Mythology Books

Thomas Freese brings to life the beautiful village of Pleasant Hill with the always present ghost that haunt there. He has an excellent style of writing that introduces you to some fine people who have worked there and visited there. He tells of their experiences and makes you want to go experience those same ghost as well. This book is a thrill for all ages.

This is an excellent, entertaining, accurate of the "Shaker Experience" told by the people who actually experienced them. When I read this book, I immediately wanted to go to Pleasant Hill to experience these things for myself. Once you start this book, you will not put it down until you finish it!

---Roberta Simpson Brown
Author, Storyteller

Mr. Freese has not only succeeded at giving his readers a hearty serving of ghost stories -- he has also given them the full flavor of Shaker culture. As a lover of ghost stories, I found these Shaker ghost stories believable and was pleased that the stories were told to the author by those who live in, work in, and visit the village. Mr. Freese's literary skill, blended with his interviewing techniques, has resulted in an easy-to-read book that you will want to keep on your bookshelf.

Being a Kentuckian, I was eager to read Freese's book on Shaker Ghost Stories of Pleasant Hill. His words and descriptions make me feel as if I'm walking the village road at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. I enjoyed the interview format he used and how he introduced the employees of Shaker Village, they are people that I can relate to with down to earth values and experiences of the ghosts at Shaker Village. As I read, I felt as if I were there, exploring the buildings and searching for ghosts or their stories, just as Freese has done. Excellent writing and highly recommended to anyone who enjoys "historical" ghost stories.

Please keep in mind that Shakespeare's A midsummer night's dream (Monarch notes) (Monarch notes) by Eve Leoff is just as it says, Monarch Notes. A simple way to know the subject matter in a very condensed and abridged version great for those who do not have the time to read the book in its entirety. No illustrations are in it!

The story along with the images! Grate. Most of the books of its king feature only the plates with a brief description and the reader has to know the story to really understand and feel the image. Colour reproduction is not the best possible though. I have seen on the web the same images looking brighter and better. All in all it is a good book to have.

After I sadly lost an auction for a first edition of Midsummer Night's Dream with 1906 drawings by Arthur Rackham, I found and ordered this version -- a faithful copy. I'm delighted -- and not out so much money! :-)

I'm an avid collector of all books to do with fairies. This will take its place as a favorite among all my books. The play is magical, and the mix of genius -- Shakespeare's words and Rackham's imagery -- transported me to another world. There's nothing like it!!! As a fairy photographer/artist http://www.faeriechronicles.com/chronicles/antonia/index.htm I'm passionate about this genre and have have seen many of Rackham's illustrations before. It is really great to see them here with the story. There are the color copies from the plates, but also a plethora of elegant and whimsical pen and ink fairy drawings that introduce the chapters and decorate the pages that I'd never seen. Oh for joy. The pages appear to be copied from the original book (as if duplicated by scanning the original 1908 pages, but cleaned up to look new and enlarged), and they did a great job. The quality of the color reproductions is very good, especially for a paperback in this price range. I would love to have this in a hardback -- the publishers would do well to create an even fancier edition of this hearthrob -- the same size but with a more vintage-look and feel. The soft paperback tends to splay in my hands in its large format. This is a keeper and one that I'd like to last for years. Go check out the reviews on other publications of this play by itself without the illustrations -- you will find an audience that has been spellbound.

I also found a university site with the original book binding and almost all the images in the book scanned -- these are fabulous references:
http://www.special-coll.bham.ac.uk/Blueprint/feature_dream.htm

This is one of those books for which I'd enjoy having the first edition. The original had around 40 bookplates. My websearch found only a subsequent edition (with 16 plates) for $200! Nery a copy of the original 1908 version was to be found. I wonder what THAT would go for!? Please let me know if you find one for a reasonable amount, which I doubt would happen. -- Antonia

What I like best about this collection is that the author (or editor, really) tells you a little bit about the people who tell the stories. He also includes the original Quechua, which is an interesting touch even if I can't read it. At any rate, if you enjoy fairy tales, and are interested in hearing them from other cultures (there are a few parallels to the traditional Brothers Grimm in this book), this is a good book to buy. If you aren't interested in fairy tales, this is a good book to change your mind.

