<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Be a Goddess stands the test of time!
Review: A little over four years ago, I worked through the 15 weeks of lessons in Be a Goddess and found, to my great surprise and pleasure, that these lessons were fun, inspiring, and, most of all, life-transforming. The psychology was sound, the spirituality was amazing, and the teacher was warm and caring. Since then, I've gone on to train extensively with Francesca and have been delighted to discover that the teacher I found in her book is the Real Deal. She is everything I hoped to find and more. I continue to recommend Be a Goddess for anyone who is interested in exploring Goddess spirituality, beginning a path as a magical practitioner, or just looking for spiritual guidance and inspiration. As for the reviewers in this section who maligned Francesca and her work, I am saddened and a little angry. Attacks on a person's work and personal worth are unseemly and undignified. Disagree, if you must, but attacking anonymously is reprehensible.
Rating:
Summary: She is real, accessible, encouraging, has a great web site,
Review: Francesca De Grandis 'Be a Goddess' The Third Rd tradition is an immensely transforming experience for the wayfarer, journeymen or seeker on the way to finding their initial starting point or for those with an inherent deeply resonating connection in a Celtic Shamanic Magical Discipline. Francesca brings together a broad range of powerful practises for the aspiring spirit, which is truly reaching out to be connected and transformed in a down-to-earth, practical everyday application of knowledge. She is real, accessible, encouraging, has a great web site, and 'there' for you. For prospective readers, I know there is a tendency when flicking through a book to be cautious and sceptical of current works that involve the terms - magic, shaman, guides, spirits, beings and fairies. To immediately disregard that which we do not understand, because of connotations & misrepresentation in a 'Oh I know here we go off with the fairies again, when will these authors get a life!' 'I am looking for a real discipline not delusion!' type of inner voice. Well I understand this, as I have been the world's greatest sceptic. But now I am the world's greatest eclectic! So, if you truly have a 'desire' to reach into your 'Self' and find the inherent beauty and magic of the human state, and 'desire' to abide in a clarified, empowered, sacred space within you daily - this course will lay down the essential approach and inner housekeeping required for a life time discipline of worship, humility, enchantment, passion and fantastic super sweaty sex. I have researched over 50 books on magic, shamanism, witchcraft, ritual, healing, energy and pain management. All due to the need to find the essence of transpersonal medicine (Body, Mind, Emotion and Soul healing) from ancient healing arts. I have been so ill for 5 years plagued by chronic fatigue, body-wide pain, sleep deprivation, annihilated immune system, etc with no allopathic solutions available. A classic merry-go-round of symptoms with no hope or future. What I found in Francesca's book and further from daily practise over the last 12 months of the Third Rd, was the way to heal my Soul, which was so desperately devoid of spirit and required special nurturing and connected love. My mind, which was so effected by the layers of medication and the effect of being estranged from my 'Self'. My body that was so physically exhausted beyond any possible energy healing, beyond all - I was lost to my 'Self' completely. Believe me, this is a very dark hole and a long way to crawl back from and required enormous self-discipline, self-clarification and nurturing, not to mention some pure magic and the right teacher. The essence of 'Be a Goddess! - the Third Rd' has reached deep into my (and all the other folk I have encouraged to participate) soul, psyche and connection to this life. Shifting blocks, distortions, and past hurts that live on until they are recognised, nurtured and forgiven. Techniques to assist us in becoming 'whole'. There are advanced techniques when followed as directed, which have been the only true way I have been able to override my chronic fatigue and pain. I have tried and participated in many alternatives to no avail. But the most potent aspect of this training is the experience of the profound in everyday life, the connection with deity, the merging with the truly sacred, and feeling the enchantment in life. The Third Rd teaches enchantment, 'magic' in everyday that we live in every moment, as a powerful extension of our existence, not an external ritualistic 'hocus pocus' approach that can be more baffling than helpful. No one wants empty theatrics when searching for understanding. Once you are grounded with your understanding, you can have all the theatrics you desire! Be a Goddess - The Third Rd integrates many aspects - energy, self-clarification, empowerment, passion, desire, love, and true worship. True worship maintains humility, which is paramount for any practitioner as we unfold on our journey. It connects us to the love of Self, then love of deity, our empowerment to enact our desires and passions and our right to profound nurturing. Self-clarification keeps clarity of purpose which helps to inhibit egoic self-righteous attitudes from arising. The shamanic training opens the consciousness to 'states of change' and the inner realms of transformation, allowing one access to the archetypal teachers and to see the magnificence of creation unfolding from within. With all of these healing and empowering aspects of this course and tradition (which are quite invisible to the student at the time), individuals both male and female who have been affected by Christianity, Patriarchy, Dominator Social structures, drug addiction, self abuse, and chronic health conditions or carry scares from their past, will benefit - if they practise! I recommend this book to interested people of many different traditions, backgrounds and views. Sceptics, The Way of the Goddess followers, neo-pagans & pagans, witches, traditional WICCA practitioners, Self Healers and Healers, Shamans, etc, but most of all to any 'being' which is questing for its authentic Self. Rosey Coggins '99
Rating:
Summary: Francesca brings enchantment into our lives.....
Review: Francesca de Grandis has provided the average person with a path through the worlds out beyond our everyday milieu. From ancient Gods to mystic practices designed to bring great change from deep within the psyche, using archetypes and imagery which is as poetic as it is powerful. I had no idea I would find the subject of Celtic Shamanism and witchcraft so intriguing, delicious and mesmerizing after having participated in a number of other spiritual traditions and healing modalities. I highly recommend this work, for to call it a book would be an incredible understatement. Francesca gently guides the reader through a series of evolving psychic openings which lead to rich and wonderful mystic landscapes not often found in the written word. I am looking forward to working more closely with Francesca to heighten my experience of her unique and enchanting offerings. Her interpretation of the craft, her ability to bring it into comprehensible levels for anyone to indulge in, all add up to a vital and colorful oasis appealing to the widest range of spiritual seekers. Don't miss this one.
