At first I was not at all impressed by this book, but as I read it I appreciated it for two reasons.

Firstly it taught me about the roots of a good selection of mystery religions and the connections between them. It did this in the best way, with humour.

Secondly it illustrated very clearly the way in which meaning can be read into texts when it is not there. For somebody who, as a Christian minister, spends a fair amount of time aiming to discern the meaning in texts and applying them to life, this was a salutary caution. ( )

I don't see why this book had to be written. Williams himself admitted that his previous book, "Pooh and the Philosophers", was a joke expanded, and now the joke is getting old. The relation of Pooh's world and ancient mysteries such as astrology, alchemy, tarot and kabbala, are far fetched, and most of this book is just repetition of the mantra of Pooh's mental superiority and the blindness of preceding "ursinologists". Actually this book does damage to the original Pooh experience by being almost insulting at times and portraying the characters in an eerie, mysterious light. Hopefully I'll forget this soon enough.

To say something positive, the far-fetchedness can be interpreted as mocking the occult. Also, I believe the facts about the mysteries are mostly correct, so this might serve as an introduction. ( )

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/4947588 ( )