Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Lammas by Anna Franklin, Paul Mason ISBN: 0-7387-0094-0 Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. Pub. Date: 01 June, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (10 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Another good book although not as good as Mabon or others
Comment: Like the other Llewellyn books, this one is a great introduction to this particular Sabbat. It starts out with some history of Lammas, and then goes on to comparing similar festivals across cultures. The story of Lugh is a chapter in itself. Then there are all sorts of neat crafts (Lughnasa Magic) to make. Spells and such are throughout a few chapters. There's a section on Bird Auspices and another on totems - I don't agree with all the "meanings" but its a start. Jamie Sams and her medicine cards are better. There are some nice hand drawings throughout the book. This book is good and I'm glad to have it - would buy it again but I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5 because I would have liked more of the history, more of the goddess discussion, more of the connection to mother earth and the symbolism of the season.
Rating: 4
Summary: Golden corn, silver blade, here the sacrifice is made...*
Comment: First of all, please ignore the review below that proclaims this book to be "Pagan Lite". This reviewer has cut-and-pasted that review, verbatim, under all of the books in the Sabbat Series. Given that I've read several of them which don't fit the "Lite" description, I am surmising that the reviewer read maybe one of the books and made a generalization about all of them. Bear in mind that they are written by different authors, with varying degrees of knowledge and writing skills.
Anna Franklin and Paul Mason do a great job here with the fragmentary material they have to work with. Lammas/Lughnasad is possibly the most obscure of the Wiccan holidays, both because little survives about it and because the sometimes uncomfortable theme of sacrifice is present in it. The authors piece together what information remains to us about the deity for whom Lughnasad is named--Irish Lugh, Welsh Llew--and about the ways they were honored. Since this isn't a huge body of information, they supplement it with material about other sacrificial gods whose rites occurred around this time of year, such as Odin, Adonis, and Dionysos. They add in some of Robert Graves's evocative speculations about sacrificial kings, and together all this stuff will give you a good starting point for your Lammas rituals.
There are also recipes, incenses, spells, dyes, etc. Additionally, there is a large section on warrior magic, since Lugh was a warrior and Lughnasad is often considered a time to honor these fierce energies. This section almost could have been another book, dealing with things such as totem animals.
The book concludes with several rituals for the season, each with a different cultural slant (Druidic, Norse, general Wiccan, etc.) The rituals are relatively simple as written, which I like, since it means I can use them as a framework and flesh them out with my own writing and ideas.
Overall, a valuable book about an obscure holiday.
*--A chant I made up.
Rating: 4
Summary: A strong addition to the "Sabbat" series by Llewellyn
Comment: When discussing the sabbats, most pagan and wiccan books reserve only a few paragraphs to the various cellebrations, and most specific titles devote most of their time to Yule or Samhain/Hallowe'en. Lammas often gets a paragraph or two at best, and no real descriptive text giving you even a starting point on cellebrating the sabbat. Having taken a timid step toward the Sabbat series of books by Llewellyn with "Yule," and "Hallowe'en," I snapped up a copy of "Lammas" in time for my celebration in August, and read it cover to cover.
Much like Morrison's worldly take in "Yule," Franklin and Mason have penned a book that is a blend of various pagan and celtic folklore and world harvest celebrations. From Lugh to fashioning corn maidens, to specific Lughnasa magics, and rounding it all up with a cookbook perfect for any first harvest spread, the book was quite full of ways to craft a more serious Lammas cellebration, and had just the right mix of inspiration and lore to make it more than a glorified arts and crafts book for your New Age shelf. I cannot say enough about the folklore aspect of this book: there is so much here that helps bring a real focus to your Lammas cellebration.
Definitely more useful and in depth than Ravenwolf's "Hallowe'en" (the weakest of the series so far), "Lammas" will find a welcome home in the hands of beginner and more experienced pagans and wiccans alike.
'Nathan
 |
Title: Midsummer: Magical Celebrations of the Summer Solstice by Anna Franklin ISBN: 0738700525 Publisher: Llewellyn Publications Pub. Date: March, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Mabon: Celebrating the Autumn Equinox by Kristin Madden ISBN: 0738700908 Publisher: Llewellyn Publications Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Candlemas: Feast of Flames by Amber K, Azrael Arynn K, Amber K, Azrael Arynn K ISBN: 0738700797 Publisher: Llewellyn Publications Pub. Date: December, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Ostara: Customs, Spells & Rituals for the Rites of Spring by Edain McCoy ISBN: 0738700827 Publisher: Llewellyn Publications Pub. Date: February, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Beltane: Springtime Rituals, Lore and Celebration by Raven Grimassi ISBN: 1567182836 Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
