Part 11 of ARDA 2 SECTION TWO A - Student Organizations ...

animals is entirely unnecessary. Among the East African tribes
even a cucumber can be offered for sacrifice as “cattle”,
substituting for the real thing. (Lincoln, p. 31) Models of clay,
cheese, etc. could do the trick, also. Note how modern Hindus
have handled the question of animal sacrifice.
My best to everyone!
Beannacht na Déithe oraibhe!
Jim Duran
Reviews of Books on Megaliths
Although the Druids did NOT build Stone Henge, there is
now a book out about the people who did. It’s titled The Stone
Henge People, by Rodney Castleden, published by Rutledge and
Kegan Paul, London. It is archeology, but chatty in style with
drawings of how the barrows and some of the other structures
may have looked when they were being used, 4700 - 2000 BC.
If you can’t find it locally, write Shambala Books, 2482
Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, Calif. 94704
Another book along the same lines but more technical is
John Wood’s Sun, Moon and Standing Stones, printed by Oxford
University Press. This is professional archeology, and has some
good photographs of the stone circles, but a rather dry point of
view. Good data if you want to argue with someone.
The Stone Circles of the British Isles is the big glossy
coffee table version of a megalith book. It’s by Aubrey Burl and
published by Yale University Press 1976, and replete with
photographs and charts. Expensive, but good if you can pick it up
used.
Megaliths and Masterminds is less costly, no photos,
except on the dust jacket, but has a much more readable style
than the University Press books. Author Peter Lancaster Brown
takes an astronomical point of view, and expands his thesis to
connect with the Egyptians, the Persians, and the Mayan
Quetzalcoatl myth. It was published in 1979 by Charles
Scribner’s Sons, New York.
On the Irish side, Clare O’Kelly’s paperback Illustrated
Guide to New Grange, gives good photos and information,
inexpensively. It includes many of the other Boyne monuments,
and gives descriptions and measurements, but no theory. John
English and Co. Ltd., Wexford, England, 1978.
From the more Neo-Pagan Perspective...
non-touristy itinerary of ancient sites if you are going to the
British Isles.
The Ancient Stones Speak is a paperback, well illustrated
with photos, and definitely written from the psychic perspective.
It catalogues David D. Zink’s travels to stone monuments around
the world, his theories, his reactions, the local myths,
astronomical alignments, and quotes from archeological studies.
Extreme in its opinions, you’ll like or hate it. E.P. Dutton, New
York, 1979
Farther out, theory-wise, and in a psychic style is Francis
Hitching’s book, Earth Magic. She comes out of the Ley Line
school of thought, and the book is mainly her and other Psychics’
personal experiences with the ancient stones. She has a quick,
readable style. It’s in paperback by Pocket Books, New York,
1976.
Gerald Hawkin’s master work, Stone Henge Decoded, is
both technical and controversial. It is an old stand-by in the field,
and was the first break-through book in the new reassessment of
the stone monuments of Britain and Europe. It’s out in paperback,
in many libraries, and you should at least skim through it if you
are seriously interest in Megaliths. London, 1966.
In much the same vein is A. Thom’s book Megalithic Sites.
He is a professional astronomer, and the inventor of the term “the
megalithic yard.” He has written numbers of articles in
professional journals, and several other books about his theories
about the builders of the stone circles. I’d put him midway
between the scientists and the psychics, and very readable.
Oxford Press, 1967
Ward Rutherford, author of The Druids, Magicians of the
West, has published a new book Shaman, which, though not
entirely about Druids, has some good material on Eurasian
shamanism and its connections with Druidism, the Celts, and
their Proto-Indo-European roots. I would take with a cautious
grain of salt Mr. Rutherford’s interpretations of the old myths—
Celtic, Greek, and others—as they are very speculative and
subjective. These ancient themes and religious myths are like
Rorshach blots: archetypes in which you see what is pertinent to
your mind and needs. Here, I think, we learn more about Ward
Rutherford’s character and the concerns currently obsessing our
own times than about the ancient authors of the myths. The
material on Euro-Siberian shamans and their practices is good, as
are the parallels he traces in shamanic practices from other parts
of the world.
Shamanic roots of Celtic Druidism plus insights into
Ward’s unconscious. $12.95 Pyramid Books, 214 Derby St. (Box
48) Salem, MA 01970.
Nigel Pennick’s The Ancient Science Of Geomancy, has a
lot of good photos, and a world-wide perspective. It’s good
reading but remember that it is Mr. Pennick’s theory. Thames and
Hudson, 1979
Moving even farther out is Janet and Cohn Bord’s book
Ancient Mysteries of Britain. This couple have written a number
of psychic books and guide or travel articles. The photos and the
completeness of the coverage should interest even those not
interested in Earth magic or the religions of the ancients. Many of
the smaller stone monuments are included here that are not
usually dealt with and so are little known and visited. Use it for a
362
Practical Paganism
Caring for Your Own Dead Lisa Carlson, Upper Access
Publishers, Hinesburg Vermont. This is a book you should look
into if you want a Druid or Pagan funeral, or just want to avoid
the bad atmosphere and poor taste of funeral parlors’ pseudo-
Christian kitsch.
When Lisa Carison’s husband died, she was not only grief
stricken but broke. So following the autopsy, she purchased a $60