Pagan Culture - Pagan Family
Circle Round
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- Category: Reviews
Circle Round:
Raising Children in Goddess Traditions
By Starhawk, Diane Baker and Anne Hill
Bantam Books, 1999.
Circle Round is a bright, profusely illustrated book of stories, rituals, and crafts written for parents raising children in the Goddess traditions. Starhawk, Diane Baker and Anne Hill took three years of writing, meetings, listening to others and trying out their ideas on others as well as on their own children to complete this book. The amount of effort they went to resulted in an attractive book that is well thought out and
Each chapter covers the meaning of Pagan festivals and celebrations, along with rituals and songs, while offering stories from a wide range of Pagan cultures.
Crafts, games, dances and recipes appropriate for the time of year help to create exciting ways to top off your celebrations. I found the easy to bake recipe for “Crescent Moon Sweet Cream Biscuits” exceptionally quick and yummy.
Circle Round also focuses on several different areas of life transitions, ranging from birth and death to coming of age, teenage sex, handfasting and divorce. There is enough food for thought here to create some strong and differing opinions.
It disturbed me to find many of the stories contained elements potentially dangerous to kids eager to test their own intestinal fortitude. Stories that offer spiritual rewards for having beaten dangerous odds should contain a warning of the risk of danger if taken literally. I suggest some of these stories be paralleled to relevant events that are equally as challenging.
Circle Round is very easy to read and has an excellent format for referencing. It supports multiculturalism and offers positive guidelines on how to successfully introduce and involve children of all ages in ritual.
My favorite parts are the stories written by children describing their own personal Pagan opinions and experiences. One young boy sums it all up when he expresses his ideas on death by saying “... the fairy taxi picks you up and if you’ve been especially good then you can go to the paradise of your choice...”.
— Reviewed by Teresa Churchill
This article first appeared in The Blessed Bee #1 - A Pagan Family Newsletter
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