... now up on Flickr.

Also, Spotify is being sentient ;-) As I went to post this, it started playing Heather Alexander's Sword and Staff, which starts "Circlet of the Holy Thorn..." (and mentions a Sacred Spring, too, but that's less place-specific.)

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On trains in London you are told to mind the gap
And the gap is a gap between people

They do not talk or make eye contact
The solitude is protocol
But at 1 in the morning
If an elderly piss-stinking drunkard gets on
Dribbling, jabbering gibberish
The people will laugh
And smile at each other
They are in this together now

We need the drunkards
And in later life
It is a service
I am happy
To provide

***

That one got me right in the gut, and I don't think it's just because I'm biased. I'm kind of in awe of what he's writing at just 20, and I find myself wondering what he might be doing by the time he's my age. Meanwhile, there's more, and darker, in Dog Tired Eyes, available at Lulu.

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36. Rev. Robert Lee (Skip) Ellison, The Solitary Druid. Ellison is a former Archdruid of ADF and wrote this book in response to questions he used to receive in that capacity from solitary Druids. It's a 101-level book, and viewed in that light, I think it's better than most other pagan 101 books I've read. I particularly liked the extensive quotations from classical writers on the historical Druids. I do think he could have distinguished more clearly between what we know of historical Druidry and what is Neopagan lore, e.g. in the section on Ostara/Eostre, and in places I wanted more citations in order to be able to check some of his statements for myself, but there is far less fluff here than in most such works. I was particularly pleased to see a passage stressing the diversity of cults in ancient paganism and the fact that two deities may be cognate without being the same entity. I found the section on sexuality a bit odd - it takes up nearly half the second chapter of the book, which to my mind creates a bit of an overemphasis, and some of the classical texts he cites as evidence of a positive attitude towards homosexuality and/or non-monogamy amongst the ancient Celts actually seem suggestive of homo- or polyphobia to me. This is a shame, because he cites enough unambiguously positive examples to stand on their own. I would also have liked to see some discussion of the ethics of magic, given that binding spells are discussed. But overall, this is a good introduction, and I will definitely be adopting and adapting some of the ritual texts.

37. Ian Corrigan, Sacred Fire, Holy Well: A Druid's Grimoire. Corrigan is another former Archdruid; this book is more at the 201 level and has a stronger focus on magic, although I was reading it primarily for ritual inspiration. It is not an academic work and has no citations, but as far as I could tell, it is based on sound scholarship. It also has some gorgeous illustrations. Again, I was a little surprised to see no discussion of ethics, and I also felt there were some minor inconsistencies in the way spirit allies were described, but I can't fault the book in any other way.

38. Rev. Robert Lee "Skip" Ellison, Ogham: The Secret Language of the Druids. The title of the book is a little misleading, because Ellison does not actually claim that Ogham was a language; it may well be a case of choosing a title that will sell. It's a good basic introduction to Ogham as a writing system and a symbol set for divination, with a clear distinction drawn between Ellison's own interpretations and those found in historical glosses. This one does have a discussion of the ethics of divination.

39. Crystal Blanton (ed.), Shades of Faith: Minority Voices in Paganism. Pagans of colour write about their experiences. As with any such anthology, some pieces engaged me more than others; some were very moving.

40. Carol Oates, The Summer Prince. A freebie I found while looking for no.41; the Fae come to steal away a girl, but of course there's a twist. Pretty standard YA romance, but quite enjoyable.

41. Alaya Dawn Johnson, The Summer Prince. This one is great - a post-apocalyptic dystopian take on the Gilgamesh epic, with strong female characters, in a setting where bisexuality is unremarkable and possibly even the norm. It left me hoping for a sequel, and I will definitely be checking out more of Johnson's work.

42. Karen Lord, Redemption in Indigo. Fantasy set in West Africa. I gather it's a retelling of a Senegalese folk tale, which means I miss most of the references, but that didn't spoil my enjoyment.

Bechdel scores
The Summer Prince (Oates): Pass. The female protagonist talks to a named school friend about, er, the plot twist.
The Summer Prince (Johnson): Pass. It's a matriarchal setting, so there are lots of named women characters, and they talk to each other about a range of things.
Redemption in Indigo: Pass. The protagonist talks to her sister about bees and cooking and other things; there are probably also some scenes between her and some religious sisters that pass, but I'm not going to check right now.

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33. J.P. Mallory, In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth. Reviewed on my Dedicant blog.

34. Philip A. Shaw, Pagan Goddesses in the Early Germanic World: Eostre, Hreda and the Cult of Matrons. Reviewed in a separate post - DW/LJ.

