Comments | cr_r: Talk Cowan to me.

bodlon in cr_r

Talk Cowan to me.

Jul 18, 2013 13:03

So I'm in the middle of an interesting conversation with someone who works primarily in Tom Cowan's tradition. Upon finding out I work recon-inflected Romano-British/Gaulish ADF, he dropped the "Neo-Druidry sits badly with me because it's not historical ( Read more... )

Comments 4

celtic_elk July 18 2013, 18:40:29 UTC

If *Fire in the Head* is an accurate reflection of Cowan's tradition, I don't think the person in question has any business criticizing you for historical inaccuracy. It's Harnerian neo-shamanism with a thin frosting of popular-source Celticism spread on top. If he's improved his historical credentials since then, I'd like to hear about it as well.

alfrecht July 18 2013, 20:20:51 UTC

I largely agree with celtic_elk. Fire in the Head is basically one of the main, non-John Matthews books on "Celtic Shamanism." While some of his discussions are interesting, and even bits of them are relatively informed in terms of the sources themselves, at the same time, the whole thing is packaged in such a way that it can't really be trusted as anything other than a neo-shamanic interpretation of Celtic matters, and not what Celtic sources themselves have to say in a direct or unproblematic fashion. (And, needless to say, there is no realization about this within the text; it's more like "I've found the golden key to unlock all the secrets of Celtic matters in shamanism!" than "Here's an interpretation of Celtic culture along shamanic lines ( ... )

finnchuill July 19 2013, 00:29:53 UTC

I'd just add that in all cases "shamanism"
for Cowan is "Harner-method shamanism".

bodlon November 18 2013, 06:38:11 UTC

Just a quick post-mortem on the whole thing.

I met the guy in person, and he and his seemed an amicable enough lot that I decided to see what they were all about. It was...interesting. Definitely using the lore as a contextual framework for Harner-flavored shamanism.

Initially I decided to give it a go to see what I could learn, but continued having reservations about things, and had a nasty habit of sharing references to the lore. Unsurprisingly, I've not-so-amicably cut ties with him as of this weekend after being essentially told that if I kept bringing my intellect (and the lore) to the party he'd be kicking me to the curb.

So, you know, that went well.