CELTIC RENAISSANCE

A Celtic-themed self-help guide offering empowerment lessons through verse.

Curtin starts off with a brief overview of Celtic culture extending from prehistory to the modern-day Celtic Revival movements, stressing elements such as community, egalitarianism, personal sovereignty, free will and reverence of nature. Curtin, saying “we are in urgent need of a new paradigm of reality,” offers his interpretation of Celtic philosophy as a guidebook to that new paradigm. Since his book contains effusive thanks to such authors as Deepak Chopra, Thich Nhat Hanh, Eckhart Tolle and the Dalai Lama, it should come as no surprise to readers that little in these pages bears much resemblance to what we know of the illiterate, scattered tribal peoples whom ancient writers dubbed the Celtae. Since those peoples had rigidly monarchical social structures, kept slaves, performed human sacrifices and despoiled the land for the sake of commerce, they likely would not have claimed any such things as egalitarianism or reverence of nature. Luckily, the impetus of Curtin’s book isn’t historical but rather spiritual; the bulk of the text consists of short poems—uncredited, but presumably Curtin’s—with practical titles such as “Self-Reliance,” “Passion,” “Nature” and “Change,” each followed by a brief “Practice” summary along the lines of “Try not to take comments or actions of others personally. Just simply Be.” The goal of these exercises, Curtin says, is to bring the reader into closer alignment with the “intelligent field of energy and consciousness” that pervades the universe. Despite the book’s title, Curtin’s descriptions of this energy-field make the book’s ideas sound nondenominational. And lessons of serenity and tolerance never go amiss.

A calm, supportive manual for dealing with life’s chaos, whether you’re Celtic or not.