Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #273283 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.com
The popularity of the Celtic revival is evident by the number of books on the subject, yet an assessment of women's spirituality within this cultural tradition has remained elusive. Edain McCoy addresses this very topic and thus opens new doors for women, allowing them access to a tradition that can be easily blended into most current beliefs, including Christianity and paganism. McCoy skillfully examines the history of women in ancient Celtic society and reveals its significance to the women of today. Celtic Women's Spirituality details commonly practiced rituals such as the Celtic festivals of the year, and includes more uncommon traditions such as the soul-friend bonding known as Anamchara, and aspects of Celtic shamanism such as shape shifting. Women who have felt distanced from their spirituality should explore these traditional pathways for incorporating the power of their warrior archetypes into their 20th-century lives.

Customer Reviews

The Celts, Wiccafied Again (Unfortunately)
Yet another non-scholarly Llewelyn publication, this time by a Wiccan trying to cram all things Celtic into their system, when the two just will NEVER fit correctly. Some glaring errors;
1. Ms. McCoy asserts that the Celts had triple goddesses; the "maiden-mother-crone," but these aspects are purely Wiccan and have NO place in a discussion about the Celts. Although the Celts did have some triune deities, they were typically triple-faced & not split into the modern, Wiccan divisions that Ms. McCoy places them. Considering that this is the basis of the entire book, we can throw the book away.
2. Ms. McCoy shows the Celtic wheel of the year as identical to the Wiccan wheel of the year, but there's no evidence that the Celts celebrated Yule, Ostara OR Mabon. If anything, the glaring lack of that evidence suggests they did NOT celebrate those modern, Wiccan inventions.
3. Ms. McCoy gets into the use of the "crane bag." Again, this is a later invention, not a purely Celtic one.
4. The book is so full of meditations & made up rituals that there's very little to learn from it, unless you base your spirituality on someone else's belief system.
The author's blurb states; "Edain is also an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church." For those who don't know it, the ULC will ordain ANYONE, for free, over the internet.
The Celts believed that all things were inherently connected, all things were one. As such, Celtic systems will never fit properly in a Wiccan context, where everything is split into dualities, triplicities, quadruplicities & more.
Maybe someday Wiccans will stop trying to dilute & distort Celtic principals. Until then, far too many people are going to waste too much money on too many really bad books.

My credentials; I have been studying the Celts & Druids for at least a decade now and have been Druid of two groves.

A broad but readable introduction to Celtic Wicca, but historically and mythologically inaccurate. Only recommended to Wiccans.
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.

New Age "Celtic" Fluff
She's a good author for those who want to take a teeny side step from the Wiccan tradition, without fully departing from Wicca. All of her works have a firm foundation in Wicca and this book is no exception.