An enchanting book! Here is a unique opportunity to read stories never before written down, much less translated. The author was told them in the original language in the high Andes by Quecua storytellers. Now he has translated them into English, and in She-Calf and Other Quechua Folk Tales we find, opposite each translated page, a page printed in the original Quechuan language. Fascinating! Johnny Payne further enriches our experience by sharing the similarities that he observed between these stories and stories with which we are already familiar. Included as well are wonderful background stories of experiences and people he encountered in the story-gathering process. For those interested in stories, folk tales, oral tradition, antropology, history, language, travel... This is not only a must-read, but a must-own. It's a keeper!

This is a marvelous collection of Quechua folktales, told by various Quechua speakers to anthropologist Johnny Payne. These are short and "catchy" tales printed in English with the Quechua version on the facing page. This gives you a chance to get acquainted with the sentence structure of the Quechua language which I found very helpful. The author also shares interesting insights into the people who tell the tales. I love to travel in Peru and I am going to pass this book on to a Quechua friend who will surely enjoy it as much as I did. If you're interested in the cultures of the Andes, or if you plan to travel there, don't miss this book! .

An excellent collection of stories -- not merely in the presentation of a different set of stories than those which reach the common awareness, but also in the insights it gives to the shape of the Quechua culture and people. It is not presented as an explication of the way these people live, the way the thoughts go, but the stories show that shape, show that means, bring the world alive in a way both subtle and profound.

The stories are presented both in the Quechua language and in English translation, and it is possible to see the shape and patterns of the language with careful text comparison; it makes it worth considering learning the Quechua tongue to pick out the nuances which are inevitably lost in translation.

Another great BBC production of the Narnia Chronicles. The only thing I could wish for is that the Emerald Witch didn't sound so terribly old. I feel she should sound more youthful and enchanting, but she sounds rather grandmotherish. Prince Rilian sounds quite a bit older than one usually imagines him, but the actor who plays him is fantastic. Eustace and Jill add a lot to the production with their chemistry, and Puddleglum steals the show. I should also mention that Brian Sibbley adapts this version lengthily to include more interaction between Prince Rilian and other characters before his enchantment, which is very intriguing.

Narnia... where owls are wise. where a prince is put under an evil spell. What made me pick this book is my cousin, Jefrey. he gave me this book when I was little. It begin when two kids get chased by some people & they decide to hide in a closet. There are four main character's
the witch, the prince. Eustace, & Jill. The witch puts the prince under a spell. Eustace & Jill is the people who save the prince.

This was one of the most exciting books I've ever read. It was full of suspenstion because you never knew what was going to happen next.The author was very discriptive and made the book clear. I reccomenade this book for people that are the age of 9-14 that like adventurous books.

The other reviews are of C.S. Lewis's book "The Last Battle." If you are not familiar with the Chronicles of Narnia, then it might be helpful to read those reviews. If you're familiar with the series, read on to hear what we think about the radio dramas!

We own all of Focus on the Family's Narnia Dramas that have been published to date (Sept 2002, and the Last Battle is next/last to be published in Oct 2002). We LOVE them all! Our son is 3 yrs old, and he will sit through almost an entire CD (all of the dramas are 2-3 CDs each), listening to the adventure! It's a great way to get him involved in the world of Narnia, and a wonderful alternative to T.V. One of the things that my husband and I enjoy about the series is that it is also captivating to adults. The actors are all British (as was C.S. Lewis), with an introduction by Douglas Gresham, Lewis's stepson. The actors maintain their roles throughout the series; for instance, the actor who plays the role of Eustace in "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" is the same actor who plays that role in "The Silver Chair;" the actor who plays the role of Aslan is the same in all the dramas. In a presentation that has many characters, it's helpful to be able to recognize the voices from one CD to the next.

We HIGHLY recommend all the CDs in this series. They're a great way to pass the time on car trips, and a wonderful way to encourage a child's (or an adult's!) imagination. They are wholesome, and have a clear message that good will prevail over evil, and that love and forgiveness are qualities to be cherished. Buy the whole series!

This book is a very good read for students. All who are tired of the new intellectual orthodoxy can acquire a trove of swift and mighty swords if they will master this book. There are weapons and armor of every shape and size here, something for about any fight one may join in the swamps of postmodernism.

Devaney takes on the entire rhetoric involved in calling logic binary. She devastates the typical Hegelian errors PoMo theorists make about the law of noncontradiction. Her prose is lucid and swift. The book is of appropriate length, i.e, not too long, I would say. I did want more. I have seen no other book of work like this from a competent logician.

