D. J. Conway (1939–2019)

First: if you never get tired of this debate, O world of Man, then I won’t, either, lol.

(Renaissance pistol guy with a glass eye) Wicca is normal to 1% of the population. Therefore, Wicca is too normal, and normal to too many people. Science of history, science of the tribes, science of magic, science of trolling—the five sciences! (fires antique gun into TV screen)

~I mean, imagine if TikTok weren’t the only place you could go for non-hate-keeping/gate-keeping/snobbery, you know. We could be intelligent, and yet also not—

(Glass eye man) Shoot to kill!

Bro, don’t need no gun to blow your mind: whatever gets you through the night, do it wrong or do it right, it’s alright, right?

(Glass eye man) Celticism is a rigidly defined written concept, closely guarded by the, (lowers voice) Ancient Hate Keepers, sorry, Gate Keepers.

Well, but at least I’m having this conversation about the critics, not the book, right. The ‘received’ sort of critic, what was it that Agent Smith said about them? ‘You are a disease, pox on this planet. You are the plague, and we are the cure.’ He went on to say—

(Baby Brigid) Boo boo.

Baby Brigid wants to be nurtured. She may be a Celt, too, but—silence! I’m busy trying to convince the world that I am the Only Irish Person, that most scarce and thinly-distributed or tribes, and that it is my duty! And my sacred obligation! To guard the gates of Hellas and with the arrows of the Aventine, for my tribe, the Celticists, the men of wisdom, the men of knowledge, the men of the tribes! The men of the truth!

(Baby Brigid) Boo boo. (farts) (laughs)

(ahhh) Will you go find your Mother!

…. Now, I know that we’re all a little racist, and that people tend to double down when you call them racist—like our friends the Trump supporters, ‘I may not be a racist but you sure seem inferior, buddy!’—but I sure think that the average member of Insufferable White Boy University’s College of Ancient Languages is a lot more racist than me.

But I guess this little episode disabused us of the notion that ‘cultural appropriation’ accusations isn’t often about protecting whitey from the new thing in town, you know.

…. (sigh) Anyway, as someone born in the 80s, I guess I’m old now lol—I wonder how long before COVID becomes a gross old person memory, (teenage girl), ‘It only lasted a year; get over it’—but I guess I remember when I thought that religion would never need to change after Buddha and Jesus, you know. But you wouldn’t want the old Avalon back, and if you do you can’t. It’s the same with any religion, even if it’s essentially true of these. But the idea that there’s One Right Way that never changes is a ‘scriptural’ idea, right. And yet even the paganisms that have survived have shoehorned into a pseudo-scriptural lens. ‘Homer is the only thing I will teach you, boys, and Greek is the only language we will use. Up, boys, up—sing God Save the Queen: in Greek!’

…. I mean, I understand that people have basic dispositions that don’t change even if they acquire interests, but…. ‘Romance is bad. My brand is good.’ (hands book: Blah blah blah, “They Are WRONG: The Secrets of Everything Revealed”. A (brand) book). ‘What’s good about your brand?’ ‘That it isn’t a brand. It’s the truth!’

…. (rolls eyes) She opens the book with an original poem, but I seriously don’t understand how I could have been warned that it was about real life and inspiration and not academic history and things that matter! Oh well! (cracks open his copy of ‘I’m A Genius—Just Ask Kant!’).

…. And it is sad that the Magic of Skepticism people—‘I did a spell!…. Or did I?…. Would Old Paleface my ancestor have done this spell on 212BC?…. Or maybe, I’m just a nut…. This are important questions, that the chess club should research!’—have to do mask the fact that this IS research, and research is indeed required, as it’s part of what makes you free. Without specialized knowledge, we have only the path of the common herd open to us, perhaps indeed, only the folk Christian—the football Christian, the bar crawl Christian. Before there can be passionate love, there must be deep knowledge. Otherwise, there will still be love, in a way, but you will not imagine it aright.

…. I mean, it’s basically a book about Celtic Wicca, a topic that others have covered, just like every other topic has been covered by someone before, and it’s not the insufferable cool kid take on Celtic religion. It’s simple, yet informative. Is it really necessary to lose your fucking mind, cool kids?

…. And I love how people can read a popular nonfiction book and say, not even, “I’m skeptical and I want to check this against the footnotes version that refers to the many obscure expensive books”; they just laugh and say, This is the little girls’ version! Now I KNOW that this is what didn’t happen!

But yeah; we all have different tastes in these things, those of us who are so inclined at all, right.

…. But really, there’s a lot of good reference information in this book, and with a very good price for a modern (in-copyright) book, too.… (altro)

I tried. I tried again. Then I realized sometimes it's best to let things go.

As many other reviewers have said, this book had potential. It had a good topic. I love reading pagan philosophy books for a holistic, semi-real world interest and semi-fictional world building interest. I don't even care if the statements are directly evidence based or more qualitative. I care, however, about the writer's approach to sharing information, and this approach completely overshadowed any Celtic shamanism that could have been gleaned from the book's pages.

The true thesis screamed at me maybe 15 pages in: "Modern humans have turned away from every level of being except the physical, expecting to find in science and the five physical senses a freedom and contentment that is illusory at best and deadening at worst...Orthodoxy and science have cut down the World Tree and blown up the tunnel to the Underworld, leaving us stranded in a sterile plane of existence that is slowly but surely killing us." Talk about being sensationalist.

Before, in between, and after this statement he addresses a connection with nature. What does he think science is? What does he think the physical world is? The revered natural world in its raw form is somehow sterile? Doesn't that contradict biological existence--I mean, sterile means devoid of life? Apparently we can't feel elated by our physical (much more than five by the way) senses. I haven't read something this confusing and blatant logic-defying in a long time. I'd almost give the author a chance to rewrite the paragraph and others like it just in case she chose bad words and failed to communicate what she was really thinking. I'm sincerely sorry that D.J. Conway finds this world deadening, or that using our best means to learn about the world is somewhere between illusory and deadening. Meanwhile, others--scientists and artists alike--are elated with fascination. I'm sorry that someone thinks learning about nature and appreciating all its aesthetic and mystery on a differently defined level than his nature-based spirituality is somehow a horrible thing. I also don't see how this attitude is healthy for a book that apparently is more a self-help, New Age healing book than a Celtic shamanism book.

The writer does not approach with an open perspective. Sometimes I can continue reading a book on its merits and tolerate occasional negative opinions that sprout from somewhere outside the content of the book. However, not this time. It's wiser to find a different writer sharing similar content but with a different approach. I'll find something with more information on Celtic shamanism that I can be free to interpret instead of relying on minimal context and maximal Conway.… (altro)