35. Diane Duane, Lior and the Sea. I picked this up on impulse in a special offer, not realising that it's set in the same universe as the Tale of the Five books, which I love. The story itself is self-contained and doesn't require any prior knowledge. The plot is essentially a reworked Scottish folk tale, but nicely executed.

Bechdel score: Fail, because Lior is the only named female character; but most versions of the original folk tale that I've seen don't give her a name at all, and rewriting it to pass would turn it into a very different sort of story, I think.

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This book has been causing a certain amount of excitement on some of the pagan blogs I read, so I thought I would review it separately from my normal booklist for easier linkage.

The full title is Pagan Goddesses in the Early Germanic World: Eostre, Hreda and the Cult of Matrons. A large part of Shaw's intention in writing it is to begin to challenge a perception that pre-Christian Germanic paganism was homogeneous by examining the claim that Eostre was a pan-Germanic goddess known in Germany as Ostara. Eostre is known to us from a single historical source, Bede's De Tempore Ratione, written to explain the names and timing of various Christian feasts. Hreda is mentioned in the same source.

Shaw begins with an introduction to the linguistic models and methods he intends to use. He then gives an overview of some relevant features of Romano-Germanic religion, focusing in particular on votive inscriptions to the Matronae (matrons, who may be goddesses, ancestors or deified ancestors; inscriptions to similar figures also occur in Romano-Celtic religion.) Shaw points out that these often have names related to particular localities or kin groups, but that some inscriptions refer to the Matronae of a wider group such as a tribe or group of tribes. He notes that the latter type of inscriptions seem to be set up by worshippers who are at some distance from their home area, implying that a worshipper who was outside their home locality, but e.g. still within or near the territory of their tribe, might offer to the Matronae of the tribe as a whole rather than those of their home area.

This leads into Shaw's chapter on Eostre. He begins by setting out Bede's claim that two of the Anglo-Saxon months were named after Eostre and Hreda respectively. He then outlines how the existence of a goddess Ostara was extrapolated from Bede's remarks and the form of the word for Easter in certain Germanic languages, and notes that some scholars have reacted against this extrapolation by doubting that Eostre existed at all. Some other scholars, however, have suggested that Eostre could be etymologically related to the Austriahenae, a group of Matronae to whom a large number of inscriptions have been found near Morken-Harff in Germany. Based on a linguistic and etymological analysis of the words Austriahenae, Eostre and other relevant terms, Shaw rejects the suggestion that Eostre's name relates to a word related to "dawn" or "spring". Rather, he concludes that while Austriahenae and Eostre are not the same entity(ies), they are probably the result of the same naming convention; both effectively refer to the matron(s) of a group that identified themselves as "eastern", probably geographically and/or in relation to neighbouring groups. Thus, Eostre may well have been the matron of a local Kentish group, and this would be consistent with the fact that dialects outside Kent appear to have had a different name for this month. He also notes that copies of Bede's writings seem to have been sent at a very early stage to the diocese of Mainz, which is in the part of Germany where we find the earliest occurrences of a word related to our "Easter" . Thus, it is possible that Bede himself, or other Anglo-Saxon missionary activities around Mainz, are responsible for the use of related words for Easter there.

A chapter on Hreda follows, adopting a similar approach, but here Shaw finds the evidence much less clear. He does not rule out the possibility that her name is related to a word meaning "quick", but he also notes that this word is itself a fairly common element in human names of the period. This means we cannot conclude that Hreda was some sort of "goddess of speed"; she may simply have been the matron of a kin group whose name used this element. Alternatively, there is some evidence that the name may be related to an ethnic designation referring to Goths or a Gothic sub-group. Against the background of the known naming conventions, therefore, both etymologies appear to point to a group matron rather than to a functional goddess.

Shaw's scholarship appears to me to be very careful and thorough, and the book is both short (less than 100 pages if you disregard the indices and endnotes) and extremely readable for an academic work. I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in historical British, Germanic and/or Celtic paganisms.

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32. Nicholas Hagger, A View of Epping Forest. I read this as part of my research into the area where I walk every week. The first part of the book sets out the results of Hagger's research on the Forest's history, and I thought it was excellent; he does a good job of suggesting how the evidence might fit together while still being absolutely clear about where the evidence ends and conjecture begins. I was less keen on the second part, which is a sort of personal memoir of the places in the Forest where Hagger has lived and worked. There are some interesting passages, but mostly it's a rather tedious sequence of meetings and lunches and property purchases, many of which seem to be included purely as an opportunity for name-dropping (Hagger ran three fee-paying schools in the area and consequently met a lot of rather well-off parents, some of whom were famous.)

