Rating: 
Summary: Francesca is a poet, a shaman, and a wonderful teacher!
Review: A little over four years ago, I worked through the 15 weeks of lessons in Francesca's first book, Be a Goddess: A Guide to Celtic Spells and Wisdom for Self-Healing, Prosperity, and Great Sex, and found, to my great surprise and pleasure, that these lessons were fun, inspiring, and, most of all, life-transforming. The psychology was sound, the spirituality was amazing, and the teacher was warm and caring. With the very positive experience I had working through Be a Goddess, I was very excited when Goddess Initiation was released. Designed to take a little more than a year to work through, Goddess Initiation has even more to offer than its predecessor. I didn't think that was possible! Goddess Initiation is essentially a workbook to help you gain personal insights, remove your inner blocks to joy and healthy sexuality, and discover your own creative passion for living. A shamanic method of self-empowerment and spiritual growth, the tools in this book are valuable regardless of your gender, sexual preference, or cultural or religious background. Francesca says, "Mine is an interfaith Goddess, who is perfectly happy helping all people regardless of their religious beliefs or lack thereof." Francesca is warm, intuitive, and truly magical! As someone who has not only worked through her books but has also worked extensively with her in person, I can tell you that the work she presents in her books is a result of many, many years of dedication to the Old Gods and to helping her students, her readers, and anyone else who comes into her sphere of influence to develop their innate talents, spiritual growth, and healthy self-esteem.
Rating:
Summary: This is the REAL thing!
Review: After working through the year long training in this book, I have found myself less stressed out, more focused, and more in charge of my own life. There are a lot of meditation books out there, but this book is different in that it promotes practical rituals and meditations that don't require a lot of accoutrements to get the job done. Francesca speaks to the heart and makes spirituality accessible. You won't find lists of boring facts in this book. It is not a reference work, but a true training in the Craft.
I recommend it highly and with total enthusiasm for the dedicated Seeker. It is not your average "teen witch" book. There is deep healing here, and the author focuses on what really counts. Very readable and very do-able.
Rating:
Summary: This is the REAL thing!
Review: After working through the year long training in this book, I have found myself less stressed out, more focused, and more in charge of my own life. There are a lot of meditation books out there, but this book is different in that it promotes practical rituals and meditations that don't require a lot of accoutrements to get the job done. Francesca speaks to the heart and makes spirituality accessible. You won't find lists of boring facts in this book. It is not a reference work, but a true training in the Craft.
I recommend it highly and with total enthusiasm for the dedicated Seeker. It is not your average "teen witch" book. There is deep healing here, and the author focuses on what really counts. Very readable and very do-able.
Rating: 
Summary: Such a disappointment
Review: Francesca does it again--makes the goddess accessible to all, includes simple yet powerful rituals, and passes on knowledge in a beautiful, practical, and easy to grasp manner. There is wisdom to be gained from every page in this book. And it is easy to take in as Francesca presents "real life" examples from her practice so we can all relate to the material, plus lots of humor to help us along the way. Whether you are new to wicca/paganism or want to study a new tradition, this book really does have something for everyone. Lots of information and instruction, and lots of stories, too.
What I love best are the rituals. Francesca knows, and manages to get through to her readers and students, that there is magic in the everyday. Her rituals reflect that--you won't need lots of props like some other books, but there is definite magic going on. They are simple to follow, but also elegant, profound, and enriching. They help us see the goddess in everything, including ourselves. This is a wonderful book!
Rating: 
Summary: Not Celtic per se, but VERY VERY good.
