Feb
27
2009
A whole raft of new books to read
Author: Ben GruagachMy birthday was in the early part of February. My friends and family know what I like, and that’s why every year I get at least one gift certificate for an online bookstore.
There are always books I’d like to get but haven’t purchased yet. When I get a gift certificate it usually gets spent right away. This birthday wasn’t an exception. It didn’t take me long to fill up my online shopping cart with all sorts of titles to make use of the gift certificates.
The books started arriving a couple days ago. Some of the books I ordered were actually from other vendors who market through the online bookstore I generally use so those books get shipped separately. It also means there are frequent surprises showing up in the mail.
: )
At the moment I’m working my way into T. Thorn Coyle’s brand-new book, “Kissing the Limitless.” It’s been pretty good so far and is exactly the sort of book I’ve needed for where I am right now in my own spiritual practice.
“The Little Book of the Great Enchantment” by Steve Blamires is another one that I just got which I think will prove to be quite interesting. It’s an examination of the work of a poet named Fiona Macleod (a pen name of William Sharp) particularly focussing on her/his Celtic faery mysticism.
Another book that looks promising is Julia R. Zay’s “Ecstasia.” It’s about ecstatic trance work in a spiritual context. I’m hoping that there are lots of helpful tips to bring more of that into my own spiritual practice.
One of the other books I got in this order is called “Good Witches Fly Smoothly” and was written by the controversial authors Gavin and Yvonne Frost. Some people have gone to great lengths to condemn them for things they have written in the past about the use of sex in ritual initiation (particularly when they appeared to be condoning sexual interaction between adults and minors.) Recently I saw similar accusations leveled against them regarding statements about sex in initiation from “Good Witches Fly Smoothly” which I had ordered before hearing about the questionable content. On reading the section myself though I have to say that while the authors do make some questionable statements, the critics have erred by taking things out of context. The Frosts do clearly speak about sex in magical and spiritual practice, but they also explain in a lot of detail why it should only be used by those who are consenting adults who are doing so with full foreknowledge and ethical consideration of what they are doing. And the rest of the book, from what I’ve read so far, is pretty no-nonsense and down to earth.
I guess I would say that the Frost’s work, at least in this book, is worth checking out providing you have a grounding in the topic of Witchcraft, Wicca, and magick already and aren’t likely to take their statements as being explanations of standard practice in anything other than their own groups.
Lots of reading to fill the cold winter nights!
