Pagan Tama
Kenn Day, Dance of Stones: A Shamanic Road Trip
(Moon Books 2013)
Dance of Stones makes very interesting comparative reading with The Way of Wyrd. In a way, it tells the same story in modern times (well, modernish, it takes place in the 90s). It’s an account of the author’s journey with Soli, a German girl researching into Shamanism. Just as Wulf guides the skeptical Brand in the ways of wyrd in Brian Bates’ work, Kenn Day initiates Soli to his world of visions, qi, spirit guides and shamanic healing as they travel around sacred sites in Europe, and in doing so awakens her own shamanic consciousness.
Although Dance of Stones primarily a piece of personal travel writing from a shaman’s perspective, it functions nicely as a reference book. Firstly, it’s a decent guide to some Europe’s sacred sites (particularly some of the lesser-known ones), especially in Cornwall. Secondly, it’s a good guide to shamanism, introducing many basic shaman concepts and giving an excellent insight into shamanism from a professional shaman’s point of view, as well as an initiate’s. Each chapter ends with an epilogue called “Deepening,” which explains some of the topics covered in the chapter in more detail.
Dance of Stones is an easy read and an interesting and honest look into the life of a contemporary shaman. But it isn’t perhaps the most cheerful book. Soli comes off as a rather sullen and moody person and by the end of her trip, you have to wonder whether she’d have been better off not going at all. Day himself also seems to be somewhat melancholy in temperament; but then when you read his frank account of his past, you can perhaps understand why.
While it isn’t a happy-go-lucky jaunt, I recommend Dance of Stones: A Shamanic Road Trip to anyone interested in finding out the basics of shamanism and discovering what it can really be like to be a shaman. It may not offer uplifting inspiration in the usual sense, but it does try to offer truth.
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