Review: I am a Celtic Reconstructionist, but please don't stop reading. I was once a Witch and Goddesss person and do NOT begrudge ANYONE their take on God. As I said above, her book is still very high quality. In fact, if you are tempted to buy some Llewellyn published bull instead--DO NOT. Buy this. It is heads, shoulders and several floors above anything out there on Craft. Let me start with the critique of her Celtic claims (you will be rewarded if you read through it to the other stuff) Francesca has elements of the ancient Druidic philosophies in her book--it appears in her take on paradoxes, and other subtle understandings of the spirit. But she IS a Wiccan, maybe a Celtic focused Wiccan, but Wiccan nonetheless--with Buddhist overtones. It is NOT Celtic/Druidic to divide the Gods up into a Goddess and God. It is coming to light that the Celts probably didn't believe in personifying the spirit world--i.e. they probably did not take the Gods and Goddesses in their mythology as literal fact only representations of Truth. She may claim to be Celtic, but she is not by strict definition of the word. Reconstructionists try to reconstruct the Druidic/Celtic faith through researching their history and mythology. When they make something up, or just feel that the Celts might have said, done or believed something they show you the evidence as to why they make that assumption and tell you that they are making an assumption. None of their research is based on Magaret Murray or any of the other "history" that has been proven to be wishful imaginary musings. They do not assume that because the Celts took the "best" beliefs from everyone they conqured or married and because they believed in the power of the Imagination--through spells, song, story etc, that that gives us permission to make everything up as we go and call ourselves Celtic. (This is a common Neo-pagan/Wiccan excuse for a spiritual free-for-all. I don't think de Grandis does this. I think she is honest and makes no excuses.) Now to continue. Why, you might ask, did I buy this book anyway? Because she has put down in written form what I had to do from scratch for myself. I wanted to see her approach. (You see, I became a Witch coming upon 13 years ago when there were only 3 books on the market and I wanted to use the Craft the way Starhawk seemed to promote it to be used for: making myself a functional, peaceful, non-neurotic adult.) Her approach to magick and ritual is exactly how I approached it and still do. I am 33 years old and have just come through 13 years of the exact type of initiation that de Grandis speaks about in her book. I used spells and ritual to get what I needed done--just like she advocates. I, in fact, went through several years of loss of faith as an athiest as part of this initiation road. I NOW concider myself a 1st degree, no longer a novice and initiate for any spiritual tradition. BUT THAT's IT. AFTER 13 years! So, I'm saying her approach works! I have yet to do it, but... it works. I hope I'm making sense. Off topic for new seekers for a sec: [JUST A note to all you people interested in Wicca and want to get all your degrees and stuff. Keep the above fact in mind when getting your degree and especially when getting involved in groups and/or finding a teacher. It takes YEARS of rigerous personal growth and years of hard work to be able to get a meaningful degree. I have just been through the internal-personal training, I have just recently started on the stuff that is required of a 2nd or 3rd degree Witch or neo-pagan, which is public ritual, dealing with the public, spiritual counceling and teaching.] So, in the end, I would highly recommend both of de Grandis's books. They teach you how to be a REAL Neo-pagan, Witch, shaman...whatever. There is REAL, HONEST spiritual depth here unlike in any book I've read on the subject since Starhawk's Spiral Dance--believe me I've read a lot. If you are looking into Celtic spiritual tradition Jean Markale's books are superb as well as Alexei Kondreitiev (sp) his book is called _Apple Branch_ and Erynn Laurie's (sp) book about building a Celtic Rosary.
Rating:
Summary: Three reviews in one
Review: I am an initiate of Francesca's Third Road Tradition and I offer three separate and equally valuable reviews of her new book. A Standard Review: Goddess Initiation (hereafter GI) by Francesca De Grandis is a year-long course of self-empowerment culminating in an initiation into the Third Road tradition of witchcraft. GI is unusual in Wiccan literature in that one's first impression on reading it is that it is simply a self-help book. You won't find endless lists of candle color correspondences, Wiccan tools (athames, pentacles, etc.), and sabbats. What you will find is a rigorous training program in how to embody magic in a mundane world. Based on the oral tradition that she has taught for many years, GI largely consists of chapters which each contain one month's worth of lectures, assignments and rituals and which culminate in a self-initiation ceremony at the end of one year's work. GI also includes three introductory chapters, a post-initiation chapter (titled "So what if you're an initiate? Go wash your dishes and call your mother") and a couple of appendices pointing you to further resources. Francesca's lectures provide the intellectual framework for increasing your psychic abilities. She includes frequent examples which are usually made up to protect her client's identities but which accurately reflect her many years of experience as a professional shamanic counselor and teacher. She is quite clear and precise in her discourse. Her assignments are often shockingly simple (month one includes finding a notebook which will become your Book of Shadows), but equally often quite profound in what they reveal to yourself about yourself. For instance, when I received the notebook assignment in the oral training I bought a gray three-ring binder containing recycled paper. I wanted to be invisible and simply observe in those early classes since becoming a witch was a frightening thing to me as a Presbyterian Elder. I wanted to able to remove and rearrange pages if needed. And, finally, I wanted to be as eco-friendly as I could to honor our Mother. All of those things were brought to consciousness for me when I did that assignment. The rituals are beautiful, and, personally, I would buy the book simply to get her circle-casting which she titles "The Mother's Cloak: A