Pack contains Green Man plaque and full-colour book covering the history of the Green Man.
This book is being written from a different perspective to other books published on aspects of what is known variously as Asatru, The Northern Tradition and Odinism to present a handbook of accumulated data so that people can read and interpret it for themselves, aided by sometimes conflicting or complementary opinions clearly labelled as such. This enables the modern reader to develop and adapt their own theories and practices, rather than have them laid out by someone else. Trying to glean odd kernels of Heathen truth from academic writers who have not much interest in Heathenry, from a scattering of books and journals that do not invite easy access is not for the faint hearted. Although the author frequently uses academic methods and arguments, he is an individual trying to make sense of a spiritual path that he was drawn to a couple of decades ago. The process has not been easy. Few books have been written about historic Heathen belief systems and even fewer have presented fresh material bar some notable and honourable exceptions. Even the terminology has had to evolve, and the term Heathen itself has only become the preferred description by many adherents more recently. Trying to subjectively observe a movement from within, whilst being a part of it oneself is a delicate path to tread, but in this book Pete does an admirable job, separating them from the historical data being presented. This work attempts to show that there were several different sub-paths within the one particular group of religious beliefs labelled as Heathen, and that they are still all separately available today.
It is strange that so few good books on seasonal celebrations that include children. With three children and over 20 years experience as a Third Degree Wiccan, Rachel is well qualified to write this book. Rites of passage and seasonal celebrations are included as are thoughts on the wider aspects of bringing up children in a Pagan family. Ideas and suggestions can easily be picked out and adapted to suit particular situations.
The Author shows why certain locations have been considered numinous and magical and how we can each go about finding these special places in the landscape. He provides a vision of the variety of ways in which we might respond to the spirit present at such sites and thereby enter into a closer relationship with the Old Ones.
The old festivals and folk customs which are still celebrated all over the British Isles each year represent a survival of the ancient concept of a seasonal cycle based on the sacredness of the land and earth. The Sacred Ring of the year is a reminder of our ancient past and is still a potent symbol for the 20th century. It reminds us of humankind’s integral link with Nature, even in our modern technological society, which is reflected in the ritual pattern of the changing seasons of the ecological cycle.
Most of the families that worked boats on the River Trent, and later also the canals that joined with it, were descended from traders who originally came from the Netherlands in the 7th and 8th centuries. Closely related to the English in speech, they found a new home here, and for many centuries dominated trade in the North Sea, which they called the World’s Sea, after one of their most important deities, named simply The World (the Old One, or world-serpent).
There are very few water-witch families left around these days (some would say “none at all”). Over the past fifty years most have simply left the water-ways and become absorbed into the general population.
The author’s informants for much of the material in this book are surviving members of the Groom family, who ran a family firm based in Birmingham (the centre of the canal network) until it was finally forced under by the recession of the early 1980s.
Water Witches describes, for the first time, the way of life and religion of the Pagan Fryske.
