Animal Wisdom

Rating:
Summary: Well Done
Review: Jessica has shown outstanding research primarily in so far as Native American beliefs are concerned. One can always pick at the entire world of animals...her goal is to emphasize Native American culture. She is descended from the Woodland Sioux and her emphasis is on the beliefs of Native Americans. Anyone who appreciates the place of animals in our world should read and enjoy

Rating:
Summary: Good but needed work
Review: Okay I thought that this book was rather good but I couldn't help but wince at some of her obvious errors. For instance she says the horse is femine and is only linked to goddess's the one main thing she forgets to mention is the Norse believed in an eight legged horse called Sliepnar and by all reports Sliepnar was masculine and could travel through the planes with Odin among others Odin allowed to use the horse. I don't know if she just chose to ignore this in regard to her stubborn persistance that the horse had to be female or what.

Another missjudgement is when she tried to say that the stag wasn't put in any mythologys and only the female deer were. This is totaly incorrect and I meen BIG time. For one Freyr in Norse mythology was symbolized by the stag but she fails to mention this for some unknown reason. Another thing she forgot to bring up was the fact that stag was the symbal of the hunt even more so than even the deer. Hmmm, more research?

Yet another animal she somewhat screws up on in many ways is the snake. First of Nidhogg was not a snake but a dragon, their is a difference you know Jessica, maybe you should look it up sometime. Also if Nidhogg escaped the world would end? Funny I never found any mention of that, is this perhaps from a source I myself have yet read? I thought this would be Fenris, Nidhogg is after all the last one to survive... The snake is also a symbol of Odin you know since he did shapechange into one. I found myself increasingly frusterated at how she would totaly connect the snake with femine when from all accounts this varied according to the mythos.

I liked this book but I think it could have done better overall all. She really needed to study the Norse before she put their mythos in. This book is useful for animal magick but I felt as I read it that it would be best to use it in conjection with other books on the subject, such as 'Animal Spirit' which went in more details in some areas.

A fine read for those wanting to learn about what each animal represents and their powers but not the greatest source by any meens, nor the most accurate.