Thomas Dale Cowan

I feel as though one needs to read this book with the thought “Not All Witches”.

This is my first rereading in almost thirty (!) years, as it’s just been recorded on audiobook which I checked out via Hoopla. I decided to listen nostalgically in order to remember a bit of my fourteen-year-old little weirdo self. I still have the book I picked up at Border’s in Ann Arbor (the bookmark is still in it) while visiting my aunt; I’m not sure if it would have been available in any of the bookstores in Meridian Mall near my home.

This was the first time I’d ever heard about the old goddess religions, and I remember that it fascinated me. Cabot really excels at giving an interesting history of things, but it gets a little harder when she describes her own witchcraft and seems to imply that it’s how all witches need to and do practice.

It was fun to reread this through audiobook, but I know it didn’t capture me the way it did so long ago. It’s kind of awesome that witches seem to now be everywhere (well at least online—I don’t really know any IRL), so Cabot kind of nailed that one in her “Witchcraft Tomorrow” chapter (not so much anywhere else except we do care more about the environment). I’d say check this out if you want to hear about witchcraft in 1989 as I think Laurie Cabot was the only witch in the US willing to be open and public, and that was super brave of her. I just don’t think that this is a good 101 resource anymore; there are many more out there.… (plus d'informations)

On my shelf of shamanist titles, this one sits prominently figured. Cowan presents the traditional fantastic experiences of the shaman in an amazingly receivable framework. His experience of archetypes in well-known myths and legends opens one to the ability to read all things symbolically, thus, as the dynamic spiritual presences that they are. To that end I regard Cowan as a shapeshifter of symbols, not an interpreter of them. His telling of olde tales connects their spirit with a modern audience.

In this book his love and connection to the Celtic path is evident, though it is not necessarily rooted in what we know of Celtic history, itself. I feel it is important to make that distinction, as Cowan is cultivating the opening of the shamanic experience of metaphor in a Celtic context. He is not a Reconstructionist, thus this work offers, rather, an experiential opportunity in a Celtic framework.… (plus d'informations)