I’m currently reading Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth plus a few other books that are fiction. I’m slowly trying to get myself back to reading non-fiction books. I want to get back to writing about Celtic mythology and analyzing them whenever I can. I've been side tracked enough I think...
The Celts: Bronze Age to New Age by John HaywoodMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
For a full indepth review of the book please see my Website
I read two more chapters from "The Celts" in the last two days but have not studied anymore Irish.
I finally got the two books I pre-ordered from Amazon, I don't know why I bother to pre-order when things take forever to get here. What used to take one to two weeks now take up to a month to pass through customs. It used to be that packages marked books just pass with only x-ray inspections but now they open the boxes to check that they really are books.
I spent most of today and yesterday organizing my library of PDF books and I'm not done yet, I'm only up to the authors that start with the letter E. I didn't realize I had so many PDFs! Oh well...
- Mood:
relaxed
Yesterday when I responded to a post on Celtic Nation I got a reply from Tearlach which gave me a few ideas on books that will help me with my studies into how to write a solitary personal ritual. I was not even looking for that really I had responded to something else on the list, so I'm happy about that.
I have the first of my reviews up on Chrissy's site Read All Over and I've just submitted my second one as well, today. Right now mostly my reviews are about Paranormal books, maybe I'll branch out into something more later lol.
Between yesterday and today I've read two chapters from The Celts by John Haywood. The Book has 16 chapters and tomorrow (or today who knows) I'm going to start on chapter 11.
I'm going to start studying Unit One in both Learning Irish and Basic Irish. Both units are going to be very easy because pronunciation and spelling are the two things I've done very well in, in my Irish language studies. Yesterday I ripped the CDs that came with Learning Irish because my computer at work couldn't read them. So now I have them in MP3 format so I can listen to them anywhere I want.
- Mood: cheerful
Well, to start off, I just submitted my first review to Chrissy's website Read All Over, and it is the first book in a series I am reading by Lynn Viehl. I'm glad I'm going back to review books because that will make me choose a little wiser instead of choose what ever is handy to read lol. I've got tons and tons of books both in PDF and paperback format. So I guess I will be doing lots of reviews.
I'm also still reading The Celts by John Haywood which is proving to be very informative. It's relatively new having been published in 2004 and has a lot of updated information. I'm savoring it and writing my thoughts on each chapter so that I can later on upload them to my own website and also Chrissy's I think because it is a book that should be read if you are interested in the Celts. I have to read two chapters from it today.
I was also thinking yesterday and have decided to go back to studying Irish again. This time I'm not going to stick to one book though because I get bored so fast. I'll be using a few books that I have and this way I hope to maximize my learning experience.
I also think that I need to do a little more research on how to write CR friendly rituals, and if anyone has any ideas or books they can recommend please let me know...
- Mood: calm
So work is being annoying as heck. Now because our project is entering its last phase we will be having weekly meetings instead of monthly ones, and those meetings will take place every Wednesday. This means that I will be staying late at work on that day and I really hate staying late. I get caught in the afternoon traffic jams which mean that I will be even later getting home. I'm not going to complain (Officially) though because I'm happy to have a job in the first place.
So I finally picked up a more serious book to read this week and so far I'm enjoying it. It is a fresh new way of looking at Celtic history. I decided to start out with history because it is a favored subject and will ease me into the more serious books that are piling up on my desk at home lol. I've been reading fiction for over two months now.
At home I'm also cataloging all the books I have on PDF format. It is taking very long though, I'm not even finished with the A section yet! Then I want to catalog my paper backs and hard covers. Sometimes I buy copies of books that I think I don't have only to discover that I have them already! Goodreads is good but it does not give you a copy of the list of books (at least not in a format that my computer understands.) besides I don't just want printouts of the books, papers get lost.
- Mood:
bored
Saturday morning I woke up and set up my two altars inside the tent, one altar for the Gods and Land spirits and the other for my ancestors. Then I made breakfast and ate it, and sat down to just meditate for a bit. It wasn't that I was meditating on anything in particular but it was more like I was relaxing myself. Time kind of sped away from me and I came back from my meditation to realize it was mid-afternoon, so I made some lunch and then went about setting up for my Samhain celebration. I made some apple cakes and some bread, by the time I was done it was already around sunset and had a fire going so I extinguished it and re-lit it again when the sun set.
