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A review by alexiasophii
Pagan Portals - The Temple Priestesses of Antiquity by Lady Haight-Ashton
Did not finish book.
Did I want to like this book? Yes. Yes, I did. I spent months waiting for its release... For it to be utterly disappointing. How so, you ask? Well...
This book claims it "tells the story of the Oracles and Sibyls, Seers, Psychics, Sacred Dancers and Healers of ancient civilizations". However, it has ZERO citations. ZERO proof or notes or references to support any of their claims. Just in the introduction alone, the author goes on and how priestesses did this and priestesses lived that and... nothing. Zero references. The references pages itself is atrocious, I thought I was reading a book written by a middle grader because there are two books and an absurd amount of internet links like Wikipedia (that can serve as a guide but should never serve as a source because it's publicly edited, any academic would tell you that) and Ancient Origins (who is considered a pseudo-science website because it thinks aliens had an impact in ancient times), among many others. This is NOT how you write a book, heck, this is not how you write a paper for a first-year History Student (I should know, I've been one). Any professor at a University would slam this down.
The book also goes about how "the Goddess this" and "the Goddess that". Which one? Which Goddess? Most ancient societies were polytheistic, they believed in several Gods and Goddesses. Not just one and certainly not some great Mother Goddess. The concept of the Modern Goddess (as defended by Marija Gimbutas, Robert Graves, Jane Ellen Harrison, etc) has been disproven for several years now and the fact that people in the Pagan community continue to assert that there was an "ancient Goddess cult throughout Ancient Europe" is ridiculous and honestly shameful. It is okay to believe in a major Tripled Formed Goddess. It is NOT okay to project those beliefs on societies from thousands of years ago just so it makes our false narrative prettier. If you want more info on this, I highly recommend The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft's chapter on this topic, it's right at the beginning and it's fantastic.
This book was painful and I didn't even read all of it. I'm very disappointed, I had really high hopes and they came crumbling down.
This book claims it "tells the story of the Oracles and Sibyls, Seers, Psychics, Sacred Dancers and Healers of ancient civilizations". However, it has ZERO citations. ZERO proof or notes or references to support any of their claims. Just in the introduction alone, the author goes on and how priestesses did this and priestesses lived that and... nothing. Zero references. The references pages itself is atrocious, I thought I was reading a book written by a middle grader because there are two books and an absurd amount of internet links like Wikipedia (that can serve as a guide but should never serve as a source because it's publicly edited, any academic would tell you that) and Ancient Origins (who is considered a pseudo-science website because it thinks aliens had an impact in ancient times), among many others. This is NOT how you write a book, heck, this is not how you write a paper for a first-year History Student (I should know, I've been one). Any professor at a University would slam this down.
The book also goes about how "the Goddess this" and "the Goddess that". Which one? Which Goddess? Most ancient societies were polytheistic, they believed in several Gods and Goddesses. Not just one and certainly not some great Mother Goddess. The concept of the Modern Goddess (as defended by Marija Gimbutas, Robert Graves, Jane Ellen Harrison, etc) has been disproven for several years now and the fact that people in the Pagan community continue to assert that there was an "ancient Goddess cult throughout Ancient Europe" is ridiculous and honestly shameful. It is okay to believe in a major Tripled Formed Goddess. It is NOT okay to project those beliefs on societies from thousands of years ago just so it makes our false narrative prettier. If you want more info on this, I highly recommend The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft's chapter on this topic, it's right at the beginning and it's fantastic.
This book was painful and I didn't even read all of it. I'm very disappointed, I had really high hopes and they came crumbling down.