Monthly Archives: October 2023

Synopsis

Rachel Patterson unearths and shines light on England’s ancient gods and goddesses – many of whom, until now, had long since been forgotten. Based on archaeological finds and ancient manuscripts, and including information about the tribes that once made their home in England’s pleasant lands, this book serves as a guide to the gods and goddesses of England, with suggested ways to work and connect with these very special deities.

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My Review

Trevor at Moon Books sends me emails every now and then with new books and I agree to read and review them. I read this one a while ago, sorry Trevor, I’ve had a bit of a time lately, but I’ve finally got around to writing the review.

Rachel Patterson covers the broad history of Britain from the Iron Age to the Vikings – the broadly speaking non-Christian period, although Christianity existed in Britain and Ireland during the mid to late Roman Imperial period, and continued into the post-Roman period. However, during this period other deities were also worshipped, and some of these were recorded in monuments for the first, and in some cases only, time. Later deities were recorded in manuscripts, the days of the week and personal items.

The second section of the book covers the deities themselves, where they were worshipped and what we know about them, and ways to connect with a few of them.

The book focuses heavily on deities recorded on Roman monuments and in later Christian manuscripts – chronicles, sagas and legal records. The monuments are quite interesting, because they tell us something about the person who erected the monument as well as the deity they were erected to. In the later Cristian documents we obviously get a rather partial and one-sided view – no priest is going to give you a rounded opinion on rival religions, when they believe the gods of that religion are demons and believers are deluded or devil worshippers.

The author doesn’t seem to understand that pagan England is a specific time and place, and that it’s slightly disingenuous to include 2nd century northern British gods and 10th century Scandinavian deities.

The selection of rituals to connect with the deities are fairly standard neo-pagan rituals, that rely on the usual inclusion of elements, calling fairly generic directions, etc., which would not have been included in the original rituals, as they are 18th – 20th century inventions. I honestly don’t think the Matrones care if you call the Quarters, they just want us to remember and honour them.

If you’ve never thought about ancient deities in what is now England, this book is a place to start and if you want to know more, there is a list of books and websites in the further reading section.

I have recommendations of my own, although some are hard to get hold of. Brian Branston wrote ‘The Lost Gods of England’ in 1957, Kathleen Herbert wrote ‘Looking for The Lost Gods of England’ in the early 2000s, and then there’s ‘The Elder Gods: The Otherworld of Early England’, by Stephen Pollington. For the more academic, there is ‘Signals of Belief in Early England: Anglo-Saxon Paganism Revisited’, edited by Carver, Sanmark, and Semple, from 2010. It’s probably the newer and most comprehensive of the sources. These aren’t mentioned in the Further Reading so Patterson may not have heard of them.

Gods and Goddesses of England is easy to read and reasonably informative for those just beginning to explore these ideas.

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Rachel Patterson

Rachel is an English witch who has been walking the Pagan pathway for over thirty years. A working wife and mother who has had over 25 books published (so far), some of them becoming best sellers. Her passion is to learn, she loves to study and has done so from books, online resources, schools and wonderful mentors over the years and still continues to learn each and every day but has learnt the most from actually getting outside and doing it.

She likes to laugh…and eat cake…

Rachel gives talks to pagan groups and co-runs open rituals and workshops run by the Kitchen Witch Coven. High Priestess of the Kitchen Witch Coven and an Elder at the online Kitchen Witch School of Natural Witchcraft.
A regular columnist with Fate & Fortune magazine, she also contributes articles to several magazines such as Pagan Dawn and Witchcraft & Wicca. You will find her regular ramblings on her own personal blog and YouTube channel. Her craft is a combination of old religion witchcraft, Wicca, hedge witchery, kitchen witchery and folk magic.
She lives in Portsmouth, England.
Website: www.rachelpatterson.co.uk
Personal blog https://www.rachelpatterson.co.uk/blog
You Tube:https://www.youtube.com/user/Kitchenwitchuk
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/racheltansypatterson/
Twitter https://twitter.com/TansyFireDragon