For more than half a century, Pagan traditions in the West have primarily focused on the Goddess and her many incarnations. Women have found strength, courage, and self-empowerment by seeing the many forms of the Goddess as archetypes they can learn from and emulate. Certainly, with the previous centuries of focus on male deities, this has been balancing and important.
But the archetypes for men to follow, admire, and emulate as part of their self-empowerment and spirituality have been sadly lacking or limited; this now changes with Sacred Paths for Modern Men by Dagonet Dewr. It is a map that will help you explore male Wiccan spirituality and how men can use the archetypes and symbols of the male gods to achieve greater understanding and enlightenment, more awareness and functionally, as everyday males in today's society.
Thirteen Guides to Spiritual Evolution
The book is based around the concept of thirteen major archetypes: Child, Lover, Warrior, Trickster, Green Man, The Guide, The Craftsman, Destroyer/Challenger, Magician, King, Healer, and The Sacrificed One. Each of these has spiritual implications for every man on earth. Which ones do you manifest now? Which ones have characteristics you'd like to add to your being? And most importantly, how can you learn from these archetypes and incorporate their strengths? Everything is revealed in Sacred Paths for Modern Men. For each archetype, the book includes:
A spiritual analysis of the archetype
Myths of gods that inspire the soul and reveal more of the archetype
Magical workings that bring the gods and archetypes into your life
Written with good humor, wit, and popular references that will make the concepts even more understandable, this is the book that provides for masculine spiritual transformation.
The Divine Child
This archetype is shown to add an incredibly primal and vital power to mature manhood, yet is easy to twist into a dark reflection of itself. It is about separation, drawing boundaries, and learning about the self. In this section you'll discover the tale of Eros and Psyche, the story Lugh, and finally, the avenger of the fallen father, Horus. How are these gods faces of the archetype of the Divine Child? You'll discover the answers in this book. Also included is a magickal working where you'll learn to speak to your inner child and a ritual to affirm a boy's coming of age as he matures to manhood.
The Trickster
The archetype of the Trickster is well known in virtually every culture. It's an archetypal message, perhaps surprisingly, is that of truth, for the Trickster reveals truth to us even when we don't want to see it. In this chapter you'll learn the story of Bes (the Egyptian protector), the tale of Sun Wukong (the Chinese Monkey King), the priest Sanzang (who would bring the Buddhist Sutras to China), and finally an important interpretation of Loki and the death of Baldur. The chapter ends with a magickal working to clear away personal illusions and a rite to atone for wrongs we have committed.
Beginning to End
These thirteen archetypes are more than just representations of qualities that can be brought into any man's life. They also form a map, a path of maturation, development, and spiritual evolution. The knowledge, magick, and rites in this book can help any boy evolve into an adult, and will help change any male adult into a fully-realized man. This is a Book of Shadows for the gods in the twenty-first century, but it is also more than one of the most important books ever written for Pagan men—it is one of the most important books written for males of our era, showing them how to become fathers and mentors. It is an important resource for Pagans, Wiccans, and any men's group.
The sands of time cannot erase the ancient ways of the Middle East. Generations of selective history and the destruction of sacred sites cannot destroy them. Elusive, like shimmering heat from a sun-warmed mudbrick, the magic endures. Cast your eyes over the ruins glittering in the golden sun and embrace their foundation. The sun set on the... read this article
