A homebrewed religion?

This is a rather heavy book which I only skimmed. I admit that this kind of stuff isn't *my* kind of stuff. But then, John Michael Greer probably wouldn't mind me saying that. This, after all, is *his* stuff, his homebrewed spiritual path. Somehow, I like the idea of a man who admits that he just created his own little “religion”, pardon the expression! Besides, it's not just his path anymore, since the small Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA) have adopted this material as its official curriculum. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that the current head of the AODA is…well, Greer himself.

Over a century ago, Irish writer W B Yeats and some associates attempted to create a Celtic version of the Golden Dawn, the British esoteric order with which they were affiliated. The project was abandoned at the time of World War I. Thus, “Celtic Golden Dawn” is not Yeats' project, nor an attempt to reconstruct it. However, it is freely inspired by it, being a hybrid version of Golden Dawn's system and the so-called Druid Revival (a modern attempt to resurrect or restate ancient Druid wisdom).

Written in the form of a long lost document from a secret society, “Celtic Golden Dawn” contains virtually no references from before 1930. It's not always clear whether Greer really believes in the somewhat peculiar contents of the faux document: plant alchemy, sacred geometry, correlations between geomancy and the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the secret of invisibility or the magic of shape shifting. The “document” also contains lengthy descriptions of rituals involving the inevitable pentagrams. Since the system is Celtic, the initiate into the three grades of Ovate, Bard and Druid better hone his Welsh pronunciation, since you need to “vibrate” words like Llawenydd, Gwyn, Tristwch or Llosgwin y Ddraig. I strongly suspect that Greer's Cymric pronunciation might be a bit Anglicized, though. At one point, Greer calls his book a “lusus serius” or serious joke!

But yes, after reading Greer's other books and his magical blog “The Well of Galabes”, I would argue that he really does believe in the efficacy of the occult techniques described in this volume, or at least most of them. The fact that it's the official training program of AODA also speaks in its favor, although I can't vouch for its promises of invisibility or shape shifting…

Of course, I just had to sneak peek at the last chapter and discovered that JMG's Celtic-GD hybrid doesn't go all the way. The material stops at the lowest level of Gwynfydd (the spiritual world), known as Muner. If you wish to go higher, you have to find your own path, with some aid from magical beings. Nobody can reach the highest level, Ceugant, which belongs to God or the Divine alone. However, my astral fifth sense tells me that the author is already preparing a sequel, so stay tuned for more secrets to be revealed in the near future.

And yes, this review is offered in the same spirit as the book itself… ;-)