I then when to my altars and meditated a little bit then thanked the Land-spirits for the help they provided during the year, and made an offering to both the Gods and the Land-Spirits from some of the bread that I had made. I left it at the altar I'd made for them (my altars were out side the tent by the way). Then I went to the altar I had made for my ancestors and set the apple cakes out for them as an offering and sat down to meditate.
While I was meditating I saw one of my ancestors that had visited me before, she is from my mother's side of the family and she did not look to happy. When I asked her what was wrong she said that I had gotten myself lost and that I needed to get back to where I needed to go. It was something that I had been thinking about a lot in the last few months. I lost focus and had gotten myself side tracked from my studies, and my readings and by association my path. I had not meditated in a long time nor have I been making my offerings regularly. Even my mornings have gotten messed up where I used to wake up early to sit at my altar, meditate and connect with my Gods had stopped completely in the last month or month and a half, so I knew what she was talking about.
After I thanked her and came out of my meditation, I sat down to do my yearly ritual of looking at my last year's list and making up a new one for this year. The most important thing from last year's list I had already done. I had finished my studies at NOD and the rest were common sense things that will be carried with me to this year as well like my determination for knowledge, spirituality, and not complicating things that are simple, to give to my community as much as I can, to follow my heart and soul, to learn more Irish, and to try and give everything my best. I then wrote my new list out.
Here is my list:
1.Continuing on my path for knowledge, spirituality and getting more on the practical side of both, which means going back to my old routine in the morning and my offerings as well as learning more about rituals and how to write my own.
2.Not complicating simple things, and to follow my heart,soul and intuition more as well as giving everything my best.
3.Giving back to the community I live in and looking at more ways to help the environment.
4.Go back to learning Irish.
I finished my list and did a little divination (I'm comfortable with the tarot even though I know the Celts never used it) and then sat down to eat the feast with my ancestors. After I finished I picked up what was left of my meal and all the other food that I had not eaten and packed it away. It was around 1 am so I decided to go to bed. The food on the altars was left out of course.
On Sunday morning I woke up around 6 am packed everything up and got into my car and on the way home to shower and go to work I dropped all the access food I had at a food kitchen for the poor. The food I had left out on the altars was all gone by the time I woke up and surprisingly the altars themselves were not harmed or damaged in anyway, like the food just disappeared even though I heard the animals eating it at night. How cool is that?!
I have to say that the two days I spent on my own were great, no outside distractions no Internet, nothing. I don't have a lot of access to the Internet now and I'm thinking this will be a good thing for me because maybe now I can concentrate on what is really important. I can meditate more and take care of things that I have been putting off.
- Mood:
awake
The weather is going to be amazing this October 31 and my trip to the desert is all set. I took the time off from work and will be gone for 3 days. I need the solitude to think and assess. I like to do that every year anyway, but this year I feel the need more for some reason. Perhaps because I made a lot of decisions this year that I want to think upon now.
- Mood:
aggravated
The Lost Symbol by Dan BrownMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I can't believe I almost didn't buy this book because of all the negative reviews I've read. But now that I have read it I think I finally understand all the negative reviews.
The book is written in the usual Dan Brown style of lots of uncomfortable facts/beliefs that make people totally uncomfortable if they are even slightly religious. And it does not mean that you have to be Christian to be uncomfortable but all other book religions will work.
The book uses the masons as a template of giving these facts/beliefs and that makes it even harder for the people who read to except especially with all the propaganda about the Freemasons. I can not say I am an expert on them but I do recognize a lot of the things in this book about them as truth. Also the book talks about how spirituality and science can actually be combined so that we get the maximum benefit from both which is something that most pagans know and most scientists argue against and another something that the people reading this book might find offensive.
Putting the plot of the mystery aside, which was good in my opinion,the book is an exercise at challenging ones ideas and thoughts and at trying to grasp some truths that mystics and older scientists have known all along. You'll need to read the book if you want to know what these ideas and thoughts are.
I highly recommend this book!
- Mood:
thoughtful
Many happy returns of the Day!
- Mood: amused
Theories of Mythology by Eric CsapoMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Please check out my in depth review of this book on my blog:
Theories of Mythology by Eric Csapo
- Mood:
accomplished
I got here and as usual I am the first to arrive, besides the receptionist. Not really surprised but I thought with all the troubles going on people would try to make the effort, guess I was wrong about that.
