![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaTitle: Celtic Women's Spiritually
Author: Edain McCoy
Published: Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 2005 (1998)
Page Count: 328
Total Page Count: 23,621
Text Number: 69
Read For: Celtic Reconstruction study, checked out from the library
Short review: Celtic Women's Spirituality is at best an introduction to Celtic Wicca. Without delving much into history or myth and legend, McCoy pulls out some aspects that she sees in ancient Celtic religion and connects them to aspects of mainstream Wicca. She envisions the three-faced Goddesses in Celtic mythology as the triple-goddess (virgin, mother, and crone) in Wicca, overemphasizes the female warrior in Celtic history in order to create a strong archetype for women to follow, has a number of sections about "Celtic shamanism," and provides a lengthy, somewhat arbitrary wheel of the year. The book is a broad introduction to Celtic Wicca, with a general overview of the factors that she sees as important and a sprinkling of guided meditations and rituals. What Celtic Women's Spirituality is not is an introduction to historic pre-Christian Celtic religion. Many of the factors that McCoy focuses on don't arise from Celtic myth or Celtic history, and they are heavily adapted to fit Wicca. If you are interested in "actual" Celtic religion and culture, or Celtic Reconstruction, this is not the book for you.
McCoy does her audience a disservice by not clearly separating Celtic myth and history from Wiccan aspects or showing where fact ends and her extrapolations begin. She writes as if everything she says comes directly from and applies well to Wicca, implying that aspects such as the three-fold Goddess and Celtic shamanism are authentic aspects of pre-Christian Celtic religions. However, the version of Celtic religion that McCoy presents in this book is actually highly adapted and modified to fit Wicca, sometimes picking up on similar strains, sometimes extrapolating from what was into what could be. As such, this book should be considered Celtic Wicca, not Celtic Paganism.
As a book on Celtic Wicca, McCoy writes a broad but clear introduction to the faith as she sees it. She doesn't delve into great depth but she gives an overview of a number of aspects (conceptions of self, conceptions of Goddess figures, a few rituals, a number of guided mediations, and a number of correlations between symbol/deity/meaning). The few Celtic aspects that she focuses on she translates well into a Wiccan context. The entire book is geared towards women, and encourages strength, independence, and self-association to the female deities. It is actually a rather enjoyable, self-affirming read.
That said, this book shouldn't be confused with Celtic myth, history, or pre-Christian religion. McCoy's basis in Celtic myth and history is limited at best, and all of the aspects she focuses on are highly adapted and interpolated. While she sums up the myths on a broad scale, the detail that she draws from them, as well as from Celtic society and ancient religious practice, are more opinion that fact. If your interest lies in actual Celtic Pagan religious beliefs and practices, for either academic or religious reasons, then you will have better luck reading textbooks and history books. I'd direct you towards the "Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism" religion and encourage you to skip this text—no matter how easy it is to read, it has a limited basis in history, comes highly adapted, and is misleading. Doing research on actual Celtic history and religion will take longer, but it will unearth facts rather than opinions and will provide much more depth than McCoy's text.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
Author: Edain McCoy
Published: Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 2005 (1998)
Page Count: 328
Total Page Count: 23,621
Text Number: 69
Read For: Celtic Reconstruction study, checked out from the library
Short review: Celtic Women's Spirituality is at best an introduction to Celtic Wicca. Without delving much into history or myth and legend, McCoy pulls out some aspects that she sees in ancient Celtic religion and connects them to aspects of mainstream Wicca. She envisions the three-faced Goddesses in Celtic mythology as the triple-goddess (virgin, mother, and crone) in Wicca, overemphasizes the female warrior in Celtic history in order to create a strong archetype for women to follow, has a number of sections about "Celtic shamanism," and provides a lengthy, somewhat arbitrary wheel of the year. The book is a broad introduction to Celtic Wicca, with a general overview of the factors that she sees as important and a sprinkling of guided meditations and rituals. What Celtic Women's Spirituality is not is an introduction to historic pre-Christian Celtic religion. Many of the factors that McCoy focuses on don't arise from Celtic myth or Celtic history, and they are heavily adapted to fit Wicca. If you are interested in "actual" Celtic religion and culture, or Celtic Reconstruction, this is not the book for you.
McCoy does her audience a disservice by not clearly separating Celtic myth and history from Wiccan aspects or showing where fact ends and her extrapolations begin. She writes as if everything she says comes directly from and applies well to Wicca, implying that aspects such as the three-fold Goddess and Celtic shamanism are authentic aspects of pre-Christian Celtic religions. However, the version of Celtic religion that McCoy presents in this book is actually highly adapted and modified to fit Wicca, sometimes picking up on similar strains, sometimes extrapolating from what was into what could be. As such, this book should be considered Celtic Wicca, not Celtic Paganism.
As a book on Celtic Wicca, McCoy writes a broad but clear introduction to the faith as she sees it. She doesn't delve into great depth but she gives an overview of a number of aspects (conceptions of self, conceptions of Goddess figures, a few rituals, a number of guided mediations, and a number of correlations between symbol/deity/meaning). The few Celtic aspects that she focuses on she translates well into a Wiccan context. The entire book is geared towards women, and encourages strength, independence, and self-association to the female deities. It is actually a rather enjoyable, self-affirming read.
That said, this book shouldn't be confused with Celtic myth, history, or pre-Christian religion. McCoy's basis in Celtic myth and history is limited at best, and all of the aspects she focuses on are highly adapted and interpolated. While she sums up the myths on a broad scale, the detail that she draws from them, as well as from Celtic society and ancient religious practice, are more opinion that fact. If your interest lies in actual Celtic Pagan religious beliefs and practices, for either academic or religious reasons, then you will have better luck reading textbooks and history books. I'd direct you towards the "Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism" religion and encourage you to skip this text—no matter how easy it is to read, it has a limited basis in history, comes highly adapted, and is misleading. Doing research on actual Celtic history and religion will take longer, but it will unearth facts rather than opinions and will provide much more depth than McCoy's text.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
