The Apple Branch: A Path to Celtic Ritual

Rating:
Summary: A Helpful Boook For Those Who Are New to Celtic Studies
Review: It is refreshing to come across a book that is so well detailed and accurate as Mr. Kondratiev's Apple Branch. As a newcomer to Celtic religion,it is often difficult for me to weed out the books with questionable scholarship. You won't find any " Celtic Witches" or " 21 Lessons of..." in this book! What you will find is a well-written book by an author who is knowledgeable about Celtic language, history, and religion. I would recommend it one hundred percent!

Rating:
Summary: Celtic Reconstructionism- This book is secretly WICCAN
Review: Kondratiev has been hailed as one of the founders of 'Celtic Reconstructionism'. However, there are several rules of the Celtic Reconstructionist that Kondratiev breaks.

1. CR's celebrate the 4 celtic holidays, but Kondratiev has 8, following the historically inaccurate Wiccan model.

2. Kondratiev insists on 'casting the circle' another Wiccan invention.

3. Kondratiev follows the Wiccan model of the elements and cardinal directions, even though he acknowledges that the Celtic elements were Sky/Land/Water.

There's many more conflicts in the book as well. Although Kondratiev has clearly done a lot of research on the Celts, he is still closely intwined with Wicca. It is for this reason that for any Celtic Reconstructionist, his book will not be of much help.

Rating:
Summary: Good and Bad All Wrapped Into One
Review: Kondratiev's work The Apple Branch is well worth reading for many reasons. Let me say that from the beginning, because I did like this book, but it has some big problems too. It was rather difficult for me to rate this book because certain sections deserve 5 stars, and other areas and points emphasized in the book really only get a 2. Likewise, portions of the book really deserve more than 5 stars, and other aspects of the book drop off the meter and don't even deserve a 1. With that said my comments are these. On the upside, read Chapter One, the Tale of the Celts, because it really is excellent. It is historically accurate, well-researched, and lacks the typically over-romanticized nonsense that so many Celtic books today seem plauged by. I think he depicts these Celtic cultural evolutions in a balanced light, from the imbalanced conquest-minded Celtic warriors, to the imperialism of Rome, to some Gaulish tribes aligning with Rome, and others fighting valiantly against it. Kondratiev also does not commit the neo-Celtic fantasy that all Celts were unified, or all somehow upset and overturned by the arrival of Christianity. He makes a convincing arguement as to the survival of Celtic consciousness within Christian tradition and mysticism of today. Something about the way Kondratiev writes in this section on history, and when he gets specific about traditions themselves, really brings the full scope of Celtic history alive. The downside of the book is the absurdity I found in the author's thesis on linguistic emphasis for cultural and spiritual experience or relevance. No one practicing Celtic spirituality or involved with their Celtic culture would deny the value or importance of learning (or learning about) the native tongue of one's ancestors and culture, but Kondratiev makes the suggestion that WITHOUT learning a Celtic language that one cannot truly claim to be involved with Celtic spirituality or Celtic culture. This is, of course, ridiculous. It's like saying one must learn Hebrew to becoming a practicing Christian, or Aramaic to be able to think like a Christian. In similar fashion, it is like saying that one must learn Japanese to master Karate, Aikido, or to experience the deep spiritual wellsprings from practicing Chanoyu, the Way of Tea--things that even the Japanese will say are guided by a larger indefinable spirit behind all things that doesn't speak Japanese. When this author settles in on something, such as Irish or Welsh cosmology, and really dives deep, he is excellent in his treatment of the subject, but all too often he bubbles back up into the domain of the silly--"let's create a pan-Celtic movement where at our rituals we blend Anglo-Saxon Wicca with Celtic ritual and try to speak Welsh, Irish, and Breton all in the same ritual." There is a great deal of value in the book. Read it. But be prepared for the shifting thesis of the book, and the inability of the author to acknowledge spiritual/transpersonal/mystical realities that exist beyond, before, and outside of the domain of linguistics. The parts that are good are GREAT. The parts putting forth a "Path of Celtic Ritual" are strangely schizophrenic, presenting a fundamentalist leaning regarding language (note: most Irish, Welsh, and Scots people are not fluent in our languages, yet we do work with the spirits of place in the lands where we live), while taking rather bizarre and typically neo-Celtic liberties with ideas of a pan-Celtic spiritual movement. The creation of such a phenomenon on a spiritual level is, ironically, very un-Celtic.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Celtic Spirituality Book Bar None
Review: There are two overused words in the world of alternative spirituality/religion - shaman and Celtic. It seems everything is shamanic or Celtic or both. Thus it was with great trepidation that I read THE APPLE BRANCH: A PATH TO CELTIC RITUAL. I found my fears were unfounded. This book is the best Celtic Spirituality on the market. The author, Alexei Kondratiev writes with passion and with scholarly knowledge to give a blueprint for those who would like to follow a Celtic road.
The book is divided into five chapters. Chapter One is The Tale of Celts, which is a short history. Chapter Two is Drawing the Circle, really on how to get started. Chapter Three is The Cycle of the Earth and Sun. This is by far the longest chapter and delves into the cross quarter holidays and the sun holidays with which many Wiccans and Neo-Pagans are familiar. Yet Kondratiev digs deep and gives them specific and intense Celtic meanings. Chapter Four is The Cycle of the Moon and gives a Celtic lunar calendar meaning to the year. Chapter Five is the Cycle of the Tribe and associates six saint days with the six remaining modern Celtic countries. In addition, there are an appendix, selected bibliography and index.
Kondratiev's writing has verve and he announces unabashedly that this is a romantic endeavor. He also states that these ceremonies and ideas are only blueprints for the reader to use or not use at her/his own will. Kondratiev's history section is short, but he encourages scholarship, as any true Celt would, so if the reader disagrees, s/he is free to look into the history at greater lengths.
Unlike most alternative spirituality books with Celtic in the title, this is more than a gloss on Wicca. In fact, Kondratiev does not exclude Christianity from the spiritual well, as Christianity has had a great impact on Celts. This book is about spirituality, which is non-denominational. It is a profound look at the very meaning of what it is to be Celtic and how to preserve that spirituality in a world where McDonald means fast food. Highly recommended for all those of Celtic heritage or spiritual leanings.

