Man. I should have just gone with my second book.
Book Title and Author: The Cailleach by Rachel Patterson
Status? : Finished
My overall rating of the book : 6/10
How does this book relate to my magickal practice?: I wanted to learn more about the Celtic Goddess of Winter, and how she could fit into my practice.
My personal thoughts/opinions: This was an okay book. I wasn’t thrilled. It was mostly legends and lore about The Cailleach, but they were very short. Mostly it was just word of mouth lore, but it wasn’t embellished or anything at all to make it interesting.
An interesting quote from the book: “The Shower of Stones
Two Cailleachs who both lived in Magh Cuilinn in Ireland got into an argument. What they were in disagreement about we don’t know, but suffice to say it got very heated to the point that they agreed to hold a stone throwing contest and when I say stones I don’t mean pebbles, we are talking huge great big boulders because giants wouldn’t use anything else. They went to the top of Poll Mountain and stood a distance apart, each on a separate hilltop, at which point they both collected huge piles of ammunition in the form of rocks.
At dawn the next day they took their positions and started throwing rocks at each other. It was not a pretty sight, rocks flew and each of them ended up battered, bruised and bleeding. As the contest continued one of the Cailleachs (the Cailleach Bearra) started throwing her rocks over the head of the other Cailleach (her name does not seem to have been recorded) so that they landed beyond her. The other Cailleach took her chance and gathered up all her remaining rocks and threw them in quick succession causing the Cailleach Bearra much pain. But soon the Cailleach’s rocks were all gone while the Cailleach Bearra was left with a huge pile of stones. The Cailleach Bearra then proceeded to bombard the other Cailleach with all her ammo, reducing her to a pile of bones.
The rocks have long since gone and the only reminder left today is a cairn where the Cailleach fell. Note: This story is only one that tells of the Cailleach as being more than one person, the title perhaps for several supernatural deities. It is, however, another ‘piles of rock’ story explaining how the Cailleach shaped the landscape.”
Patterson, Rachel. Pagan Portals - The Cailleach (p. 31). Moon Books. Kindle Edition.
All in all, would I recommend this book?: Not really. I kind of wish I could return the book even. Sigh.