Pagan Spirituality: A Guide to Personal Transformation

The Higginbotham's have done it again. Only 4 stars because it wasn't QUITE as good as their first book, "Paganism, an Introduction to Earth Based Religions" which was a fantastic Paganism 101 book and in MY eye, the BEST Paganism 101 book on the market. This book is so much more. If you're looking for intermediate level book, look elsewhere. This is ADVANCED Paganism- we're talking Paganism 301 level here. The 101 level is about learning the Craft, the 201 level is about furthering the Craft and the skills you've developed. The 301 Level is about going deeper than the just the Craft and into understanding of Paganism's broader scope and how it fits in the world about you. Here you stumble over ethics, you start to explore your responsiblity to your religion and how it fits in the world, and so on. The book is readable but with exercises and journaling included that makes it a workbook in a sense, so if you are looking for something simply to read, but not experience, again, go elsewhere. This book works to expand your concepts of your role in the Universe, your role in Your Religion, and determine YOUR meaning to them. It has sound metaphysical principles about it and talks in depth about the progression of spiritual developement, including the concept of the "Dark Night of the Soul" that is an actual process of a crisis of Faith that ANY religious practicioner goes through. It talks about stages of spiritual development and takes a look at ethics and why they are what they are. If you're new to Paganism, avoid this book because you're not here yet. If you're an ADVANCED practicioner and someone looking to understand your role as an Elder/Mentor and how to find the meanings to pass on to your students, the insight gained from this book is REQUIRED. And again, this is coming from a Priest of a local Coven who has been practicing since I was in [...]

Did you know that there are different levels of spiritual development? I didn't until I read this book. The initial chapters of this book explore the theories of Ken Wilber, a spirituality psychologist. His ideas are related to Pagan spiritual development in a way that the non-scientist can understand. The authors explain how a person progresses from infant to young adult and beyond the young adult stage into stages of more wisdom and self-reflection. The authors liken one's spiritual growth to the changes one goes through when going from helpless infant to someone who can run marathons. In all there are nine developmental "spaces" and four different quadrants that readily conform to a Pagan world outlook. Joyce and River take the reader on a tour through each space and each quadrant with exercises, meditations and other activities. The book is set up as a teaching guide, and would work best for a group situation, although the authors do include notes on how to make the contents work if you happen to be solitary, which a great many Pagans are. Each chapter of the book is beautifully designed to make navigating through the book as easy as possible. Each chapter has section headings such as Questions to discuss, Exercise, My Journal, or Visualization. At the beginning of the book the reader is encouraged to create a spiritual progress map listing things that he or she wishes to accomplish in the coming year. The following chapters build on this map by returning to it and checking on progress toward the goals set forth in it. Each chapter builds on the lessons learned from the ones previous. Chapters focus on different aspects of growth, both of the individual self and the way in which that individual interacts with the greater Pagan community, the mundane world and beyond to the spirit world. Chapter titles show what the reader can expect to find with such descriptions as Growth and Magick from the front end of the book to Energy Work from the back end of the book. This book would be most useful to a shop that gives classes or a coven leader working with beginners that have progressed beyond the basic Wicca 101 level. It would also be a perfect workbook for a group of new seekers that are forming their own study group. Pagan Spirituality builds on the lessons and explanations found in the authors' first book, Paganism, and the authors suggest reviewing their previous work before tackling the projects of this one. I haven't read their first book, but on the basis of my reading of this one, I will at some point. The only down side of the book for me was the repetitiveness of the various visualizations, but since each one builds on the last, I understand the reasoning behind the repetitions. If the reader were using the book as a lesson plan meant to encompass a year's study, this slight flaw most likely would become an attribute instead. This is a book I definitely recommend to anyone wishing to deepen their connection to the spiritual side of

To anyone reading this, just like the guy a few reviews below, my book was falling apart, too, and I got mine from Barnes and Noble.

Jouce & River Higginbotham's PAGAN SPIRITUALITY: A GUIDE TO PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION explores how Pagan spirituality relates to modern culture, presenting exercises to encourage readers to foster magickal skills and spiritual growth through journaling, visualization and meditation. Questions to discuss, exercises, and periodic plan analysis blend with divination and the art of receiving and understanding information from spiritual pursuits.