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The 21 Lessons of Merlyn: A Study in Druid Magic and Lore

The 21 Lessons of Merlyn: A Study in Druid Magic and Lore

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $10.17
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Inaccurate and possibly fatal.
Review: While I do not claim great scholarship, I do feel that this book is largely a creation of the author, dealing very little with passed-on knowledge. The author claims that Druids used pumpkins, which are a New World plant. On another note, the author's misogynism is obvious and repellent. I've checked with those who have studied this area more than I, and they find no evidence that the Druids remained celibate, and have found evidence of females who were Druids. I am most concerned, however, with the herbal information, and various recipes advised in this book. These include, for example, narcissus bulbs and wormwood, both extremely danger to life or mind. Also, a ritual in this book could result in a forest fire. On the whole, I find the book at best doubtful, and at worst dangerous.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Take a story book journey into the world of the druid.
Review: The 21 lessons of Merlyn is a book that can not be ignorned by the Druidic scholar. This book is told as a story, but has end chapter notes on the traditions and spells that the Druids actually use. The book is told in story to simplify some of the complex aspects of the Druid and end chaper notes are there to clarify with authentic druidic records. Whether wanting an excellent story about magic or want to study Druids and possibly become one yourself this book is a necessity.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Another bibel
Review: It does not take a genius to see the agenda of this book.
Women's position has always been a source of concern by the members of the opposite sex, who are not spiritually evolved.
Looking through history scriptures and historical facts have been altered to favor the man (goddesses have been changed into gods, women deleted from his-story, ect).
Just explore the "holy" bible (or if your a pagan Gardner or Crowley).
Remember the feminine and masculine energy is in all of us.
Any book that personifies energies and segregates them is not
interested in true spiritual growth.
One is not better than the other.
As a psychologist I thought the writer's view on women to be both fascinating and sad and my compassion goes out to him.
Like attracts like and the reader's who love this book is on the same level of consciousness as the writer and this will give them
an nice experience of being spiritual and special.
And maybe they will go on to a more loving path of spirituality.

There are two genders on earth and if we work together and celebrate our differences without judgment or power struggles,
Spiritual enlightenment will come to us.
I just find it shameful that the writer would use the Arthurian legends and the druids as a platform to promote his own fantasy of a world controlled by separation and gender fear.
The thought of a master race is surely not practised by people who are spiritually evolved.
His refences to psychology and the use of Jung were not correct.
Don't get me started on his interpretations on eastern philosophy.
If the writer wants to write fiction, he should not try to pass it as authentic druid/celt material.
As long as you know the intention behind the book and have read serious and authentic books on the subjects, it is kind of entertaining in a "1800 century we are better than the rest" way.
True teacher's would say:
Separation is no longer the order.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A Detrimental Book at the very least....
Review: All right, this is one of the books I read when I first became interested pagan spirituality. I was instantly put off by the sexist overtones in the book. As I read further many of the statements were completely different from information I had obtained from other souces. From the start Monroe made it clear that his book wasn't for women and its great to have sprituality books just for men, lord knows there are enough for women LOL, but it doesn't say anywhere on the cover or backflap that the book is geared torward men. Also, Monroe claims that druidry in is entirely a religion for men, that is just not true and I have yet to find another book that makes this same claim.

Its a waste of time, but thats just my opinion.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A book for the experienced Spiritual Seeker.
Review: This book is not for a person who is just starting to delve into the many layers of the occult. The author uses misinformation at every turn and does not accurately depict either the beliefs or the culture of the Druids.

This being said the book can be taken in two ways. One, it is a reasonably well written fictional work with nothing more to offer than a few moments of entertainm

Or to the trained eye, that of the Spiritualist Seeker, there is much information on the versatility of various religions and spiritual paths. The book does an excellent job of portraying a non-traditional view or spirituality and how a person might form their own personal spiritual path that includes various teachings from different areas as well as a bit of their own special spiritual spice.

This book is a convergence of many different sects of belief. Its only real tragedy is the author's blatant misrepresentation of the Druids.



Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Deal with it
Review: I see so many complaints about this book and it's "sexist views". I have spent much of the last 12 years reading and researching Keltic magic, shamanism and Druidry. And in this time I have had contact with several Orders of shaman( please excuse my bad spelling). The one thing I have come across continualy is that the sexes have two different roles in the magical realm and woman is not intended to teach male roles and vise versa men deal more in the casting of more forceful or testosterone drive style of magic and well it should be there is not to be the role of a feminan man men grew to be hunteds and fighters women also fought in battle but is was more of a mans role. Women had a broader dealing with the spiritual then men but not in the harsher forms. They are ment to be our other half the half the deals more with caring and feeling divination and the perhaps more beautiful side of life while men had a firm harder role in the spiritual realm .

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Scam
Review: This guy is obviously not a druid. He used the book of Pheryllt. which was proven a fake. i mean come on!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This is absolute crap
Review: Really. This is not even good fiction. The writing is poor, the manuscript is a fake, the "spells" are based on the creation of a Berkeley Linguistics graduate student, hired as a researcher for the film Excalibur. Here are just some of the problems with this book. The manuscript Monroe refers to is a fake--an obvious fake, if you know Welsh at all, which Monroe doesn't, and he certainly doesn't know either medieval Welsh or medieval Irish, which means even if he had a genuine manuscript he couldn't understand it. Much of his "information" is false, in that he refers to practices that couldn't have been engaged in by ancient druids since they didn't have access to the plants. Some of his "recipes" are in fact dangerous. There were female druids, described as druids, and functioning as druids--we have some of their charms in Gaulish, as well as their names, and in Irish texts, even stories about them. Personally, I find his slavering over prepubescent little boys more than a little distasteful. This is not, in any way, an authentic source for information about ancient or modern druidry. There are some good, authentic sources about genuine, ancient Celts, including actual spells, charms and curses--use those sources (look for Powell, Cunliffe, Nagy, Ford, Eska, Mallory, Koch and Carey) and there's good Arthurian literature, if you want that, like Mary Stewart's Merlin quartet, which is not only much better fiction, it's a darned sight more accurate historically.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: a horrid book
Review: I have a copy of this book as well as it's sequel. I keep them for the express purpose of showing them to people and warning them not to buy them. There are plenty of reviews that explain why, but I will touch on the main themes and their fallacies.
1. The author claims that only men may be druids. (any quick skimming of Irish or Welsh mythology will produce at least one druidess.)
2. The druids were vegetarians. (a documented ritual called the tarb-feis is performed by eating the flesh of a freshly slain bull and sleeping on it's hide, not to mention the overwhelming presence of archaeological evidence of animal sacrifice and feasting)
3. Druids were celibate. (again, a quick skim of Celtic mythology reveals many sons and daughters of druids)
I won't get into the multitude of other lies that are in this book, as they have been covered elsewhere. I will end by saying that one value we do know that the druids held was Truth. Monroe has this right, at least. However, he has shamed me and my ancestors by claiming this drivel to be truth. Perhaps this book was all a free-energy scheme for Monroe; after all, my forefathers are spinning in their graves fast enough to generate electricity.


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