Sacred Stones of the Goddess: Using Earth Energies for Magical Living

Rating:
Summary: Quite transcendent in its message
Review: Knowledgeably written by Galen Gillotte (a "Solitary Wiccan" who draws upon her twenty years of experience and expertise), Sacred Stones Of The Goddess: Using Earth Energies For Magical Living offers prose and invocations, guides for incorporating crystals and semiprecious stones into talismanic magic, meditations and prayers to the Goddess. Expressly written for Wiccan and New Age Magick practitioners of all skill and experience levels, Sacred Stones Of The Goddess is deeply spiritual, and quite transcendent in its message. Of special interest are the easy to follow instructions for assembling and utilizing personalized thirteen-stone divination set and instructions for crating and Wiccan prayer beads for communion with the Goddess. Sacred Stones Of The Goddess is an informed and informative contribution to New Age Metaphysical Studies collections in general, and Wiccan oriented "Goddess Worship" reference shelves in particular.

Rating:
Summary: Quite transcendent in its message
Review: Knowledgeably written by Galen Gillotte (a "Solitary Wiccan" who draws upon her twenty years of experience and expertise), Sacred Stones Of The Goddess: Using Earth Energies For Magical Living offers prose and invocations, guides for incorporating crystals and semiprecious stones into talismanic magic, meditations and prayers to the Goddess. Expressly written for Wiccan and New Age Magick practitioners of all skill and experience levels, Sacred Stones Of The Goddess is deeply spiritual, and quite transcendent in its message. Of special interest are the easy to follow instructions for assembling and utilizing personalized thirteen-stone divination set and instructions for crating and Wiccan prayer beads for communion with the Goddess. Sacred Stones Of The Goddess is an informed and informative contribution to New Age Metaphysical Studies collections in general, and Wiccan oriented "Goddess Worship" reference shelves in particular.

Rating:
Summary: It was a good spell book with added gems.
Review: No pun intended, the gems are not the gemstones but the relaxation exersize at the begining of the book, embracing the goddess and god meditations, working with the elements section, and using meditation beads section. These are the true gems of this book. The spells were alright. They informed you of the goddess and stone that were to be used. The guides meditations are nice, and poetic. There is a section at the end of each spell that gives you advise on how to further bring the purpose of that spell into your life. My favorite parts were the priestess speaks, they were very uplifting. I will be using the last few sections of this book often and also the relaxation technique that she offered earilier in the book. I am also going to look at her prayer books, her poetry is very beautiful.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected but good nonetheless
Review: When I first saw the title and the back cover description, I thought this would be a pretty in-depth exploration of stone energies and how they can be used in goddess magic (something along the lines of Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem and Metal Magic). I don't believe that a book should be entirely judged by my own preconceptions, but even on it's own merits, the book is a little shallow.

This book is really a series of spells/meditations tapping into specific Goddess archetypes for specific life events or obstacles. Each spell uses a certain kind of stone that the author feels resonates with that particular goddess. So far, so good.

However, while I found the Goddess explanations to be fairly well fleshed out, the explanations for why she chose that stone and the meditations connected to the spells are often short, leaving me wanting more information and imagery. Toward the end, some of the meditations have even become repetetive - the Goddess smiles at you and gives you a specimen of the stone that is recommended for the spell. Also, all of the spells have exactly the same structure. For different life events, I personally think it would be nice to have different kinds of rituals.

I do have to say that the elemental meditations sometimes had much richer imagery than some of the Goddess ones, and I do like the idea of approaching the elementals in a personified form. I also really liked the idea for Goddess and God prayer beads. Prayer is a lesser explored aspect of pagan/Wiccan tradition, and I like that she offers information (and beautifully written prayers) to those interested in that particular form of worship.

In conclusion: this book does have some beautifully written ritual passages, spells and prayers, but the meditations come up a bit short. It's also a bit short on actual stone information (making the title somewhat misleading). I think Kala Trobe does a much better job with Goddess meditations in her book "Invoke the Goddess" which Gillotte has actually listed as a reference.