Rating:
Summary: An Essential Book On Celtic Religion
Review: There are very few books like The Apple Branch- the scholarship is impeccable and the author's knowledge of and passion for Celtic culture shines through on every page. This is the one book which everyone involved in Celtic spirituality must read. The underlying logic of Celtic religion is laid out in a clear and understandable way, but no easy short cuts are offered. Instead, Kondratiev stresses the need to learn a Celtic language and be involved in Celtic culture. This book would be useful to Celtic Christians as much as to Celtic Pagans, for the author makes no strict division between the two. This is a book to be read and re-read; an ongoing source of both insight and inspiration.

Rating:
Summary: Sir Imponderable tells us who to blame.
Review: There's no doubting the authenticity of Kodratiev's scholarship itself. I typically don't read nonfiction front to back, and I didn't do so with Apple Branch. Also, to clear the air before I say this: I'm neither any kind of christian, nor any kind of "neopagan," nor am I anti-religious or anti-mystical. But while the meat of the book is great, and I reccomend it, it cannot recover from the abysmal failures of the introduction. He goes to some elaborate lengths to characterize Rome as the evil that destroyed Celtic culture, and the Christian tradition in Celtic lands as an authentic carrier and preserver of that tradition. Of course, nothing could be nearer to the complete reverse of the truth. Levantine Religion (Roman Christianity) is, as he struggles so valiantly to ignore, *based* on the premise that "my (divinely ordained) customs are the only tolerable customs." Celtic civilization may be characterized as being in some kind of "hostage mentality" toward christianity. But defend it? Embarassing. Also, Kondratiev valiantly asserts the incomprehensibility of Celtic ideas in nonceltic languages. Any good sociolinguist cringes when they hear this kind of archaic, Worf-ian superstition, but the idea's so full of logical holes that it hardly bears mention. Much less defense.

Rating:
Summary: The Best!
Review: This book is the best book of Celtic history and ritual that I have ever read. Alexei's scholarship is incredible, and while most such books are dull, he presents the information in a very interesting way. He does not handfeed you pre-written ritual, but gives you the framework for you to customize and research. This book is for Pagans as well as open minded Christians, which makes the book countlessly usefull. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is interested in true Celtic heritage.

