This book includes wonderful ideas for seasonal altars based on the framework of the Celtic Wheel of the Year. I really like the way the book emphasizes the reasoning and meaning behind the different altars, decorations, and rituals, especially as they tie into the cycle of the sun.

Unfortunately the author sprinkles in the most surface-level "examples" from various cultures, including closed cultures, to lend weight to her justifications/explanations for the discussed practices. I appreciate the acknowledgment of where some practices come from, but examples being limited to a single sentence are incredibly misleading if not appropriative since they're so completely separated from the originating culture at large.

For example, the author discusses corn dolls as a generic Native American practice in the past tense and uses the incredibly misleading, soft language of Europeans colonists "adopting" that practice later. There's a whole lot of history and current injustice that needs to be understood before even contemplating "adopting" the practices of a closed and oppressed culture.

When she's not mish-mashing specific cultures into a single paragraph, the author frequently uses the unnuanced catch-all phrase "ancient Pagans." It doesn't help that there is not a single source listed anywhere in this book. (I'd really like to know why the author credits Persephone's fruit as an apple instead of a pomegranate.)

All in all, read this book for some good ideas for seasonally symbolic altars and rituals, but discard anything about specific cultures (or at least take it with a huge grain of salt and use that sentence to inspire much further research). ( )