Rating:
Summary: Francesca brings enchantment into our lives.....
Review: Francesca de Grandis has provided the average person with a path through the worlds out beyond our everyday milieu. From ancient Gods to mystic practices designed to bring great change from deep within the psyche, using archetypes and imagery which is as poetic as it is powerful. I had no idea I would find the subject of Celtic Shamanism and witchcraft so intriguing, delicious and mesmerizing after having participated in a number of other spiritual traditions and healing modalities. I highly recommend this work, for to call it a book would be an incredible understatement. Francesca gently guides the reader through a series of evolving psychic openings which lead to rich and wonderful mystic landscapes not often found in the written word. I am looking forward to working more closely with Francesca to heighten my experience of her unique and enchanting offerings. Her interpretation of the craft, her ability to bring it into comprehensible levels for anyone to indulge in, all add up to a vital and colorful oasis appealing to the widest range of spiritual seekers. Don't miss this one.
Rating:
Summary: Lets Be Authentic
Review: Greetings~
There are many books on various craft available today. Too often people write reviews based on what they think "is the right way"...Personaly I think it's great that this author has presented her authentic self in a book available to those who wish to make use of it. Just because a book is written and available, dosent mean you half to use everything in it if you choose to buy it. Honor this woman for her gift to our world.
Rating:
Summary: Lets Be Authentic
Review: Greetings~
There are many books on various craft available today. Too often people write reviews based on what they think "is the right way"...Personaly I think it's great that this author has presented her authentic self in a book available to those who wish to make use of it. Just because a book is written and available, dosent mean you half to use everything in it if you choose to buy it. Honor this woman for her gift to our world.
Rating: 
Summary: wonderful inspiring confidence exercises, bad title
Review: If this book were titled "fantastic and fun exercises to improve your self-esteem" perhaps more people would expect and appreciate what they get. This is not a reference on Celtic myth or historical Celtic religion, although bits are included for flavor, updated with the author's interpretation. This is not a book for the physical practice of basic Wicca, although some of the attitudes you can pick up here will affect your religious beliefs more deeply than correspondences or ritual specifics. I love the "prayers" and meditations, and really found my confidence and happiness much improved. The exercises helped me change my relationship with the Divine from the judeochristian victim model to the Goddess participant and friend model.
And by the way, improving your self esteem does lead to prosperity and great sex. The word Celtic can be used broadly or loosely, and the Celts adapted across time and geography. There are many unknowns, and many more debates in Celtic study. A tenet of Wicca/Goddess study is that you can appropriate what you will from history and build on it yourself to come up with your own beliefs and rituals that are meaningful for you. If you need to go through and change every instance of the word Celtic in this book to Francesca's neo-celtic eclectic, do it without rancor. But still try the exercises, and see if they don't make you happier. That's the point.
Rating: 
Summary: Misleading, But Some Practical Elements
Review: The one thing I liked about this book is the author's partial down-to-earth emphasis on having one's spiritual practice be connected to the hum-drum mundane elements of daily life for the sake of making them sacred. I think this is a real strong suit for this book, and DeGrandis' other writings: the practicality of them for the modern practitioner, most especially for women seeking a pathway of empowered spirituality in a culture that still disempowers the feminine. From this vantage point I think the book serves a purpose. However, putting on my Celtic scholar's and practitioner's hat, I'm afraid the down-to-earth style then goes out the window and some real misleading inaccuracies take place that I think really have the potential to stand as a liability for those individuals seeking the facts about the Celtic traditions. This largely lies in the fact that DeGrandis, like so many others, links Wicca (a 1950's invented-religion based on largely English and Anglo-Saxon sources) with Celtic traditions, which to belabor the point here, have nothing to do with Wicca (see an excellent article on the web written by respected Celtic scholar Ian Mac'an'Tsoir on "Why Wicca Is Not Celtic".) Wicca as an influence is a valid path for many. I'm not knocking this at all, and have immense respect for those individuals who embody that path. However, if we are to make an honest assessment of it we must realize that it draws as much on Roman, Greek, Germanic, and Egyptian goddess worship, as anything else. Wicca (the modern path) is mildly modeled after the more ancient expressions of witchcraft in England, which is an authentic tradition hailing from Anglo-Saxon roots. However, it is not 'Celtic' and I feel that DeGrandis' insistence on linking Wicca with Celtic tradition is misleading to the modern reader. Her "Celtic shamanism" seems to draw most heavily upon Irish faery lore and tradition, yet these are simply "the Gaelic faery traditions", they are not Wicca. There isn't, to be concise, even a letter 'W' in the Gaelic language, meanwhile Anglo-Saxon Wita, Wicca, and witchcraft was never originally oriented to the Celtic customs or seasonal observances as she (and so many Wiccan writings) present. If you are a woman who wants a book that supports you in getting spiritually practical in your life, then this book by De Grandis will aid you. However, know that there are also some inaccuracies presented and that if you really want to learn about the authentic faery traditions of the Celtic world, by-pass all the Wiccan reinterpretations and head straight to the writings of R.J. Stewart.
Rating: 
Summary: SHAMELESS COMMERCIALISM
Review: Truly an excellent book. Very practical, and grounded, I found it both useful and inspiring. I definately recommend it.
<< 1 >>
|
