Enfolding!

Wanton Green has just been reviewed on the lovely, thought-provoking and often challenging site "Enfolding". The opening paragraph follows, you can read the rest here

A key feature of contemporary Paganism is our relationship toplace. Curiously though, there seems to be little in the way of in-depth exploration from within the Pagan community of how we make and sustain our relationships with places, nor of place-making as a social or political practice. There are some excellent scholarly books examining place-making – such as Corinne G. Dempsy’s Bringing the Sacred Down to Earth: Adventures in Comparative Religion (which I reviewed
back in July) and Adrian Ivakhiv’s Claiming Sacred Ground: Pilgrims and Politics at Glastonbury and Sedona which argues that “sacred spaces” are heterotopic – where meaning is created, contested, and negotiated by different groups. Hopefully, The Wanton Green (Mandrake Books, Oxford, 2011, 222pp, p/bk) – an anthology of contemporary Pagan writing on our relationships with places – will inspire further explorations of Pagan approaches to place-making.

Touchstone review

Review from Touchstone, the journal of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Thanks, folks, the positive reinforcement is much appreciated!

THE WANTON GREEN ed Gordon McLellan and Susan Cross

ISBN 978-1-906958-29-9 

Gordon, a.k.a. ‘Gordon the Toad’ is widely respected as an educational ecologist and shamanic practitioner: and what’s in this book is from people similarly worth listening to. The approaches which this collection of contemporary pagan writings on place covers are; personal journeys and intimate connections; river, well and sea; exploring - mud on your boots; step back and consider; where are the wild places?; and urban wilderness.

There is something for every thinking Druid here, served from individual perspectives of those who walk their talk: its breadth is inspirational.                 

The ethos is sound: Pagans, far from feeling ‘ownership’ of the world, ‘recognise a symbiosis where we are simply a part of the whole and certainly not the most important part of it all’ and the book is, ultimately, about knowing and belonging, in the profoundest sense. The editors are active in working for change, but this is not a strident or uncomfortable read; the pieces are celebratory, intimate, praise songs to beloved landscapes, gentling us into a mindset to open to just being part of it all. Not just the pretty bits; all. ‘I spoke up on behalf of trees and hills, grubby backyards and windowboxes...’ A deeply enriching read. Recommended.Penny Billington