Pagan Portals
Gods & Goddesses of England
Publication 30th June 2023
978-1-78904-662-5
Rachel Patterson unearths and shines light on England’s ancient gods and goddesses — many of whom, until now, had long since been forgotten. Based on archaeological finds and ancient manuscripts, and including information about the tribes that once made their home in England's pleasant lands, this book shall serve as a guide to the gods and goddesses of England, with suggested ways to work and connect with these very special deities.
Reviews:
5 out of 5
This is an amazing resource. If you’re looking to learn more about the deities from this part of the world or looking to deepen your connection, you’ll find this to be incredibly helpful. I greatly appreciated the opening section – where Patterson breaks down The British Isles, the countries they contain, the history of the Isles, and other various histories involving the people living there in ancient times. We then move on to the gods/goddesses, organized alphabetically. Some have longer entries than others, but Patterson does admit there was less information to be found on some than others, so this wasn’t a big surprise. I did learn about deities I’d never heard of and learned some new things about ones I was already familiar with. I think my favorite section was “Meet the Deities” where Patterson shares some of her rituals/meditations/symbols/recipes for a few of the deities. I’ll be trying some of the recipes, and I love the idea of connecting to a god/goddess through more than just ritual and meditation but through food too. Cannot recommend enough!
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Great to have a book written with information about English deity's. As always Rachel's friendly down to earth style of sharing information, makes the subject matter interesting, and with the meditations and recipes, I felt I could incorporate aspects of their history into my modern practice.
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Another fantastic book by Rachel Patterson. Pagan Portals Gods and Goddesses of England is extremely well written and very informative. A huge amount of research has gone into writing this book and all written in Rachel’s friendly down to earth style. It covers everything from a timeline of ancient Britons, information on various deities and different ways of connecting with some of the deities which includes correspondences, meditations, rituals and recipes from the area that the deity hails from. At the back of the book is a list of books and websites for further reading. I recommend this book for any pagan who is interested in finding out about ancient English deities.
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I was looking forward to the release of this book as I know how passionate Rachel is about where she was born and grew up - England and it’s vast history and known and not so well known deities. The book starts with English history where Rachel has put a huge amount of work into her research and then follows the many Gods and Goddesses that were worshipped and honoured by our ancestors. It pinpoints areas that evidence was found of each deity, which is helpful should you wish to delve further.
Rachel, being a Pagan and a Witch - and a good one at that - includes ways that you can connect with these Gods and Goddesses - should you wish to - along with rituals, meditations, correspondences - and no Rachel Patterson book would be complete without a recipe or two. Not just any recipe though - wonderful traditional recipes from parts of England that started out in the kitchens of our ancestors and passed down to many generations.
I love the idea of being able to replicate something that my grandmother baked or cooked that was perhaps handed down by her grandmother and hers before her… fabulous!
This book is informative, interesting and gives this English witch plenty of reading material to have a go at working with an ancient English deity herself.
5 well deserved stars!
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