- ISBN13: 9780060929435
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
From John O’Donohue, poet, philosopher, and scholar, comes a moving introduction of Celtic insights, stories, and teachings, hailed by Deepak Chopra as a “powerful and life-transforming experience”.Amazon.com Review
Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom offers an exploration of the secret universe we all carry inside us, the connections we forge with the worlds of our friends and loved ones, and the products of our worlds reflected in the things we create … More >>
This book really wasn’t worth the effort. Author O’Donohue repeated simplistic assertions such as “The body is made of clay” or “Silence is good” ad naseum, tying these trite platitudes together with meandering stories about this-old-woman-in-Ireland, etc. Not exactly the wisdom of the ages. I found about six worthy sentiments in the entire book (for example, the idea that each of us carries a complete world inside ourselves was intriguing), but sieving those thoughts out of the rest of the text was a boring process.
Rating: 2 / 5
Parts of this book were very readable and understandable, but much of it was too philosophical and only understandable if raised in the Celtic traditions.
Rating: 3 / 5
John O’Donohue truly has the Irish gift of storytelling, and the skills with language to make this topic come alive.
One of the best in this genre..
Rating: 4 / 5
Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
An interesting view of the theory that we all have a perfect match in the world. The author also reviews the Celtic theory that we are all made from clay. Traditional Celtic wisdom reviewed and explained as a sort of religion. Whether we all have just one soul mate is not certain, but this book overviews the concept from the point of view of a type of truth.
Rating: 3 / 5
The fact that this book has received nearly all five star ratings confirms my belief that the majority of modern-day Americans are practically illiterate. There is nothing particularly profound in this book, and much that is mis-leading. A couple of examples: an early Celtic Christian prayer is quoted, but omitting most of the prayer and its references to God and the angels, so that it appears that the prayer is pantheistic (which in its true form is not). Also in the first chapter we are told that the Celts were “nature people”. Well, I suppose that you could say that most of the tribes in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America two thousand years ago were “nature people”. In other words, the enlightenment in this book has more to do with New-Age fancy and 19th century exoticism than historical reality. If you want something legitimately mystical, and a thousand times more profound, try volume 1 of the Philokalia, or The Way of A Pilgrim. Sorry if I sound arrogant; I’m not. I just hate to see people get taken in by this stuff when there are truly great works languishing in obscurity because you might have to read a page three times a day for three days before you get it…but when you do get it, you KNOW you’ve got something. Peace. Out.
Rating: 2 / 5