long cycle of eight holidays, a monthly moon cycle, and a seven-holiday cultural cycle of non-religious holidays. The introduction to Celtic history and culture and the historical analysis of the major Celtic holidays (Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine, and Lunasa) should be useful to readers on all religious paths; the rest of the book is too heavily adapted and ritualized to be considered Celtic Reconstructionist but may be useful to those interest in a modified, Pan-Celtic path. As such, I recommend this book only tentatively, and I believe that those interested in an authentic Celtic Reconstructionist practice will find it only minorly useful. However, Kontratiev's extrapolations are good food for thought, and the book may be very useful to those not interested in following a strict, historically accurate Celtic path.
( Long review. )
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
Author: Alexei Kondratiev
Published: Ireland: the Collins Press, 1998
Page Count: 263
Total Page Count: 28,592
Text Number: 83
Read For: Celtic Reconstruction research, checked out from the library
Short review: How useful the reader will find this book depends primarily on what he is looking for in a Celtic-based pagan religion. Kondratiev's text has a much stronger Celtic background than many of the books published on Celtic Wicca and Celtic Neo-Paganism, but he deviates and modifies historical Celtic belief and practice too much for this to be considered an authentic view of Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism. Kontratiev proposes a Pan-Celtic practice, based in Celtic mythology but heavily modified to create a simplified view of the deities and a more complex wheel of the year. His book contains a useful overview of Celtic history and pre-history, both before and after Christianity, and to the Celtic culture, an introduction to ritual and sacred space, a year-long cycle of eight holidays, a monthly moon cycle, and a seven-holiday cultural cycle of non-religious holidays. The introduction to Celtic history and culture and the historical analysis of the major Celtic holidays (Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine, and Lunasa) should be useful to readers on all religious paths; the rest of the book is too heavily adapted and ritualized to be considered Celtic Reconstructionist but may be useful to those interest in a modified, Pan-Celtic path. As such, I recommend this book only tentatively, and I believe that those interested in an authentic Celtic Reconstructionist practice will find it only minorly useful. However, Kontratiev's extrapolations are good food for thought, and the book may be very useful to those not interested in following a strict, historically accurate Celtic path.
( Long review. )
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