I bought a book with me to read, I know that I'm usually bored out of my wits when I am here and I do most of my reading when I've finished my work, as it is I don't have work to finish yet, but I don't feel like I want to start reading my book yet. I wish I brought something else with me to pass the time...
- Mood: bored
Today is the first day of Eid, so Ramadan is over and everything is going back to normal now.
- Mood:
blank
My vacation started a week ago and since then all I have done is eat, sleep exercise and well SLEEP!!! Except that everything is upside down. I sleep all day and stay up all night thanks to Ramadan. I did venture out yesterday to Marks and Spencers for some shopping. I bought a few skirts and a dress and I'm thinking of going back later for some more shopping.
I've also been reading some fluff. I'm looking forward to the time I get my latest installment of the Carpathians. "Dark Slayer" is out and I can't wait till I get it in the mail. For those of you who don't know this is the latest installment of the Christian Feehan Carpathian series, of vampires who battle evil while also looking for their mates. The fact that the latest story actually blurs the lines of good and evil is a plus for me. I'm also SLOOOOWWWLLLYYY reading "Theories of Mythology", so far so VERY good, though it requires a lot of thought and concentration which is why I am taking it really slow.
I've started gearing myself for the Samhain season. For me that involves planning what I am going to do for my celebration as well as getting the materials ready for the Orán Mór and the NODcast. I'm hoping to get a head start...
Other then that nothing much is going on...
- Mood: relaxed
- Mood: amused
Black cloth binding with a silver Celtic symbol on the cover. Over 100 illustrations in black and white. The author suggests that whereas Celtic remains have have been found in Wales, Scotland, Cornwall and much of Europe, the more impressive mythology, with its great stories of supernatural creatures and superhuman forces "nearly all derive from Ireland.". The author gives an enthralling account of the development of these...stories, and shows how they express the beliefs and hopes of a great civilization....The book is beautifully illustrated with outstanding examples of the work of Celtic artists and craftsmen...reading list and acknowledgments pages; Many Color and b/w illustrations.
Please see my review of this book on my blog:
Celtic Mythology by Proinsias MacCana
- Mood: accomplished
This is very close to where I used to live with my Granddad. Makes me home sick...
- Mood: nostalgic
For the past week I've pretty much not done anything. I just read mass market romances to clear my mind, I noticed that I needed to do that when I kept reading the same 3 pages over and over again and not getting anything through my brain. Anyone connected to me through Goodreads probably knows this already.
I've also been working to encourage myself to go back to writing fiction, and I've even got an idea for a story, now I just need to put things into motion.
Other than that really I have done nothing except order a new batch of books. At the rate I'm going I'm going to need a new apartment to store my books in LOL.
- Mood: calm
- Mood: accomplished
I have recently gotten hold of a couple of Joseph Campbell's books and will be reading them. I had read them years back for school but don remember much about them. I think they will help me analyze the Celtic myths when I get down to reading them, which I think is what I will be doing in the course of looking at Celtic culture.
My friend
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willowwindss and I yesterday were discussing what if anything we can take from the Druid community as it stands now in the way of Celtic Spirituality after both of us reading Ronald Hutton's book Blood and Mistletoe. We have both, I think, come to the conclusion that we probably can't take anything from them. My thoughts are that the groups now are the product (mostly) of groups that date from the 17th and 18th century, and these groups were all set up for social reasons or to further an agenda of the founder. Most of them were influenced either by fake mythologies, or Masonic ideas or even the Golden Dawn in some cases. Just a note here, I am not trying to belittle these groups as I feel that their leaders are very much serious about what they are offering to their followers. Its just not for me. I also feel that the Celts have a lot to offer in the way of spirituality, and I feel that the way to do that is to look at the mythologies they left behind, the folklore that was recorded, and to combine that with eco-friendly living, psychology and philosophy to give us a world view that fits in with modern life and still be close to what the Celts might have done. From what I have seen of the Neo-pagan community, and the neo-druid one, I'm not very hopeful. Where the leaders are very serious about what they are doing, the followers equally don seem to be, they think that it is a weekend thing that they can pick up when the have the time and put down when they don't. Again I'm not saying everyone is like that just that it seems that way to me...Ok enough ranting for one day.
- Mood:
determined
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