Devaney is very fair minded. For example, she separates Derrida from the pack who moralize the young over the bogey of 'binary logic' and 'binary thinking' and 'binary' everything else. That discussion is most valuable for anyone up against it in a hall full of irrationalists. Their paradoxes and stuff are usually just confusions. The chapter on the politics of the Logic of Both/And is superb. Derrida says all kinds of irresponsible stuff, and those who support him just moralize and politicize. Devaney has it that the myth of the 'Logic of Both/And' -- which is alleged to be true only when the law of non-contradiction is false--is not really Derrida's. It is a gift to Derrida from his followers -- the underlings made it up in his name.

Those who master this whole book will have a field day in the battle against the swelled and bloated croakers in the backwaters of the hatred of logic and science. So far as I know, this is the best logician's handbook against the current nonsense in existence. As a tour of the madhouse where logic is postmodernized, it is unsurpassed as well.

This is an extraordinary attack on the sloppiness, imprecision, and general vacuity of "poststructuralist" theory as it has come to dominate American literature departments. There are lots of books out there bemoaning the state of literary studies today, and the surrender of literary studies to identity politics, etc. But Devaney moves in with a tremendous command of several important points in symbolic logic, cogently shows how the failure to take certain logical distinctions -- elementary to a first-year college logic student -- has turned most English department "theory" into a species of grandiose nonsense, and then proceeds to obliterate, one by one, a succession of "theorists" holding forth in their fuzzy way about "the logic of either/or," "binary logic," etc. She leaves the "real" poststructuralists (Foucault, Derrida, et al) strictly alone, presumably because she thinks they're a lot more rigorous than their American followers, but the job she does on the Theory Wannabes is breathtaking. I once saw an entire house being treated for cockroaches. They totally sealed it off, closed every crack and pore in the plastic covering, and then proceeded to pump in a thousand gallons of pesticide spray. The pesticide rendered itself harmless after a few hours, and when the house was unsealed every cockroach was dead. Reading Devaney on contemporary literary studies is a bit like that experience.

Ms. Devaney's book is a thorough and lucid dismantling of the naive philosophical assumptions and blatant non-sequiturs which too often inform "postmodern" thought. This book is required reading for both practitioners and critics of postmodernism. Beginning with a demonstration of postmodernism's misunderstanding and misappropriation of classical formal logic, she proceeds to show how postmodern thinkers have misconstrued, among other things, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, Bohr's theorem, and Einstein's theory of special relativity. Her charges are levelled mainly at postmodern rather than post-structuralist critics, but they are equally telling against the latter. DeVaney successfully unravels the sophistry of Derrida's reading of Plato in his "Plato's Pharmacy", thereby depriving deconstruction of one of its paradigm examples of the virtues of the deconstructive method. Moreover, DeVaney questions the validity of the post-structuralist appeal to Saussure's linguistic theories. On her reading, Saussure's system demonstrates how words take on meaning and not what they mean, thus reducing the post-structuralist contention that words don't refer to an external reality to utter nonsense. Ms. DeVaney's book is without question the most well-informed critique of the pretensions of postmodern thought that I have encountered. In one sense, it is too well-informed. Her arguments are so compelling that postmodern theorists are likely to ignore them altogether; for sustained reflection on their implications will reveal that Ms. DeVaney has utterly demolished an entire genre of literary theory.

_`Since at Least Plato...'_ is exceptional and lucid, a necessary tonic in these times, but in case someone has the impression that anyone writing on these matters does so with a cold eye, I would like them to think otherwise.

Ms Devaney writes with a passion for truth, for intellectual honesty, and for literary works, and passion is considered out of place in the overripe (hence, on the verge of death) cool ironic mode prevalent today in much literary theory. It is as refreshing to see a heart ablaze as it is to witness a mind relentlessly examining what is regarded as critical thought in the areas of cultural studies and the humanities.

If Ms Devaney's words only burned through faddish arguments, then there would be little beauty present; but she restores, with vigor, and in clear terms, logical thought as the centrepiece of respectable theory. She is to be commended not only for her forthright remarks, but for her belief that a sustained, intelligent, and intelligible, dialogue with readers will result in a better understanding of many theorists so popular today.