Circle of Protection and Love" I have seen her use this lovely casting in public rituals, but she has not, in general, passed it on to her students. This casting should be of particular interest to Neo-pagans in general since it completely avoids the "Oh, mighty foo of the East" directional invocations which is a beautiful but confining legacy of ceremonial magic. The book only hit the bookshelves two weeks ago, and so clearly I have not applied this program to my life as it was designed to be done: over the course of an entire year. Nevertheless, I was trained in the oral tradition for over two years and then initiated, and I can vouchsafe that all of the essential material is there in this book. I can tell that if you follow this course diligently that you will experience profound and wonderful changes in your life, and that these changes will be accomplished safely and effectively. This book is a profound gateway into Faerie. A Personal Review: Darn it, here I spent two years and well over a (dollar amount) (it's even more expensive to study with her now) learning the Third Road Tradition, and now she's GIVING it all away for a mere (dollar amount). Well, actually I don't begrudge the time or expense at all because it was a lot of fun, and we got to friends, and I got to tease and mock her frequently (which is a sacred thing to do to each other in our Trad). My first reaction to GI (which I'd think any of the oral trad students might have) was to pick out everything that is "missing" in the book. Francesca's intention in GI is to move the written Tradition away from the trappings of Feri Tradition. You won't find Hawaiian magic and psychic anatomy, the Guardians, most of the Gods and Goddesses (though, strangely, Ana and Arddu make an appearance near the end) or the Circle Script. For those of you outside of the tradition you CAN find virtually all of these things on the Internet, but I wouldn't recommend it. The training is FAR more important than the trappings. And that's the thing. I think that she's really succeeded in putting the training into book form. There are moments when the poetry of Faerie speaks through her words on the pages, and …bzzzap… you are there. I, for one, am looking forward to working with all the initiates this book produces. I know that that fact's true, because when I was nearing the end of the book I had a true Teletubby moment of "Again! Again!" Not that I wanted to reread the book immediately, but that I wanted to be in Francesca's class again. Taking notes. Writing poetry. Chatting at break. Sweeping the floor at the end. I am continually astonished by the beautiful things that Third Road initiates produce, and eagerly await the new black-cords that this book will produce. A Poetic Response: I am the Rhymer
At the crossroads of Being.
See that overgrown footpath:
That's the hard-scrabble road to Heaven.
And there, the broad avenue:
The well-paved road to Hell.
But twixt the two
Hidden in a smile:
There lays the road to Faerie.
This is the Third Road
The road that chooses you.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Book for Personal Growth
Review: I bought the author's other book, Be a Goddess! when it first came out, and found it amazingly helpful and a wonderful read. After 20-odd years on my path, I wasn't sure if it would have anything new for me, but it did - new ideas, and older ideas with a whole new twist. I gained a lot from that book, and shared it with friends whose lives were radically changed (for the better). I recently purchased Goddess Initiation, and wondered if there would be anything new in it for me after reading Be a Goddess! Again, I was presently surprised. The two books/systems complement each other beautifully, but they are two entirely different systems. As such, of course some aspects will repeat - as another reviewer pointed out, both go over creating a Book of Shadows, but even that is different in each book. I have read Goddess Initiation through, and am now starting the monthly exercises as set out in the book. I'm looking forward to the growth and experience I'm sure to experience. Thank you, Francesca, for another fabulous self-help book. Blessed Be!
Rating:
Summary: She Keeps Getting Better
Review: I loved "Be A Goddess." I keep it on the headboard of my bed. I could not imagine how De Grandis could possibly do a better book, but she has. "Goddess Initiation" is stunning yet practical. I am LOVING this book, and will be ordering copies for all my friends for Solstice (or at least those who have not already bought this great book!). In these hard times this book is a balm for the soul.
Rating:
Summary: Thorough, powerful, and wise
Review: Many traditions require a student to study for at least a year and a day before undergoing intitiation into the mysteries of the Goddess, but today many people have no access to an elder who can teach them. Thus, this book fills a much needed role. "Goddess Initiation" provides a thorough, powerful, and structured program of self-preparation for entry into the mysteries. As in her first book, De Grandis combines a playful writing style with a keen insight into the processes necessary for true spiritual growth. Her program is safe for the inexperienced seeker, yet has enough substance to be challenging and insightful even for those whose spiritual journey is well underway. Even if you're working with a teacher and will receive your initiation through your teacher's lineage, the wisdom of "Goddess Initiation" can help you along your way.
Rating:
Summary: A bit of a let-down
Review: The book is broken down into months, each of which then consists of 4 weeks of exercises. Exercises include medications, rituals, writing, etc. At the end of the book you reach the Initiation ceremony, with the theory that the months of work before have properly prepared you. In "Goddess Initiation," De Grandis manages to take the tone of a friend without oversimplifying the material or being condescending. Some of her prayers are pure poetry. I think De Grandis takes her teachings one step further (from "Be a Goddess!") in "Goddess Initiation," and it seems to require a more dedicated approach. I found this book at the bookstore by accident, but it was exactly what I needed. A clear, laid out plan for self improvement, wisdom and clarity with activities and explanations every week that anyone with just a little dedication can benefit from.
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