I own the other two encyclopedias and after checking this one from the library, I think I'd like this one, too. If anything, it's a good inspiration source for me (I often draw from mythology when creating jewelry) and a good source for when I do sacred commissions in honor of Deities I don't personally work with.
It's definitely good for Deities you've never worked with: she deals with a really eclectic pantheon(s) in the book. Also, "manifestations" are on almost all the entries. :^)
• The true identities of over one thousand spirits (as well as their likes and dislikes) = OK!Cupid for deities!
Sorry. I like your analysis of the book though, and now I'm intrigued, especially by your mention of the potential 'laziness' of worshipping a general God and Goddess without respect for more specific deities. I tend to fall into this pattern because somehow I wound up with a long unsorted conglomeration of Catholic, Taoist, and Pagan ideas and traditions without taking a close look at what I'm really doing. Time to do a bit of spiritual cleanup along with the mental I think...
Don't be sorry, I snickered at that myself. To be fair, it does do exactly that (there are Gods that dislike smoke and Gods that enjoy it and so on) but there HAS to be a better way it can be phrased.
I'm kind of lucky that my God and Goddess started out named ( Diana (of the Etruscans and of Ephesus, not the "interchangeable with Artemis" nonsense) and Herne), for many, They do not. I came to appreciate the named Gods thing when I saw too many incorporate aspects of a specific deity or deity (say, a Goddess of the moon) to ALL deities (in that case, it was Freya). In fairness, like I said, I think you can respectfully worship all forms of the Goddess (see The Charge of the Goddess, although some versions of that contain a reference to mixing the attributes of a specific Deity, Cerridwen) and the God. It's just when people sort of silt between polytheism and duality and go with whatever's convenient and in the process disrespect the Gods (and technically, by proxy, Their worshipers
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Ah, Starhawk (my first introduction) <3 :) Case in point, to my influences... as I read The Charge of the Goddess, parts of it evoked The Nicene Creed in my mind. I do love chants... Hmm. Convenient cherrypicking and disrespecting individual traditions is certainly a familiar problem to a Catholic who has taken a long hard look at their religion! Proper respect for the Divine and Their worshipers, in conjunction with "if it works for you" seems to be the way to go.
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• The true identities of over one thousand spirits (as well as their likes and dislikes) = OK!Cupid for deities!
Sorry. I like your analysis of the book though, and now I'm intrigued, especially by your mention of the potential 'laziness' of worshipping a general God and Goddess without respect for more specific deities. I tend to fall into this pattern because somehow I wound up with a long unsorted conglomeration of Catholic, Taoist, and Pagan ideas and traditions without taking a close look at what I'm really doing. Time to do a bit of spiritual cleanup along with the mental I think...
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I'm kind of lucky that my God and Goddess started out named ( Diana (of the Etruscans and of Ephesus, not the "interchangeable with Artemis" nonsense) and Herne), for many, They do not. I came to appreciate the named Gods thing when I saw too many incorporate aspects of a specific deity or deity (say, a Goddess of the moon) to ALL deities (in that case, it was Freya). In fairness, like I said, I think you can respectfully worship all forms of the Goddess (see The Charge of the Goddess, although some versions of that contain a reference to mixing the attributes of a specific Deity, Cerridwen) and the God. It's just when people sort of silt between polytheism and duality and go with whatever's convenient and in the process disrespect the Gods (and technically, by proxy, Their worshipers ( ... )
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