Their popularity is up and down, but the strength of mind and conviction of soul in Devaney's work are constants which distinguish her book from so many others in this field.

While Mary Pope Osborne is best known for her Magic Tree House series, this set of books chronicling the Odyssey is an appropriate and well written introduction for young readers. Included in each book in the set is a concise prologue introducing Homer's Odyssey, along with a summary of Greek Gods & Goddesses (including illustrations, brief descriptions and an invaluable pronunciation guide). While I ordered the set to read aloud to my six year old, I have found that despite the lack of illustrations (with the exception of the Gods/Goddesses) my four year old son is captivated by the stories as well. I highly recommend this series to anyone interested in introducing their children to this classic.

The Odyssey is about this man named Odysseus and his adventure to the island of the Sun God. It's based on the original book, Homer's Odyssey. He's got to go through some amazing things to get to the Sun God. He also has to keep his men safe, plus he has to deal with his men, because they want to slay and eat the cattle of the sun god.
Odysseus had to fight 3 monsters on his way to the Sun God. He had to fight the Charybidis, which is a giant whirlpool. He has to fight the three-headed monster that killed six of his men. The last thing he had to fight was the lady merchants that led you to their island and killed you or you drowned on the way before you got there.
Then Odysseus got to the land of the Sun God and he told his men that if they slayed and ate the cattle that the sun god owned their families would be cursed. Then when he goes to sleep they eat the cattle because they haven't eaten for a very long time.
The reason that I recommend this book is because it's a fun book for all ages and it is a pretty fast read. Another reason I recommend this book is because it's a fast paced historic fiction story. The last reason I recommend this book is because if you've read the other Mary Pope Osborn books, like the Magic Tree House books, you'll love it.

I use this book for an ESL English class. It's much more comprehensible than reading the poetic version. The kids seem to enjoy it, where I think they would be lost with the poetic translation in our textbook. All of the students in this class are low level English speakers, so this gives them something interesting to read without a huge comprehension challenge.

We read all these books in the series together as a family. This one was our favorite. My boys couldn't wait for bedtime so they could hear what would happen next in the story. These books offer enough action to keep one's interest, young and old. I recommend all the books in the series. We can't wait for #6!

"Skywatchers, Shamans & Kings: Astronomy and the Archaeology of Power" - A cross-cultural comparative analysis of the evolving relationship between cosmovision and state power from the ancient world until the present.

A cross-cultural comparative analysis assembled out of archaeological sites the author has visited, "Skywatchers, Shamans & Kings" uses an entertaining anecdotal writing style to teach a few basics of astronomy without being didactic. Skywatchers, Shamans & Kings have shaped civilization from the very beginning, and their story paints a provocative portrait of humanity. The sky our ancient ancestors saw has influenced the establishment and alignment of monuments and whole cities, authorized wars, sanctified empires, and solidified society. Ancient astronomers were responsible for knowledge so valuable their services have been commissioned by Emperors & Kings in every epoch of history and on every continent of the earth.

"Skywatchers, Shamans & Kings'" focus is primarily on the world of the ancients however, parallels between ancient and contemporary cultures are emphasized throughout. Modern society is in mourning over the loss of wholeness that "The Center of the World" had once given us, 'what "cosmovisions" can guide us across this wilderness of contemporary affairs?' Secularization was meant to temper influence and limit power yet, news headlines tell us of theocratic agendas still accountable for political unrest the world over. Even thousands of years later, increased globalization and current events demonstrate that we continue to confront issues raised by power from the skies.

Skywatchers - Ideological reactions to the sky are from perceptions made through a physiological and earth-bound frame of reference.

Shamans - Human cultures evolve ideological explanations of the physical universe to create social cohesion.

& Kings - Power from the sky authorizes social control. Contemporary people are haunted as deeply by their myth-bound minds as the ideologies of the ancients were haunted by their earth-bound view of the sky.

"Skywatchers, Shamans & Kings" investigates the cultural evolution of societies from the end of the last Ice Age, through the end of the Second World War, ultimately arriving at the global conflicts of today. Edwin Krupp's intimate knowledge of more than 1,700 ancient sites worldwide, guides a journey of discovery leading from our most ancient ancestors to our future selves. An eclectic romp through history with all its ideological forces laid bare, "Skywatchers, Shamans & Kings" is history shown through the lens of archaeoastronomy, but it may as well be a biography of humanity's confrontation with consciousness where, the sky plays the recurring main character. From the Venus warfare of the ancient Maya, to the fate of modern political states, "Skywatchers, Shamans & Kings" is a thorough and rational interdisciplinary analysis, with an optimistic message for our future.

