If you are exploring Wicca as an option...

books:

	• Celtic Wicca: Ancient Wisdom for the 21st Century Jane Raeburn Citadel, 2001 - 200 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Real history and real religion!

At last, a book that takes both Wicca and history seriously. You see so many Wiccan books that just mangle historical facts. This one is the real thing. Raeburn is honest about what is and isn't Celtic, and about the fact that Wicca is a modern religion.

I also liked the writing in here very much. Raeburn offers some basic Wicca information for newcomers, but this is more like Wicca 102 - she quickly gets into deeper material and really encourages the reader to explore history and art.

Celtic Wicca

Very well-written and informative. I enjoyed the book very much, and found the history of the Celtic gods and goddesses, with their complimentary rituals, to be especially good. Also, Ms. Raeburn describes the way the Celtic deities and the Roman deities became intermingled as did the cultures in a way that can help one follow the sometimes tangled web of changing names of various gods, goddesses, and demi-deities.

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If you are exploring Wicca as an option...

This book is great for someone who is just exploring the possibility of Wicca or the Celtic tradition. However, for someone at the intermediate level, I would recomend something less "generalized" such as one of Fitch's or McCoy's many works. Again, Raeburn's "Celtic Wicca" is a comprehensive, easy to read overview of Celtic Wicca. The author was very good at giving a general sense of the principles of Wicca with a touch of humor on the side. But what I found extremely useful about the book, was that it is a great book to share with someone who is..."uneasy" with the concept of Witchcraft as a religion, but is willing to learn more. Blessed be!

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It's not crap!

I didn't come in with very high expectations, being unaware of the author, but very aware of the horrible inaccuracies and random flights of fancy stated as fact, generally associated with anything claiming to be 'Celtic Wicca'.

So, my first words when shoving this book under a friends nose when I read it last year, were:
"Look! And it's not crap!"

I really need to read it again, and give a better review, but I just had to put *something* down here.

This is very nearly Celtic Reconstructionism, as it seems like the author does include what is known of Celtic mythology and ritual practice, but as she puts it, Wicca provides a foundation for the practice - because there's so much we don't know about Celtic religion and spiritual practice. Better to be honest about it.

In reference to an earlier reviewers critique, the book actually has a section on Historical accuracy (which is excerpted on the authors website - [...]), which deals with maintaining historical accuracy, and dicusses the fact that opinions in academic works change constantly.

In fact - the previous reviewers critiques really only deal with points over which many historians have strong, and contradictory opinions, so if anything, the only fault is in not stating that the issues are still controversial (and there's few historical 'facts' that aren't!).
E.g. personally I do believe the Celts practiced human sacrifice at some point, if only because *everyone's* ancestors probably practiced it at some point, not to mention some people attempt to make slightly arbitrary distinctions between say 'killing domestic animals for food' and 'animal sacrifice' and between 'criminal justice' and 'human sacrifice', when the distinction isn't so clear (or there at all!) in the culture concerned, nor should the abhorrence of our culture for such practice be used to evaluate our understanding of another cultures views. Take a further look at the Lindow and Tollund bog men.
I think the previous reviewer would have an apoplexy if they actually read any of the other, so called, 'Celtic Wicca' books. But, that's an aside.

I'd give this book 5 stars for anyone actually interested in practicing a form of Celtic Wicca, and 4 stars (highly recommended) for people practicing Wicca in general, because it has some great content on connecting with Deities, ritual in general, not to mention great little tips such as its suggestions on how to conduct a trance/guided meditation for two people (it can be really hard making sure you're both 'on the same page' as it were, not to mention helping keep the other person close if one person starts experiencing something that deviates from the script).

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