The Nine Muses
by Angeles Arrien
Tarcher/Putnam
Admittedly, I'm only about 10 pages in, but thus far this is just a load of psychobabble and horswaddle. Example:
"Derivation of the word muse...[snip]...The sound and the letters of MU or MOU, the basis for the word MUSE, relates to the CREATIVE MUCK or MU-CUS, for out of the SLIME and PRIMORDIAL WATERS or SOUP (with the O, U, and S of MOUS) came or arose the SOUNDS AND FORMS of all CREATION. From the MOUNDS or MOUNTAINS, from the Mother Earth herself, came the FLOWS and SWIRLING EDDIES OF LIFE ITSELF BORN ANEW. The waters and the earth are the FEMININE elements of the physical world, the sources of FLOWING RIVERS and LAVA STREAMS spewing forth from deep inside the planet."
Yeah, this really makes me think of spewing forth, all right.
I was discussing the book with
triadruid and we theorized that the reason why the book did not claim that the word MUSE comes from Atlantis is obviously because the magick crystal-using alien-communicating dolphins don't have the lip articulation to make the M sound.
I know many Reclaiming witches who would love this book as a Yule gift. Anything to get it off my shelf, really.
I'll admit, though, that the author truly seems to have tapped into a deep well of creativity. It's too bad she doesn't distinguish
between reality, authentic mythos, and her own personal gnosis.