Skywatchers, Shamans & Kings finally dusted down again by Edwin C. Krupp ! Ancient Skywatchers are taken for serious again, by someone who is able to follow the rythm of the celestial bodies down to their oldest paths -- Shamans disappeared into the shadows of history, revisited today and listened to - and Kings emerging to have their importance and message understood. Krupp blows the dust off knowledge that has been pushed aside by technology and laughed at by modern man, who took old wisdom for superstition. And who forgot to look up at the sky and note down its numbers and ways. Krupp is very able to fresh-up our view and draw our attention again to matters that will always form an important part of our daily life and our year-around existence. - Miss Leon (A.M.) Kloezeman
Friday 21 september 2001

The title of my review is the subtitle to E.C. Krupp's book, 'Skywatchers, Shamans, and Kings'. This serves to illustrate the point that in many civilisations, the roles of priests, scholars, scientist/researcher, astronomer/astrologer, and healer were often mixed, and generally closely related to the centre of power.

Even today, the fact that the Queen of England appoints bishops who (many of them) also sit in the legislative body, is demonstrative of the hold-over that this kind of power has been through history.

Drawing from the archaeological, historical and literary records of many old civilisations, Krupp's text goes from China (where early dynasties invested heavily in astronomical observation) to the Mayan Empire (where likewise whole towns were devoted to the maintenance of a priesthood that in turn maintained a calendar). These in addition to the Hopi and other Native Americans, African tribes, Pacific islanders and other cultures have found astronomical observation necessary for the proper interpretation of signs, too, and thus the astronomers become shamans and wield power.

Krupp discusses the sociology and politics of power alongside the scientific and archaeological data he presents. In his chapter 'Plugging Into Power', for instance, he goes into a linguistic analysis of the word `power' and talks about the pitfalls of those who exercise power and authority while also discussing the ceremonial rites and attributes of artifacts of particular cultures.

'No less an authority than the Smithsonian Institution asserts...that the most powerful person in each village of the Yupik Eskimos of southwest Alaska was the shaman. Like all shamans, he moved between this world and the spirit world to cure illness and influence the weather. He persuaded the sea mammals, the fish, and the game birds to return in their proper seasons, and he mobilised the ceremonial life of the community. Yupik communities were small. They relied almost exclusively on hunting, and most of the time each family operated independently. The shaman was their contact with the spirits and the one most familiar with the requirements. To deal with spirits, he had to go to their neighbourhoods, and that meant knowing how the universe was organised.'

Of course, in more developed societies, the shaman becomes the priest, who begins to take on prerogatives of power, particularly when there is a leader who can be easily influenced by religious ideas.

'Power to modify the behaviour of the king, no matter how well it may be contained, retains the risk of exploitation,' Krupp writes in the chapter entitled Enlightened Self-Interest and Ulterior Motives. However, often as not, shamans and priests were agents of renewal, rebirth, managers of the life cycles of the communities, and healing powers (particularly important in times without mechanical clocks, calendars, or modern medicine).

This book is a very interesting discussion of world cultures from a perspective often overlooked by historians generally, and Western historians particularly. It has a great bibliography for those inclined to further research.

I was expecting more of a philosophical and historical treatise, building on the idea that shamans (priests, etc. . .) used the sky to enhance their influence on ordinary people. While that idea is stated, it is not really proven. It is, however, supported by amazing anecdotal descriptions of ancient societies and their relationship to the sky.

There is no great reasoning or logic here, but there is a great collection of related observations.

This book was a pleasant surprise. It is large, so it makes a good lap book for reading aloud. The stories are similar to Grimm's. They are a refreshing break from today's "everybody is okay" line of fairy tales. These stories are short and pack a moral wallop - the good characters have all the typical traits of honesty and hard-work and in the end they are rewarded. The bad characters are greedy and cruel and in the end are duly punished. Each story is illustrated.

