Inspiring, uplifting, and beautiful. Great for christians and wiccans alike.... ( )

This book was used in a church book group and the discussion was deep and relevant to today's world. The book is wise beyond its years. This particular study group has members who have visited Scottland and Ireland for further study and life reflection. ( )

Stunning ( )

This was one of the hardest star ratings I have ever given a book, I am not sure why, I think because rating the contents of the book somehow felt like cheapening them. I gave it three in the end, because although I am glad I read it, and some parts have stuck with me, it wasn't as interesting, nor as magical in its prose, as I had hoped.

Although it was a short book, with short chapters, it still felt difficult to push through it. I liked the chapter structure, following the Celtic theme of life's circularity but I think I would have enjoyed the book a lot more if it had gone into more detail, and introduced more Celtic mythology - of which there seemed to be relatively little, in comparison to the author's personal 'wisdom' - which I think made up far more of the book. Celtic wisdom and mythology was a topic I was looking forward to learning about, but after having read this I don't feel as enlightened as I thought I might.

I liked the etymological explanations, the bits of Irish history when they arose, and the poetry scattered in the pages. There certainly was some nice tidbits of wisdom in the pages, various perspectives on life/death/friendship/love. I feel the attempt to marry Christian and Celtic teachings together as though they existed happily together in peace throughout all of history was a bit insincere and almost whitewashing the reality of Pagan-Christian relations. I am not sure of the author's personal religious leanings, but Christianity has a long history of adopting pagan myths/symbols and christening them as their own. ( )

I enjoyed hearing O'Donohue's thoughts in audio form, as a bit of a lecture. The structure is different from the later Kindle and print version of the content, but it's pretty similar. In particular, O'Donohue's stories and his descriptions of time and of death from the Celtic perspective were highlights. ( )