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The BBC is reporting that Margaret Thatcher has died following a stroke. Anyone who gloats where I can see them will be unfollowed/defriended. Any family's grief deserves respect. That is all I intend to say on the matter.

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26. David Rosenberg, Battle for the East End: Jewish Responses to Fascism in the 1930s. David is the founder of the excellent East End Walks, and this book essentially covers the same ground as his Anti-Fascist Footrpints tour, which Bessy and I took last month. ( Read more...Collapse )

27. Richard Holloway, Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt. This is the autobiography of Richard Holloway, the former Primate of the Scottish Episcopal Church, who now writes from a secular humanist perspective. It was a Christmas present from a dear friend, and I enjoyed it greatly. It's painfully honest and very beautifully written; even the passages on Holloway's time in the Gorbals have a lyrical quality at times, which is surely a sign of a great writer. ( Read more...Collapse )

28. Jodie Taylor, From Seed to Tree: A Children's Yoga Sequence. I came across this while looking for something else and was entranced by it; it does pretty much what you might expect from the title, with engaging text and illustrations.

29. Ceisiwr Serith, A Book of Pagan Prayer. Two sections of this were recommended reading in the study guide I am using for my ADF work, but I ended up reading the whole thing. It does a good job of catering to a fairly broad range of pagans, whether using a Wiccan, Druidic or reconstructionist framework. I especially liked that Serith includes not just suggested texts for prayers, but sensible advice on how to write your own.

30. Gede Parma, By Land, Sky and Sea: Three Realms of Shamanic Witchcraft. ADF Druidry works with the Three Realms of Celtic mythology rather than the four elements preferred in Wicca and much ceremonial magic, and having previously read Parma's Spirited and liked his writing style, I was interested to see what he had to say on this topic. ( Read more...Collapse )

31. Marjane Satrapi, Embroideries. This was kindly lent to me by yoyoangel after I mentioned how much I enjoyed Satrapi's Persepolis. It features several of the former's female characters, gathered together over tea in a Tehran apartment and taking advantage of their menfolk's afternoon nap to talk freely about their sexuality. It's beautiful and touching and very much in line with other things I have read about Iranian women's culture, and I highly recommend it.

For those of you who are keeping track of my exploration of graphic novels, I should probably note that yoyoangel also lent me V for Vendetta, but I bounced off it quite quickly; the visual style just isn't one that appeals to me, but I'm glad to have tried it.

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23. Angela Y. Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete? This was a Goodreads bookclub choice. I was a bit disappointed by it; I didn't really feel Davis answered the question of the title. She seemed to spend most of the chapters showing how racist and sexist the prison system is, which I kind of already knew, although I did learn some new detail about the US version. There was very little about restorative justice or other alternatives to prison.

24. Will Simpson and Malcolm McMahon, Freedom Through Football. I picked this one up during an event at Housmans, because I had a £3-off voucher and it looked like a fun read. It tells the story of the Easton Cowboys and Cowgirls, an alternative football (soccer) club in Bristol. Although it seems like a fairly honest, warts-and-all account, it's in the main an uplifting tale, with excursions to Mexico and Palestine amongst other places - definitely worth reading if you don't already know their story.

25. Sharon Gannon and David Life, Jivamukti Yoga: Practices for Liberating Body and Soul. I got this because Jivamukti has a reputation as a form of yoga that does a good job of integrating politics and yoga philosophy, and also because I'd previously enjoyed a series of podcasts by one of their teachers, Alanna Kaivalya, although she has since branched off on her own. As an introduction to yoga philosophy, it's not bad, but I didn't feel the philosophy and politics sat that well together - there were some seeming contradictions between chapters. The philosophy sections were aimed at a more basic level than I was expecting or looking for, but the sections on asana practice assume that the student is either quite advanced or is studying with a teacher face-to-face; there are no how-to instructions, and a beginner trying to follow the sequences from the photographs in this section could easily injure themselves. I would probably injure myself with some of them, but I think I have enough experience to know which ones I can attempt and which should wait a few more years. I will probably give a few of the shorter ones a try as an option for days when I don't have time for even the 30-minute version of the Sivananda class - but not until my current episode of back pain has settled down. Overall, I'd recommend this for beginner Jivamukti students as a supplement to classes, or for students with a good foundation in asana from a gym class or another very physically-focused style who want to learn some of the philosophy, meditation etc in order to go a little deeper.

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