My only complaint is that while the first 2/3 of the book is nicely laid out - written in English with pictures on almost every page - the last 1/3 of the book is in Slovak with no pictures. It would have been better to have split text where English is on one half of the page and Slovak is on the other side (like old Bibles written in two languages)

Slovak Tales for Young and Old; Pavol Dobsinsky in English and Slovak, is a marvelous book..It is filled with wonderful folk tales. The illustrations are very nice too. I would recommend this book for children of all ages and especially for anyone with Slovak heritage..It is well worth the price...and brought many childhood memories back to me...

I'm slovak and I really enjoyed the original text included in this book. The tales are really for grown-ups too, because they are teaching us that the simplest things in life sometimes are the best ones.
A jump into the Slovak popolar culture with some magnificent illustrations.

Slovak Tales For Young And Old: Pavol Dobsinksy In English And Slovak is an engaging collection of tales derived from classic Slovakian literature, and imbued with tradition. Smoothly translated by Lucy Bednar into English for readers of all ages to enjoy, and featuring impressive illustrations by Martin Benka which enhance these colorful and vivacious fables and folklore, Slovak Tales For Young And Old is a welcome and much appreciated contribution to family, school, and community library Folklore, Fairytale & Mythology collections.

I've been looking for this book for a couple of years. Borrowed one from a friend and been wanting one since then. Accurately depicts the lives of Western North Carolina's mountain people as told through the eyes of one. Visited the actual area and impressed by their way of life.

I first became aware of Dellie Norton because of the movie "Songcatcher" (available on Amazon). A friend suggested I see it. I really liked the music, and something seemed really familiar about it. Then, I heard my aunt talking about it being based on real life people and I start doing some research.

Back in the early part of the 20th century, an English music researcher and lecturer named Cecil Sharp traveled to the U.S. to track down old songs. He got more songs in Madison county than any other place in the country. Songcatcher is loosely based on those events. It was while I was researching that I happened across some articles about Rob Amberg, and I went looking for his book.

When I first ran across the Sodom Laurel Album, I ended up buying copies for all my close family members and friends. Like the other 2 reviewers, Debra and David, I am related to most of the people in the book and on the CD. In fact, my own father, Warren, was born right down the road from Dellie's house.

After reading their words and studying the pictures, I have an even greater respect for my kin than before, and I can't help but feel that we've really lost something important from our lives. Not just my family, but our entire nation.

If you want a really good look at the way life was for most of the nation less than a hundred years ago, the stark images of Rob Amberg have really captured it.

For even more detail about mountain life, you may want to read a couple of books by Sheila Kay Adams (she is in Sodom Laurel Album): Come Go With Me and My Old True Love. They are based on life in and around Sodom (Revere) and are available from Amazon.

Sheila also carries on Dellie's legacy; she is a traditional ballad singer (she was taught by Dellie Norton) and sells CDs on her web site, and performs in festivals around the country. Details on the web since Amazon doesn't seem to carry her CDs.

I received this book as a Christmas gift and have loved every page. The stories and the photographs are great. I believe that anyone who is fascinated with mountain living as I am will love this book.

I'm David Norton Junior is my uncle. This is a great book if your intrested in the way we live in the mountains you should get this book full of great photos of my uncle and aunt Dellie and one great picture of my grandpa Willard.

I highly enjoy using this deck. The images are well drawn and have an excellent masculine trait to them. I think this deck will be an excellent tool for readings and getting to know yourself, your divine, self on greater levels and will certainly be an eye opener for many who one does readings for.

I've been waiting for this set to be published many years. The wait was well worth it!!

First off the presentation is excellent. A long colourful and gorgeous box that has a ribbon opener and a magnetic closure holds the deck and very large book. What a great storage concept!

I had seen the online scans of each card, but they certainly didn't do the images and colours justice! I oohed and ahhed as I paged through the deck. Each card is just wonderful! The Gods, legends, folk hero's and the like presented here are extremely diverse. There are many of my favourites and quite a few very new to me! The Gods etc are very well lined up with each card and it's generally accepted meaning. This is a whole new world opening up to me!

The cardstock is very sturdy, a matte lamination and a vibrant red sun in the center of the backs....completely reversible. The cards are about average in size, to me just the right size!

The book is huge, extremely well-researched and written. The stories, legends and folktales are fascinating and fit right in with the meanings, which are very knowledgable and written beautifully. I am having the most wonderful time looking through the deck, having a card catch my eye then reading the story and meaning behind the name and image. They fit together wonderfully! This book is one of the best written, researched, in-depth and fascinating companion books for a deck I've ever read.

