jiastar's Full Review: Laura Wildman - Celebrating The Pagan Soul: Our Ow...
This is a compilation of over 60 writings compiled by Laura Wildman. Within its pages you will find pieces authored by both unknown writers and some of the best-known names in Neo-Paganism. At the end of the book there is a list of brief biographies for each author in this collection.
The stories are loosely grouped into 5 chapters correlating to the 5 elements -- earth, air, fire, water, and spirit.
Earth - subtitled as "community, the roots that nourish, the families we create, coming home"
Stories about how people came to find their faith, their first coven meeting, the quest for an occult shop, even a couple of stories that involve rituals.
Air - subtitled as "the learning process, teachers, mentors, students, and inner guides"
Stories about a priestess' first students, a "ghost kitty", even a mother who found the Craft through her teenage son.
Fire - subtitled as "magical transformation -- from wow! to oops!"
This chapter opens with a poem about magic and continues on to share stories about spells that worked and those that went awry. The most gripping story is one of a love spell that took a very dark turn.
Water - subtitled as "the seasons and cycles of life"
Loving our children, and letting them go; a church wedding that welcomed a Priestess to bless the union as well; a woman's husband loses his battle with AIDS. Just like living through life, some of the moments shared in this chapter are painful.
Spirit - subtitled as "the God and GOddess in out lives"
Moments of union with the Gods, an Initiation story, and a tale of two births, not without grief.
Some of the Better-Known Writers Included
Margot Adler - author of Drawing Down the Moon (1979) a groundbreaking book of its time
Francesca De Grandis - author of several popular Pagan texts since the late 1990's, including Be a Goddess
Ellen Evert Hopman - a Druid Priestess, herbalist, and author, probably best known for the book "Tree Medicine, Tree Magic"
Stahawk - probably one of the best-known authors in the Wiccan community ... her best known work is "The Spiral Dance" (1979). She is a Dianic Witch and political activist.
Why I Enjoyed This Book
Here is a group of stories that make you laugh and think and cry. Some are funny, some are sad, but they all have a lesson, or a moral within them.
Here is a group of stories that span all aspects of Pagan life. Finding your path, being challenged on your path, practicing your faith, communing with the Gods, coping with the tragedies of life, dealing with birth and with death.
Here is a group of stories that spans from the beginnings of the American Neo-Pagan movement in the 60s and 70s and continues forward into modern times.
Here is a group of stories in which people share their knowledge and, maybe more importantly their memories. Ms. Wildman makes the point in her introduction that we are reaching a time when we have already begun losing some of the teachers in the Neo-Pagan movement. And as time passes we will only lose more Elders.
This book provides a wonderful opportunity to "meet" others in the Pagan community, to "meet" some of your favorite authors, to reinforce that as part of the community, even if we practice as a solitary or in secret, that we are NOT alone.
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