Rating:
Summary: Celtic Reconstructionism explained and reborn
Review: This book's opening chapter, with its history of the Celts, I found to be invigorating in a way that more academic and popular histories both lack. It makes you see the West from the Celtic perspective, with an almost "what if?" tone. The remainder focuses upon the author's attempts to rebuild from what we know of the historical record, folkloric practice, and modern re-creation what can be taken from the past and made relevant for modern seekers of Celtic wisdom, morality, and spirituality.

As with Caitlin Matthews' daily handbook of prayer and ritual, "Celtic Devotional," this book responds to a need for a less romanticized, more practically oriented approach to a way of living that concentrates upon one's interpersonal relations as well as one's orientation with the natural and supernatural realms. I applaud the author's insistence that Celtic languages be a part of the revival process within the learner. His own struggles to reimagine and reinvigorate ancient learning and mix it into ethical practice deserve wide attention and I commend this book to any of you curious to get beyond "new age" facades and delve into a truer, and less superficial, way to understanding. It's not always a quick read, but better taken in smaller amounts, to be pondered and integrated, before continuing. It's a book probably also best read with others and talked about--I wish I could've known people I could've shared it with! While Caitlin Matthews' devotional suits the solo reader, this book benefits from a group, preferably led by one more adept than first-time seekers, at least from my impressions.

This book exists as "The Apple Branch" and as "Celtic Wisdom," but it's the same contents. Not easy to find, but, fittingly, worth the quest. as is much beyond our impulsively mall-bound, chain-store, one-click grasp!

Rating:
Summary: Six Stars!!!!
Review: This review is for the same book published under the name _Celtic Rituals_:

The first reviewer was right. It is MARVELOUS.... It is the first book I've read that actually grounds you in the Wheel of the Year by making sense of the often disconnected stories of Celtic myth. NONE of the neo-pagan stuff is here exept to compare and contrast what he writes to what has been written or done by neo-pagans.

At first I thought that I would not like to use the Celtic revisioning of the elements. Then I started reading the rest of the book. Now the elemental placements make sense. The book has NO illustrations so your best bet to understanding where everything falls is to draw your own Wheel of the year and place on it, the elements, the moons and the earth/sun celebrations. I highly recomment putting the neo-pagan elemental directions (in reference to the cycles of the day) in the center to keep you aware of where you are. The best place to start is the chapter on the Moons. Here the author uses the Song of Amergin to understand and celebrate the different moons of the year. Why I suggest starting here is simple: The Celts have no surviving creation myth and to truly be grounded in a mythic cycle it helps greatly to have one so that you understand the basic symbolism of the religion. The author's study of the Song makes this possible. Even though he IN NO WAY suggests that his study of the Song is a Celtic creation myth, he inadvertently shows that the Song could well be the only surviving record of a Celtic creation myth. THAT IS MY THEORY not the author's. The author also finds the strands of similarities among the different stories in Celtic myth and strings them together to help one see an actual pattern in the chaos that is Celtic myth. He makes a connectable and smoothly flowing study of Celtic ritual for the Wheel like NO OTHER author I've read who has written on the subject. I CAN now see the BIG picture among all those disconnected stories of gods and mortals. Now all the stories flow together, connect to the Earth, the Wheel--everything!! You wanna really UNDERSTAND the ritual of Lughnasad read this and nothing else on so called "celtic" ritual or wicca. If you want to UNDERSTAND why one celebration may seem like a repeat of the one before--read this book. If you want to UNDERSTAND Celtic spirituality--START here!

I never EVER wanted to tackle a book on Celtic mythology--now I eagerly await an opportunity. Now that I can see the connections between different gods, understand how the Celts saw their year--I can go deeper into the studies of my ancestors. His research is valid and scholarly. He is amazing. This is my new "bible" and it replaces thoroughly EVERY ritual primer I've ever read. I no longer feel like I'm studying a religion that was created by modern ritualists that belongs to a dozen different countries and traditions, but like I'm studying--in an organized and wonderfully understandable form--what my ancestors did and why they did it. I can actually understand why they celebrated what they did and can connect it to my life!

Thanks to this author I CAN reclaim my tribal ancestory. Something I've wanted to do for over 13 years. He has brought to life what was once a very dead and/or POORLY resurrected religion.

Bless you Alexi--Bless you three times three times.