Buy this set, it's truly one of a kind. No other Tarot decks are devoted just to the masculine divine and legend. The cards and images are top-rate and the book is excellent absorbing reading. You're going to come away from spending time with this set incredibly richer in knowledge and wisdom!

I think it is absolutely unfair to judge a tarot deck based solely on whether or not you, the card reader, are intune with the energies of a specific deck. I am a man who happens to be very good at tarot. Now, I don't neccessarily like the Motherpeace Tarot, but I would never ever deny its prophetic or magickal relevance because that would be denying the feminine part of myself. In fact, I may even buy the Motherpeace Tarot deck as a companion deck to the Sol Invictus-- Why?-- Because I truly believe they would work together harmoniously to balance masculine and feminine energies in my life. Regardless, I think ANY male tarot enthusiast would really enjoy this deck and will probably use it more often than most of their other decks.

The Sol Invictus is also extremely effective in summoning, invoking and accessing the various energies of the Masculine Divine. The power of this tarot deck should not be taken lightly, and it definately needs to be respected. Both the masculine and feminine need to be respected because they are equally important and equally valid. In the Spirit Realm, the scale isn't tipped in either camps' favor, and there is a strict and important balance between the two. Maybe this deck can help you bring balance to the physical plane as well.

Very highly recommended!

Sol Invictus (The God Tarot) comes nicely packaged in a box with its companion book, in fact the packaging is more like what I would expect from a high quality board game in comparison to the boxes tarot decks are most often sold in recent years which seem to fall apart before you even open them! Likewise both the book and the cards are produced to a high quality and standard, which is always nice to see. What isn't so great is the price tag that comes with it - the RRP of this deck which is a whopping £49.95 on Amazon.co.uk! (Though to be fair it can be gotten for less through marketplace, Amazon.com or directly from the publishers, Bushwood Books). Personally I would have liked to see this deck at a price which can compete with other decks currently aimed at the "pagan" market, as the price certainly limits its appeal.

The artwork by Nic Phillips reminds me a bit of Chesca Potter's artwork, especially that of the Greenwood Tarot (which is so rare and desirable now that it exchanges hands for more than £300!), though Nic's style is definetely more naive than Chesca's. I like the simple red solar design on white which backs the cards, as I found it to be a focus point, rather than a distraction (which some of the busier designs which are sometimes used on the back of tarot / oracle cards sometimes do!) when doing readings.

For me the strength of the deck is in the fact that it focusses entirely on the masculine divine, though like another review published here on Avalonia of this deck, I feel that the inclusion of heroic (And otherwise famous) men from history at times lets the deck down - I expected to see a deck entirely dedicated to male deities. Maybe this is my own selfish desires for such a deck though, as I often use one of the "Goddess Tarot" decks for group meditations, workshops and lectures to provide astral doorways or meditation foci for participants. I am quite partial to working with male deities and as such would have loved to be able to do the same with this deck, though to do so I would have to remove several of the cards to enable me to do so in the same way. However, what was nice to see was the inclusion of deities from a wider spectrum of pantheons than what one usually finds with modern pagan writings. The "Ace of Coins" presented Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec Sun God who was also the tutelary god of the Aztec nation - a god I have rarely heard reference to in modern pagan circles, but whom I am partial to on a personal level.

The companion book is great and the information on the figures used for the tarot deck is brilliantly researched and presented. In fact, I felt that by itself it would make a great little reference book. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I would love to see something like that from these authors in future as for me this was definitely one of the strong points of this project.

Personally I would probably not use this deck for divination, but then that is not a reflection on the quality of the design or production, simply a personal choice. I am set in my ways and prefer sticking to the Thoth Tarot which I know and love! This deck will however be joining a small selection of other cards which I do use to illustrate workshops, or as astral doorway (meditation journeys) etc. I hope that the artist may consider producing some larger prints of some of the images, especially of the major arcana as I think they would make excellent altar pieces, gifts (I am always stuck for interesting gifts for friends!) and would look lovely in a nice frame on my wall!

A great big well done on an ambitious project, which has come into fruition in this beautifully produced book and deck! Sol Invictus "The God Tarot" is a must have for any tarot collector and an interesting deck to use to explore the different manifestations of masculine energy and divinities, whilst learning a great deal about different world pantheons.