Sorita d'Este

There are dozens of brilliant books about Celtic mythology, most of them dealing specifically with Irish folklore and the Irish pantheon. As someone who spent their formative years in Scotland, however, I am more interested in the myths and stories of my adoptive homeland. I was therefore overjoyed when I discovered this slim volume by renowned pagan authors Sorita D'Este and David Rankine.
I thought the book was extremely well researched, the overall tone was academic without being too dry, show more which made it a pleasure to read. The authors cite older texts throughout the book, sometimes written in medieval English or Scots, which might pose a challenge to some readers at times, especially if your first language isn't English.
The books starts with a short overview of the origins of the Cailleach myths before moving on to some of her individual aspects, such as earth-shaping, the significance of water, her shape-shifting abilities or her role as goddess of winter. The book concludes with a list of possible Cailleach derivatives, includding Black Annis , Nicneven and Mala Lia.
Finally, the authors present a very comprehensive bibliography for further study.
Visions of the Cailleach is a solid introduction to the Cailleach, the myths and folklore surrounding her and her significance in shaping the local landscape. As a reader, you should have prior knowledge of Celtic mythology, as the authors regularly refer to individual figures and stories from Celtic cultures. The book would work both as a reference work and a text one would read cover to cover. It is a very compact, slim little book which gives the reader a very good overview of the topic. I personally would have wanted a bit more detail in certain parts though. However, the extensive bibliography at the end provides ample scope for further research, so this is not a major issue. A short conclusion at the end would have been helpful, as the book ends rather abruptly.
A very good book, which I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone interested in Cailleach mythology. show less

An excellent work which gives a very wide view of Hecate throughout her years of worship. They pull from literature as well as historical resources including the Greek Magical Papyri and Chaldean Oracles. Some of the chapters are repetitive in their usage of sources and definitely could of been longer, but it is a definitely good place to start your research, then you can check the resources yourself. I definitely enjoyed the chapters on Defixiones, Hecates Garden and Fusions with other show more goddesses. The only think I absolutely didn't like was the resource notes didn't include page numbers simply "such and such book", which means one must pour through the entire resource in order to find the information to check up on them. This is definitely one to have on the bookshelf! show less

This book consists of a collection of essays dealing with the mythology of angels/demons and traditional methods of summoning said entities. The list of contributors reads as a who's who in the occult world with many respectable names present. But, like most collections, it had the good, the bad, and the ugly. Make no mistake; this book does NOT deal with the contemporary view of angels as feathery-winged guardians who sit on one's shoulder and look after them. On the contrary, the book show more deals with angels as they are portrayed biblically (and from texts of other Abrahamic religions and pagan beliefs), that is, as not-so-nice creatures who smite people and lay waste to whole civilizations. Demons, according to tradition, are usually even worse, only typically less powerful.

The book includes large amount of angelic/demonic mythology which I was previously unaware. However, after the 12th essay or so some of the mythology gets somewhat repetitive, right down to authors using the same quotes. You can't really fault the authors, as they didn't know what other contributors would include, but the editors should have been more selective over what was covered. There were a couple essays that amounted to nearly the same thesis.

Many of the contributors are practitioners of various forms of goetia and/or methods of theurgy, such as Enochian magick. However, just because you may be a skilled occultist doesn't mean you're also a good writer. One or two of the essays were pretty clunky and a tad painful to read, regardless of the author's obvious extensive knowledge on the subject. That said, some of the essays were fantastic and very eye-opening, such as the ones by Michael Howard, Daniel Harms, and Stephen Skinner. It's too bad these good ones had to be tempered by other mediocre efforts.

Further, many of the essays were far too short. Just as the author seemed to be getting into the meat of a subject he/she would conclude prematurely, I presume due to editorial restraints. This book could easily have been twice the size. If page count is an issue, perhaps the editors should have narrowed down the number of contributors in favor of more in-depth essays? show less

Interesting mish-mash of articles on the many different Horned gods of various mythologies/religions. The only reason this didn't get 4 or more stars was that the quality (and my interest level) varied so wildly among the essays. For every 5-star essay, there was another 2-star piece that strained to meet its topic and to retain my attention.