Sacred Paths for Modern Men by Dagonet Dewr

Reviewed by Steel
 
Sacred Paths for Modern Men is a book about the pagan man and his roles in both magickal and mundane life.  It begins with the premise that we as men have lost our connection to the true, sacred nature of manhood and instead replaced it with toxic, faux-manly images ripped from beer commercials and Jackass.  From there, the author provides us with twelve archetypes to work with in reclaiming our masculine nature.

The archetypes (The "Sacred Paths" from the book's title) are the real meat of this book.  From the Green Man to the Magician, the Lover to the Warrior, these are archetypes we can all relate to.  The author explores these archetypes with tales of deities, anecdotes from his own life, and a Babylon 5 quote or three.  Each archetype chapter comes with a personal magickal working, a group ritual for a circle of male pagans, and follow-up questions which encourage us to examine our own lives to help us realize our masculine nature.

I found this book to be very powerful and moving.  It brought tears to my eyes several times throughout my rereading last night.  It is an amazing book that merges pagan faith with the ideals of the men's spirituality movement.  If you are a man, you owe it to yourself to check this book out.  I'm sure it would be an interesting read for a woman as well, but I hesitate to recommend it with the same urgency.

Steel's Bio:
I am a solitary practicioner living on the west coast of sunny Florida.  I am still building my own eclectic mix, working from Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft as a base.  I'm just a guy who likes the colors black and silver, dislikes zinfandels, and has a deep and abiding love for cheeses which drew me down this path.  (Nine out of ten sages believe the moon is made of green cheese)

Comments

[djinni]

So far this is the only good/interesting thing I have pulled from this site. Kudos for telling me to get this book. I am getting it for my boyfriend. It is something I think he will greatly enjoy even though he is not entirely a witch.